Oh Jeez, the Religious Stuff Continues!
The next morning I went downstairs for my B&B breakfast, shared with a couple from Cumbria who were also there on an Iona pilgrimage. This reminds of the many fascinating people I met on this trip whom I haven't mentioned. For instance, on the morning of the 16th I had breakfast with Ian who runs an operation called
Screen Machine which shows new movies in rural Scotland using a mobile theater. What an interesting person and cool business model.
At 10 AM I wandered back to Bunessan to meet Paul and Emma for breakfast. The breakfast of fresh trout and scrambled eggs was every bit as good as you might hope. The conversation was even better, and covered diverse topics from riding with Austin Vince to the meaning of existence, and including the nature of the divine, the afterlife, reincarnation, inter-generational trauma, and many other topics.
In the midst of this conversation, Paul turned to me and said that he and Emma had been talking, and they had decided to invite me to join their clan. I thought, "Wait! Wut?!" :wow Paul continued that historically Scottish clans had not been dependent upon blood relations, and that most clans had many surnames associated with them.
These many names are called septs. Paul said that people joined clans for protection and mutual support, and that he and Emma were empowered to initiate members into
Clan Farquharson (handy that it includes the surname of one of my favorite roads racers ever, Ryan Farquhar).
I was knocked out by this invitation, so with a big gulp, I said, "Yes!" Paul told me to meet them back at the pub that evening, and they would initiate me. With that, it was off to the ferry to Iona.
Waiting at the dock, pretty much everyone there was either on pilgrimage or for work. It was a friendly and helpful group, and the wait for the ferry was only about 15 minutes, and the crossing was about the same.
When I got to the island, I just followed the rest of the pilgrims in the general direction of the abbey. We wandered through the village where there are few cars and the streets are very quiet. There were lots of interpretive plaques to read and sights to see. After I got into the grounds, one of the first big areas I visited was the cemetery. Legend has it that 48 Scottish kings are buried there, including Macbeth! This was a neat way to close the loop after passing by the Stone of Scone a few days earlier.
At the top of each hour there is a brief worship service in the church. It is a quiet, contemplative service in the tradition of Celtic Christianity, which tends to the more mystical side of Christian practices. The service was incredibly powerful and moving, and I was so grateful to be there. When the service was over I took a few pics of the inside of the church, and then headed off to an area marked as a quiet corner for some time of contemplative prayer and to perform my own rites of pilgrimage.
One of the common traditions in many pilgrimages is to bring an object with you on pilgrimage that represents something you want to leave behind, and I brought a polished stone with me that represented what I wanted to leave behind, and when my time there was complete, I left the stone on a window sill in that corner, and then continued my tour, visiting the museum and a variety of other spots.
After about 4 hours on the island, and chatting with a number of other pilgrims and volunteers, and reaching the agreement that this was indeed a "thin place".
When I got back to Mull, I headed back to the B&B before heading back to Bunessan and the pub. I hung there for awhile on my own, having a bitter outdoors surrounded by fellow diners before heading inside to order dinner. After dinner, Paul and Emma showed up, and we had the initiation ceremony. And they gave me an object to carry home with me, completing the cycle of left objects and found objects on pilgrimage. Yay, I'm Scottish!!!!
While I was waiting for Paul and Emma, I noticed a handful of characters in the pub who were eyeing me suspiciously. Later, after the initiation a couple of these very drunk guys came out to where we were to accuse me of being an undercover cop! :wtf Paul turned to him and said, "He's American, not a cop, and now he's a member of our clan." With the subtext being, "fuck off!"
It turns out they joined us instead, and now we had a big celebration.
arty
