Exploring the Labyrinth_ A Guide for Healing and Spiritual Growth - Melissa Gayle West [1]
The labyrinth is receiving an amazing amount of attention, because walking the calming, circuitous path addresses many psychospiritual needs. The author identifies six areas of our lives where the labyrinth can be of help: “deepening spirituality, inwardness and connection to soul, access to intuition and creativity, simplicity, integration of body and spirit, and intimacy and community.” Then, through her own experience and training, she expands and illuminates each area for the reader.
Melissa West is a psychotherapist whose experience with the labyrinth comes from her psychotherapeutic practice and from Harmony Hill, a holistic healing center for people confronted with life-threatening illnesses. She defines the labyrinth as an “archetypal map for the healing journey” and shares many stories that capture people’s experiences.
When I began my work with the labyrinth in 1991, my life began to mysteriously unfold in new and surprising ways. Introducing the labyrinth at Grace Cathedral; creating Veriditas, The World-Wide Labyrinth Project; and writing Walking a Sacred Path, the Rediscovery of the Labyrinth as a Spiritual Tool all flowed out of my use of the labyrinth. I came to a high point during the writing when the focus of my work clarified in my mind: “Birth the creativity of the people.” That is what the labyrinth does: It births people’s creativity. Melissa West is a wonderful example of this vigorous and creative unfolding process.
You may know very little about labyrinths, or you may have walked them frequently enough to experience the transforming qualities of them. Either way, there are nuggets of wisdom in this book that will be helpful to everyone, but especially those who are sincerely committed to walking the Path.
The Reverend Dr. Lauren Artress
Canon for Special Ministries at Grace Cathedral
Founder of Veriditas, The World-Wide Labyrinth Project
CHAPTER ONE
What Is a Labyrinth?
I flick on my computer, log on to the Internet, and type “labyrinth” into the waiting blank of my favorite search engine. After several seconds the screen informs me that 9,636 matches have been found: personal home pages on labyrinths; websites filled with stories and poetry about personal labyrinth experiences; web pages detailing labyrinth history and esoterica; churches and retreat center sites sporting pictures and stories about their labyrinths; organizations such Caerdroia and Veriditas (which reported 21,000 “hits” in a day following a New York Times story about the labyrinth renaissance) devoted exclusively to labyrinths; labyrinth online games; and even websites with virtual labyrinths to be walked with one’s fingers for those without access to “real” labyrinths.
Labyrinths are also found on Earth as well as in cyberspace. They are being built on school playgrounds like Pinehurst in Seattle and the Cape Cod Lighthouse School in Orleans, Massachusetts, and on the campus of Ohio State University. The California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco offers its courtyard labyrinth to patients, family members, and hospital staff. Staff and patients who have used the labyrinth for stress reduction and contemplation have been so enthusiastic about their experiences that other hospitals around the country are building similar labyrinths. Prisons are building labyrinths on site or inviting facilitators to present programs with portable labyrinths to inmates.
Churches all over the country are creating labyrinths, from the huge Earth Wisdom Labyrinth on the grounds of a Unitarian church in Elgin, Illinois; to labyrinths at the United Methodist Community Church in Aspen, Colorado; and the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer in Mobile, Alabama; to the “mother church,” Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, where the revival of the ecclesiastical labyrinth