When I changed my course at The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology and decided to study pilgrimage, I remember sitting down with Dan Allender (a co-founder of our school) in his office and talking about my new sense of direction.
Apart from the frighteningly accurate and revealing analysis that he tends to offer during office hours (“I wonder what it is within you that longs to wander, Lacy? What are you wandering from?”) I remember him mentioning Iona as a site of pilgrimage.
Of course I nodded, implying complete understanding without having any idea what he was talking about (I swear to you that I am not the first to do this in his presence). The truth is, however, that I had never once heard of Iona, but the way Dan said the word made me feel as if the place carried quite the sense of mystique (oh how I wish you could hear the way Dan Allender speaks–I have a feeling all that have are smiling at this moment and thinking “Dan talks as if everything has a sense of mystique,” but that is beside the point).
As I left his office (thinking, “ugh–caught in the act”), Dan suggested I speak with Tom Cashman about pilgrimage, as many others had been suggesting. As I learned more about this place, often described as being at “the edge of the earth,” and thus a ready place for spiritual encounter, I became more and more intrigued and realized I, too, needed to journey to Iona.
When I finally made it to Iona on a whirlwind trip in 2012 (note to self: Iona requires more from you than a whirlwind trip), I consulted Tom as I made plans. Who better to prepare me for my journey than the one who implanted the ideas of both Celtic Spirituality and pilgrimage to Iona within me?
This interview with Tom first appeared in the first few months of A Sacred Journey’s existence over three years ago (feels like forever), but since I’ll be visiting Iona again in the spring (hopefully with you?), I thought it was time to dust it off and use it as a primer once more. Read on…
Even though it’s just in the 60s here in Seattle, I’m officially two weeks into my 