Reaching The Summit

Emulating Patrick
“Croagh Patrick does not merely occupy space. It straddles history”: Dr Joseph Cassidy (1989) poetically summed up this holy mountain’s majestic presence and perhaps saved it from man’s destructive plans to dig for gold. Judging by our competitive and rapacious nature upon this planet, what will become of our holy mountains when man has tired of conquering them?
The Book of Armagh includes a divine injunction: ‘To all holy men of Ireland, past, present and future, God said: ‘Climb holy men, to the top of the mountain to the west of the sun in order to bless the people of Ireland’ so that Patrick might see the fruit of his labours.’
God neglected to mention Leave No Trace, nor did he suggest The Sea to Summit race. These are injunctions and competitions we’ve impressed upon Croagh Patrick.
One assumes mountains cannot be moved and that Moses, Mohammed or St. Patrick had to undertake these physical and spiritual journeys to attain enlightenment after having spent some time alone upon the summit. But what goes up must come down and when these men returned once again, not all were happy to accept the gifts they bore with them. Take for example Martin Luther King who said he had been to the mountain top and seen the Promised Land. Well they shoot him. Like Moses he never made it to Promised Land himself though he had an epiphany, which often happens upon reaching one’s peak. Croagh Patrick is no different from any other mountain, sacred or other, that inspires those who reach the summit and gaze upon the landscape that sweeps down to the sea.
One can appeal to the effect of mountain scenery upon our aesthetic sensibility but even if we can communicate by words a true feeling, as the mountaineer artist George Mallory put it; “we have explained nothing. For if truth be known aesthetic delight [though] vitally connected with our performance, [upon it]…neither explains nor excuses it.”
Of course curiosity is a great source of creativity, as is the desire to know or attain knowledge through ordeals: fasting for forty days is bound to affect the body but also the way one sees the world. However who wants to emulate a Saint like Patrick today when there are so many mentors and stars on TV that make it seem so easy to be happy?
Emulation is associated with the Arts and Education and since the early twelfth century medieval and modern pilgrims such as myself have followed in St Patrick’s footsteps seeking freedom from our noisy thoughts on society. But why seek solitude at the summit of a mountain to fast and pray or meditate away our lives? Scaling a mountaintop offers us a different perspective of the world below which seems as insignificant as ourselves from a god’s eye point of view. Though truth be known man considers himself the measure of all things and the mountain only puts our realm in perspective.

But do we still seek enlightenment through such ordeals no matter what the cost to our bodies? Even in a competitive secular society racing up this challenging ascent can be seen as self-inflicted penance or is it merely to prove to our ability to endure?

The physical effort, the sense of achievement and being the person who determines the pace of the journey appeals to me. While happy to journey with others travelling at one’s own pace is preferable perhaps for a non-competitive performer or pilgrim like me who tries to resist the temptation to treat life as a competition, whatever about it being a performance. Indeed, one’s literary performance often only seems praiseworthy to others when given a prize but what truly impresses and leaves an indelible trace in one’s memory is the deeply scarred beauty that bears our its desecration silently.

Taking time to smell the roses, appreciate the beauty of the landscape and know that one has to some degree made an effort to enjoy this brief moment of contemplation suffices. In some way when we climb we are above the norms of society, away from civilisation contemplating nature and feeling at one with it.

However we don't understand or give enough importance to how the physical experience affects the spiritual experience and the overall sensation of well-being. Our formed and formless world merge in the physical ascent and they cannot be separated, literally documented or captured in any structured way except through experience, which is why we’re still climbing Croagh Patrick seven centuries on.

Despite the tourist traffic on the mountain it remains close to our cultural hearts and for many not a year goes by without a trip to the top. Though society may seem to have become more secular it does not mean we have ceased to look for meaning in our material world through a spiritual journey no longer defined in purely religious terms.
Our cultural values as defined by our environment play an important role in comparing past and present pilgrim's journeys to a mountain with a conspicuous path, eroded over time by people who leave much more than litter behind as they journey from sea to summit time and time again.
However Lately there has been a resurgence of interest in tradition: This may be due to a sense of alienation with our media culture’s notion of happiness and success, somewhat superficial and empty in comparison to our sense of self in the past as part of a community.
Western culture seems to pride itself on hard work and appreciates the struggle to achieve anything. If it's too easy we're not pushing the limits of what we can do as humans. Life for some only begins at the edge of the death zone. What is it about our daily routine that compels us to put our lives at risk by challenging nature by surmounting the summit? Why do we want or need to be king of the castle?
One theory to answer this relates back to our cultural inheritance of master and slave mentality. Perhaps deep down we feel we don't deserve to have a life of ease and seek some sort of pain or discomfort to compensate for our lack of spiritual and altruistic values. Perhaps all performance is a projection of perverted natural values relating to our natural survival instincts. Or, perhaps performance is a means of coping with our fear of death by pushing ourselves beyond our limits: Not only risking but challenging death in a hostile yet relatively safe environment: After all Croagh Patrick is not K2 and the penitent or other finds this climb within his or her capacity to complete in order to achieve some sense of pushing themselves beyond the pain barrier, stepping into the light of consciousness and having survived know what it means to be alive.
There are many paths in life, many yellow brick roads to follow, deserts to cross and crosses to bear, mountains to climb, obstacles to overcome before we reach the promised land, the oasis or the pub at the bottom of the Croagh Patrick. There has to be some sense of reward at the end of the road otherwise we may never take that first step. We've been brought up to believe that we'll get back what we put in. No pain, no gain; survival of the fittest; no guts, no glory; fortune favours the brave and all that jazz. Deep down this notion of reciprocity relates to punishment and reward. Why punish our bodies if there isn't some pension or prize for the hardship we put ourselves through for our own sake and that of others at the end of life's journey.
At a certain stage we project or transfer our egotistical journey on to our progeny or perhaps the community or for the good of society. Usually by this stage of our journey we've already passed our physical peak and we know in our heart and soul that it's all down hill from here. We're products of our competitive environment and we're no longer able to compete with younger, faster and fitter friends or foe.
However for the sake of our environment and to let our holy mountains heal we should give in, give up or get over ourselves and leave them in peaceful contemplation rather than continuing to scale and scar them. We must learn to face the final curtain and part of that learning curve is looking at how we got to the top. What did we do to achieve our goals? Were we fulfilled? Did we flourish in life? Was there a real sense of having done something worthwhile in life? Who or what did we damage on our ascent? Who did we step on or step over to get to the top? What will be our legacy? How will our performance footprint be recognised in the future when we no longer thread this earth and our trace is known as tradition? “Thread softly for you thread upon my dreams” W.B Yeats.