San Isidoro de León: School of Astrology

Joseph Campbell said, in one of his best-known works, that: ‘once crossed the threshold, the hero moves in a landscape, he dreams populated with curiously fluid and ambiguous forms ...’ (1).

And then I added - and here I leave the textuality to start introducing them to this fantastic walk to which I invite you to accompany me through the mysteries of the Camino de Santiago as it passes through León - something so extremely significant, as is the detail that the hero he had to face, with his own means, a series of tests, whose final result was to be renewed or at least transformed.

Let us change, if you think, the term hero for the pilgrim and try to assume, for a moment, that we go back in time and that we are pilgrims that we arrived, after an arduous road, to a city, which began to have an importance Meritorious: Leon.

We are in the year 1168, when King Ferdinand II, consumed the obligation to pass through the doors of the ancient monastery, when changing the path of the French Way as it passes through León.

In the year 1063, during the reign of Ferdinand I, his father, and as was customary, if he wanted to review the importance of certain places, based on the holy relics they kept, the remains of San Isidoro arrived from Seville - Famous due to its supposed miracles - although some historians were of the opinion that the initial intention was to seek, also in Seville, the body of Santa Justa.

If at the beginning, the monastery barely had the presence of several nuns arriving from Oviedo, it is known that already in the year 1148, it had some hospital facilities, in whose charge they were - and it is possible, that in part here derives the confusion that has always existed between them and the Templars - the Regular Canons of St. Augustine.

The pilgrim, then, apart from the obligation imposed by the decision of the variant - it is curious, in the 21st century, there is still talk of another variant, that of the Port of Pajares, which is supposed to one day connect Asturias with the Plateau, if the tunnels for the passage of the high-speed train or AVE were completed, he had sufficient reasons to arrive at this place: the provision of care and attention and the visit to the sarcophagus where the remains of the holy milagrero rest, in a chapel , that due to the spectacular decoration of its extraordinary Romanesque paintings, it has been called, precisely, as 'the Sistine Chapel of the Spanish Romanesque'. Of course, the prohibition of taking photographs is also a sacred rule in San Isidoro de León.

But the Camino de Santiago is also, following the basic conditioning of Campbell and many other authors, a learning path, made exprofeso on very previous routes, in which the pilgrim, like the heroes of Mythology, had to start and overcome a series of decisive tests, until reaching its goal in Santiago de Compostela and even a few kilometers beyond, where the 'pagan roads' ended: in the Finisterre or Finis Terrae.

Each place, then, of the Way that he had to travel - especially the so-called Old Way or French Way - had its own keys or ‘lessons’, which the pilgrim had to assimilate on his journey.

But in a few places on the Camino de Santiago, and hence the exceptionality, you will find something as surprising and a priori as heterodox, as is the magnificent Zodiac represented on both sides of the main cover of the Collegiate Church of San Isidoro de León, detail that increases more the obligatory nature of a visit, however monumental the rest of its old town is and of course, that Romanesque-Gothic jewel, which is its imposing cathedral.

Because, in fact, outside the monthly traditions that described the characteristics of the months of the year - being able to cite as examples, those of churches such as Campisábalos, Beleña de Sorbe or San Nicolás de Bari, in El Frago - will not see another astrological compendium so complete , like this one, by whose threshold the 'hero-pilgrims' crossed since the twelfth century.

And if you look closely at it, you will see, in its artistic, cultural and mythological aspect, a beautiful recreation of medieval thought, in no way comparable to current vulgar representations.

And if they add to that, the extraordinary catering services and the rich gastronomy of this city will have an extremely enjoyable, rich and entertaining trip.

Notes, References and Bibliography:

(1) Joseph Campbell: ‘The hero of a thousand faces. Psychoanalysis of the Myth ’, Fondo de Cultura Económica, México, second reprint, 2017, page 115.

NOTICE: Both the text (except the bibliographic part duly cited), as well as the accompanying photographs, are my exclusive intellectual property.

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