Today’s blog
Lynn Murphy Mark
Labyrinth
If you had young children during the late 1980’s there’s a good chance that you watched Jim Henson’s movie, “Labyrinth”, released in 1986. It starred David Bowie and 14 year old Jennifer Connelly and was a phantasmagoric feast for the eyes and imagination. It was an adventure in which young Jennifer had only a few hours to rescue her infant brother, Toby. She had done what some kids fantasize about – wishes that her brother might be taken by the goblins from a book she is reading. Presto! Toby disappears and the Goblin King appears. They strike a deal where he gives her 13 hours to find Toby before he is turned into a goblin forever. Anyway, a number of Jim Henson’s wonderful puppets play important roles in the quest.
In 1986 that was the extent of my experience with a labyrinth of any kind. Since then I have become a devotee of the meditative process of walking a labyrinth. I don’t remember who first introduced me to this spiritual practice, but I’m pretty sure it happened during one of my times in Santa Fe. Outside of the cathedral in the heart of Santa Fe there is a labyrinth built into the bricks. At any hour of the day there might be a pilgrim slowly walking its complex path.
“A labyrinth is used for walking meditation. It is a single winding path from the outer edge in a circuitous way to the center. Labyrinths are used world-wide as a way to quiet the mind, calm anxieties, recover balance in life, enhance creativity and encourage meditation, insight, self-reflection and stress reduction. The practice of labyrinth walking integrates the body with the mind and spirit.” www.binghamton.edu.
This creation for walking meditation dates back about 4,000 years to ancient Greece. The story goes that King Minos commissioned an architect to build a complex circular maze in which to imprison the Minotaur, a creature with the head of a bull and the body of a man. In the ensuing years the meaning of a labyrinth has become a tool for meditation and quiet reflection.
Every time I am the same area with a labyrinth I make it my practice to walk it. No matter my frame of mind when I enter, by the time I get to the center, I am calm and at peace. I stay a little bit in the center to pray and then start the circular path leading to the place where I entered. There’s no reason to hurry through the process and it can take quite a few minutes to make the journey to the middle. If there is another pilgrim walking in front of me, there is plenty of room between us. We share the spiritual space easily.
Next week I will be at Unity Village outside of Kansas City, in Lee’s Summit. I’m going for a conference which is really a spiritual retreat in my mind. It will be four days of different experiences and I have signed up for the sessions that called to me. One of them is a guided meditation walk at the labyrinth. I will also have spare time and can walk it as many times as I need to. This particular version covers over six thousand square feet and the pathway in and back out is three-quarters of a mile. Its actual purpose represents, “the inner journey to wholeness or to one’s own center. It provides a walking meditation in three parts: releasing human concerns on the way in, aligning with Spirit at the center, and then giving thanks on the way out.” (The Unity Village Labyrinth)
I can’t wait.