I was invited to help celebrate the 65th birthday of Dr. Lauren Artress, author of Walking The Sacred Path, a seminal book about labyrinths. I joined about 70 of her friends and supporters, many whom had come from distant states, during an evening of festivities held at Grace Cathedral. We had a fine time eating, listening to stories and sharing anecdotes about our connection to labyrinths and Lauren.
Regarding a labyrinth, do not confuse it with a maze as they are almost totally opposite in intention and design. Mazes are meant to confound and confuse those who enter them. A labyrinth is meant to promote meditation, prayer and contemplation. Ancient labyrinth designs have been discovered in the ruins of the ancient Greeks, and the most iconic holy labyrinth is at Chartres Cathedral in France.
Lauren has worked long and hard to encourage the use of the labyrinth in churches, schools, prisons, and public spaces. People who walk its path as part of their spiritual practice are found all around the world, truly representing a nondenominational, nonsectarian population.
Pilgrimage, inner journeying, and many other ideas reflected in myths, stories, songs and prayers are all reiterated in the curving, winding path to the center of the labyrinth. Its use clarifies thoughts instead of clouding them, promotes a sense of well being and healing from the effects of stress and fear.
Like listening to a story told with twists and turns, the labyrinth requires presence of mind and attention while walking its path. There is a beginning and an end, a path to follow and yet it is a mysterious symmetrical configuration that has an undefinable quality about it. Sometimes people who feel restless and unfocused about an idea or situation find clarity and integration as they walk the circuitous route, back and forth, round and round, in toward the center and then back out again. It's a directed wander, really, that you take at your own pace.
Lauren has influenced many thousands of people around the world to consider the labyrinth as a symbol of peaceful unification of body, mind and spirit in these days of conflict, suspicion and divisiveness. Certainly, it was worth the quick trip to the city to raise a glass to her and her work. The mysterious and undefinable beauty of labyrinth drew Lauren to it years ago. Her work has drawn thousands, perhaps millions, of others to it in return. Someone nearly a thousand years ago designed the 11-circuit pattern and set it in stone in cathedrals all across Europe. The name of the original designer has never been known, but its iconic shape and ability to calm and still the restless hearts and minds of people down through history is as unmistakable as the delightful energy of its modern-day champion, Lauren Artress.
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2 comments:
I wonder how the connection was made between the mythological Labyrinth---a la Deadalus and the Minotaur---and the meditative walking path of which you write. I would venture that your average Joe Blow thinks of the Greek myth before he thinks of Chartes; or at least he recalls something vaguely resembling a man-bear-pig or something.
Surely a structure built to entrap a wildly ferocious beast is just about the opposite of the calming, introspective (and distinctively non-threatening) path you describe. Or is it the beast in our minds that your labyrinth aims to trap?
The plot thickens....
I'm pretty sure that most still use maze and labyrinth interchangeably, but the modern labyrinth (post Chartres era) is universally admired for its symbolic and meditative functions. If it helps tame the beast or soothe the soul, great. Its mystery and beauty are in the eye of the beholder and walker within its course. Try it sometime. See how you feel.
thanks for your comment
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