Henry Mentink will walk to Paris in 45 days from April 22 with a wheelbarrow full of earth. His goal? The UNESCO headquarters, where he nominates the entire Earth as a World Heritage Site. “Irreplaceable, unique and owned by everyone, very important to preserve.”
We wholeheartedly support Henry!
On Friday 15 April we are therefore organizing a support walk of Henry’s wheelbarrow walk on the Walk of Wisdom. Will you join us? You can also just say goodbye to Henry during a special goodbye ceremony in the Valkhofkapel, the oldest still public chapel of the Netherlands.
Participation is free. Bring a tablespoon of soil from your garden or town park to put in Henry’s wheelbarrow. Henry is from the Veerhuis for the Earth in Varik. The ceremony will be hosted by Manja Bente, co-developer of the Walk of Wisdom, together with singer-songwriter, shaman, ‘healthy madman’ Mark Schilders.
What gesture can save the planet?That question lead to the founding of the Walk of Wisdom. The question came from Professor Ritual Studies Ronald L Grimes. He meant the question as a “koan” – a riddle you cannot solve by your familiar logic. The solution is to perceive and think differently.
In an article Grimes pointed to the enormous potential of ritual. Thanks to ritual people ‘communicate’ with the Gods and connect vast nations, why then don’t we design ritual to help solve climate change or the vast depletion of biodiversity?
Challenged by Grimes’koan we developed the Walk of Wisdom: a pilgrimage that – in ambition – spans all countries of the world. It may seem like an impossible task (it probably is!), but we started small anyhow, with a pioneer trail of 136 kilometers around Nijmegen (Netherlands). That trail has been a success with 10.000 pilgrims in six years and we are now looking for an extension.
https://walkofwisdom.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Henry-Mentink-1.jpeg600800Damiaan Messinghttps://walkofwisdom.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/walk-of-wisdom-logo-main-156.pngDamiaan Messing2022-04-13 19:47:192022-04-13 19:57:21the entire Earth as UNESCO world heritage? Henry Mentink’s wheelbarrow walk
The well-known TV chef Nadia Zerouali is going on a Walk of Wisdom pilgrimage in the spring and will contribute to our new book On the Road to Wisdom. Nadia has written several cookbooks and in 2016 was one of the initiators of a movement against polarization in society (Ieder1). Nadia has a bicultural background (Moroccan/Dutch) and speaks as we say in Dutch “with her heart on her tongue” (candid and straight). Eating together connects is her message, and according to her the essence of cooking is sharing: preparing food for someone else with love and then eating it together.
We didn’t know Nadia Zerouali until we saw her in the television series about the Walk of Wisdom by Klaas Drupsteen. She walked with him from Beek to Kranenburg and in twenty minutes made us both cry and laugh – what a beautiful and rich combination.
What a nice person – we also thought: we would like to have her in our new book! We sent her an email and she said yes almost immediately. In May she will go for a Walk of Wisdom: she calls it “me-time”. A week retreat after months of hard work.
Book
In our forthcoming Pilgrim’s Book of Hours, On the Road to Wisdom, we gather some of the pilgrims’ individual experiences in a book. We use fragments of pilgrim reports and poems interspersed with art. Especially for the book we invite inspiring people to walk the route and write a contribution. Theater maker Nynke Laverman is participating and now also Nadia Zerouali. More names will come up soon.
Couscous, from cauliflower
We immediately got a book from her: Arabia. When I visited one of our web volunteers, I chose an easy dish for lunch: cauliflower couscous – we have thoroughly enjoyed it. Interesting: in Moroccan cuisine too much is cooked as standard, so there is always food for someone who just drops by. What remains is shared with the neighborhood. Nice! Powerful advice for preparing grain couscous: do not soak, but steam!
Watch the episode with Nadia Zerouali on the tv-series about the Walk of Wisdom.
https://walkofwisdom.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Nadia-Zerouali.jpg847859Damiaan Messinghttps://walkofwisdom.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/walk-of-wisdom-logo-main-156.pngDamiaan Messing2022-01-26 15:35:082022-01-26 15:36:29TV chef Nadia Zerouali is co-writing our new book
From every donation for our starter packs, we set aside €1 for nature and the landscape along the route. At the end of December, we helped Natuurmonumenten (+-Dutch national trust) with €240 for the beautiful Hunting Lodge Mookerheide, right on our pilgrimage trail.
Hunting lodge Mookerheide on the Walk of Wisdom
Hunting lodge Mookerheide: romance and SS
The Hunting Lodge appeals to our imagination. It was allegedly built to impress a sweetheart – in vain. In World War II it was the headquarters of the feared SS. But it is also the place where Catholic sisters have taken care of displaced girls. A woman who lived there as a girl once told us how loving she had experienced the help of the sisters.
Pilgrims of the Walk of Wisdom have been walking past the Hunting Lodge for years. While the lodge was slowly fading at first, it is now clearly regaining allure. During the restoration, no fewer than 16,000 beautiful mosaic tiles were revealed, which were previously hidden under a layer of stucco. We have now adopted sixteen of those tiles.
Would you also like to adopt a tile for €15? We raffle a free tour of Natuurmonumenten, among who does and sends us an email or puts a reply on Facebook. The Hunting Lodge is easy to reach: it is within walking distance of Mook-Molenhoek station. The date of the tour will be announced (some time after restauration). Help Natuurmonumenten and
https://walkofwisdom.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Jachtslot-Mookerheide-Natuurmonumenten.jpeg9601600Redactie Walk of Wisdomhttps://walkofwisdom.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/walk-of-wisdom-logo-main-156.pngRedactie Walk of Wisdom2022-01-08 08:55:212022-01-08 08:55:22Giving back: €240 for Natuurmonumenten
We are proud and happy to announce that singer songwriter Nynke Laverman is going on a Walk of Wisdom pilgrimage in spring. We invited her to walk to make a contribution to our new book On the road to Wisdom and she happily accepted the offer.
Nynke Laverman was one of the first we approached for our new book project. Her theater tour Plant beams with spirit for the planet, both wise and sad and proud and loving. A full evocation of feelings about living in the Anthropocene. Her tour Plant is currently postponed because of Corona but will be continued next year. Hear and see!
https://walkofwisdom.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/PLANT-dubbeling.jpg7871400Redactie Walk of Wisdomhttps://walkofwisdom.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/walk-of-wisdom-logo-main-156.pngRedactie Walk of Wisdom2022-01-05 16:40:352022-01-05 16:43:54Singer songwriter Nynke Laverman on Walk of Wisdom pilgrimage
https://walkofwisdom.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/20211016_WoW-vertrekceremonie-St-Nicolaaskapel-scaled.jpg10801920Damiaan Messinghttps://walkofwisdom.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/walk-of-wisdom-logo-main-156.pngDamiaan Messing2021-12-16 10:41:452021-12-16 10:42:05On the road to Wisdom
Airy-fairy? We believe that a sense of interconnectedness is needed to solve the major problems of our time. With almost 8 billion people, no one can lock themselves up in their own region. Everyone is confronted with large-scale climate change, nature destruction, migration and inequality. It is about time we land, says the French philosopher Latour. To no longer see the earth as a background for our actions, but as a base. A habitat.
We like to help with that landing. With a new pilgrimage tradition where connection with the world is central. Feet on the ground and forward.
10.000 times on track for wisdom
By Petra van Bloemendaal
Most funds did not believe in our “utopian plan.” We opened our first Walk of Wisdom in 2015 anyway: a pioneer trail of 136 kilometers around Nijmegen. That route received a major regional prize, a series on national television and last August the 10,000th registration as pilgrim. Hooray!
The road ahead? The success emboldens us to internationalize the pioneer trail. It is the most direct way to realize our global ambitions. If international pilgrims become as enthusiastic as the Dutch, there are bound to be a few who ‘see’ a Walk of Wisdom in their own country, then to begin one. Utopian – no – organic thinking.
We also begin work on our second pilgrim book of hours: On the Road to Wisdom. The book will have four chapters – the pilgrim tides – each of which to be released separately as e-book and then together on paper. The first pilgrim tide will appear in June 2022. Theme: the mystery of inspiration. We’ll invite inspiring personalities to walk the pioneer trail to write a contribution. Non celebrities are also included and art and poetry will ‘enlighten’ the texts, just like in our first book Seasons of Life (sold out).
How can you help
We have sufficient resources until June 2022 to work on the internationalization of our pioneer trail and the first chapter of On the Road to Wisdom. For the way after that we need help.
The unique edition of our first pilgrim’s tide book Seasons of Life. It contains all the original artworks and there is only one. Every first Saturday after sunrise we read a story from it: welcome! See departure ceremony de pelgrimslauden.
Non financial ways to help:
Photo: Marja Hakkoer
nominate an inspiring personality that we invite to walk the route and write a for the book.
do you live on the route? We need sleeping and dining addresses for our guests.
Social media skills? We need your help.
English language skills? We need help with translating and editing.
How to materialise an idea:
Donate €10 or more. You will receive the first pilgrim tide as e-book in June 2022 and thus finance the second. Do: link.
Donate €50 or more and you will become a veritable angel as far as we are concerned. In addition to the first pilgrim tide (e-book), earthly advantages are a special invitation to the presentation. Do: link.
Donate €333 for 3 years as a super sponsor. You get a steel statue of Pilgrim, designed by Huub and Adelheid Kortekaas. These artists are a great source of inspiration for the Walk of Wisdom and designed the symbol as our contemporary guardian angel. Do: link.
Art lover or company?
Sponsor the fee of an inspiring guest pilgrim. A way to connect with whom inspires you and an original way for companies to show values and mission. Mail: [email protected]
Own a piece of cultural heritage and buy a miniature from our first pilgrimage book Seasons of Life. Limited edition. The proceeds will be divided by Intermedi-Art between the artist and the Walk of Wisdom foundation.
Participate in the auction of the unique edition of this first pilgrimage book with all the original artworks. The publication is now in the Stevenskerk (see photo, above, starting price €15,000). The Medieval Books of Hours on which this book is inspired are now worth millions of euros.
We have a dream of a worldwide network of national pilgrimage trails connected together by shared values and some basic rites and symbols. A modern pilgrimage independent of a religion. We have written a charter to state our case:
Read as online flipbook:
Charter – Walk of Wisdom pilgrimage
The beginning success of a new pilgrimage tradition
In 2015 we opened a pioneer trail of 136 kilometres around Nijmegen in the Netherlands. This pioneer trail is a beginning success with enthusiastic feedback from +- 6.500 pilgrims since the opening in mid 2015.
We now hope to inspire people abroad to grow a Walk of Wisdom pilgrimage in their own country based on this charter. Organizations that qualify receive a sublicense of our pilgrimage symbol designed by Huub and Adelheid Kortekaas on a non commercial basis.
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We are making our starter kit for the pilgrimage more sustainable. Developer Manja Bente found an alternative for the leather we use now and looks as nice.
Manja abhors the chemicals that are used with making leather and the bad working conditions for labourers. Being a vegan herself was an extra motivation. Quite some years passed when she originally designed the lace, fond of the natural look of leather and its seasoning in time…
Manja didn’t like fake leather, because it is, well, fake, and the production is very pollutant. Her daughter suggested to use corque and after several months of research and experiment corque it will be.
Pilgrim’s lace Walk of wisdom
We ordered our first 1001 meter of corque laces and our volunteers will start to work diligently to turn them into pilgrim laces (gratitude for that!). We import the corque laces from Portugal via the Dutch small company called Corque.nl who also sells other products made from corque.
Next step: a sustainable alternative for our steel pin of our symbool Pelgrim . Tot be continued!
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Our volunteer starter kit team merrily packed our 5.000th starter kit. Pilgrims come from all over the Netherlands and increasingly Flanders. We did not yet succeed in attracting pilgrims further away, apart from our native Englishman and signposter Stuart, who translated the routeguide, and our two American pilgrims who tested the translation (and approved it).
https://walkofwisdom.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/IMG_20191213_122509.jpg10821920Redactie Walk of Wisdomhttps://walkofwisdom.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/walk-of-wisdom-logo-main-156.pngRedactie Walk of Wisdom2019-12-19 17:16:172019-12-22 18:33:18We packed our 5.000th starter kit!
On Saturday 28 September we will start with the third “Walk of Wisdom in a year around”: a series of guided silent walks in which we walk the Walk of Wisdom in ten stages in a year time. An average stage is between 12 and 16 kilometers. We walk in silence, and during the breaks there is room for exchange.
The dates are already known, always on the fourth Saturday of the month (see below). The guidance is always in different hands. The first walk goes from Nijmegen to Beek and is approximately 14 kilometers. The guidance is in the hands of Manja Bente, co-developer of the Walk of Wisdom, with Anja van Wegen, volunteer.
Note: The guidance is in Dutch, but with pleasure we do our best to translate where possible.
The start is at the special starting point: the face of Nijmegen – the Stevenskerk. This is also the end point of the entire series and the pilgrim route itself. So in the end you don’t get a step further, but that’s not the point of a pilgrimage anyway.
On Saturday 28 September we will start with the third “Walk of Wisdom in a year around”: a series of guided silent walks in which we walk the Walk of Wisdom in ten stages in a year time. An average stage is between 12 and 16 kilometers. We walk in silence, and during the breaks there is room for exchange.
The dates are already known, always on the fourth Saturday of the month (see below). The guidance is always in different hands. The first walk goes from Nijmegen to Beek and is approximately 14 kilometers. The guidance is in the hands of Manja Bente, co-developer of the Walk of Wisdom, with Anja van Wegen, volunteer.
Note: The guidance is in Dutch, but with pleasure we do our best to translate where possible.
The start is at the special starting point: the face of Nijmegen – the Stevenskerk. This is also the end point of the entire series and the pilgrim route itself. So in the end you don’t get a step further, but that’s not the point of a pilgrimage anyway.
How do you register?
You can sign up for a single walk or for the entire series. If you sign up for the entire series, you can order a starter package with discount, so that you are also registered as a pilgrim. In that case you will receive the route guide, pilgrim lace and pin with our symbol (more).
All options in a row:
Participation in a separate guided walk (€ 10).
Participation in the entire series (€ 50).
Participation in the entire series plus registration as a pilgrim with start package with our pin, pilgrim lace and route guide (€ 65 + € 3.95 postage).
Free participation for volunteers from the Walk of Wisdom or sponsors who donated more than € 50 this year.
There is room for a maximum of 25 participants! Register: link
Landscape contribution
Part of the inlay goes to the landscape on the route, probably to flower seeds for flowering verges or a pedestrian bench.
The first stage
On Saturday 28 September we will walk the first stage: from the Stevenskerk in Nijmegen to Beek. The walk is about 14 kilometers and goes into nature (the Ooijpolder) from the center of Nijmegen towards the moraine. There we end via the Elyzeese Velden into the village of Beek and we take the bus back to Nijmegen at around 4 pm / 4.30 pm (+ – 20 minutes).
Collecting: at 10.30 am in the Stevenskerk at the coffee table for coffee and tea. You don’t have to pay an entrance fee at the desk if you say you are coming for the Walk of Wisdom.
Along the way we pause at least twice, among other things to drink coffee at Oortjeshekken. Take your own bread and maybe something tasty to share if you like!
Elyzeese Velden, Jan Alers
All data in a row
(1) Nijmegen – Beek, Saturday the 28th of September
(2) Beek – Kranenburg, Saturday thh 26th of October
(3) Kranenburg – Plasmolen, Saturday the 23rd of November
(4) Plasmolen – Malden, Saturday the 25th of January
(5) Malden – Nederasselt, Saturday the 22th of Februari
(6) Nederasselt – Ravenstein, Saturday the 28th of March
(7) Ravenstein – Wijchen, Saturday the 25th of April
(8) Wijchen – Afferden, Saturday the the 23rd of May
(9) Afferden – Beuningen, Saturday the 27th of June
(10) Beuningen – Nijmegen, Saturday the 26th of September
Sign in: link
(The guidance is in Dutch, but with pleasure we do our best to translate where possible.)
https://walkofwisdom.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/image00016.jpeg14401920Damiaan Messinghttps://walkofwisdom.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/walk-of-wisdom-logo-main-156.pngDamiaan Messing2019-09-01 20:23:452019-12-22 18:30:41New series of silent walks: the Walk of Wisdom one year around
Walk of Wisdom
