Three Pilgrimages Following Geese, Stars, and Hunches on the Camino de Santiago

Beebe Bahrami

Paperback
978-1-948626-63-7
US $24.00 Indiepubs Bookshop Amazon
eBook available
May 2022

2023 Foreword INDIES Award Winner | Silver: Travel

A pilgrimage-turned-adventure story in pursuit of a pagan mystery on the Camino de Santiago across France and Spain

"In Beebe Bahrami’s The Way of the Wild Goose, a mystery, the wild feminine, and trail magic come together on the Camino de Santiago....Bahrami affirms that the Camino is more than a mere road—it’s an initiation. With skill and insight, she details the joys, challenges, and human kindness she experienced on this ‘great leyline forged from the mix of natural earth energies with the human imagination’ that became her road to self-discovery and a heart-centered life." —Foreword Reviews; starred review

With three pilgrimages across southern France and northern Spain defining author and anthropologist Beebe Bahrami’s single journey on the Camino de Santiago, The Way of the Wild Goose recounts an inner and outer journey full of wild nature, ancient roads and history, quirky pilgrims, wise and humorous locals, and mysterious folklore. It’s a compelling tale of quest, initiation, and transformation following the Way of Saint James.

The book is also a detective story that reveals an old mystery: Why is the goose associated with the medieval Camino de Santiago, and how did it come to preserve a whole universe of pagan, pre-Christian lore in one innocent symbol? Longtime trekker Bahrami decided to find out, and unknowingly catapulted herself into a true wild goose chase, unearthing a magnetically alive and meaningful long walk on the ancient roads in France and Spain—and a journey into the Self.

Beebe Bahrami is an award-winning travel writer and anthropologist known for her travel narratives, memoirs, and guidebooks. Her most recent book, Moon Camino de Santiago (Avalon Travel/Hachette, 2019), firmly established her as an expert on the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage routes in southern France and northern Spain. She has dedicated three decades to unearthing the mysteries, lore, and many-sensory experiences of this massive and ancient network of roads that are all destined for the northwest of Iberia. Bahrami is also known for her essays and articles on travel, archaeology, outdoors and adventure, food and wine, spiritual, and cross-cultural themes.

A Colorado native based in southern New Jersey, Bahrami extends her idea of home on regular, visits, semi-nomadic treks, explorations, and excavations in southwestern France and northern Spain, one of Europe’s most ancient, deeply traversed, wild, and culturally rich landscapes. Ever since she first stepped on to the Camino de Santiago in 1995, she knew she found her place in the world and has delved deeply into these ancient paths and places across France and Spain.

In addition to Moon Camino de Santiago, she is the author of several other travel books, including two travel memoirs, Café Oc—A Nomad’s Tales of Magic, Mystery, and Finding Home in the Dordogne of Southwestern France (Shanti Arts Publishing, 2016), and Café Neandertal—Excavating Our Past in One of Europe’s Most Ancient Places (Counterpoint Press, 2017), and two narrative guides, The Spiritual Traveler Spain—A Guide to Sacred Sites and Pilgrim Routes (Paulist Press, 2009), and Historic Walking Guides Madrid (DestinWorld Publishing, 2009). She also has been a writer for Michelin, including the Michelin Green Guide: Provence (2006).

Bahrami’s essays and articles have appeared in BBC Travel, Archaeology, Wine Enthusiast, The Bark, Bon Vivant, The Pennsylvania Gazette, National Geographic books, Expedition, Fodors.com, Transitions Abroad, and Perceptive Travel, among others. She is the author of travel content on Spain and France—particularly on the Camino de Santiago, Madrid, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Camino del Norte, and Aquitaine—on Bindu Trips, a travel itinerary website. She is also a journey experts with the Smithsonian Journey tours, “France and Spain’s Basque Region,” and “Across Northern Spain and Portugal,” and co-leads a sacred writing and art retreat at Flores del Camino, in Castrillo de los Polvazares on the Camino.

She maintains two blogs, Café Oc, on life in the Dordogne, and The Pilgrim’s Way Café, dedicated to exploring the world on foot and through its foods and traditions.

“A lingering historic mystery and an unexpected personal twist make The Way of the Wild Goose an entertaining, thoughtful, and valuable addition to the wonderfully digressive genre of the pilgrimage memoir.” —Gideon Lewis-Kraus, staff writer for The New Yorker and author of A Sense of Direction: Pilgrimage for the Restless and Hopeful

"A luminous, heartfelt journey. Beebe Bahrami has produced something unique: not one, but three magical pilgrim walks filled with web-footed Virgin Marys and mother goddesses, eerie coincidences, fairies, and Templar Knights—and with enough Cat Stevens, food poisoning, and scientific backup to keep it all real. Big fun!" —Rebekah Scott, author of A Furnace Full of God: A Holy Year on the Camino de Santiago

“In Beebe Bahrami’s The Way of the Wild Goose, a mystery, the wild feminine, and trail magic come together on the Camino de Santiago.

        Carrying a pack filled with “just in case” items, Bahrami set out to walk the Camino, feeling “ethereal energy” emanating from the ground beneath her feet. Intense dreams accompanied her as she followed the sun’s path across the sky, looking for places marked with the sign of a goose, or its three-pronged-footprint abbreviation—places said to be imbued with spiritual energy arising from prehistoric sacred springs and wells, standing stones, and grottoes over which now-ancient chapels stand. She walked in delight, not knowing when or where she would eat or sleep, allowing synchronicities that lifted the veil between her inner and outer worlds to supply her needs.

         Bahrami reveals the heart of the Camino as the heart of the fierce feminine, enshrined in folklore, legend, and the mystery of the goose. She finds evidence that the feminine divine, though dominated by patriarchy, has not been extinguished—although she notes that, by the fifteenth century, women healers were targeted as witches, as churches and states joined in their efforts to dominate and exploit the natural world and all of humanity.

         Both intriguing and marked by delightful descriptions, the book links the past to the present well. Bahrami affirms that the Camino is more than a mere road—it’s an initiation. With skill and insight, she details the joys, challenges, and human kindness she experienced on this “great leyline forged from the mix of natural earth energies with the human imagination” that became her road to self-discovery and a heart-centered life.

         The Way of the Wild Goose is a travel memoir that invites lingering, as well as a return to Mother Earth and her wisdom.” —Foreword Reviews; starred review

"Beebe Bahrami fills these pages with facts about history, religion, geography, and more. She is a scholar, an anthropologist, and the person you would most like to be seated next to at a dinner party…. The Way of the Wild Goose positively shimmers with enthusiasm and wonder. This book will be equally enchanting to the seasoned pilgrim and to those who may pick it up on a whim.”—Annie O’Neil, director/producer of Phil’s Camino, coproducer and participating pilgrim for Walking the Camino: Six Ways to Santiago, and author of Everyday Camino with Annie

“...Bahrami traces the goose symbolism back to European pagan goddesses and uncovers echoes of the three-pronged goose’s footprint in symbols of the Holy Trinity, finding that the goose ‘brings with it contentment, harmony, wholeness, and balance.’ Bahrami’s animated prose pulls the reader into her ambitious quest...” —Publishers Weekly

"Those who have walked the Camino will appreciate Bahrami’s loving descriptions of villages, pilgrim life, meaningful discussions, the Camino’s churches, environments, monuments, meals, exhausting days, and the other symbols she encounters and considers as she walks. Her knowledge of the region is extensive and her deep engagement with the Camino (and her friends, stone markings, Neandertals, and the French town of Sarlat-la-Canéda) shines through in this intimate, moving, and informative memoir." —La Concha (American Pilgrims on the Camino Magazine)

Praise for Moon Camino de Santiago

“Through her writings, Bahrami managed to charm us with her fantastic storytelling skills. In reading her guide book for Moon, we felt like we already completed the Camino de Santiago and went on an epic adventure of massive proportions from our own living room. Despite this, as any good writer, Bahrami delivered the message with great skill and kept us captivated enough so we await our trip with much anticipation and excitement.”—Cory Varga, You Could Travel blog (https://www.youcouldtravel.com/travel-blog/moon-guide-camino-de-santiago)

“I have spent several hours going through the book and am amazed at the attention to detail and the amount of work that has gone into it. As an author, I shudder to think of how much fact checking had to happen. And the detailed on-the-ground research is mind-boggling – but in the end that’s what made it the incredibly useful book that it is.”—Leigh McAdam, Hike, Bike, Travel blog (https://hikebiketravel.com/how-to-plan-the-camino-de-santiago-walk/)

“Moon Camino de Santiago: Sacred Sites, Historic Villages, Local Food and Wine I think is the best guide by far, among the current (2019) options.”—Backpack45/Shepherd Canyon Books (https://backpack45.com/camino2.html)

Praise for Cafe Neandertal

“This is the most entertaining (and informative) book on archaeology, prehistory, and the cave art of our early ancestors that I have ever read.”—Martin Walker, author of the Bruno, Chief of Police mystery series set in southwestern France, on the “best books on the wine, food, and history of Périgord France,” for Shepherd (www.shepherd.com/best-books/perigord-france)

“[A] beautifully crafted book... Bahrami is a wonderful writer who brings many of the attributes of the novel to a clear and compelling narrative.” ―Cosmos Magazine

“With a pilgrim’s reverence and a scientist’s exactitude, Bahrami captures the textures, smells, and sounds of the excavation sites and adjacent towns.” —Publishers Weekly

“Written with all the flair and enthusiasm of an experienced writer eager to share her love of her subject.” ―Kirkus

“Ms. Bahrami has written a very readable book, blending personal travel experience and history in a relatively off-the-radar swath of France. She seamlessly marries archeology and Gallic culture that brings the region's people and history to life.” ―David Farley, author of An Irreverent Curiosity

“We need to understand who we were in order to know where we are headed. In the caves and forests of France's Dordogne region, Beebe Bahrami guides us on a haunting encounter with what may be our earlier selves, a creature whose passions and powers and motives we have only begun to fathom. A fascinating read for anyone who claims to be human.” ―Peter Stark, author of Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson's Lost Pacific Empire; A Story of Wealth, Ambition, and Survival

 

Praise for Café Oc

“I became so enchanted with Beebe Bahrami’s soulful accounting of Sarlat that I’ve made arrangements to explore it next year myself.” ―Carla Woody, The Lifepath Dialogues

“Beebe Bahrami gives eloquent voice to a mystical search for belonging. Her rich storytelling, as an observant cultural anthropologist, opens windows into conscious living. Her sense of discovery and wonder, anchored in her life in the Dordogne, is joy made manifest. Follow her writings wherever they lead, as her journey aids in our unfoldment.”―Kim Grant, founder of Bindu Trips

“Beebe Bahrami takes a place of legend and applies its character to her own memoir. She writes beautifully and openly about finding a place that feels right and finding people just as enthusiastic about it—and their life there—and delight in sharing it all.”—Tim Leffel, editor, Perceptive Travel

Praise for The Spiritual Traveler Spain:

“The strength of this book lies in the informative and very personalized list of places assembled by the diligent author. Most of all, Bahrami has tracked down where the sacred ceremonies are still sustained, providing the reader and visitor with an accessible shortcut to living histories and vibrant folkloric traditions and mythologies. The author writes with a felicitous ease, in many ways recalling (in the first person narrative) an earlier tradition of guide books. ”—Richard Hodges, Expedition, Penn Museum

Praise for Historic Walking Guides Madrid:

"Beebe Bahrami's Historic Walking Guides Madrid offers a refreshing change to typical mainstream travel guides. While you get must-see museum and monument stops around Madrid, you also get an amazing slice of rich history…Bahrami's stories about significant writers and artists influential to Madrid's past give a sense of being in these people's shoes by weaving in the day-to-day human element - a detail that many mainstream travel guides seem to lack." —Matador Network

"What I like about this book is the fact that it reveals the rich history of Madrid in a lively and engaging manner, without being dry or overly didactic…Bahrami demonstrates her intimate knowledge of the city as she describes walks that introduce visitors to much more than Madrid's most famous tourist attractions. Her knowledge of its history and her vivid descriptions of the sights bring Madrid's past to life. Walking through the city's historic districts not only allows you to visit important historic buildings and monuments, but you also offer a deeper understanding of how Madrid came to be the way it is today." —Transitions Abroad