Pilgrimage

We are taught that the route of a pilgrimage should serve its spiritual goal. Which may be simple or manifold, but which will partake of at least one of five aims: service, supplication, gratitude, divination, and atonement.

— Lois McMaster Bujold, Paladin of Souls

A pilgrimage is a journey made for a religious, spiritual, or moral purpose. The goal can vary, but usually relates to spiritual or moral growth, expressing or strengthening one's beliefs, or similar. However, a pilgrimage usually doesn't serve any evangelical purpose, or if it does it is only secondary and meant to strengthen the goal of spiritual growth.

Usually, the pilgrimage is made toward a Holy City or Holy Ground, but they can also be made in other ways, without a set geographic goal from the outset.

The page quote above lists five possible spiritual goals for a pilgrimage:

• Service: To serve one's religion by helping others
• Supplication: To ask for a favour
• Gratitude: To give thanks for a favour
• Divination: To reach spiritual knowledge or insight
• Atonement: Forgiveness

A pilgrimage has many similarities with a Grand Tour, and the word peregrination is used in English for a pilgrimage, but in Swedish and other languages it is used for an educational journey. In the same way, a pilgrimage can be viewed as a specific form of quest, but one where the goal is strictly personal and spiritual.

Truth in Television: Almost every major religion has pilgrimage sites and rules for how to do them.

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Examples

Anime & Manga

• StrikerS Sound Stage X: The audio drama features a small scene of Sein assisting Sister Schach in a mass pilgrimage, though where they're going is a bit of a mystery given that any presumed holy sites in their religion would be on Belka (a planet that was lost in a dimensional dislocation decades if not centuries earlier).

Comic Books

• Midnight Nation: In the graphic novel a man has to walk from Los Angeles to New York City in order to get his soul back.
• Superman: J. Michael Straczynski's first arc, Superman: Grounded, has an example of a secular pilgrimage: Superman walking across America in order to re-connect with humanity after his sojourn on New Krypton.

Film — Live-Action

• The Fourth Wise Man: Artaban was to be the fourth Wise Man but while journeying to meet his companions he stopped to help an unfortunate traveler and they left without him. He traveled to Bethlehem by himself but arrived after Joseph had taken Mary and Jesus away to escape the slaughter of Herod. After this, the rest of his life becomes a pilgrimage seeking after the Lord, never meeting Him in person, but following in His footsteps as he offers kindness and assistance to those who cross his path.
• Malcolm X: Malcolm's pilgrimage to Mecca is a big part of his decision to leave the Nation of Islam.
• The Way: After a hiker named Daniel (Emilio Estevez) dies while walking the Camino de Santiago, a pilgrimage route across northern Spain to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, his father Tom (Martin Sheen) walks the Camino and carries his son's ashes with him the entire way.

Literature

• The Canterbury Tales: The Framing Device of the story is that a group of travelers are on a pilgrimage from London to the tomb of St. Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. To help pass the time during the journey, the pilgrims decide to hold a storytelling contest.
• Inferno (Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle): The novel follows two damned souls, Allen and his guide Benny, as they undertake a long and difficult journey in the hope of following Dante's path through and out of Hell, reaching Purgatory, and earning freedom from the Pit. Benny mentions having taken multiple souls on this journey before, and the conclusion and later the sequel establish that this can be successful but requires the pilgrim to have undergone significant moral growth and to understand, repent for, and move on from whatever landed them in Hell to begin with in order to succeed.
• Journey to the West: The story covers Xuanzang Sanzang's journey to India to learn Buddhism and carry all that he learned back to China. It's also an adventure story as he befriends some characters along the way and gets in conflict with some others (usually as a victim).
• Die Pilgerin: Played with, as some members of the group, such as Tilla or Anna and Renata, really go to Santiago de Compostela with a spiritual goal in their mind (Tilla to fulfill her father's oath, Anna and Renata to atone for their husbands' sins, etc.). However, some (such as Manfred and Peter) are Only in It for the Money, having been paid to go on the pilgrimage by people who vowed to go themselves but got afraid of the dangers on the road. And some, like Sebastian, only go to protect someone else (Tilla in Sebastian's case). Eventually played completely straight, since practically everyone undergoes a religious resurgence or awakening on the way.
• The Pilgrim and the Angel: In E. Lily Yu's short story (collected in Jewel Box and read by LeVar Burton here) the archangel Gabriel visits a coffee shop owner in Cairo and forces him to go on the Hajj he's been putting off because he's been too busy.
• The Pilgrim's Progress: The story is about a journey from Earth to Heaven, as a metaphor for conversion to Christianity.
• Warrior Cats: As tradition, apprentices in the forest would all have to go on a trek to the faraway Mothermouth cave, hiding the sacred Moonstone where the Clans are able to contact StarClan, the ancestors of all four Clans. This was to receive the blessing of StarClan and to be exposed to the world beyond their Clan's borders.
• World of the Five Gods: Discussed in Paladin Of Souls. Ista sets out on a pilgrimage as a way to escape the constraints of her home (gratitude), with her companions assuming it was for supplication (for a grandson). However, the real (and partly denied) goal for Ista was forgiveness (atonement) for an old failure, but once she managed to forgive herself she found her true role (divination) and it turned into a pilgrimage of service.

Live-Action TV

• Babylon 5: In the last half of season 5, the book G'Kar had been writing is taken and put into print without his knowledge and comes to be considered a holy book by other Narns. This results in many of them coming to Babylon 5 to learn directly from him. This is a bit of a deconstruction as while they profess to be coming for enlightenment, very few of them are actually interested in learning or applying what he has to teach them, something that causes G'Kar no small amount of frustration.
• Doctor Who: In the 3rd series finale, Martha Jones has walked the earth for one year in order to tell everyone left on earth the story of the Doctor, so that at the right moment they can all think of the Doctor and save the world.
• The Mandalorian: Mandalore is not the literal homeland of all Mandalorians, but it is the most culturally important place, similar to how Mecca is for Muslims. After Din breaks a religious prohibition, he is told he can atone for it with a pilgrimage to the Living Waters on Mandalore, and a baptism when he gets there. In "Chapter 17: The Apostate", he does this.
• Star Trek:
  • Between Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Spock resigned from Starfleet and went to a monastery on Vulcan to eliminate his emotions. Everyone wears robes and meditates.
  • In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Rightful Heir" Worf has a crisis of faith, so he travels to the Klingon monastery on Boreth. He returns to it after the Enterprise-D is destroyed in Star Trek: Generations because he doesn't think he has a place in Starfleet anymore. Klingons also believe in meditation, albeit with the addition of hallucinogenic drugs.
  • When Major Kira is relieved of duty in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "The Circle" she's not sure where to go, so she accepts an invitation from Vedek Bariel to spend some time in solitude.
  • After Dax is murdered in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Tears of the Prophets" her best friend Captain Sisko is sent into emotional turmoil. His pilgrimage isn't to a center of religion but to his father's restaurant on Earth. He spends his days in solitude peeling potatoes and cleaning fish, looking for new meaning in his life.

Magazines

• Red Dwarf: Parodied in the Red Dwarf Magazine comic strip "The Cantabelis Tales", in which the Dwarfers find a spaceship whose passengers had all killed each other, and the Apocalyptic Log (compiled in rhyming couplets by a pilgrim who just happens to be named Geoffrey Chaucer) reveals that they were on pilgrimage... but it turned out they were all of different religions and thought they were going to a different tomb. The final shot reveals that the ship's computer was taking them to the tomb of the God of Computers: Sir Clive Sinclair.

Mythology & Religion

• The Four Gospels: As related in the Gospel of Luke, upon seeing the star marking the birth of Jesus, the Wise Men or kings from the east set out to search for Him and offer up gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

Tabletop Games

• One of the suggested campaign concepts for Coriolis: The Third Horizon is pilgrimage, the game's central concept being "Arabian Nights in Space". It functions as something of a catch-all for campaigns that don't fit other concepts like free traders, military, or exploration; with notes that the themes can also fit Space Nomads or a traveling circus.
• Dungeons & Dragons:
  • In the 1st Edition Monster Manual, "Pilgrims" are a sub-category of "Men". They are a group of people traveling to a place that is holy (or unholy) to them. They always include a number of clerics (priests) and can be carrying a religious artifact.
  • 1st Edition adventure I12 Egg of the Phoenix. While taking the Egg to Doc's Island, the PCs might encounter a group of pilgrims who are actually Chaotic Evil werewolves in human form.
• Classic Traveller
  • Book 4 Mercenary. One of the provided mercenary missions is to escort a group of top government officials of the planet Jokotre on a pilgrimage into their religion's holy lands to visit some shrines.
  • Supplement 6 76 Patrons. One possible mercenary mission is being hired by opponents of the planetary government above to attack the pilgrims and their guards.
  • Adventure 10 Safari Ship. In order to improve their ability to reproduce, the alien Shriekers must make a 2,000-kilometer pilgrimage to the mist-shrouded Valley of Memories before mating.
• Warhammer 40,000: The Earth (known as Holy Terra) has become the major pilgrimage site, as it houses the barely alive body of the God-Emperor of Mankind. The waiting lines in the Imperial Palace, which takes up most of Eurasia, are measured in generations. The Adeptus Mechanicus have their own pilgrimage on Mars. There are other, lesser sites across the galaxy, usually the birthplace of a saint or a place where a miracle occurred.
• Warhammer Fantasy is a polytheistic world where many people hope to gain favour or forgiveness from the gods.
  • Many Sigmarites follow the route Sigmar traveled from the capital city to the edge of the empire at the end of his mortal life. Several shrines have gone up along the way, as well as a thriving community of vendors offering everything from travel supplies to purported relics.
  • Cultists of the nature gods Taal and Rhya visit a sequence of twelve shrines deep in the wilderness, relying only on their survival skills to find the holy sites and acquire an animal sacrifice.
  • Many Shallyans travel to the High Temple at Couronne in Bretonnia, often subsisting on charity along the way. Imperial citizens usually start from the Cult's national seat of power in the capital city, where they're sent off with prayers for mercy and protection.
  • The God of the Dead Morr doesn't acknowledge living pilgrims — there's only one journey that interests him. Nonetheless, some of his cultists make a pilgrimage to his ancient temple in the former capital city of the Reman Empire.

Video Games

• Blasphemous: The player comes across a wandering pilgrim named Redento at several points. He says that he wanders in penance, but also notes that it's "the gentlest of penances" (the country the game is set in, Cvistodia, has a culture based around mortification of the flesh as a way to earn forgiveness). He belongs to the Order of Genuflectors and is bent double with the help of a shard of millstone chained around his neck and has his arms tied behind his back, so you have to help him at several points. At the end of it, he commits suicide in either grief or gratitude that it's over.
• Crusader Kings:
  • Crusader Kings II:
    • The Sword of Islam DLC allows Muslim characters to go on the traditional hajj to Mecca, implemented as a chain of Random Event that force a temporary regency while the character is away and may allow the character to gain various traits and stat changes. If they successfully complete the hajj, they gain the Hajjaj trait, which grants a minor opinion bonus with other Muslims and a small increase in monthly Piety gain.
    • The Way of Life DLC allows a Christian or Indian character using the Theology focus to go on a pilgrimage to a holy site of their religion, starting an event chain similar to that of the hajj and ending with the gain of the Pilgrim trait.
  • III allows you to go on one of holy cities, which gives you some amount and passive gain of piety.
• Dwarf Fortress: Pilgrims are roaming the roads to go to sites with temples dedicated to their god and then pray in these same temples. Some of these pilgrims can become prophets.
• The Elder Scrolls:
  • The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind: Pilgrimages to various shrines form the core of most of the Tribunal Temple's storyline quests. The very first quest they give requires visiting seven shrines throughout the land where Vivec, one of the Physical Gods worshipped by the church, performed "miracles" in ages past. Later quests require visiting even more sacred locations in far more dangerous places.
  • The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion: In the Knights of the Nine add-on, your first quest as an aspiring holy warrior is to visit each of the Nine Divines' shrines scattered around the province, seeking guidance from the gods. Completing the pilgrimage both gets you a vision from the Divine Crusader and purifies you, resetting your Infamy score to zero.
• Final Fantasy:
  • Final Fantasy X: For most of the game, the party is escorting Yuna as she travels to shrines located across Spira to receive their blessing, a journey taken by every summoner before her, so as to banish the giant monster Sin for a few more years of peace.
  • Final Fantasy XIV:
    • In the side story "What Remains of a Knight", Archbishop Thordan explains Ser Vaindreau's absence from the Heavens' Ward as the elderly knight taking a final religious pilgrimage as part of a well-deserved retirement. In truth, this is a cover for Charlbert murdering Vaindreau on Thordan's orders after Vaindreau attempted to confront Thordan over the latter's dealings with Lahabrea.
    • At the end of Stormblood, Gosetsu leaves on a religious pilgrimage to offer repose to all the people of Othard who left life in suffering over the past few decades. To emphasize his resolve, he shaves his head, signifying his retirement as a samurai of Doma and a retainer in Hien's service.
    • Invoked in the Namazu Tribe Quest, "Pilgrim's Regress". Seigetsu the Enlightened sends the festival-goers with the Seven Hundred and Seventy-Seven on a pilgrimage to sites on the Azim Steppe of apparent cultural significance to the Namazu. Upon completing the quest, Seigetsu admits that he made it up and the sites he specified have no connection to the Namazu. When he gets a disapproving glare from the Warrior, he argues that the authenticity of the sites matters less than the spirituality the Namazu experience from such a journey.
• Genshin Impact: After the "cataclysm" 500 years ago, the Oceanids of Fontaine decide to pilgrimage to Sumeru's Girdle of the Sands region to find out what happened to their master, Egeria the 1st Hydro Archon. Apparently, after her death in battle against Abyssal creatures, she turned into a pool of water named "Amrita", and a sacred lotus "Gaokerena" grows on it and is said to house her dormant consciousness. After finding this out, the Oceanids decided to not return to Fontaine and wander the world.
• Gorogoa: In the quest for the fourth fruit, the scenes from the protagonist's life that cam be visited by zooming in on the religious artifacts on the table appear to be memories of a pilgrimage:
  • The bell: the protagonist is crossing a desert, and rings a bell when he passes a shrine.
  • The ladle: the protagonist is climbing a mountain, and anoints himself with holy water when he passes a shrine.
  • The candle: the protagonist is pushing a wheelbarrow through a forest and lights a candle when he passes a shrine.
• Journey (2012): The game has robed figures traveling toward a mountain in the distance which is implied to be some sort of holy site. Along the way, they stop at shrines where they are given further knowledge by the spirits of their ancient ancestors.
• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: The flashbacks show Princess Zelda traveling to the shrines of the goddesses in the hopes of awakening the divine power that is her birthright.
• Ultima IV: After achieving enlightenment in one of the Eight Virtues, you have to undertake a pilgrimage to the corresponding Shrine of Virtue, to receive a hint on how to enter the Very Definitely Final Dungeon.
• Vermintide II: The Chaos Wastes game mode sends the heroes on a perilous four-part pilgrimage into the titular Eldritch Location to prove their worth and ultimately find the Citadel of Eternity, a Place of Power where they can speak to the Gods directly. The experience elevates Victor Saltzpyre to a Warrior Priest of Sigmar, though Lohner privately questions whether it was truly Sigmar who answered him.
• Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego? (1997): One level saw Ann Tickwitee investigating the theft of some salt (necessary for preserving food) from Mansa Musa's caravan as they prepared to set out on their historic Hajj in 1324.

Visual Novels

• Monster Roadtrip: Parodied. Upon being tracked down by a small group of their followers, The Lamb annoyedly tells them that they're trying to go on a sacred pilgrimage called "vacation". It's very sacred and very important.

Web Original

• SCP Foundation: SCP-036 is about Yazidi pilgrims who use planes to travel to a site where they can be reborn.

Western Animation

• Over the Garden Wall: Invoked and gently Parodied. When Greg and Wirt stop at a tavern, the tavern patrons try to convince Wirt he is a pilgrim on a personal journey of self-discovery, despite knowing essentially nothing about him. This comes from a strange desire to box the kids into a specific labeled identity (which is how the patrons insist on referring to each other).

Real Life

• Bahá'u'lláh, founder of the Baha'i Faith, decreed pilgrimage to the House of Bahá'u'lláh in Baghdad, Iraq, and the House of the Báb in Shiraz. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá added the Shrine of Bahá'u'lláh at Bahji, Israel. Nowadays, because of religious persecution in Iran and Iraq, pilgrims spend nine days visiting the Bahá'í World Centre in northwest Israel
• Buddhism: Several places, related to the life of Gautama Buddha or various major events in the history of the faith or containing relics, are visited by pilgrims.
• Christianity:
  • Pilgrimage used to be a major element of the Christian faith, and even today, pilgrimages to places related to the history of Jesus such as Jerusalem or major saints are still popular.
  • A popular pilgrimage journey is along the Way of St. James to the Santiago de Compostela Cathedral, in Galicia, to the shrine of the apostle James.
• Hinduism: Pilgrimage sites are numerous in Hinduism, most often related to legendary events from the lives of the gods, and the most famous site is Benares.
• In Islam, all adult healthy Muslims who can do so must make the Hajj, a pilgrimage to Mecca, at least once in their life, and they receive the title of Hajj after doing it. Shias add Karbala, where died Husayn ibn Ali, and Mashhad, to pay homage to Imam Reza.
• In Judaism, trips to the Western Wall are widely popular, as this is the last remainder of the Solomon's Temple. Moreover, shrines of major rabbis still welcome pilgrims.

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