What else could I title this after spending more than two days at a conference on labyrinths? Which is why this issue is up a day late.
The first afternoon I experienced Marty Cain, an diviner of classic 7-ring labyrinths from New Hampshire, create one on the west side of the small college campus that hosted the conference. She explained that she had dowsed the campus map before arriving and was pointed to this grassy area behind the dining hall and next to the pool house. Three good-sized pine trees anchored one corner—the grandmothers, another woman described them.
After arriving, she came to the spot and asked if this was the right place, and then asked where the center ring should be located. When she walked to what was affirmed as the center, she looked down and there were two small crow feathers on the grass. That was concrete affirmation.
Then, with various people helping, novice dowsers included, we dowsed the edge of each path, outward from the center ring. Standing back to the center and holding dowsing rods, one foot tapped outward until the rods indicated yes, and a short white flag marker was inserted. Then moving several steps, the action was repeated, until all the path edges were marked.
Then she asked for a men's team and a women's team to wrap white surveyor's ribbon around the markers and outline the paths, explaining that the lines that each was particularly to mark were considered male and female energy, respectively.
Most often, the borders of the initial entry into a 7-circuit and the final entry into the center ring form a cross. Marty worked, instead, to have the borders extend beside each other, explaining that this particular area of the rings is the heart area and that we need to have both male and female energies in our hearts, and the more we work at balancing them, the better off we'll be…personally and as a planet.
After the lines were all ribboned, all of us walked the rings into the center, where we stood in circles (enough for three—Marty created a large center) and offered blessings and song. Then out we walked, each with our own personal genuflection.
Marty described what she saw (and I did not ask her if this was with her regular eyes or with the inner eye, but after scanning through her little pamphlet on gnomes, I believe she sees with her regular eyes). As the circles were being dowsed, she saw energy rising up from the earth and meeting energy spiraling down from the sky, creating a vortex in the center, and spreading a blue energy blanket over the area. As the circles were being ribboned, she saw a gold energy blanket topping the blue.
I walked that labyrinth at least three times more during the weekend. It was a particularly peaceful one, being out of the way of all foot traffic and having the glorious view of the mountains lying west of Denver. I could not say the same for the others being created in another area of the campus.
For Marty, labyrinths anchor you in a time and place in the universe, leaving any way open for you to go. She finds it an incredible tool for transition, helping to free you from previous behaviors. With its powerful connection with both heaven and earth, it is both a path for creation of spirit into matter and a path for matter to return to spirit.
I attended a panel discussing uses of the labyrinth. A woman minister described weddings at the center of a labyrinth, with the families of each mate giving them into the labyrinth, each walking in alone, the ceremony in the center, and then walking out together. I believe it was she who also described a baptism, where the godparents stood with the minister in the center, the parents walked in carrying the child with the mother speaking what she wished for the child, and after the baptism, during the walk out, the father speaking what he wished for the child.
She also described taking the labyrinth to a women's prison once a month, and what heartfelt experiences that has given her and the inmates who walk it. She said that one woman said it was the only time they could experience silence.
Another described a camp that she initiated for children who have lost a parent. She also told of changing her language so as not to incur negative cultural connotations in the families of the children—she named the labyrinth "the Circle of Life."
On Sunday morning, I listened to Rev. Dr. Lauren Artress, who described herself as a second-generation labyrinth worker. She is Canon at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco and is known for bringing the Chartres-style, 11-ring labyrinth to the Cathedral, and writing a book, Walking a Sacred Path: Rediscovering the Labyrinth as a Spiritual Tool about it. She is the director of Veriditas, which sponsors training for labyrinth-building and distributes labyrinth seed-kits.
The following are notes from her talk:
Lauren believes that the great mystery of the universe comes to us through patterns, and the ancient peoples knew this (labyrinth patterns appeared etched on stone thousands of years ago and all over the planet). The pattern speaks to human consciousness and to humankind's collective unconsciousness. The pattern enables us to experience transformation, to let go of old selves and create new selves. It speaks to us so deeply because, deep down, we understand patterns, even though we may not in our normal consciousness. People have called the labyrinth the crucible of change, the path of prayer, a walking meditation. It's a way of manifesting newness—of accessing the uncreated potential.
Since she was speaking to a hall full of labyrinth builders, Lauren focused more on how to create labyrinths as inoffensively as possible, pointing out that the world has many people who are frightened of it, of its symbolism, and who refuse to have anything to do with something that "has a minotaur in the center." She asked that people be aware of the language of the people to whom you are presenting a labyrinth, and she didn't mean English or Spanish. As she pointed out, church denominational people tend to have a different language than most of the people in that room. (They, more than likely, are not ready to hear about gnomes and vortices.) She asked that if you did not feel comfortable in the "language" of the people who are asking about labyrinths, then pass it on to someone who does.
She emphasized very strongly to always ask permission of the space in which you wish to build a labyrinth and described a story she had heard about a woman who decided to lay out a labyrinth in her yard by mowing the grass. When the lawn mower wouldn't start and wouldn't start, the woman finally remembered that she needed to ask permission of the land. Having done so (and apparently received it), the lawn mower started right up.
Lauren closed by asking us all to honor our work, for it is amazing work and we don't quite know where it is going to take us. She believes, though, that it is moving us through a planetary change, a transformation, a breakthrough in hidden consciousness. She senses that the sacred feminine is breaking through, opening us to receiving this transforming consciousness, and bringing us into one circle.
If this intrigues you at all, I invite you to visit the following websites:
Geomancy Mid-Atlantic
The Labyrinth Society
Veriditas at Grace Cathedral, San Francisco
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