"A lingering historic mystery and an unexpected personal twist make The Way of the Wild Goose an entertaining, thoughtful, and valuable addition to the wonderfully digressive genre of the pilgrimage memoir." -Gideon Lewis-Kraus, staff writer for The New Yorker and author of A Sense of Direction: Pilgrimage for the Restless and Hopeful

"A luminous, heartfelt journey. Beebe Bahrami has produced something unique: not one, but three magical pilgrim walks filled with web-footed Virgin Marys and mother goddesses, eerie coincidences, fairies, and Templar Knights--and with enough Cat Stevens, food poisoning, and scientific backup to keep it all real. Big fun!" --Rebekah Scott, author of A Furnace Full of God: A Holy Year on the Camino de Santiago

"In Beebe Bahrami's The Way of the Wild Goose, a mystery, the wild feminine, and trail magic come together on the Camino de Santiago.

Carrying a pack filled with "just in case" items, Bahrami set out to walk the Camino, feeling "ethereal energy" emanating from the ground beneath her feet. Intense dreams accompanied her as she followed the sun's path across the sky, looking for places marked with the sign of a goose, or its three-pronged-footprint abbreviation--places said to be imbued with spiritual energy arising from prehistoric sacred springs and wells, standing stones, and grottoes over which now-ancient chapels stand. She walked in delight, not knowing when or where she would eat or sleep, allowing synchronicities that lifted the veil between her inner and outer worlds to supply her needs.

Bahrami reveals the heart of the Camino as the heart of the fierce feminine, enshrined in folklore, legend, and the mystery of the goose. She finds evidence that the feminine divine, though dominated by patriarchy, has not been extinguished--although she notes that, by the fifteenth century, women healers were targeted as witches, as churches and states joined in their efforts to dominate and exploit the natural world and all of humanity.

Both intriguing and marked by delightful descriptions, the book links the past to the present well. Bahrami affirms that the Camino is more than a mere road--it's an initiation. With skill and insight, she details the joys, challenges, and human kindness she experienced on this "great leyline forged from the mix of natural earth energies with the human imagination" that became her road to self-discovery and a heart-centered life.

The Way of the Wild Goose is a travel memoir that invites lingering, as well as a return to Mother Earth and her wisdom." --Foreword Reviews; starred review

"Beebe Bahrami fills these pages with facts about history, religion, geography, and more. She is a scholar, an anthropologist, and the person you would most like to be seated next to at a dinner party.... The Way of the Wild Goose positively shimmers with enthusiasm and wonder. This book will be equally enchanting to the seasoned pilgrim and to those who may pick it up on a whim."--Annie O'Neil, director/producer of Phil's Camino, coproducer and participating pilgrim for Walking the Camino: Six Ways to Santiago, and author of Everyday Camino with Annie

"...Bahrami traces the goose symbolism back to European pagan goddesses and uncovers echoes of the three-pronged goose's footprint in symbols of the Holy Trinity, finding that the goose 'brings with it contentment, harmony, whole