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The Labyrinth is
an ancient tool to chart a spiritual journey. It crosses
time and cultures as a universal symbol of renewal of
life. All world religions contain teachings that speak
of the journey the spiritual seeker follows to grow in
compassion and respond to life with wisdom and clarity.
Life is a journey. Walking the labyrinth is one way to
look at your life and think about the stages you are
moving through.
MYSTICISM and the THREEFOLD MYSTICAL PATH
“Mysticism,
broadly defined, is the experience of communion with
Ultimate Reality.” For Christians this translates into
the union of knowledge of self and of God. When you go
deeply inward to the center of your deepest self and
discover the mystery of being, then the mystery of God
is revealed.
Finding the
sacred within yourself, understanding both the light and
shadow sides of yourself opens to you the Holy Spirit,
the Image of God that scripture reveals is within each
person. In Western Christianity the mystical path
is traditionally known as the Threefold Path. The
process of ever-deepening unity with God, with the
Divine, provides hope of gaining self-knowledge and
understanding our relationship with God. This is the
path that is energetically embedded in the Labyrinth
design.
PURGATION
[WALK FROM ENTRANCE TO CENTER
OF LABYRINTH] an archaic word from ancient root “to
purge”- to release, to empty, to quiet. Here we
let go of any thoughts or emotions that keep us from
being in union with God. Release our need to be in
control, surrender our burdens and daily worries and
cares.
ILLUMINATION IS FOUND AT THE CENTER
OF THE LABYRINTH. Having quieted our minds on the
purging walk inward, we take time to be quiet, meditate,
pray, listen for God’s whisper.
UNION
begins as we RETRACE OUR STEPS FROM CENTER
TO ENTRANCE. We take the illumination and sense of
being with God into our deeper selves. We sense God’s
Presence going with us back out to face the world and
empowering us to be more real, more energetic, more wise
in dealing with our lives, to turn meditation into
action, to make a difference in the world.
LABYRINTH as PILGRIMAGE
The “Pilgrimage”
is as ancient as religion itself. Celebrating solstice
festivals, traveling around the Ka’aba in Mecca for the
High Holy days of Islam, or making the Easter vigils to
Jerusalem were all pilgrimages. They were a combination
of religious duty and relaxing holiday. Often the
journey was made by groups and increased the sense of
unity.
Always people
seek out places of holiness and healing, the sacred
space that restores and enlightens. Christ’s story
focused on humanity; God became one of us. This
fascinated us and drew us to “walk" in Christ’s
footsteps, to follow Jesus to Jerusalem, to Calvary, to
pray where Jesus prayed, to kneel on the same ground
where His blood seeped into the earth.
Usually at an
early age Christian Pilgrims made a holy vow to journey
to Jerusalem once in their life. By the twelfth
century during the Crusades, and because of the
religious struggle for Jerusalem, the pilgrimages became
much too dangerous and difficult. The Roman Church
appointed seven pilgrimage cathedrals to become
“Jerusalem” for the pilgrims. The Labyrinths within
these beautiful cathedrals symbolized the walk into
Jerusalem, the end of their journey. In the tradition of
the Pilgrimage, the path of the labyrinth is called the
Chemin de Jerusalem, the road to Jerusalem, and the
center of the labyrinth is the New Jerusalem.
The labyrinth
also holds other symbols of energetic power, the petals
[rose, rosette], the labyrs, the lunations, the 13
pointed star and the spiral, that are mysterious. There
is a power in walking the spiraling path that defies our
understanding, but if we enter into it with open hearts
and minds we will discover our own unique experience. Be
open to it! Let Go and Let GOD! |
