The Story of the Shell

You may have noticed the shell on my website and wondered ‘What’s the story of the shell?’ I have a few stories about that shell. 

St. James and the Shell 

Let’s start with St. James, also known as Santiago. St. James is famous for being the apostle of Jesus.  According to the New Testament, when Jesus recruited James (known as James the Greater because he was taller than the other fellow named James) and his brother John, he invited them to become ‘fishers of men.’  

Later, after the crucifixion of Jesus, James traveled to the Iberian peninsula, where he preached the teachings of Jesus. Eventually he returned to the Holy Land, where he was beheaded and martyred. His body was returned to Spain by boat. 

There are a few legends around the scallop shell. One story tells of a man on a horse who fell into the sea when the boat carrying James arrived. Instead of drowning, the horse and rider came out of the water covered in scallop shells. 

Another story reports that the boat itself was covered with scallop shells. The legend continues that the body of St. James was lost, then later found in the ninth century. The remains are kept below the altar in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. The Camino de Santiago has become one of the major Christian pilgrimage destinations, along with Rome and Jerusalem. 

There are many stories linking scallop shells to St James, and the shell became the symbol of the Camino de Santiago, the Way of St. James. Most pilgrims have a scallop shell attached to their backpack, and the route markers are primarily either yellow arrows or scallop shells. I’ll talk more about these symbols another day. 

Often the shells feature a red cross-shaped sword (or sword-shaped cross). This relates to one of the personas of St. James, as a Christian soldier who aided in the wars against the Moors (Moslems) of Iberia. 

Lucy and the Shell 

In my story, Quest for the Enlightened Pilgrim, Lucy (the main character) walks the Camino de Santiago. Along the Way, she studies the Master Key System by Charles Haanel. The idea of a Master Key that unlocks the secrets of the mind captured my own imagination when I studied this material. 

A Master Key is known as a key that opens multiple locks. Most schools, hotels, and other large buildings would have a master key that can open all the locks.  

You may have noticed that the symbol I have chosen incorporates both a Scallop Shell and a Master Key. I want to make it clear that this story has two main components, the Camino and the Master Key System.