“Life's work is nothing but the slow trek to rediscover, through the detours of art, those two or three great and simple images in whose presence one's heart first opened.” Albert Camus
On a recent trip to Serenbe, one of my favorite retreat spots in the Atlanta area, I walked the labyrinth. I remember feeling a paradoxical sense of peace and power, when I finally surrendered my need to ‘get' some earth shattering insights.
Labyrinths are truly sacred places. The design itself is ancient, some say more than 4,000 years old. It combines the sacred geometry of the circle and the spiral into a meandering but purposeful path.
The ritual of walking the labyrinth silences the intellect and awakens your deep, intuitive nature. Walking a labyrinth is a metaphor for life's journey, you will often discover parallels between your ‘walk' and how you move about in the world. As you navigate this sacred space, it awakens and activates your own sacred blueprint.
The labyrinth invokes your intuition, creativity, and imagination. It is an invitation to adventure to the core of your Essence and come back to the world with an expanded experience of who you are.
Let's take a moment to experience a labyrinth walk. Imagine that you are at the Serenbe labyrinth (pictured above), and you are about to enter the sacred pathway to your innermost being. Pause at the opening and set your intention. Be guided by your own knowing, or follow this suggested journey:
1. Surrender. Allow the images of all that no longer serves you to surface as you begin your walk. Pace the imagery so that you can process the thoughts and feelings as they occur. Take your time, honor your flow. Feel yourself moving through the labyrinth, making the 180 degree turns, releasing and relinquishing what is no longer yours into the deep, rich compost of Mother Earth.
2. Consecrate. When you reach the center of the labyrinth take a seat in the center stone and feel yourself seated as if you were on a throne. Throw on a cloak and a crown, and claim your scepter. Relish your reign. Rule with your heart. Own your sacred contract with life. Take a moment to integrate and align with the new. See your vision unfurl before you, like a red carpet at an awards ceremony.
3. Celebrate. As you continue your journey out from the labyrinth acknowledge each gift, strength, talent and power that is your ally on the adventure. Feel each step as a proclamation. Delight in the deliriously delicious divine dance. Jump, weave, stomp and sing. Soar as you walk, feeling each solid step where the ground meets your feet as a, “Yes! Yes! Yes!” Feel the joy in your spirit and the groove in your step.
The practice of walking a labyrinth helps you to easily surrender the illusion of separation and to honor the ‘truth' that lives within. Welcome home!
Want to walk an actual labyrinth? Lauren Artress, author of Walking a Sacred Path: Rediscovering the Labyrinth as Spiritual Practice, and creator and founder of Veriditas, the World Wide Labyrinth Project, provides an online labyrinth locator.
So, how was your virtual labyrinth walk? Make sure to post your aha's, insights, questions and comments below.
Image: Labyrinth at Serenbe, Lee Howard
Love this! Especially number 3, I think we often forget to celebrate the path along the way. Thanks for the reminder 🙂
Right, Deanna?! Life offers moments of celebration all along the way. I’m glad that point resonated for you.
I love this one, Adela. I could feel myself entering the labyrinth, and surrendering the old hurts and thoughts of the past, walking with grace into the unknown, and yet knowing that something is there waiting for me. I love also your use of imagery and alivening language. You are a genius with words. I feel transported.
Krista
Thanks, Krista! From one ‘genius’ to another, I’m honored that my words move you. Much love, darling.
Thank you for giving me some new insights on how to be with and on the labyrinth. I have a special Reconciliation Labyrinth on my property in Mentone, Alabama which is two hours north east of Atlanta. I would like to offer anyone to come for a visit and walk on it. It is designed for two people to walk together and each one walks in different directions at the beginning and then the paths lead them back to cross the path of the “other.” From that point as they cross, they begin to walk in the shoes of the “other.” They then come back together in the center of the circle and share what they have “learned or heard” about the thing that they have come together to reconcile. This can be something that is held between the two people or something that they are holding to reconcile for the world. I would highly recommend anyone putting a labyrinth or their property if they can. It literally brings a special relationship with you, the land and your spiritual guidance.
I send you love for the sacred work that you are doing.
Cathy, what a generous offer! Thanks for sharing it with us.
Adela, this is beautiful. I walk the Chartres labyrinth at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco on a regular basis and do walking mediation in the woods as my preferred form. This is one of the seminal meditations I learned in the Buddhist tradition “All is pure and perfect and has always been so. To this realization I dedicate myself, pure and perfect presence.” We look for all that is pure and perfect inside and out. Walking helps us keep the motion while slowing down enough to make it sink deep into the bones.
Lovely way to start a day that is filled with speaking engagements – three, back to back. It’s a good thing though. 🙂 Just going into a luncheon where I’m presenting and took time out to listen to this lovely beginning. Beautiful energy! Sending much love to you all…
Thanks, Maryam, for taking the time out of your busy schedule to add your energy to the collective intention. I LUV walking a labyrinth and am going to find one locally. I love the invocation of ‘pure and perfect’ and ‘perfectly poised.’ And so it is with our focus and flow. Much appreciation for all your lightness and loveness.
Just relistened and went even deeper—all is “perfect” and I’m now “poised” and ready to take the next step. Thanks
And so it is, my sweet Alisha!
Wonderful exploration Adela! Be in your ‘Perfect Poise’.
Allow your ‘magic’ to rise so your unique value can come to Life.
You will be a catalyst for others to walk the Labyrinth of their Being.
Yes, Paula. I loved the post you just wrote about your experience too…
http://pauladandrea.com/2012/11/08/perfect-poise
Don’t forget to use comment luv and it will automatically post the link for you.
I finger-walk a labyrinth as part of my daily morning spiritual practice. Though the labyrinth is miniature, the experience is big.
Candi, I just found out about finger-walk labyrinths. How cool! I sense that the kind of labyrinth (even virtual) doesn’t so much matter. It calls upon the sacred geometry which is mapped out in our bodies too. As above, so below. As within, so without.
The feeling is amazing however, I am going to walk a Labyrinth, because I want to feel this power of self again. Dorene
Yes, Dorene, there’s nothing like walking a ‘real’ labyrinth, which is why I included Lauren’s awesome resource for finding one near you. Happy trails!