LeylinesAncient

The leyline idea made sense to her, for she was already feeling it as she stepped along, an uncanny hum from the earth that seemed to support her every step. But signs and geese? What did this have to do with pilgrimage, let alone spiritual initiation? She dismissed it as a wonky idea, dropped it quickly on the trail, and forgot about it.

But the goose would not leave her alone. It appeared as Bahrami walked, in village and landscape feature names, on medieval churches and monasteries, and most unusually, as a part of a massive inlaid stone board game, the Game of the Goose, in the Plaza de Santiago, the Spanish name for Saint James, in the Riojan city of Logroño.

Omtimes.com

A popular European children’s game similar to Snakes and Ladders, in Logroño Bahrami, learned that the Game of the Goose was intentionally set there by city planners and with the church’s blessings to serve as a metaphor for the pilgrimage, as well as for life. She learned that the goose was seen as a creature of luck. But what else did the goose mean beyond luck, signs, and children’s game? What really led it to become associated with spiritual initiation, pilgrimage, and the Camino? No one seemed able to give her a straight answer, but by now, she was intrigued.

It took Bahrami three returns on three more through-treks on pilgrim paths in southwestern France and northern Spain to unearth the answers, ones that were rooted in ancient, preChristian times and that had survived to the present in the seemingly innocuous form of the goose. As Bahrami pursued the mystery of the goose, part skeptic, and part seeker, she encountered wise and humorous locals, quirky and questing pilgrims, and unusual evidence in stones, local stories, and practices that revealed that the way of the wild goose was indeed a real and vibrant pathway, a parallel universe to the Christian Camino de Santiago.

She discovered that though the medieval Camino was officially dedicated to Saint James the Greater, older native goddesses and gods still dwelled under the surface and continued to influence the way. Most stunning, she found that the goose was very likely an ancient Eurasian earth-centered mother goddess who took many forms, but the goose was among her most prominent forms or association. Ideas about the goose were crumbs, clues, and survivors of an older spirituality, ones that even found their way into stories of Mother Goose. n all this, what Bahrami did not anticipate was that the outer goose adventure would take on an inner twist; that way of the wild goose would pull her into her own initiatory journey.

I She began as a curious bumbling trekker and ended a seeker on a full-blown medieval adventure in modern times.

This three-part, the outer and inner adventure of The Way of the Wild Goose is a travel narrative about wild nature, ancient roads, and mysterious lore that tells a modern story of initiation, challenge, trail magic, and deep personal transformation. Something of a cross between Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods, Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love, and Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, The Way of the Wild Goose is a travel narrative and a detective story unearthing an old mystery and unfurling with it a magnetically alive and meaningful long walk on the ancient roads in France and Spain..

Beebe Bahrami is an award-winning travel writer and anthropologist known for her travel narratives, memoirs, and guidebooks. Her most recent book, Moon Camino de Santiago (Avalon Travel/Hachette, 2019), firmly established her as an expert on the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage routes in southern France and northern Spain. She has dedicated three decades to unearthing the mysteries, lore, and many-sensory experiences of this massive and ancient network of roads that are all destined for the northwest of Iberia. Bahrami is also known for her essays and articles on travel, archaeology, outdoors and adventure, food, and wine, and spiritual and cross-cultural themes.

A Colorado native based in southern New Jersey, Bahrami extends her idea of home on regular visits, seminomadic treks, explorations, and excavations in southwestern France and northern Spain, one of Europe’s most ancient, deeply traversed, wild, and culturally rich landscapes. Ever since she first stepped onto the Camino de Santiago in 1995, she knew she had found her place in the world and has delved deeply into these ancient paths and places across France and Spain.