Abstract
Autobiographers, poets, and journal keepers have always intuitively known the transformative and healing power of personal writing. Some people write in a cathartic way to empty themselves of stored up emotions and experiences. Having freed themselves from old baggage they are prepared for their lives to take new directions. Others write because they want to find out what they think and make meaning of their lives. They write in pursuit of truth and find that as they become honest and face the truth their lives change and their stories turn into new and re-storied versions. It is also known that contemplative practices transform human consciousness. They can lead to changes in a person’s perceptions, spiritual consciousness, and character structures. Furthermore, these practices can affect a person’s emotional spheres, relational approaches, vocational aspirations, and foundational identity. Less is known, however, about writing approaches that invite the writer on a contemplative pilgrimage on paper that awakens the transpersonal self in search for transcendent insights. Pilgrimage can be described as a movement from the well-known landscapes of our lives to foreign, unexplored and new territories. Motivated by our personal quest for new insights, breakthroughs, and transformation we start our pilgrimage journey and look for threshold experiences and divine encounters. It is here where transformation happens and new vistas and perspectives come into view. Pilgrimage as a journey across land can be compared to writing as a pilgrimage across a page. This paper builds on this comparison and introduces an innovative contemplative writing process that aligns with the classical stages of pilgrimage. It combines the therapeutic benefits of writing with contemplative practices. By embarking on this pilgrimage on paper and following the six distinct steps of its process our human storylines change in a moment of epiphany into sacred stories. Gifted with the blessings and insights that come from this pilgrimage on paper we see the world around us as re-enchanted, interconnected and brimming with divine presence.
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Recommended Citation
Halstead, Angelika
(2026)
"Pilgrimage on Paper: A Contemplative Writing Practice,"
International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage:
Vol. 14:
Iss.
1, Article 3.
Available at:
https://arrow.tudublin.ie/ijrtp/vol14/iss1/3