In this post, “My Spiritual Pilgrimage to Oxfordshire, England, Part 1: Robin Gibb’s Resting Place,” I share photos and videos I created during my trip to St. Mary’s Church, Thame, Oxfordshire, England in May 2024. The cemetery there is where Robin is laid to rest. I was blessed with the opportunity to finally visit his grave after all these years and pay tribute to his spirit. I will also share my perspective of this trip as being one of a spiritual pilgrimage.
After 12 years of communicating with Robin’s spirit, it was an honor and blessing to finally be able to see in person what I have been looking at from afar through videos and photos taken by others. It was a beautiful, life-changing experience and one I will always cherish. It was far more than a vacation, even though I did enjoy some aspects of being a tourist as I walked around Oxford University. I always felt that going to see Robin’s home and resting place in Thame would be more like a pilgrimage. I will discuss this perspective now.
My Spiritual Pilgrimage to Oxfordshire and Robin’s Resting Place: Living Deep
I conceptualize my trip to Oxfordshire as a spiritual pilgrimage because that is exactly what journeying to Robin’s grave felt like to me. It took years of saving money and cultivating my inner spiritual connection with Robin before I was finally ready to make this voyage. The fact that I had to prepare on so many levels-spiritual, financial, emotional, psychological- made it all the more important for me to extract the deepest meaning possible from the experience.
I had 2 weeks. I made the absolute most of it.
A quote from transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau, from his book Walden or Life in the Woods comes to mind:
“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion. — Henry David Thoreau, Walden.
It sounds like Thoreau went on his own pilgrimage to the woods. His findings have been part of global literary catalogues ever since.
I did not go to the woods, but I carried the wisdom of Thoreau’s words with me because when I went to Oxfordshire, when I went to see Robin’s grave for the first time, I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life…and I did. Life in the context of living for a couple of weeks where Robin used to live, walk, and create meant everything to me.
One of the reasons this meant everything to me is that with the help of doctors and medical treatment, I survived Stage 1 breast cancer in 2018. So, this pilgrimage was my way of doing the best I could to make the most of the life extension I was given. My feeling was, “I survived this life-threatening illness. Let’s do something big!” I felt I had a responsibility to do this. So, with this motivation, I discovered a lot, learned a lot, and felt a lot.
In the article, “What is a Pilgrimage?” by Lori Erickson, she asks important questions about this experience of a pilgrimage and offers a simple definition:
What sets a pilgrimage apart from an ordinary trip? Sometimes it’s intention—people set out on a journey that they hope will draw them closer to spirit. Sometimes it happens without a traveler even being aware of it, and it is only with the benefit of hindsight that it becomes apparent that the journey was in fact a pilgrimage.
A pilgrimage, in short, is a spiritual journey that touches the heart and soul.
The object of a pilgrimage is not rest and relaxation (though that may happen), but rather spiritual growth. It often begins with questions: Who am I? What is my purpose in life? What do I need to hear? What can draw me closer to spirit? What do I need to heal my wounds?
When I planned the voyage to Oxfordshire, I had the intention of bonding more closely with Robin’s spirit. I knew that would occur automatically by being there and seeing where he lived and composed songs. I went there with the intention of caring for the spirit of Robin Gibb, a long-lost soul family member and twin soul that I never had the good fortune to meet. Caring for Robin’s spirit, learning about him and where he lived, and offering him love and gratitude was my purpose for being there.
As I laid roses, stargazer, and calla lilies on his grave and prayed, I was doing so for a dear member of my soul family who has blessed me with the gift of his spiritual presence since he died in 2012. This was the attitude I carried in my heart. I had offered his spirit gifts and flowers for years in my different homes in different countries where I have kept an altar for him. Now, I could offer them directly where he was laid to rest.
The moments when I did this were very powerful. The peaceful feeling of the energy of the church and cemetery where he is laid to rest, including the scent of flowers, the green trees, the breezes, the tranquility of birdsongs, and the view of his home is something I still carry with me.
In the article, “The Spiritual Power of Cemeteries,” Bebe Nicholson states that all cemeteries have spiritual messages if we pause to listen. The messages I received were ones of emotional healing, kindness of strangers, generosity, and ongoing connectedness that cannot be broken by death.
Many people have difficulty getting past the perceived morbid nature of cemeteries. In a cemetery, there is no avoiding facing the truth of death and knowing that one day, we, the living, will be laid to rest also just like our loved ones who have gone before us. I’m a child of the 70’s and the song, “Dust in the Wind” by Kansas comes to mind. If you know this song, you will know what I mean. If you don’t know it, it’s worth listening to. So, I can understand how people might feel and why they want to avoid cemeteries.
However, I did not find Robin’s resting place morbid at all. Paradoxically, it was filled with strong living energy and was very much like a sanctuary. I strongly felt the Divine Presence of God. I believe I did touch something of the sublime while visiting Robin’s resting place. As far as I’m concerned, you can see cemeteries as morbid, creepy, and scary and avoid them. Or you can see them as a place to reflect on life, offer love and care to the deceased, and learn the lesson of extracting as much out of life while you still can.
So, yes, this was a spiritual journey that touched my senses, heart and soul deeply, kind of like what John Denver sang about in Annie’s Song. This song is what came to mind as I was writing this. I was very happy that I offered Robin’s spirit stargazer lilies because the gentle breezes carried the scent of the lilies over his resting place beautifully. I strongly believe our loved ones in spirit still love scents and the scent itself is a wonderful offering.
When speaking of spiritual pilgrimages, most people envision traveling to a sacred site, such as the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fátima in Portugal where I currently live or walking the Camino de Santiago. These are considered to be traditional pilgrimages.
But pilgrimages are not limited to only visiting traditional sacred sites. According to Lacy Clark Ellman, in the article, “10 Types of Pilgrimage: Which is Calling You?” pilgrimages take many forms.
The pilgrimage I took to visit Robin’s home and resting place was a combination of a pilgrimage of personal significance, a discovery pilgrimage, and interior pilgrimage. You are welcome to read in the article how Lacy describes each of these types of pilgrimages. I believe I have explained each category in what I have written above so that it is self-evident. I’m so happy that Lacy shared these categories of different kinds of pilgrimages to give us a language for what we are experiencing when we are not necessarily journeying to a traditional sacred site.
Even though Robin’s grave is not considered a traditional famous sacred site, like Stonehenge for example, his grave, and the graves and memorials of all our deceased loved ones could serve as a sacred pilgrimage site if we set that intention. The resting places of our deceased loved ones, famous or not, could be considered to be sacred, depending on our relationship with the deceased of course.
Jim Morrison’s grave is a known sacred pilgrimage site for millions of his fans. You can read about one visitor’s experience of visiting his grave here. You are also welcome to read more about top 10 celebrity grave sites, by Time Magazine, here and the 10 most visited graves in America here. One is Michael Jackson’s.
My First Time at St. Mary’s Church
Now that I have laid the foundation for my journey to Oxfordshire as a spiritual pilgrimage, I would like to share a little bit about what I felt upon arrival at St. Mary’s Church during my first visit.
On May 17, 2024, I visited St. Mary’s Church, Thame, Oxfordshire, England for the first time. I had arrived in Oxfordshire on May 15th and needed time to rest and get acclimated before going to visit Robin’s grave. After I rested, going to the church was my top priority.
When my husband and I arrived at St. Mary’s, I did not know where to go. So, I just chose one of the paths to walk on to see if I could find Robin’s grave. The next thing I knew, I looked to my left and saw Robin’s home, The Prebendal. It was instantly visible when you walked in through the gate, but I did not notice it or recognize it at first. I immediately burst into tears, releasing years’ worth of anticipation and grief. My husband hugged me as I cried. I also cried out of a sense of joy and amazement that I was finally seeing Robin’s home. It was so different than seeing it in pictures.
Right around a corner a short distance away, I caught my first glimpse of Robin’s grave. I offered his spirit some calla lilies and from this moment on, my spiritual pilgrimage began. During the two-week period, I visited Robin’s grave 4 times.
It is my honor to share my visit to Robin’s resting place with you now in videos and pictures.
Spirit Communication, Videos, and Numbers: 5:20
I would like to start with a little story about the first video I have shared below. The video of Robin’s resting place, created on May 24, 2024, was initially a longer video, a little over 7 minutes, when I first created it. But when I went to download the video, I noticed that my camera had divided it into 2 separate videos.
The interesting thing is that the first video was exactly 5 minutes and 20 seconds long.
I noticed this phenomenon with several videos I took of Robin’s resting place when I was practicing making videos to share. I noticed that if I made a longer video, it always stopped at 5:20 and then would begin creating a new video. I did not know this until after the fact, when I went to download them.
I felt like something was going on with Robin’s spirit around me because the exact time length of the video matches Robin’s passing date numbers, May 20 or 5/20. I have no idea if everyone who owns the same camera I own experiences their longer videos being cut at 5 minutes and 20 seconds. All I know is this happened several times when I created videos of Robin’s grave.
According to Rachel Keene in the article, “Spirits Do Use Electrical Energy,” our loved ones in Spirit can influence our electronics whether it’s the TV, CD player, dishwasher or car radio:
I’ve been shown by my guides that electricity and spiritual energy are of a very similar vibrational energy… and therefore it’s very easy for spirits to affect or manipulate electrical equipment to let us know “I’m here!” in comparison to the massive energy required to move an object.
So, unless my camera video is programmed to stop at exactly 5 minutes and 20 seconds every time I make a longer video, I hypothesize that Robin’s spirit was around me making that happen. It’s just too accurate to be merely a coincidence. I am a beginner when it comes to cameras and creating videos, so if my camera is programmed to stop at 5:20, I have no idea! I have not experimented with taking longer videos since, but when I do, I will check and see if the 5:20 phenomenon continues.
The numbers “520” and the date May 20th have carried great personal significance for me over the years because this is Robin’s passing date. I have communicated with Robin using his passing date numbers on a frequent basis. I wrote about this connection with these numbers in 2019 in this post:
In this video of Robin’s resting place, you can see how it ends at 5 minutes and 20 seconds. Please click on the link to watch the video: Robin Gibb Resting Place May 24, 2024 Part 1.MOV
This video below picks up where the first one above left off:
My Spiritual Pilgrimage to Oxfordshire, England, Part 1: Robin Gibb’s Resting Place: More Photos and Videos
The Bee Gees’ brother Andy Gibb lived at Robin’s home in the Chancery in his final days in 1988. This is why there is a memorial plaque for Andy at St. Mary’s Church.
Here is a video of the memorial plaque for Andy Gibb. I offered Andy’s spirit the calla lilies and yellow roses you see in the video:
Robin’s resting place-May 20, 2024:
St. Mary Church:
Robin’s Meadow:
Next to Robin’s home, The Prebendal, is a large acreage of land that his family still owns. It is called Robin’s meadow by locals. When I was there on May 20th, it was filled with buttercups. I only knew this was his meadow because by divine intervention, I met a friend of Robin’s and his wife while placing flowers on Robin’s grave on May 20th.
He showed me the meadow and shared stories about what a gentleman Robin was. If it were not for him, I would have had no idea that the land was Robin’s or that it was OK to walk there. It felt like another blessing arranged by Robin’s spirit which gave me an opportunity to walk on his property. It is somewhere I’m sure he walked his dogs many times.
Here are a couple of photos of the meadow. It’s a lovely, tranquil place. When Robin was alive, he opened the meadow to allow residents to walk their dogs, providing them with a private, safe space. He showed his kind, generous heart in many ways when he was still alive. I’m glad I went to the meadow when I did because a few days later, it was flooded, and you could not walk there:
I invite you to enjoy the tranquility of Robin’s meadow in this video. I’m sure this is the same serenity he enjoyed on many occasions as he walked through his meadow:
Robin’s Home, The Prebendal:
I did my best to capture Robin’s home from different artistic angles.
I hope you enjoyed these videos and photos as much as I enjoyed sharing them.
I plan to share more from my trip in the upcoming months with Part 2 about my visit to Thame Museum where there is an exhibition in honor of Robin.
Until next time, be well!
Love,
Copyright © 2024: All photos & videos by Christina Samuels