by David Cameron

Traveller’s Joy is about movement. Where there is life there is movement on the lands that humans have been in partnership with for thousands of years. We provide a way for spiritual travellers to come together in community and to allow themselves to be changed by a collective experience.

In the ancient tradition of pilgrimage there has always been discomfort, change, and the unknown. There has always been opportunity to practice a kind of openness that we find difficult to have when we are in the rut of familiarity, and now, in this century, we experience more societal, spiritual, and cultural change than in any other time in history. Traveller’s Joy can assist you in embracing change that you feel is awakening you to the call, within a caring circle that follows the guidance of spirit.

We have a vision that comes from the ancestors and their lands, and we tune into that vision with contemporary and cosmic consciousness, creating a structure for our pilgrimages. This structure can support what we feel, think, and hear in our hearts to form a route that will take us away from the distractions of modernity, into the wildness of our souls. We leave behind our every day identities in order to merge with the beings and guardians of places unfamiliar to us, while often following in the spirit tracks of those who went before us.

You are given an itinerary when you “sign up” knowing that it will have unexpected turns. These turnings are influenced and affected by the energy that we bring to our intentions as well of that of unseen beings along the way.

When we change direction, that is usually when the questions begin: When are we going to get there? How long will this take? which are relatively unanswerable when journeying in the timeless realms. However, we have a strong energetic container for protection, a seasoned group of guides, and intentions that we trust will be answered by spirit. Spirit moves us when we give space within the journey to make those kinds creative alterations that will benefit us, even if it’s not immediately evident what the outcome will be.

We have well trained leaders to show us maps, to give us history, introduce us to local people, and who can supply first aid to the body or soul. in over two decades of travel we have learned to co-create respectfully with the ancestors, the spirits of the land and the people who live there now.

Many months of planning, much practice in shamanism and other modalities prepare us to know when to surrender the plan to Divine Timing and to enter a space in a sacred way.

There were a number of crossroads in decision-making during our last trip to Scotland, as always, aligning with power sites, with the energies of the moment, and asking pilgrims to trust that we would be in the right place at the right time for spirit to move through the opening that had been created.

By being open and listening we were practising and modelling skills for life. The pilgrimage heightens the impact of the collective energy with alignment of time and place, and lowers resistance to movement and change because it’s actually enjoyable if we surrender. We lighten up.

The experiential tasks that we are assigned by the facilitators lead to greater heart understanding of the process of give and take that we humans are designed for. We communicate with the invisible realms to bring a dynamic peace to this one.It’s quite different to be told that within diversity we are One and actually experiencing it. Experience of our wholeness helps old wounds heal, whether in our own individual history, or whether it’s warring clans in the past, religious strife, colonialism and indigenous people, different inequalities and injustices that still exist and that we transcend with deep letting go, to find the place where we can connect with our Source.

We bring those experiences home to where we live, so that they do not stay as one-offs, but come into our own neighbourhoods and families through our consciousness and actions. Pilgrimage shows us what is possible when you turn your life over to change and surrender to the greater good. It does not mean a goody-goody kind of controlling paternalism but empowers individuals to speak their truth and act on it. It’s difficult to go back. Suppose you keep the expanded version of yourself and use your imagination and connections with all the travelling community to keep yourself in that place of truth? That’s a possibility we offer in our continuing journey of journeys..

It can change the world.

And it’s one pilgrimage at a time, whether of 7 people or three times that many, each of our sacred journeys has been instrumental in changing our lives and rippling out. Traveller’s Joy is named after a vine that gives pleasure to people along the road because of its scent, a kind of aromatherapy. That metaphoric vine has spread, and is now entering a stage where the leadership is not dependent on one or two people, but on a thriving connection between devoted travellers, who see the beauty in this method of direct learning from the world.

We have stayed in smaller groups until the Scotland 2018 pilgrimage, to have a good root system, to practice, to practice trusting that when the time is right we could do more pilgrimages per year, have more supporting events in between, and to continue to encourage a way of seeing the planet that will encourage us to care about it deeply and make our actions count, whether we offer prayers, placards, permaculture or the patience of the Saints to our mix.

Our spiritual guide in the British Isles and Ireland has been Brighid, as Earth Protector, and we have had the dragon as an ally for carrying out the tasks of working with the prime elements of creation. A form of the dragon energy is found in many cultures and sometimes comes for instance as the Rainbow Serpent or Quetzalcoatl, or snake medicine in Crete. The primal energies of the earth, along with the cosmic blueprint of the holographic universe, works through us so that we can embody the energy and actions of our spiritual nature. .

We who have been involved in Traveller’s Joy are at many ages and at many stages of life, and motivated to leave a green legacy for coming generations. We move and are willing to be moved by spirit. Remaining open to spirit can turn us on a dime, and can maintain the energy required to be a spiritual activist for life.