The child that runs alone into the street does not live long. It must be accompanied by a guide (read: parent, guru and so on) or trained to move alone outside the home. And that training (and which is a painful process, hence an ordeal) must be practiced (until fully automated).

Likewise the pilgrim. The naive, unskilled and unprotected pilgrim has little chance of reaching her goal = sanctuary and of returning.

Pilgrimage, i.e. transforming an incomplete A into a complete B, in early life (i.e. right up to the end of adolescence, and which includes reproduction) is relatively easy to perform and end since the goal and the means to it are clearly established by parents and/o priests (idem the religious pilgrimage). However, initial at burn-out, round about the age of 30, i.e. when the primary goal/sanctuary (i.e.of adulthood) has been reached and found to be incomplete (i.e. unfulfilling), pilgrimage (now quitting home to seek out a new home for one’s self can become a nightmare. It’s then that the pilgrim discovers – to her horror or delight – that there is no goal (i.e. sanctuary) save the one she creates.

And it’s getting to the goal that doesn’t yet exist – or has never been reached, to wit, the ecstasy of the True Self – that makes pilgrimage so difficult (and so easy). It’s when the pilgrim takes off (indeed, finds herself pushed out) into the unknown* that she needs to recall into clear consciousness the means-to-closure she has so often performed perfectly when achieving a ‘given’ goal (i.e. a a hand-me-down sanctuary), then practice and apply those means to perfection.

In short, pilgrimage to the ‘given’ (as in religious, educational, workplace, sports pilgrimages etc.) is relatively easy but fundamenally a cul-de-sac. (Intentional) Pilgrimage to the ‘not given’, and which ends (i.e. dies) in the attainment of a true sanctuary (and the Sanctum of Truth) is fiendishly difficult.

Very few pilgrims embark on and survive a true pilgrimage. Nature (or God) requires only one survivor for each true pilgrimage.

* ...Creating a stable island within the unknown (i.e. within the ocean of unrealised potential) is the true pilgrimage of life. Merely cleaning up a mess – the religious option – is a mugs game.