Waiting at the gate

 

 

‘Fools rush in where wise men fear to tread.’

 

Before taking the final step into the sanctum of the True Self (therefore the wholeness (or holiness) of identity), the path-wise pilgrim will take time out to consider her options.

Having successfully ended many secondary pilgrimages, that is to say, the steps on her path, she will have learnt all about pilgrimage ending and its consequences, both benign and malign.

The shrewd pilgrim will review previous pilgrimages, how they ended, the fruits they produced, the wonderful and awful affects of eating of those fruits and the problems she encountered ridding herself of their skins.

 

Having, in this manner, become pilgrimage wise, she will anticipate and reason (or feel) that the final step of her pilgrimage is just another step, therefore probably a secondary pilgrimage, albeit with a more powerful blow-out, and that life goes on (i.e. a new pilgrimage will begin) after she has reached the final goal she initially decided on.

 

In short, by that time she should have figured out that the end functions as a new beginning.

 

 

The pilgrim at the gates of (hence already within the temple (read: identity) of) the (indeed, her) sanctum must choose between at least five ‘What to do next’ options.

 

1.     She can decide not to enter the sanctum. That means that she senses the Promised Land ‘from afar’ but does not enter it. She can camp at the gate or got into orbit around the sanctum (i.e. as at Mecca)

2.     She can decide to return home. That means that she has sensed the promise of the ‘land’ (actually of the temple (from Latin templum, ‘open or consecrated (i.e. dedicated) space’) which houses the sanctum). By returning home, carrying a bundle of souvenirs-cum-relics intended to prove that she was there, she can act as guide to those seeking the Promised Land (of a True Self).

3.     She can decide to disguise herself as one of the guardians of the sanctum (to wit, as a priest), thereby acquiring (and cooling down) as a false self, thereafter entering and leaving the sanctum unrecognised, but without sensing and benefiting from its wholeness (hence truth).

4.     She can enter the sanctum at night and when its guardians are asleep. In Santiago de Compostella, the most propitious time to enter or circumambulate the sanctum is at 6.30 in the morning and when the place is almost completely empty.

5.     She can decide to enter the sanctum in triumph in broad daylight and enjoy its wonderful and suffer its awful affects.