The Camino : A Journey of the Spirit (Paperback)

~ (Author) "Whenever I travel, I prefer to do it light; however, seven pounds of lightness was new to me..." (more)
Key Phrases: birthing hall, twin soul, ley lines, Divine Deity, Great Spirit, Garden of Eden (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Known as the Camino, the Santiago de Compostela Camino is a famous pilgrimage that has been undertaken by people for centuries across northern Spain. It is said that this 500-mile path lies directly under the Milky Way and that it reflects the energy of the star systems above it. Facing her sixth decade of life on earth, writer and actor Shirley MacLaine decided to go on this trek. She wasn't sure why, she only knew that the Camino had been traveled for thousands of years by "saints, sinners, generals, misfits, kings and queens. It is done by the intent to find one's deepest spiritual meaning and resolutions regarding conflicts in Self."

Typical of MacLaine, this is a personal story with enormous adventure, a smattering of flashbacks, and a hefty serving of cosmic revelations. Like a true pilgrim, MacLaine travels solo, willing to strip herself down to the backpacking essentials and find deeper meaning in all the bizarre, frightening, and coincidental events she encounters along the way. It is no small feat that this sixtysomething woman walked the grueling path in 30 days. Readers can expect vivid stories of stalking paparazzi, icy showers, bouts of hunger, lost paths, a worshipping young man, a deranged woman screaming in a roadside shelter, saintly truck drivers, a fellow pilgrim in a wheelchair, bouts of constipation and diarrhea, and a cosmic crescendo that will knock the socks of MacLaine's fans. --Gail Hudson --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Following a centuries-old tradition, entertainer MacLaine walked nearly 500 miles across northern Spain's Camino Santiago de Compostela. This memoir of her formidable journey, like her other books, is a likely candidate for bestsellerdom as well as for ridicule in some quarters. An effort to "feel human again," her physical feat was daunting: she hiked for 10 hours a day on her own, often in intense heat, and slept in refugios--crowded, dirty shelters. Though she observes the small villages, historic cathedrals and other trekkers along the way, MacLaine is most interested in her interior journey. The actress, who has written before about her numerous past lives in such books as Out on a Limb and Dancing in the Light, senses that she's walked the Camino before as a coffee-colored, dark-haired woman of Charlemagne's time. Visited in dreams by a spiritual guide, she connects her various lives and soul mates, revealing that her former lover (in this life) was Olaf Palme, the assassinated Swedish Prime Minister. As the journey progresses, she revisits the origins of the human race in the edenic Lemuria, then the dawn of Atlantis and on to ADAMic civilization. On the earthly plane, MacLaine seems to enjoy evading the press, which she compares to fearsome dogs, and whose pursuit escalates as she gets closer to the end of the journey. Though she completed the Camino in 30 days instead of the planned 40, her arrival in Santiago lacks a Hollywood finale. Instead, she slips into the famous cathedral and leaves immediately for Madrid. Major ad/promo; author tour; 20-city TV satellite tour; 20-city radio satellite tour. (May)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Atria (April 3, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743400739
• ISBN-13: 978-0743400732
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (114 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #82,900 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #20 in	Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Arts & Literature > New Age
  #46 in	Books > Travel > Europe > Spain
  #50 in	Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Travel

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

125 of 135 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More Steps on the Road To Enlightenment, April 30, 2000

By	Mimi DiFrancesca "lightseven" (Michigan USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Camino: A Journey of the Spirit (Hardcover)

"The Camino", Shirley Maclaine's new book, covers a 500 mile walking trip she completed along the Camino de Santiago in northern Spain. Blisters and body pain, loneliness followed by relentless press who heard she was making the pilgrimage, vivid dream/recollections and synchronicity are shared in this journal. 40 pages into this book, I announced to my family that I will be making this same trek. Ms. MacLaine is an excellent writer; clean, intelligent, free of the need to prove anything to anyone. She's just saying what she experienced. We come away with a glimpse at the history of the trail from the days of Charlemange. We see her experience of the possible origin of three dimensional human life, Atlantis, Lemuria, ancestral connections to ET's and genetic engineerring that very possibly got us where we are right now. Skeptics will scoff. Students of Spirit will nod. (Remember, in spring 2000, scientists JUST found out that dinosaurs had four chamber hearts that show they were WARM blooded, not cold blooded like the "fact" they have "known" for years.) Whatever your level of listening, believing or remembering, "The Camino" is a wonderful journey that leaves us feeling renewed. Ultreya, Ms. MacLaine!

49 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Camino, June 2, 2000

By	Kelly - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Camino: A Journey of the Spirit (Hardcover)

One of my friends at work gave me Shirley's new book, and I was thrilled. In the traditional Christian world, Shirley MacLaine is one of those people who would be on the "LIST"---forbidden to any God-fearing, Bible believing Christian. I used to carry Shirley's books around in brown paper bags and pull them halfway out and read them when nobody was looking. Our preacher would be talking about how "Shirley MacLaine has lost her mind," and I'd be reading her books under the pews and thinking, "She makes more sense than the preacher." In Christian college, I got called on the carpet when somebody decided to investigate one of my brown bags to see if I was sneaking alcohol. GOD FORBID, he found something WORSE--one of Shirley MacLaine's novels, which would surely send me to hell faster than booze. Needless to say, my days in the traditional Christian experience were short-lived.

I think Shirley MacLaine is amazing! I think she's one of the bravest women alive. She has never been afraid to share her spiritual journeys for the benefit of those who can "receive" them and at the cost of personal ridicule from those who cannot.

People are criticizing this book and saying it was not about the Camino but about her own inner journey. I would have been disappointed had it not been. I don't care if Shirley walks the Camino, the Appalachian Trail, or walks to the corner drugstore. I want to know what happened to her spiritually along the way.

This is a wonderful book for all fellow "Pilgrims" and "Sojourners in a Strange Land."

34 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fascinating Quest!, July 31, 2000

By	Judith E. Pavluvcik (Dreaming of the beach in California, but living in the reality of the desert in Arizona!!) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Camino: A Journey of the Spirit (Hardcover)

"There are many ways to experience one's spiritual education." This quote from Shirley MacLaine sums up this incredible book perfectly. This is Shirley's journey of one finding themselves, or re-discovering themselves on the centuries old Camino - a 500 mile spiritual trek across Spain.

I found this book to be wonderfully enlightening, illuminating, and I applaud Shirley for the courage to complete this journey of the Spirit. Shirley says, "The Camino itself helps facilitate the resolution of emotional issues."

The reader is treated to flashbacks of Shirley's past lives as she once lived along the Camino, including an amazing past life in Lemuria and Atlantis. I found Shirley's honesty and candor refreshing, and many of her insights hit directly home with me. I do believe that the reader will also gain as many insights as I did and stop and let it all sink in. We are treated to her lessons and fears that she has to conquer as well.

I really resonated with her thoughts on fear: "Never ask yourself what it is you fear - instead ask yourself what it is that concerns you. A fear thought, put out, will return, because all energy returns to the sender. Any energy always makes a loop until it regains the source. A concern thought will return also. A that moment discern why you're concerned."

I began my spiritual questing with Shirley's first book and have devoured everything she has written. She is not afraid to speak her truth and she is not afraid to seek to deepen her spirituality and then share the rest of that with humanity. I am sure that I am not the only one who she has deeply and positively affected. We are spiritual beings having a human experience and once again we are reminded of our mission - to reconnect to the Divine source - to love - to God.

Another wonderful quote, "I had walked the Camino in order to understand what we were capable of as human beings - such spiritual magnificence and such destructive fragmentation of our own souls. Were we all repeating such dramas even today because we hadn't remembered what we came from?"

I urge everyone to read this fascinating book. You too, will want to trek the Camino after finishing the book.