On Saturday, May 2nd, 2020, the world gathers online for World Labyrinth Day. These powerful and mysterious pathways offer special meditation for healing relaxation and peace of mind. How can you try a labyrinth experience this weekend?
Labyrinth pathways, dating back as far as over 4,000 years, have been built by many unrelated cultures around the world and are featured in ancient sites, used by both Eastern and Christian religions, and also embraced by the New Age groups.
Traveling these pathways has helped generations in ways that would surprise those who have yet to experience them. The Labyrinth Society explains that they are “tools for personal, psychological and spiritual transformation, also thought to enhance right-brain activity. Labyrinths evoke metaphor, sacred geometry, spiritual pilgrimage, religious practice, mindfulness, environmental art, and community building.”
In the last 10-15 years, an increasing number of people have rediscovered the labyrinth as nurturing place to visit where personal prayer, introspection and emotional healing flows more freely.
Some individuals visit with a specific question to contemplate or to connect with someone they have lost. But there is no doubt that travelling through the pathway of a labyrinth focuses the mind, helping you to slow down your breathing, regaining your inner calm and focus.
With medical research also proving their therapeutic and even medicinal benefits, many public parks and healthcare organisations over the past decade have integrated them into their buildings and grounds. The United States now has over 170 labyrinths built on hospital grounds to help patients, staff and visitors relax.
Mostly unicursal, the labyrinth may at first appear like a maze but are in fact quite different. Firstly, you are not meant to get lost, nor at any point fear that you will. They can be round, square or octagonal in shape.
There is a clear entrance point in each labyrinth, from which you walk along a pathway that takes you to the centre. Once at the centre you can stay for as long as you wish, you then turn around, retracing your steps until you reach the entrance, which is also the exit.
Unlike mazes the shape of the labyrinth is usually painted on the ground or created by tiles or stones, flat or close to the ground, so the entire shape is always visible. There are no decisions in a labyrinth walk, it is all laid out clearly for you.
These are the guidelines the Australian Labyrinth Network provide the following guide on how to walk a labyrinth:
Three stages:
In September 2014, Sydney’s first public stone labyrinth was opened in Centennial Park and is described as “possibly the most intricately built labyrinth in the world.” It follows the design and exact measurements of Chatres Cathedral labyrinth, which was built in the early 13th century on the principles of sacred geometry.
An English-born Australian composer, Corrina Bonshek, created a soundtrack, inspired by birdsong, named Journey to the Centre to be listened to while walking the Centennial Park Labyrinth. She says of the track “I hope this music connects you to your heart and helps gives you space to ‘be’. Its gentle pacing is suited to walking a labyrinth and listening to it with headphones will help you turn inwards and return to outwards refreshed.”
You could also play the Journey to the Centre while visiting another labyrinth site, or when using your finger labyrinth (see below) at home. Download Journey to the Centre here.
Fact: There are now 4400 labyrinth locations in the United States alone!
New York Labyrinth – The 9/11 Labyrinth at The Battery, New York
North Hollywood Labyrinth
Global Labyrinth Locator – To find a labyrinth near you Veriditas & The Labyrinth Society joined together to create the Worldwide Labyrinth Locator.
Saturday, May 2nd, 2020 is World Labyrinth Day, and while the events around the globe have been postponed, there is also power in a finger labyrinth walks. Here Lars Howlett of Discover Labyrinths explains how he uses a finger labyrinth for meditation, prayer and stress reduction: How I Use a Finger Labyrinth for Meditation, Prayer and Stress Reduction
This labyrinth worksheet can be found on the Veriditas website, simply print out to use at home, draw your own or even trace along the screen of your iPad or tablet.
How to Draw a 5 Circuit Chartres style Medieval Labyrinth
Quick and Easy Labyrinth! in 3 Minutes!!
Follow @astrologyshow on Twitter this weekend for #WorldLabyrinthDay and join us, Alicia and Jessica, to find out more about the #Labyrinth experience as we share new tips and secrets.
About the Author (Part I): Alicia Fulton is a lifestyle writer currently based in Sydney with more than twenty years’ experience working with titles and firms in New York and Sydney, including ELLE US and Australia, The Knot Magazine, John Brown Publishing, Bloomingdales, Williams Sonoma, Westfield and Moët Hennessy. Alicia devotes her life to her two beautiful sons and family, with whom she has travelled extensively on adventures throughout Europe, Asia and the US, and to her life-long passions – astrology, travel and music. Alicia’s current projects include websites Jessica Adams, Holiday Goddess & AMMP.tv.
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6 Responses
Hi Jessica and Thank You!
Wow!
This was really an unexpected subject. World Labyrinth Day definitely flooded me with memories of a remarkable experience I had about a decade ago at a world renown health resort in Tecate, Mexico, just south of San Diego.
While experiencing the beautiful grounds of the peaceful resort I happened upon a labyrinth at the base of a mountain within a grove of trees. There was no one present except for myself and a friend. I had heard of a labyrinth before but had never experienced one. As I entered I asked the Universe to tell me what I needed to know and proceeded with a quiet mind. It was a beautiful ,still and sunny afternoon. However, as I approached the very center the wind started to blow with the force of a small tornado. The once calm surroundings quickly changed as the trees began blowing wildly back and forth. The wind was forcefully swirling around me for several minutes and just as soon as it came it suddenly stopped.
I heard my inner voice and it said RELEASE. Just as you had written- I received, released and returned to the outer world with the message to release all the past and remain in the present.
My friend was wild eyed, as I, from this sudden experience. So thanks for shaking the memory bank and returning me to the message as it is SO needed during this present period.
Thanks again.
GB
Thank you so much, I will pass this on to Alicia. The power of labyrinths to release is huge! I hope this will inspire other readers to try walking a labyrinth, or drawing one and finger-walking it, GB.
Thanks for this insight jessica.
You write: “labyrinths are tools for personal, psychological and spiritual transformation, also thought to enhance right-brain activity. Labyrinths evoke metaphor, sacred geometry, spiritual pilgrimage, religious practice, mindfulness, environmental art, and community building.”
I did just wonder how labyrinths relate to mandalas, which have been used for centuries, if not millenia, for healing purposes. CG Jung, one of the fathers of modern psychotherapy, found the drawing and painting of mandalas to be particularly therapeutic – creating order out of disorder both outside and within ourselves and centering physical and mental energies to give a sense of wholeness and completeness.
Take care and keep safe
Liz
Thank you Liz. Labyrinths are really mandalas, and mandalas are labyrinths, created in similar ways for much the same reasons. Jung was such a brilliant man, pioneering not only honest thought about astrology, but also about these ancient techniques. There’s a reason why they’ve all lasted the centuries…
Jessica! You will probably be amazed at the reading I had for myself.
1st card- path to the key: the devil !!!
6 cards-
Chariot
Nine of pentacles
Three of swords
Page of cups
Ten of cups
Four of cups
3 unturned cards- 6 of pentacles, 6 of cups, king of pentacles
Devil is my potential employer who I left because of plutonic tendencies. So who is the devil now? Please pass some psychic insights. Thank you.
I’m really pleased you used this technique – the Labyrinth Tarot Spread. Your potential employer was the Devil you left. Well done. You broke free of what could have chained you up for a very long time. You have just reshaped your future and the unturned cards show you the road less travelled. Now, using your journal again, just go for a regular Tarot reading. Use Pamela’s Tarot, the guidebook that comes with Premium Membership. The Chariot is the most important card you drew. See if it turns up again. I have a few spreads to choose from on this website. It sounds as if you have your own deck anyway which is great. Time to learn.
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