The Art of Pilgrimage: The Seeker's Guide to Making Travel Sacred

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The Spiritual Traveler’s Travel Guide

“A must read before a trip.” ―Escape

“The Art of Pilgrimage―that’s a classic.” ―Deepak Chopra

The classic guide to making travel meaningful. The Art of Pilgrimage is a travel guide full of inspiration for any traveler.

Not just for pilgrims. We are descendants of nomads. And although we no longer partake in this nomadic life, the instinct to travel remains. Whether we’re planning a trip or buying a secondhand copy of Siddhartha, we’re always searching for a journey, a pilgrimage. With remarkable stories from famous travelers, poets, and modern-day pilgrims, The Art of Pilgrimage is for the mindful traveler who longs for something more than diversion and escape.

Rick Steves with a literary twist. Through literary travel stories and meditations, award-winning writer, filmmaker and host of the acclaimed Global Spirit PBS series, Phil Cousineau, shows readers that travel is worthy of mindfulness and spiritual examination. Learn to approach travel with a desire for risk and renewal, practicing intentionality and being present.

Spiritual travel for the soul. If you’re looking for reasons to travel, this is it. Whether traveling to Mecca or Memphis, Stonehenge or Cooperstown, one’s journey becomes meaningful when the traveler’s heart and imagination are open to experiencing the sacred. The Art of Pilgrimage shows that there is something sacred waiting to be discovered around us.

Inside find:

• Inspirational stories, myths, parables, and quotes from many travelers and many faiths
• How to see with the “eyes of the heart”
• Over 70 illustrations

“Phil Cousineau reminds us that we can make all of our journeys more intentional: With the roads to the exalted places we all want to visit more crowded than ever, we look more and more, but see less and less. But we don’t need more gimmicks and gadgets; all we need do is reimagine the way we travel. If we truly want to know the secret of soulful travel, we need to believe that there is something sacred waiting to be discovered in virtually every journey.” ―U.S. Catholic

“If Phil Cousineau’s fine book were to have the influence it deserves, tourism might cease to be an environmental blight and become an educational blessing.” ―San Francisco Chronicle

“Stories, anecdotes, quotes, vignettes, and practical suggestions from travelers and pilgrims throughout history create a guide to building a personal journey by learning to slow down and linger, savor, and absorb each stage.” ―Library Journal

“If Joseph Campbell, the Dalai Lama, and Bill Moyers were to have collaborated on a book about journeys I suspect it would look very much like The Art of Pilgrimage.” ―Austin American Statesman

“The quintessential traveling companion.” ―Spirituality and Practice

“Seeking answers to one’s own existence? Cousineau guarantees that the pilgrimage approach is the right path for obtaining those answers.” ―Booklist

“Cousineau fires our night with flaming soul-bursts from every age and quarter… If there is such a thing as a world soul―an anima mundi―it would address our times in something like Cousineau’s voice.” ―Huston Smith, author of The World’s Religions

“Phil Cousineau is the finest and most inspiring pilgrimage guide writing today.” ―Alexander Eliot, TIME magazine art critic, author of Because It Was Beautiful

“This book made me wish I could retrace my footsteps with Joe [Campbell] when we traveled the world together.” ―Jean Erdman Campbell, dancer and choreographer

“Phil Cousineau gets right to it―the human soul’s need for meaning. Travel is a quest for meaning and pilgrimage is the answer. Whether your pilgrimage is to the sacred sites in your own neighborhood, to the Taj Mahal in India, or the Shrine of the Black Madonna of Poland, Phil Cousineau is a trustworthy guide. The Art of Pilgrimage is an essential companion to life’s journey and the depth of meaning you might find.” ―China Galland, author of Longing for Darkness

“A treasure. It triggers the imagination and memory of all inner and outer journeys one has or has not taken.” ―Angeles Arrien, PhD, cultural anthropologist and author of The Four-Fold Way and Signs of Life

“'The Art of Pilgrimage has served as a guide to thousands of people seeking meaning in their lives―for a ‘time in’ in search of a new perspective―so this third edition brings me joy. Enjoy the stories, the insights, and the potential places you may travel whether from your armchair or a niche in an airport. Phil is a consummate traveler; one who shares meaning and his soul.” ―Lauren Artress, author of The Path of the Holy Fool: How the Labyrinth Ignites Our Visionary Powers

“Phil Cousineau is the most effective public speaker I have ever heard. His book on pilgrimage is one of the greatest travel books I have ever read.” ―Peter Feibleman, author of Lilly: Reminiscences of Lillian Hellman

“Phil’s book is a reminder that all poets are pilgrims of the word and all pilgrims are poets of the road.” ―Lawrence Ferlinghetti

“Of all the books I’ve ever read about pilgrimage, this is the most poetic, personal, and timely.” ―John O’Donohue, author of Anam Cara

“I have made pilgrimages all my life. One, along the sea-roads of Charles Darwin, consumed more than twenty years. Then I found Phil Cousineau and now he is my guide on every wandering.” ―Georgia I. Hesse, founding travel editor, San Francisco Examiner