Following the Magical Signs
- 2 days ago
- 7 min read
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The Unknown
In this time of deep change we have the possibility to generate shifts for ourselves as well as for the whole of nature.
This is a calling to a deeper wisdom that lies within us. To believe in the unseen again and remember that we are part of the great spiritual web of life. When we relinquish the need to have all the answers and trust uncertainty we find our sense of belonging.
Uncertainty is a threshold to creativity, to unknown possibilities. To new ways of being.
We are always entering the unknown, whether we realise it or not.
Every morning brings the dawning of a new day, the possibilities of new ways, new encounters. New beginnings.
Endings and beginnings are at the centre of life.
The unknown is not something separate from our lives. It is the fertile ground where creativity, opportunities and transformation transpire.
Uncertainty and mystery are part of the natural order of life. When we embrace them we open to the magic of new experiences and the unexpected things that might come our way.
Certainty exists within us as part of our inner knowing. It is not something that is beyond us.
Joy Harjo wrote that mystery is a guide to understanding truth and the sacredness of existence.
We are all part of the great web of life — the rocks and trees, the plants and insects, the animals, the shoreline and rivers. When we recognise this interconnectedness, the transitions we move through, even the painful ones, take on a deeper meaning.
The choices we make give shape to our lives. Embracing the unknown deepens our potential, our creative expression. Our sense of belonging.
Life unfolds through mystery.
Living Life as a Pilgrimage
Going on a pilgrimage has always conjured a deep sense of mystery and adventure for me.
Pilgrimage, in its essence, is both an outer and inner journey — one that invites us to step into the unknown, to walk the edges of certainty and uncertainty, and to encounter situations and questions that invigorate, inspire, or challenge us, heightening our awareness and deepening our inner knowing.
Paulo Coelho reframes the journey of a pilgrimage as the mysterious question:
“Who am I?”
This question is vital and nourishing for our evolution in today’s age. And our sense of belonging.
Undertaking a pilgrimage strips away the noise and clutter of daily life, leaving space for the kind of self-discovery that can only arise when we allow ourselves to be vulnerable to the unknown.
A pilgrimage is a journey of the soul as well as the body and mind and leaves one changed forever.
The outer landscapes we journey through hold clues and resonance to the landscapes within us.
Mystery plays a central role here, as the journey is never entirely predictable. The unexpected detours, the challenges we encounter, the people we meet, and the revelations along the way lift us up, shift our perspectives, and open the door to real transformation.
When we begin to see life as a pilgrimage, every day becomes a journey into the mystery — an adventure of discovery and reverence.
Pilgrimage teaches us how to walk within that mystery.
Paying Attention
One of the foundational practices of pilgrimage is paying attention.
Paying attention focuses us.
It opens a channel between ourselves and what we are noticing.
Life is reciprocal. Something in the outer world evokes something within us. An action we take has an effect on the world around us.
A smell might awaken a memory. A landscape might evoke a feeling of recognition. A simple moment might shift our understanding of where we are.
Paying attention is an act of reverence
Through attention we begin to notice the subtle ways life is speaking to us. It is a key to communing — communicating with other than human life. When we pay attention to, and follow the magical signs we are participating more consciously with life around us.
Wayfinding
Anthropologist Wade Davis describes how Polynesian navigators crossed vast oceans without instruments, reading the stars, winds, ocean swells, the flight of birds, cloud formations — the signs, known and unknown — through observation, memory and intuition. Their skill was based in deep relationship with the living world.
Davis notes that,
‘The navigator’s art is knowing where you are by knowing where you have been’ and that ‘..their skill is a form of deep science and art, where knowledge is transformed into wisdom.’
In this sense wayfinding is not simply about reaching a destination. It is about awareness, memory and relationship with the world around us.
He also says that a single observation can lead a researcher into the unknown, where the "resolution of the mystery may take years to unfold.”
Magical Signs and Milestones
Along the way we encounter signs — moments of recognition that guide our steps.
Sometimes these signs appear as synchronicities: meaningful coincidences that arrive at just the right moment, affirming the direction we are taking.
At other times they appear as magical signs — moments in which something in the outer world evokes a deep response within us.
These are moments to pause, to notice and to trust our inner knowing.
Certain experiences in life do not fade with time. Rather, they become a force within us, drawing us on.
These are what I call milestones.
Milestones remain alive within us as currents flowing within us, informing our compass and guiding our steps, continuing to shape the way we see the world and the choices we make.
We might only recognise the meaning of these moments many years later.
When we begin to recognise the milestones in our own story, we realise we have never been walking without guidance.
This is my own experience of a deep and enduring relationship with the ocean — something I have shared throughout this month’s practices.
The ocean and shoreline have always evoked a deep, visceral recognition in me — a sense of being in the right place.
One day the journey with this milestone became crystal clear — the day I found home.
Story – The Southern Ocean
Once I thought I had been gifted with the knack of being at home in any company and in most places.
It wasn’t until I came upon this region of the coastline , previously hidden to me, that I recognised that notion for the illusion it was.
As I stood before the wild Southern Ocean and breathed the fresh salty air, I knew with a sudden shock that I had come home.
My heart felt lighter than it ever had before.
The windswept coastline with its rugged limestone cliffs and hidden reefs holds a power to be reckoned with, as though some unseen force had been placed here long ago to safeguard its wild nature.
Little wilderness is left on the planet but along this coast are pockets that will never surrender.
There is an untameable, wild mystique through which the character of the place endures.
That same mysterious power challenges me to be who I know I am.
That everything is one and we’re all in it.
From this place of reverence and living on the land new stories — new ways of being — can emerge, along with the awareness that in the preservation of the wild, and its mystery, is the preservation of the world.
One thing I am sure of, when I stand on those rugged cliffs or limestone outcrops, the atmosphere peels away the layers and places me back where I belong.
Fair and square in the heart of nature.
And I am part of it.
Looking back I can see all the signs, the journey with the ocean and the deep sense of belonging it gave me, led me unerringly to this place that is my home.
The Feeling of Direction
Sometimes we can’t explain why we feel drawn toward something.
Yet we recognise the feeling immediately.
It is the feeling that we are going somewhere.
This feeling is part of our inner compass.
And the stronger our sense of belonging, the clearer this inner compass becomes.
Gathering the Self
Pilgrimage also helps us gather parts of ourselves that have wandered away, or been lost during difficult or challenging times.
During times of crisis or loss, aspects of our vital essence can become separated from the whole and hide in shame, self judgement, sorrow, regret, and dissociation, even in the spirit world. In shamanism we call it soul loss and soul hiding.
Through relationship with the land, through paying attention, and through following the signs and synchronicities, we can call these parts back home.
Joy Harjo writes of calling the scattered parts of ourselves home in her poems Remember and For Calling the Spirit Back From Wandering the Earth in Its Human Feet. In Remember she writes, “Remember the earth whose skin you are,” asking us to remember who we are and that we belong.
Walking the land and communing with nature reminds us who we are. In the process we recognise lost aspects of ourselves and begin to claim them back — remembering that we are nature, not separate from it.
This is a powerful aspect of pilgrimage and one that can facilitate deep healing.
Mystery
Mystery is the threshold where what is known ends and wonder, self-discovery and growth begin.
It is a guiding force in life.
The unknown is essential to a meaningful life. In her interpretation of the Tao Te Ching, Ursula K. Le Guin writes of the “identity of all mysteries” as the door to what lies hidden.
Later in the chapter she illuminates the ancient teaching about mystery:
“Darkness within darkness —
the gateway to all understanding.”
Without mystery, what would the spiritual pathway be?
Mystery draws us forward.
It keeps life alive with possibility.
Closing
Truth lives in the body.
Choosing to see life as a pilgrimage helps us recognise that every day is a threshold we cross into the unknown.
It is a practice that deepens us into the art of following the signs, of trusting the deep knowing within us.
We come to recognise our milestones as currents flowing within us, guiding us forward.
We feel them in our body — just like I feel the ocean. The lifting of my heart, the excitement I felt as a child when that sapphire blue ocean appeared on the horizon before me. The smell of the salt, the fresh air on my face.
We discover a sense of belonging here.
And perhaps, we are led to where, in this life, we belong.
Much love
Pilgrimage
Walking ancient landscapes, listening for the magical signs, and entering the unknown together.
Michelle will guide a small pilgrimage through the sacred landscapes of Ireland, beginning 29 May.
If you feel the call to walk this path, you can explore the pilgrimage here.
There are only a few places remaining.
