Exploring the Labyrinth_ A Guide for Healing and Spiritual Growth - Melissa Gayle West [35]
A backyard labyrinth in Bad Kreuznach, Germany.
THRESHOLD ALTARS
Recall the spirals that signaled the entrance to sacred space in ancient temples and tombs. Throughout time that threshold between secular and sacred has been marked by statues, altars, curtains, and candles.
Stop, threshold markers tell seekers. Look; listen. The place you are entering is not ordinary space: It is sacred space. Leave your watches behind: Time here is not clock time, chronos; it is kairos, the fullness of time beyond time, the eternal Now. Release your daily life and self when you pass this threshold. You are entering sacred ground.
A threshold altar at the entrance to the labyrinth serves the same purpose: to mark the transition from “hurry” space to sacred space. Before I consciously marked my labyrinth’s threshold with a painted stone and a candle, I sometimes found myself—even with the best of intentions to slow down and center—sailing into the circuits planning meeting agendas or making grocery lists. The likelihood of going into the labyrinth unconsciously is greatly lessened when a simple altar at the entrance reminds me that I am entering sacred space. When I lead walks for others, I mark the threshold visually with candles and flowers and aurally by ringing a small bell to signal the next person in line to begin his or her walk.
Take some time now and think about what objects might remind you at the labyrinth threshold that you are entering sacred space. Here are some suggestions:
A favorite stone or shell.
A candle you can light before beginning your walk. Small votive candles in glass holders have a better chance of staying lit if your labyrinth is outside. You may have a favorite candleholder you can use, or pick out a special one for the labyrinth threshold.
A word or symbol that reminds you of what walking the labyrinth means to you. I have painted a stone with the words “Remember and Know” and placed it at the entrance to my labyrinth. I am grateful for these words to Sandra Sarr; I once participated in a walk she facilitated where she whispered these words to each participant as he or she crossed the threshold into the labyrinth.
A small plant you can tend, either in a pot or planted by the entrance.
A vase of seasonal flowers or greens.
A statue or picture of a favorite saint, god/goddess, or animal.
You may place any of these objects on a small table or on the ground, arranging them in a way that is visually pleasing. What is most important is that they remind you that the labyrinth is not business as usual. I find it particularly helpful, given my own tendency to barrel through life, if the altar invites me to stop, light a candle, touch a statue, smell roses. By smelling, touching, lighting, I become more grounded in my own body and the present moment and thus more receptive to Spirit.
Stopping at the entrance altar also helps me focus my intention. While lighting a candle I can pray for the light of God to illuminate a place of darkness—grief, anger, despair—that I am walking into. Lighting that same candle another time may signify a particular joy or blessing that I am celebrating on the walk: a new job, a completed piece of writing, a healed friendship.
Seeing the words “Remember and Know” at the entrance to my labyrinth invites me to slow down and ask “What is most important to remember this moment, at the beginning of this particular walk?” In times of confusion I have taken the words on that stone with me into the labyrinth, asking myself “Below all this confusion and anxiety, what do I really know, right now? What is vital to remember about myself, about the ones I love, about God, about the very nature of life itself?”
Before exiting the labyrinth, stopping at