The Camino is Shirley MacLaine's account of her experiences walking the Santiago de Compostela across northern Spain. It has been travelled for thousands of years by pilgrims, saints, tourists, kings and misfits. Most do it to find one's deepest spiritual meaning in the world, and it seems the journey affects everyone in different and profound ways. The path follows the Earth's ley lines starting in France, then from east to west across Northern Spain to the cathedral called Santiago de Compostela where the remains of Saint James are said to be interred. Most pilgrims go by foot the whole 800km trail that winds over mountains, farmer's fields and city highways. Some choose to drive or bus, and forgo the ratty hostel bunk beds for inns and hotels. To her credit, Shirley walked the whole way in about 30 days, and she was 60 in 1994 when she did it.
If you are reading this, you already know how those who walk the Camino have intense experiences and friendships along the way, or, you are a fan of Shirley MacLaine and her spiritual discoveries. This book is an odd combination of both. You might think she is a brave adventurer wandering into the unknown, or a nut. You'd be right.
I was wanting more information about the actual path, and got so much more.
I should say I have a lot of respect for her experiences and desire to share them. She's an interesting person and I accept what she discovered as her truth. The book takes a turn near the middle of the walk when she begins wakeful dreaming and sees herself as a raven-haired Moorish woman in a previous incarnation. Her guide is John the Scot and they are close advisors in the court of Charlemagne. As the story unfolds, Shirley comes across places on the Camino that match where she was in the dream, standing exactly where she had before. She even finds a gold cross in a shop along the way that 'is' the actual cross she wore as the Moorish woman. It turns out Charlemagne returned several times, once as her lover her in the present.
I'm all for past lives, but it sort of irritates me that they are usually high born, kings, or rulers. Who did the laundry in those days? Who was fixing the shoes?
As the walk continues, she presents another regression where she was in Lemuria, long before the garden of Eden. Lemuria was populated by telepathic beings from the Universe who settled on many planets, and carried out the work of the Great Creator Deity. This was a time when the androgynous space beings created and lived in peace without needs. There was no duality, and so no conflict. A group decides to split their physical forms into two, a male and a female, making more beings to bask in the Deitie's energy. This vision explains much about the origin of the Universe.
If you follow this, the message is that we were all equal beings before we divided into male and female (essentially mates with all souls in the world) and the goal is to recognize and support each others individual power.
Sure, I can see that. Which is why I had a problem with her frustrated reactions in this incarnation. She is still a celebrity, and has to dodge the press at every station, but after having this amazing vision of unity, why wake up and scream at reporters, yelling in their face until they actually cry? If you are going to present unity as the goal, why not try to live a more supportive way and see the pure spirit in fellow souls?
She's just a person in the world, learning like all of us. The friends she meets along the Camino help her out, and there are some funny stories of the refugios she often stayed at.
The Camino seems to give each traveller a deep message, and this was one of them. If you haven't seen the movie The Way starring Martin Sheen, you need to. Interesting, well shot by his son Emilio Estevez and very entertaining. It seems they actually walked the whole way as they shot the film (maybe movie tricks), so it's a visually beautiful few hours in Spain.
The other book you should really read is What The Psychic Told The Pilgrim by Jane Christmas. It's the hilarious account of a woman who is told by a WestJet air steward she should do the Camino, so, unprepared and fifty, she does. It's the best book on the Camino I've read and I Highly Recommend It!
I'd only recommend The Camino for those who like the mystical, and What The Psychic Told The Pilgrim by Jane Christmas for those who want the walk.
2000 / Hardcover / 307 pages
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