“… what was all this compared to the blue moonlit night, to the stars that bathed in the mists and rose higher and higher, loved by visionaries and nomads of the desert? We walked through that night enchanted and silently… And it was dark. And bottomless. And eternal. And for just a second it belonged to you.” Josef Hora, Night

MONDAY, AUGUST 19

A walk through Prague through poetry

We will meet at 10 am at Charles Square by the lower fountain, near the house (today number 551/34) where the poet Karel Hynek Mácha lived. From here we will set off on the route paths of poetry of Prague poets to Vyšehrad and further along the Náplavka along the Vltava River to the National Theatre and across the Bridge of Legions to Kampa to the house where the poet Vladimír Holan once lived. — Along the way, we will talk a little about the poetry of the night and the relationship of some poets to the stars (Karel Hynek Mácha, Václav B. Nebeský, Jan Neruda, Otokar Březina, Walt Whitman, Rainer Maria Rilke, Vladimír Holan, František Halas, Robinson Jeffers, Gary Snyder, Fernando Pessoa), or rather about the cosmic desire and cosmological dimension of their poetry and we will recall some of their poems. At the same time, we will talk about the new cosmology of the epic of evolution – especially the work of cosmologists Thomas Berry and Brian T. Swimm – thanks to which today, after a long caesura of separation, we are once again beginning to understand our human story as an integral part of the great story of the cosmos. We will read several excerpts from texts by Thomas Berry and from the newly published book by Brian T. Swimm The hidden heart of the cosmos and we will talk about the ritual of the “cosmic walk”, which we will take the next day during our pilgrimage through Kokořín. — From Kampa we will head up the slope of Petřín to the statue of Jaroslav Vrchlický and then through Prague Castle and Chotkovy sady to Letná, where we will have a short refreshment at the Alchymista café. From there we will continue via Stromovka to Troja and further through Čimický and Ďáblický háj to the observatory at Ládví, from where at dawn on August 20, 1833, Karel Hynek Mácha set out on his legendary pilgrimage, his ritual of crossing across Bohemia to the Krkonoše Mountains to Sněžka.

"It doesn't matter where we are right now...
are getting dangerously close to each other
some stars... Also down here
there is a violent separation of lovers
just to make time go faster
about the beating of their hearts…”

Thomas BERRY

Pilgrimage of the Giant Mountains

IN Tuesday, August 20 We will set off at 7 am from the Praha Ládví bus stop by bus to Mělník, where we will arrive at 7:44 am. From the bus station we will head to the viewpoint at the Mělník castle above the confluence of the Vltava and the Labe, where we will meet up with other pilgrims. From there, after 8 am, we will set off along the red Mácha path sign to the Chloumeček district and at its edge we will turn off along the yellow sign through the forest and further along the field road to the village of Strážnice and from there to Vysoké. There we will visit Farmstudio our photographer, poet and adventurer friend Pavel Matela and we will look at the current exhibitions here; we will give an impromptu lecture about the new story of the universe and "spacewalk", which we will set off on after following the yellow trail to the pond in Harasov. The cosmology of the new story revealed to us that our existence is part of the only great evolutionary path of the universe, which goes back to its very beginnings and has been going on for 13.8 billion years. We have topographically projected this duration of evolution onto the Kokořín landscape in the form of a 13.8-kilometer-long journey that begins in Harasov by the pond and ends in the beech forest behind Houska Castle at the Říp viewpoint. On this route, we will mark on the map the main events of the story of the universe, which we will explore and contemplate while walking through the landscape, and become aware of the vastness of the cosmic and geological time of the living Earth and the evolutionary dynamics of the universe, which gave birth to all the beings that we see around us today, including us. The conclusion of the journey on Houska will reveal to us the dizzying insignificance of our place in the space and time of the universe. We will visit the Na konci sil pub and We will spend the night at Hostince pod Houskou.

“What is required of us today is nothing less than to rediscover what it means to be a human being. … the most effective way to rediscover the human being is to uncover it within the story of the cosmos.”

Brian Thomas Swimme

Wednesday, August 21 we will go from Houska to Borejova, where we will visit the church of St. James the Elder with a beautiful altarpiece of the pilgrim St. James by Aleš Krejč. We will sit here for a while under the beautiful chestnut trees and then head through Ždírec and Okno to Bezděz, where we will climb the legendary mountain and castle of the same name. BezdezWe will remember Karel Hynek Mácha and read his poem Night in the Gothic chapel. From Bezděz we will head to Bělá pod Bezdězem and from there follow the blue path through Bitouchov to the ruins of Zvířetice Castle, where we will spend the night. 

“You bright stars, you stars on high!
I long for you, there in the kingdom of light,
Oh, and only the land is mine!
I am a man; before a man moves; 
The earth will wrap itself in its womb again,
captures, transforms and in another form
My mother, the earth, will betray me again!”

Karel Hynek Mácha, Night

“The cosmological forces of the universe pass through us second by second. To be aware of these forces is to touch the ocean of wonder.”

Brian Thomas Swimme

Thursday, August 22 we will set off along the Jizera River to Malá Bělá and through Nová Ves to the Račov National Nature Monument with its moorland meadows and wetland alders. We will stop at the spring of St. Prokop and continue around the Klokočka game reserve to the Hradiště nad Jizerou Monastery to Mnichov Hradiště. From there, after lunch, we will head to the Bohemian Paradise, first to Mácha's favorite rock castle Valečov and then further along the green to the Komárovské pond, where we will swim. We will then set off to the Kost Castle and through Dobšice to Vyskeř, in front of which we will spend the night in a meadow by the forest.

Friday, August 23 We climb the Stations of the Cross to the chapel on Vyskeř (466 m above sea level) and from there we head to Hrubá skála and further to Trosky. From Trosky follow the green and then the red trail through Mladějov to the rock castle Pařez, near which we spend the night in a rocky overhang. 

Saturday, August 24th we will follow the green trail through Prachov Rocks to Prachov and from there follow the blue trail through Přivýšina, Brad and Kbelnice to Jičín, where we will have lunch. We will walk along Wallenstein Avenue and visit the beautiful basalt hill of Zebín with the chapel of Mary Magdalene, which is associated with the memory of Karel Hynek Mácha. We will go down to the Wallenstein Loggia, where we will see an installation dedicated to the mathematician and astronomer Johannes Kapler (1571-1630) and Albrecht of Wallenstein. We will see Kepler's model of the solar system from his Cosmographic Mystery (1596) and a relief sculpture depicting the planets, including the Earth. In the evening we will head via Železnica and Bradlecká Lhota to the ruins of Bradlec Castle and further to the ruins of Kumburk Castle, where we will spend the night.

Sunday, August 25th We will travel from Kumburk along the red trail to Nová Paka and then further through Radkyn and Pecky. From there, along the yellow trail under Jelení hřbet to Borovnice and further under Čistecká hůra (586 m above sea level), where we will spend the night at the edge of the forest.

Monday, August 26 we will take the yellow route through Čistecká hůra to Čistá and from there we will continue along a dirt road to Bukovina and then along the road to Studenec; from there we will take the red route to Strážník hill (630 m above sea level). From Strážník, take the blue route to Martinice v Krkonoše and then to Horní Braná. We will pass Horní Braná and reach Valteřice and from there we will continue along the blue route to the foot of the Krkonoše, where we will spend the night in the meadows under the forest and observe and contemplate the Milky Way.

“The eye that explores the Milky Way galaxy is itself the eye that formed the Milky Way. The mind that seeks connection with the Milky Way is itself the mind of the Milky Way galaxy exploring its inner depths.”

Brian Thomas Swimme

Tuesday, August 27 We will follow the blue trail to the Křížovka crossroads on the border of the Krkonoše National Park and from there the yellow trail to Přední Žalý (1018 m asl). We will then continue along the ridge through Rovinka to Černá skála (1038 m asl) to Mechovinec (1074 m asl) and Horní Mísečky, from where we will descend to Špindlerův Mlýn, where we will have lunch. From Špindlerův Mlýn we will set off along the yellow trail through the Bílý Elbe Valley on a stony path with beautiful stones and colored lichens to Luční bouda, where we will spend the night. 

Wednesday, August 28 We will climb to the sunrise on Sněžka (1602 m above sea level). From the top of Sněžka we will descend via Obří Důl to Pec pod Sněžkou and from there we will return by bus to Prague; or we will take the road via Horní Mísečky to Horní Maršov and from there by bus to Prague.

“If the dynamics of the universe have from the beginning shaped the course of the heavens, ignited the Sun, and formed the Earth—and if the same dynamism has created the continents, the seas, and the atmosphere, awakened life in the primordial cell and brought into being the countless variety of living beings, and finally brought into being man and guided him safely through turbulent centuries—there is reason to believe that the same guiding process is precisely what has awakened in man his present understanding of himself and his relationship to this tremendous process. If we are receptive to this guidance, we can have confidence in a future that awaits courageous human action.” 

Thomas Berry / The New Story

Notice

If you do not go with us the entire route, you can join us anywhere, preferably at the main points of the route (Mělník, Houska, Mnichovo Hradiště, Jičín, Pecka, Špindlerův Mlýn, etc.) and go with us for as long as you want. We do not provide accommodation in advance, we sleep under the open sky, under the stars. If you want to insure your accommodation, please book it yourself. Everyone is free on the journey and is responsible for themselves. We only ask for tolerance towards other pilgrims.

Connections

August 20th from Prague to Mělník:

Prague, bus station Ládví / departure: 7:00 – arrival: Mělník bus station 7:44
Prague, bus station Ládví / departure: 7:15 – arrival: bus station Mělník 7:49

August 28th from Pec to Prague: 

Pec pod Sněžkou, bus station / departure: 10:20 – arrival: Prague, Černý most: arrival: 1:12 p.m.
Pec pod Sněžkou, bus station / departure: 11:50 – Arrival: Prague, Černý most: arrival: 15:05

Contacts

George Zemanek

sarvanga@centrum.cz
777 117 466

Tomas Hruza

tomashruza@gmail.com
775 052 607

Karel Ctveracek

ctv@seznam.cz
603 355 072

Vladimir Drabek

drabekvladimir00@gmail.com
602 646 665