labyrinth

[sjkravill]

I have been reading so much about the labyrinth.  I have heard they can be very healing.
Has anyone ever experienced this?
I have walked two labyrinths, but they were not extremely meaningful experiences for me.  I think it has to do with my inability to concentrate and really feel the present moment.

[Rojo]

Hi, Sjkravill

Forgive my ignorance but what is "the labyrinth" in terms of your reference to it?  It sounds very interesting and I'd like to know more about it.

Thanks and God bless,

Rojo

[sjkravill]

Let me see if I can do the labyrinth any justice in trying to give a brief explaination.  

The labyrinth is actually an ancient archetype.  The earliest known labyrinth is in the Greek (Cretan) myth of the Minotaur.  The circular design was found on ancient coins....  The pattern is found in a Native American, Hopi Healing wheel, and reoccurs in many ancinet cultures....
It is a circular pattern with one winding path to the center, and the same path is followed out again.  It is not a maze because there are no dead ends, or multiple choices.  Only one path is followed.  

The Medival church used the labyrinth pattern for a spiritual tool.  It often represented a pilgrimage to a Holy City when it was too dangerous to actually travel to such a city.  It has been used as a symbol of death and rebirth, the under world, the womb, and many other images that imply Center.  (Religious historian Marcia Eliade writes about the concept of Center or axis mundi -a point at which heaven, earth and the underworld intersect).  There is another book called Sacred Geometry by Robert Lawlor (who knew Geometry could be sacred?!)  He discusses how the circular geometrical form actaully creates a sacred space for people... (only a few pages of the book were really interesting to me.  The rest was over my head!)  Jungian psychologist, Oliver Mark, in Psychology of the House also writes about the circular form representing a spiritual center.
 
Any way, in terms of modern appication:
Many Medival church labyrinths were destroyed. Only in the last twenty or so years are they being rediscovered by our culture as a spiritual tool for healing and self discovery.  Today they are found sometimes at spiritual retreat centers, carved in fields, on canvases, formed with flowers, rocks, even wine bottles in peoples back yards.  The turns are believed to activate different parts of the brain.  One can walk the winding path to the center releasing pain, stay in the center for healing, and then walk out putting on the healing/strength...  It can represent just about anything.  I know people who  have had very powerful physical and emotional healing experiences.

I long to make the feminine imagry my own.  But I have a difficult time really focusing or letting go enough for it to mean much to me.  I am still hoping to try it again sometime.


The best book I have read, and would highly recommend is, "Walking A Sacred Path: Rediscovering the Labyrinth as A Spiritual Tool"  by Lauren Artress.

Here is a URL that seems to contain quite a bit of information as well:

http://www.lessons4living.com/labyrinth.htm

[Rojo]

Thanks for the info sjkravill - really interesting stuff!  I'm going to look at the link you included later tonight and then pass it on to a friend of mine who will also be totally fascinated by this.

Have a good one and God bless.

Rojo

[sjkravill]

The other day I had a chance to walk a labyrinth.  So, now I can add my own experience.

It was in the middle of a city block in a neighborhood where one doesn't dare take a "wrong" turn.  This couple had rejuvinated an old victorian house and the yard was their own original creation.  It was a yard that was beautifully decorated in signs of healing, new life, and "junk" converted to art.  The most insignificant things had a beautiful place in that yard. A kitchen sink and a bathtub became a fountain and a pond... Tibetan prayer flags.... There were flowers everywhere.

Then, the sideyard which was a labyrinth outlined with green wine bottles turned upside down stuck in the ground.

I started on the path, trying to shed all of the "issues" and clear my mind.  About 10 minutes in, I felt completely lost.  I felt I had made a wrong turn or done something wrong to get myself to this place on the path.  (even though I knew consciously that one could not get "lost" on a labyrinth) I took a deep breath and just kept walking.  In about five minutes, I felt anxious and lost again.  I took another breath and kept walking.

When I reached the center I paused for a long moment.  I felt fusterated with myself for not feeling what I thought I should feel.  But then, I was taken by the view of this beautiful spring day in this very cool, very non-conformist, life-giving yard in the middle of rough city.

     After reflection, I think my feelings of being lost and my anxiety about having made a mistake are metaphorical to how I am thinking about life.  I have a difficult time with making mistakes.  I am afraid to "let go" of direct focus for fear that I will make a mistake, or miss something, or look silly, or get hurt.  I am afraid I will get lost, or fail to do something the "right way."  Because I cannot let go of direct focus and anxiety about doing it right, often I cannot experience the depths of my feelings.  
    Then, the center showed me exquisit beauty if non-conformity. The wisdom in taking all of the life giving practices, symbols, and experienes and combining them... giving every tiny thing a designated place.  It was refreshing, life giving. My spirit could really live (even in the midst of fear and in rough spots) if it could break free of the need to do things  the "right" way... If it could give every part of my self a place of honor.

There are as many ways to walk and interpret the labyrinth as there are people, and number of times that each person can walk.  Here is just one example.    

Peace, sjkravill

[sjkravill]

I should ammend my post and say that I had a chance to walk again, and had a fresh exerience to share.  But this is the first time I have been able to validate my experience of it as meaningful.  
Peace, sjkravill