Cruz de Ferro is a high point on El Camino at 1504m (4934 feet). The trees are much more brushy and there is an openness of space below. A simple iron cross stands atop an unassuming weathered pole. The place is a symbolic point on the Saint Jame's pilgrimage. Pilgrims will add a stone or other token of love and blessing to the great existing collection of rocks around the pole that has been forming for years.
The tradition is to leave a stone here, brought from the place of origin of the pilgrim, symbolizing what the pilgrim wants to leave behind in preparation for rebirth on the last part of the Camino.
The moment in the journey feels significant. A woman clutched a rock to her breast and wept on the hill of rocks. Another woman was kneeling with her head bowed. Many notes and memorials had been carefully tied to the pole. Bits of broken shell lay intermingled with the rocks. Rocks that had been painted or carefully written upon with messages had been placed at the base of the pole.
I spent several minutes reading other’s tokens and monuments. I thought of the reasons for my own pilgrimage. I said a prayer and hoped that prayer had more momentum, and was more unencumbered and freed on the winds towards heaven with what I chose to leave behind.