Symbol of the Camino- the scallop shell

A question many pilgrims have as they prepare to walk the Camino de Santiago is how will I know where to go next? Buying a guide book and sticking it in your pack is a good idea, but other than that , the simple answer is follow the shells. The scallop shells are often yellow and appear regularly in many different shapes and sizes along the trail. They may be spray-painted on a tree or cemented into a sidewalk or mounted on the side of a building or standing along the side of the trail like a road sign, but finding them along the way is all part of the fun. Many pilgrims who walk the Camino wonder if the scallop shell has any special significance to the Camino de Santiago. Looking back over the centuries, there is evidence that the symbol of the scallop shell has taken on mythical, metaphorical and practical meaning.

The Myth

As with many myths, the details change depending on who is telling the story, but here's the one I am going to tell you.

James, the Apostle of Jesus, was killed in Jerusalem for his convictions about Jesus. James had spent some time preaching on the Iberian Peninsula, and after his death, his bones were transported by ship back to the Iberian Peninsula to the northwestern province of Galicia in Spain.

A wedding was taking place along the shore as James' ship approached land. The young bridegroom was on horseback, and seeing the ship approaching, his horse got spooked, and the horse and rider plunged into the sea.

Through miraculous intervention, the horse and rider emerged from the water, covered in seashells, and galloped off into the distance.

To this day, the scallop shell, typically found on the shores in Galicia, remains the symbol of the Camino de Santiago.

The metaphor

The scallop shell also acts as a metaphor. The grooves in the shell, which come together at a single point, represent the various routes pilgrims traveled, eventually arriving at a single destination, the tomb of Saint James in Santiago de Compostela.

The scallop shell is also a metaphor for the pilgrim. As the waves of the ocean washed scallop shells up on the shores of Galicia, god's hand also guided the pilgrims to Santiago.

the practicality

The scallop shell served practical purposes for pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago as well. The shell was just the right size for gathering water to drink or eating out of as a makeshift bowl.

Also because the scallop shell is native to the shores of Galicia, the shell functioned as proof that he or she had finished the pilgrimage and had actually seen "the end of the world- or finisterre" which at that point in history was the end of the known world. The scallop shell can nowadays be obtained anywhere along the Camino. My scallop shell traveled all the way from St Jean Pied de Port hanging at the front of my pack. So everyone would know I was on my way to Santiago as one of the many pilgrims along the way.