Places along the Camino--the pilgrimage road to Santiago de Compostela in Spain--are more ancient than the Christian era. Even during the Christian period, curious Islamic, Jewish, and pagan elements were woven into the Road, the Way of St. James. The architecture, the use of symbols, idiosyncratic images carved in capitals, and the heavy devotion to Mary are keys to a more ancient and a more diverse past.

Practical guides--maps, distances, where to eat and sleep--proliferate on the pilgrimage road to Santiago de Compostela, the Camino, especially the most popular route across northern Spain, the Camino Francés. But what about information about the stories, symbols, sacred site, people, history and prehistory of the Camino?

The Esoteric Camino France & Spain app compliments other guides and fills this gap: It brings to light the many layers, the deeper stories and legacies of the Camino, from prehistory to the present, from Spain, France, and Portugal.

With The Esoteric Camino, you have the keys to the multilayered sacred road where you can discover Jaca's basilisk, contemplate the Holy Grail in San Juan de la Pena, or consider Platonic sacred geometry from an itinerant medieval stone mason's perspective as he worked with Christian, Jewish, and Muslim carvers creating universally understood truths in stone.

In 1995 I first walked a stretch of coastal Galicia that was on the Camino from Portugal. Since then I have walked the French Road (Camino Franc´s), large portions of the Northern Coastal Road (along northern Spain's coast), and the Camino Aragonés (from the Pyrenees further east from the start of the Camino Francés), and many stretches of other roads bound for Santiago in France, Spain, Portugal, and even in Germany near the border with Poland.

I am not done walking and doubt I ever will be: this is a lifetime passion. As I continue to walk, I will continue to add my experiences, as well as my research and training in anthropology, folklore, art history, and archaeology toward enriching the material here on the many layers of the many roads to Santiago de Compostela throughout Europe, especially France, Portugal, and Spain.

Currently, The Esoteric Camino France & Spain app covers the most popular roads, the Camino Francés and the Camino Aragonese, with some forays into France along the road leaving from Le-Puy-en-Velay. Along these pilgrimage roudes I have laid out the overall esoteric, mythic, and sacred groundwork, presenting many of the traditions and ideas that have folded themselves into the many Caminos.