Grace Pilgrimage 2009 Portugal

Video - the SolarVillage TestField inauguration

Photos from the concert of Yair Dalal

Video 5 - the last week, Sabine Lichtenfels about the importance of creating models for peace

Diary October 12 - 15, the end

We are in Tamera. From Milfontes we walked along the beach to Almograve where we spent two days -- energetical days full of wind and sun, washed by the orgonitic powers of the ocean. In a small pine forest in the dunes a first harvest of the pilgrimage took place: A Forum with deep and moving issues. At this protected place, truths were shared which had the power to change lives. New thoughts and insights were contributed which had grown in many days of walking and many nights under the stars. The world matter which at other places can lead to war and violence could be seen and clarified within us. The historical request of the man for forgiving, his re-embedding on mother earth, the opening of the woman to take her position and raise her voice, the clear words of a daughter towards her late father, the trip of insights about guilt and forgiving of a man coming from a sexually hostile culture: We became witnesses of more than one new positionings in life. More

Photos of the arrival in Tamera

Tamera:

The Stone Circle of Tamera. Since 2004 Sabine Lichtenfels and the geomants Marko Pogačnik and Peter Frank have been working to construct a modern stone circle at the heart of the peace research center Tamera. The complete art work, consisting of almost 90 stones, also represents archetypes of a peace community. It stands in the middle of a system of pilgrimage trails and power spots in and around Tamera.

The peace research center Tamera, located between the municipalities of Colos, Relíquias and Ribeiro do Salto, is an international educational and experimental station for the establishment of peace villages world wide.

Approximately 160 people are currently living, working and studying here today under the motto “act locally, have a global effect”. Tamera’s goal is to establish a pilot model for humans to live together non-violently with both their fellow human beings and nature. The main focus of Tamera’s work lies in training peace workers, establishing the energy-sufficient Solar Village and networking globally and politically in the name of GRACE.

Photos from Day 17 to 19

Odemira:

The district capital is picturesquely located at the river Mira. Its name comes from the Arabs in the 12th century who called their residence “Wadi Emir”.

Today, the innovative city and regional council of Odemira is attempting to counteract the immense migration to the cities in Alentejo and support ecological and social projects.

Video 4 - the second week of the Grace Pilgrimage

Photos from day 14 to 16

Diary by Sabine Lichtenfels, October 11th

I am sitting in Milfontes on a camping ground in the early morning after a rather wake night. The pilgrimage is coming to its end. We have had moving days. In Sines we could feel how it will be once the Movement for a Free Earth will be established.

The kids have performed their theatre piece in the city theater in such a moving way that I was deeply touched in the heart.

Yes, it is the generations that come after us that will have the power to make a new history happen. It is a piece that creates hope and gives faith. And hearing the children speak Portuguese, many adults feel motivated to learn this language ever deeper. More

Next performances of the Children's Theatre:

the next performances will be on 13th of October in Odemira and on 17th of October in Tamera.

21h30 - free admission

Cine-Teatro "Camacho Costa"

Jardim Sousa Prado

7630 Odemira

Phone: 283 320 881

www.cm-odemira.pt

18h - free admission

Monte do Cerro

7630 Colos

Phone: 283 635 306

www.tamera.org

Photos from the Theatre performance in Sines

Photos from Day 10 to 13

Diary, October 08th

After the longest walk of this pilgrimage - about 30 km through nature reserves, on the beach and along the Harbour and the Petrochemical Industry area - we arrived yesterday afternoon in Sines. Here we will spend two nights and have the first day where we will not walk. More

Sines:

The name Sines comes from the Celtic tribe of the Cinetos, who founded the place. Sines is also the native town of Vasco da Gama, the navigator and discoverer. Today, Sines is an industrial city, in which the effects of globalization compromise the environment and the social structure of an entire region. A large industrial petrochemical complex, which was already planned during the dictatorship, was built here in the eighties. Within a short period of time, the fishing and farming village turned into an industrial city with a large container port. An oil spill close to the coast caused a mass death of fish, and in 1982 the fishers of Sines went on a “green strike”, stopping industrial production for several weeks. During the nineties the city council, together with the inhabitants of the city, fought against the building of a waste incinerator. With our pilgrimage we want to support the peaceful resistance of the initiatives in Sines.

The third part of the pilgrimage, from Sines to Tamera, will focus on the sentence: Be the change you want to see in the world – and on building alternatives.

Diary, October 06th

After the longest walk of this pilgrimage - about 30 km through nature reserves, on the beach and along the Harbour and the Petrochemical Industry area - we arrived yesterday afternoon in Sines. Here we will spend two nights and have the first day where we will not walk. More

Video 3 - Update during the first week by S. Lichtenfels and short presentation of 6 pilgrims

Video 2 - Grace Pilgrimage 2009 - A day of a pilgrim

Grândola:

This city, which played an important role during the Revolution of the Carnations, will always be associated with the victory of democracy in Portugal.

“Grândola, Vila Morena”, a song by Zeca Afonso, describes the fraternity of the people in Grândola, and during the dictatorship it was regarded as communist and was prohibited. On April 25th, 1974 at 00:20 o’clock at night, it was played on Rádio Renascença, a national Catholic radio station. This was the agreed upon starting signal for the revolution. The second part of the pilgrimage, from Grândola to Sines, will focus on bearing witness to the historical and political situation of the world.

3rd to 5th of October - Diary of Sabine Lichtenfels

A few impressions as a complementation to Leila Dreggers Diary

It is not easy to hold the prehistoric utopia alive while walking through partly destroyed nature. Many fences remind us on the ongoing privatisations and the foreign influences in this country. More

Diary, October 05th

The first week of the pilgrimage has come to an end. There are no exceptional outer happenings we can report on. It was more about subtle inner twists observed and made by the participants. In more and more hearts a paradisiacal vision of life is coming alive.

Connecting to the vision of paradise has been a spiritual and mental act of consciousness. Through the force of vision we came in touch with a life that is connected, a life where the human being is bound to nature and where it has rediscovered all of nature´s forces enabling it to enter into true cooperation with her. More

Photos from Day 7 and 8

Diary October 3rd

A fellow pilgrim receives the message that her father has died one hour ago. "He was 92 years old, he has tried long to make this transition, now I am happy, because I love him a lot", she shares with the pilgrims. We share her joy immediately. Sabine Lichtenfels reminds us at the people in the prehistoric utopia and their attitude with life and death: Dying was embedded in community as well as being born. Each one is a transition which can happen without fear when we are connected with the sources of life. More

Diary October 2nd

At sunrise, in front of a abandoned small school we celebrate Gandhi´s birthday with a thought of him: Love is the strongest force owned by the world and at the same time the most humble imaginable. Love never demands anything, love only gives. Love suffers, never regrets and never seeks revenge. More

Images from Day 4, 5 and 6

Diary Torrão -- the pilgrim´s group forms.

How often community is created by resistances! In this case by common challenges of a long walk.

At least one of the pilgrims had the best day of his life: a big dog joint us and refused to leave us. He jumped around us and only hardly we could make him stop hunting rabbits and jumping in front of cars. At the evening our organisation team drove him back: Our little Leslie is the only dog which is allowed to follow us. More

Video 1 - introduction and interview with Sabine Lichtenfels

Torrão:

Torrão is a picturesque place that evokes memories of Old Portugal in a landscape with rolling hills and old trees that makes the soul vibrate. Archaeological findings show that people have been living their lives here for over 30,000 years.

The only cave in Portugal with cave paintings and remnants of the earliest human artistic depictions, dating back from 25,000 to 13,000 B.C. can be found in Santiago do Escoural. At the entrance to Torrão one cawell-preserved remnants of the old Roman road.

Images from Day 2

Diary, 29th of September

(by Leila Dregger)

Prefix: Guided by Sabine Lichtenfels 86 international participants took on a three-weeks peace-walk on September 27th. They will walk 240km, from Stone Circle to Stone Circle: from the Neolithic Stone Circle Almendres to the modern peace monument in the peace research village Tamera. There the pilgrimage will end with the inauguration of the TestField for a SolarVillage on the 15th of September. The ones who are interested, still can join.

A small drench in the evening refreshes the land. Still it is to little to frighten the pilgrims. The group sleeps nearby a flat storage lake - open-air between fresh peeled cork oaks; the owner agreed happily. In the morning – after a short sunrise meditation or prayer that is performed individually and after the kitchen-crew handed out lunch-packets – we start our second pilgrim's day. The first hour we walk in silence. Smooth hills covered with cork oaks and olive trees, ranches with pigs, cattle and sheep, tiny hamlets and chapels are for long time the only thing our eye can grasp. The perception sharpens and within silence, we dive into this country that appears friendly having such a long history behind. More

Day 1 - the Pilgrimage starts

86 people met yesterday close to the Stone Circle Almendres at Évora and did the first footsteps of the Grace Pilgrimage 2009.

"Every step can be a thought" said Sabine Lichtenfels, who is leading the Grace Pilgrimage - a thought of change. Every step can connect us with the awareness for our thoughts and actions and with the possibility of reconciliation with ourselves and the original sources of this continent.

From the stone circle we are starting to walk 240 km to Tamera, connect with the earth but also bear witness about its threats of destruction, and find visions for a culture of peace.

At the end of the pilgrimage there will be the inauguration of a test field for a SolarVillage, an experimental research village for decentral solar energy, architecture, ecology and community.

Today, it is Jom Kippur, an Israeli holiday for reconciliation and Grace. The Israeli participants today will not drink or eat. Shmuel Shaul, Geomant from Israel said: "The day is dedicated to the things which we get without doing something for it. This is grace, and it happens often, like the air we breath without having to work for it."

Impressions from Day 1 and Day 2

Starting Point: Almendres

The pilgrimage begins on September 27th near the Almendres stone circle at Évora. The stone circle is a mute witness and a repository of knowledge of an archaic culture of peace that was left here many thousand years ago. Sabine Lichtenfels is convinced that the erectors of the stone circle were peaceful, spiritually highly developed tribal cultures, who lived in peace cultures in close connection to nature during an era of sensual fulfillment. The individual stones represent the archetypes of an intact community, in which all the elements mutually complement each other.

The stone circle as a whole is a memory of humanity and today it is still a source of inspiration for truth seekers from all countries and of all ages. It was embedded in a system of archaic monuments and stone circles in the entire region, and it is the best preserved of them all. The pilgrimage will also constitute a search for further repositories of knowledge about our archaic ancestors and their message.

The first part of the pilgrimage, from Almendres to Grândola, will focus on connecting with prehistoric upia and the spiritual sources of peace communities.