Soul Attractions

Article Tools

Print

E-mail

Comments

RSS

Each year for 10 years, a pacifist priest plucked dirt from Chimayo and carried it to Los Alamos National Laboratory 20 miles away. In 1995, his solitary walks inspired a pilgrimage that now links nuclear sites, such as dumps, mining areas, test sites, and museums, from Kirtland Air Force Base, Albuquerque, to Hiroshima, Japan. A global coalition, Abolition 2000, has expanded the pilgrimage each year. In 1998 activists will publicize Chernobyl1s still-functioning reactor by driving an ambulance from Ireland to Kiev. Their final destination? An international agreement abolishing nuclear weapons by the year 2000.

Pamela Meidell, Director, Atomic Mirror, Box 220, Port Hueneme, CA, 93044; phone 805/985-5073

Taize, France 

Gen-Xers from around the world converge on this small Christian monastic community in Burgundy every week to pray, be silent and perform simple, repetitive chants, known as the songs of Taize. Established in the 1940s as a sanctuary for political refugees, this community is now home to 90 monks who have led "pilgrimages of trust on earth" to every continent. In 1994 their trek to Paris attracted more than 100,000 young pilgrims.

Saut D'eau (Sodo), Haiti 

For 130 years, vendors, gamblers, prostitutes, and military men have mingled freely here with the traditionally devout. These pilgrims don't differentiate between Christian rituals (celebrating the appearance of the Virgin Mary) and voodoo rites (bathing in the waterfalls sacred to gods Ezili and Danbala.) Instead, they mix it all up in a bazaar-like atmosphere.

Office National de Tourisme, 34 Avenue Marie-Jeanne, Port-au-Prince, Haiti; phone 509 1 230723

The Centre for Alternative Technology, Machynlleth, Wales 

If each age creates its own form of pilgrimage, ours may be to this ecolaboratory that attracts 100,000 visitors annually. This sustainable town boasts phone booths powered by wind and sun, urinals kept sweet-smelling by plant extracts, a railway with a regenerative braking system, energy-stingy houses, and other working forms of gentle technology.

Centre for Alternative Technology Charity Ltd. Charity No. 265239, Machynlleth, Powys, SY20 9 AZ, Wales, UK; phone 44 1654 7024 00;

RSS | Comments | E-mail | Print