Life is about transformation, growth, expanding possibilities and about discovery. It gives us the opportunity of seeing clearly and deeply and learning, facing challenges, stretching your soul and bridging the known and unknown worlds but most of all listening to your intuition, your divine guidance. It’s a sacred journey but not an easy journey. It’s an opportunity to gather your puzzle pieces and shape them into a divine story of power, wisdom, courage, beauty, love, and dignity. Your life is what you make of it.

The goal is to keep moving forward and not backward.

Do you know what a labyrinth is? Have you ever experienced one?

The path that we are all on is a blueprint of the labyrinth. The labyrinth has one path and there are no dead ends, there may be twists and turns as the path winds throughout and becomes a mirror for where we are in our lives, releasing our sorrows and raising our joy. You want to walk it with an open mind and an open heart.

Since ancient times labyrinths have been used as a meditation and prayer tool and represent a spiritual journey to our center and back into the world again. By walking the labyrinth you will be able to create a sacred space as well as a place that takes you away from your ego to the essence within.

Many people become confused as to what the difference is between a labyrinth and a maze. A maze is similar to a puzzle which needs to be solved, due to the many twists and turns, blind alleys and dead ends. A maze requires logic in order to find your way in and out. Where a labyrinth has only one path which is the way in and the way out. There are no blind alleys, and the path leads you on a circular path to the center of the labyrinth and back out again.

The labyrinth is a right brain activity which involves imagery, creativity, and intuition. When you’re on a labyrinth journey there’s only one choice you need to make – enter or not. You need to have a receptive mindset, and the choice, whether or not to walk a spiritual path is yours. The labyrinth journey will give you an extensive understanding of who you are and where you are going.

When entering a labyrinth there is no right or wrong way to enter everyone enters and exists at the same spot – all you need do is enter and follow the path. You want to choose an intention for your labyrinth mediation before entering.

People all over the world are discovering that the ancient practice of walking labyrinths not only solves problems, but also soothes the nerves, calms the soul, mends the heart, and heals the body. It can help bring us into balance, giving us a sense of wholeness that is much needed in the chaotic world we live in. Labyrinths offer the opportunity to walk in meditation to that place within us where the rational merges with the intuitive and the spiritual aspect is reborn. 

Labyrinths are ancient. Their spiraling pattern has been found on coins from Knossos, Crete, dating back three centuries before the birth of Christ to a clay tablet from Pylos, Greece which is 3,200 years old.  Common to all labyrinths is a series of rings or circular paths which emanate outward from the center.  These paths may seem to be separate but in fact they are one unbroken path from start to finish.

Labyrinths can be found around the world from ancient Rome to Africa, Scandinavia, India and China.     

The entrance to the labyrinth is called the ‘mouth’ – this is the point at which the journey inward begins. Once you cross the threshold to the labyrinth the spiraling walkway followed is called the ‘path.’ The boundaries that separate the paths as they circle inward toward the center are called the ‘walls.’ The center is the circular goal that you reach by completing the path inward.  It’s often experienced as a place of divine union and can be overwhelming in a good way.

The design of a labyrinth is rich with symbolism and inherent meaning.  The center is often circular – an archetypal pattern symbolizing unity and wholeness.  And in the eleventh-circuit or Chartres labyrinth, the spiraling paths are divided into four quarters, each with seven 180-degree turns. Seven is the number of chakras within the human energy system. Walking the path as it alternately progresses and turns back upon itself can balance our energy system and the left and right hemispheres of our brain, returning equilibrium to the body, mind, and spirit.

There are also energetic forces at play, simply in the act of walking the path toward and back out from the center. Both centripetal and centrifugal energies are activated in the course of a labyrinth walk.  Centripetal energy acts to assist the walker in drawing inward toward the center of an issue they wish to release. Centrifugal energy assists the walker in separating out all aspects of the issue that isn’t relevant, crystallizing the solution and emergent consciousness into action.

While you’re walking the labyrinth you want to give attention to the entire experience. Everything holds significance as the spiraling path is traveled. The act of walking a labyrinth becomes a metaphor for all of life as each person alternately follows, passes, and leads the way, turning towards and away from others on the path.  It holds an opportunity to express what is moving deeply in your heart. There is no wrong way to do it, you just want to be led in the way you do it. It’s whatever physical, emotional, or spiritual unfolding that wants to express itself during the walk to you.

Again, intention is key. You may choose to focus around seeking a new direction in your life or finding resolution to a problem or issue.The intention may arise spontaneously out of moments of prayer or meditation prior to the walk or be something consciously chosen. Once the intention is held on the walk it becomes an integral part of the walker. Enter and walk the labyrinth with intention and transformation begins to unfold. 

The center is sometimes called the ‘stillpoint.’ This is a term from craniosacral therapy which indicates a moment of deep and profound stillness in which the body uses the energy present in the therapy to reintegrate and come back into balance. Upon reaching the center of a labyrinth, it is common to pause, take the time you need.  You may choose to sit or lie down, if there is room, and meditate connecting with your higher self and inner guidance.  Whatever time is taken here, in the center of a labyrinth has a power of its own. It’s a place of communion with the Divine and holds an opportunity to align with one’s inherent wholeness and unity with all of life. From this unity many experience insight deep within the heart.

On the walk out, simply be present to sensations, thoughts, feelings, and experiences so that you integrate insights that you received in the center.

Sometimes the experience of walking the labyrinth can seem to prevent or be at odds with the walker’s expectation.  Opening to the lessons inherent in contradiction – sometimes called Divine Paradox – has offered the key to many in unfolding even deeper revelation.

Some people experience a different energy on the walk out of the labyrinth. There may have been a feeling of being lost, confused, tired, or beleaguered on the walk in, whereas the walk out may hold a feeling of joy, balance, and harmony. Whatever is felt or realized – any opening, beginning, or closure which occurs – is specific to you and there is no right or wrong, it just is.  

Honoring the walk, expressing gratitude, and acknowledging the sacred nature of the experience is sometimes done by taking a moment to turn around and face the labyrinth before taking the last step out. In this way, the walk and the walker’s intention and insight are inwardly acknowledged and anchored in. Or the ritual may involve standing to face and energetically embrace the world of transformation which awaits as the labyrinth is exited. As with all parts of the walk, allowing inner guidance to direct your action is key.

Leaving the labyrinth, Divine Paradox again becomes apparent as the ending is, indeed, the beginning. The beginning of the next leg of a journey, bridging the distance between what was and what is yet to be, and integrating all of the insight gained to manifest positive action. Leaving the labyrinth is the beginning of a conscious rebirth and your part in it.

Do the research, locate a labyrinth in your area and experience it for yourself.

When you have I would love to hear your experience.