See photos above.

Walking the Labyrinth

Many people have walked here and amazing things have happened.

This is a place where people have felt God’s love for the first time.

This is a place where people have cried out to God in despair and found hope.

This is a place where people have come to celebrate milestones in life.

This is a place where people have brought questions to God and found direction.

This is a place where people have confessed sins and found forgiveness.

This is a place where people have brought tremendous grief and losses and felt peace.

LABYRINTHS, one form of sacred space, have been found in many cultures around the world for the past three to four thousand years. When the Crusades of the Middle Ages prevented pilgrimages from Europe to Jerusalem, labyrinths were constructed in cathedrals to offer would-be pilgrims a location for pilgrimage without the long, dangerous, and costly journey. St. Theresa identified three movements of the spiritual journey, sometimes call the Three-fold Path. These movements of purgation, illumination, and union, which will be discussed later in this paper, are echoed in the entering, centering, and returning movements of the labyrinth.

The most famous of the medieval cathedral labyrinths was built around the turn of the twelfth century in the Our Lady of Chartres Cathedral outside of Paris. With the logical extension of the Greek philosophical model of the world into the Enlightenment, labyrinths became suspect as vehicles of mysticism at best, and superstition at worst. All but the Chartres labyrinth were destroyed. The metal filling the petals of the flower in the center of the Chartres labyrinth was gouged out to make bullets in the Napoleonic wars. A building fund begun in the 1800’s failed to raise enough money to dismantle the labyrinth completely.

In the early 1990’s Lauren Artress of Grace Cathedral “rediscovered” the Chartres labyrinth on a retreat and introduced this pattern to spiritual sojourners at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. Since then, interest in labyrinths has burgeoned and countless pilgrims have trekked across labyrinths on their own pilgrimages towards wholeness, easing the disconnect of head, heart, and body as in other emerging wholistic practices.

Walkers of the labyrinth experience the reunification of the whole being which moves together on the meandering paths. Since the path of the labyrinth is unicursal—one path leading into the center and back out again—the walker does not need to concentrate on where to go or which way to turn and is not confronted with any intersections or dead-ends. The mind does not shut down, but finds its rhythm with the rest of the person, so that the wisdom of body and heart might also be mined. That alone is a healing experience. By walking the labyrinth, the whole self is brought to prayer.

WALKING A LABYRINTH “There is never a moment when God is not loving me.”

I use this affirmation in all the work that I do, as it anchors the spiritual journey in the context of God’s love. The knowledge of God’s unconditional love allows us the freedom to trust, to enter this sacred space, and surrender. This affirmation informs the labyrinth walk.

There is no right or wrong way to walk a labyrinth. Everyone’s experience is their own, and each labyrinth walk will be experienced differently. Here are some common helpful reminders.

• Begin when you are ready. Do not walk if you do not wish to.
• Bring your whole self into the labyrinth. Don’t check your mind at the entrance, but do not let it dominate your walk. Let spirit, heart, body, and mind be in balance.
• Find your own rhythm and speed, whatever comes naturally or feels right for you.
• Stop whenever or wherever you wish or have a desire or pull to linger in a spot.
• Since the path is unicursal, if you walk with others, you will encounter others along the way, hopefully walking their own rhythm and speed, stopping where they are drawn. Consideration is appreciated and passing is appropriate.
• Generally folks do not speak or touch on the labyrinth. This illustrates that we are both never alone and always alone. Trust the sacred space to take care of you and others. Attend to your journey in order to minimize distractions from and to others.
• Use the center as a resting and reflecting place. You may stay there as long as you wish. Do not leave until you are nudged.
• Pay attention. All that you notice, experience, and hear are possible entry points into meaning. Use all that occurs as material, but let nothing distract. Do not latch on to anything but rather be present to what is. Be open to find God in all things.
• After your walk you may wish to jot down some notes about your experience in a journal.
• You may walk with something specific, or just be present to whatever Spirit is giving.

WHY DO LABYRINTHS WORK? Labyrinths work because when we intentionally enter sacred space, we often bring a willingness to connect with the Holy, to listen to the Holy, and attend to the wounds, stories, and joys of our lives. We are there because we desire to give a hearing to our journey and, at some level, desire transformation.

Another reason the labyrinth is so effective is that it allows us to bring our whole self to prayer and the processes of healing, celebrating, and discernment. We are free from the tyranny of anxiety which often snares us when we approach the movements of our lives from an intellectual perspective.

Even if a major revelation or transformation does not occur while walking a labyrinth, most people report a sense of calming and centering. Little scientific research has been done on the effects of walking a labyrinth; however, the back and forth meander pattern may calm an individual by balancing his or her energy or the activity of the two hemispheres of the brain.

A six-circuit peace labyrinth is located in the backyard of Labyrinth House and is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You are welcome to come and walk any time a group is not scheduled to use the space. Many folks just stop in and walk on a whim.

This labyrinth is often used for groups and retreats. Regrettably, Petunia, the black and white cat who accompanied most people as they walked, was killed on Westfall Road but is buried next to the labyrinth by the plum tree.