Today I wanted to quickly discuss El Escorial, its spiritual heritage, and its current spiritual significance. The blend of old and new are clear to see in this beautiful Madrid town, and especially in its spirituality.
If you’ve never visited El Escorial before, I highly recommend you do. It’s situated in the Autonomous Community of Madrid, around 45 minutes from the main city, in the sierra.
Its distance from bustling Madrid is apparent as soon as you arrive. It’s tranquil. The air is fresh and clean. The giant peaks of the Madrid sierra tower about it, drawing your focus away from the urban jungle and into nature.
And you can’t spend long without noticing the enormous palace, which is the centerpiece of the town and a poignant reminder of its long connection to royalty and the upper echelons of the Catholic hierarchy.
You can’t help feel both enamoured and intimidated as you take in the enormous building. On one hand, it’s a stunning architectural achievement on a grand scale. It’s beautifully constructed, elegant, tasteful. Yet you can also sense the exorbitant costs involved, and the power of those who envisioned its coming to be.
It connects you to the long spiritual heritage of Spain: profoundly Catholic, often oppressive, yet richly celebrated and maintained.
Fast forward to today, when El Escorial is a hotbed for a slew of spiritual practices from all over the world. Yes, the monastery remains (among other things) a thriving spiritual centre, but it now shares the town with seasoned practitioners of many other ways to God. You’ll find yoga and meditation in El Escorial, from teachers influenced by Buddhism, Hinduism, Zen, and many other Eastern disciplines.
In many ways, El Escorial is a microcosm of the current Western Zeitgeist. The old spiritual traditions, and all their cultural and architectural accoutrements, remain alive and well, particularly among older generations. And in that old context, new, inclusive, practice-based forms of spirituality are springing up and flowering. Amen to that.