By: Stephanie Harvin
The
Post and Courier
Originally Published on: 02/10/02
Page: G8
It’s a path with a beginning in ancient times that is
finding a way into the present.
Walking a labyrinth has become the new focus of meditation
in places such as churches, spas, women’s workshops,
cancer support groups and prisons.
Not just for those seeking enlightenment, labyrinth walking is used for problem-solving
and relaxation - as a way of focusing the mind by moving the body.
“It helps people focus where they are in their spiritual lives,” according
to Lauren Artress, author of “Walking A Sacred Path: Rediscovering the
Labyrinth as a Spiritual Tool” (Putnam/Riverhead Books).
“We have lost our meaningful symbols.
For many people, there is not a meaningful
connection to our inner world,” she said in a recent interview. She was
in Charleston Saturday conducting a workshop at Grace Episcopal Church.
One way to regain contact with that inner world is through movement, she said.
Labyrinths are as ancient as the Crusades. Churches in Europe built labyrinths
into the floors, so that pilgrims could walk them instead of making the dangerous
journey to the Holy Land to walk the labyrinths there.
In modern-day America, walking a labyrinth is as simple as walking a 30-by-30-foot
canvas rolled across the floor of a parish hall, or walking the simple stone
labyrinth that Marcy Walsh has created at the back of her Summerville home.
A labyrinth shouldn’t be mistaken for a maze, said Artress. A maze
is a collection of confusing turns, blind alleys and false entrances. A labyrinth
has one continuous path to a center, and another to return from the center.
The goal of a maze is to confuse and entertain. The goal of a labyrinth is
to quiet the mind by taking it in slowly diminishing circles, said Artress.
“This is an exercise with a beginning, middle and end, and it allows people
to slow down and contemplate.” Artress said people who don’t understand
the labyrinth’s pattern and benefits come to a workshop like hers with
unrealistic expectations. It is something she warns against.
“I tell people that you can’t come and be shazammed. The key is to
experience your experience.”
If walking labyrinths sounds too much like New Age theory, Artress points out
that humans have been walking labyrinths since the 9th century. There is one
built into the floor at Chartres Cathedral in France that is covered with chairs
for most of the year. But for one-week seminars in the summer, the chairs are
pulled back, and people are encouraged to walk the ancient 11-circuit pattern.
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The
movement toward walking the ancient path has been growing
since 1992, when there were very few labyrinths in the
United States, said Artress. Now there are close to 1,800
labyrinths and a national Labyrinth Society.
While the idea has been slow to come to South Carolina - most of the current
public labyrinths are in the Upstate - individuals such as Marcy Walsh have created
labyrinths in their back yards.
Walsh
is holding a free workshop at The Center for Women on Highway
17 for the Brown Bag Lunch Series at noon Thursday. She
has worked with Artress several times.
“The mind, body, spirit connection is not just in our heads,” she
said in a phone interview from her home. “It’s a way to be in touch
with more of myself.”
Walsh started walking the labyrinth at a spiritual conference and liked it. She
was already a fan of walking for exercise. At her workshop, she will show slides
of ancient labyrinths, including one drawn on a coin found in Crete in 300 A.D.
And she will help workshop participants draw an 11-circuit labyrinth, so they
can walk it with their fingers to get a sense of how a labyrinth feels.
After
the workshop, Walsh will open her labyrinth to attendees Saturday
9:30 a.m. to noon for free.
“There is no dogma or creed. You come where you are in your spiritual life.
I present the labyrinth as a tool.”
Some people use the experience to solve problems, others to delve deeper into
their faith.
“The variety of experiences is as varied as the people who walk. It mirrors
back what you need,” said Walsh. “For me, it helps me think metaphorically,
symbolically and intuitively.”
Artress agrees and says she often finds women seem to be more attracted to labyrinths
than men. “It is a nonhierarchical pattern, a cyclical double spiral. It
is an intense and structured pattern that allows you to be very focused. It tends
to appeal to women for that reason.”
Artress said she sees people reaching for more in their spiritual lives, especially
since Sept. 11. “People are looking for ways to make an inside-outside
connection. Sometimes their prayer life is feeling arid, or they are looking
for more meaning. The path creates something that people just don’t have
the words for.”
Call about the Center for Women Workshop, 531 Savannah Highway, (843) 763-7333. |
