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The Earth Wisdom Labyrinth in Elgin, Illinois, is ninety-four feet in diameter and uses twenty-five tons of stone.

SIMPLICITY

We’re all searching for simplicity in our lives,” says Jean Lutz. “The labyrinth answers that need: It’s so basic, so simple—it brings us back, always, to simplicity.”

In our culture driven by experts who give us rules about the “right way” to do everything, from raising kids to communicating with spouses to organizing our lives, the labyrinth represents a refreshing return to the basics of walking and breathing and trusting the wisdom that lives deep within our hearts and souls.

“With my husband, it seems like there are so many rules for communicating effectively, the exact words and phrases you’re supposed to say, that sometimes I lose sight of what it is that I’m really trying to say in the first place! I start feeling like the centipede trying so hard to make its feet go ‘right’ that it trips all over itself,” one labyrinth walker told me. “When I walk the labyrinth, I can let go of all the dos and don’ts and just listen inside to what it is I really want to say to him. When I stop getting tangled up in all the rules and just let myself get ‘simple,’ I find what I most want to say and the best way for me to say it.”

The labyrinth’s gift is simplicity, both the simplicity of stripping away all external dos and don’ts to listen to our own voices and the simplicity of the walk itself. No advanced degrees are necessary to master the labyrinth, no long training sessions, no technical manuals. There are no “levels” to complete, nothing to memorize, no tests to take. All that is really required in walking the labyrinth is to show up, place one foot in front of the other, and breathe.

There is no “right way” to walk the labyrinth: In walking, we are thrown back on ourselves and our own experiences, instead having to measure our walk against some set of external standards or rules. In this simplicity, everything that takes place while walking becomes a mirror that allows us to look into our individual fears and anxieties.

“We all come to the labyrinth as ourselves—that’s the great gift of that simplicity,” says Lutz. “Don’t let anyone else influence you about how walking the labyrinth is ‘supposed’ to be. You have to follow your own path. The labyrinth shows you that path.”

INTEGRATION OF BODY AND SPIRIT

At the most basic level, walking the labyrinth restores our connection to our bodies, allowing us to shed stress and tension. Robert Ferré, the only production-labyrinth maker in the world, knows about labyrinths and also knows about the stresses of a challenging job. Ferré takes off for his backyard labyrinth when life’s demands start taking their toll on his body and soul.

“When I walk my backyard labyrinth, I’m not accomplishing, not striving, not ticking things off my to-do list,” says Ferré. “My body is trained now: I’ll walk out the door and before I even get to the entrance of the labyrinth I start to relax because my body knows this is time out, it’s time for me just to be with me. The labyrinth represents getting back to my own center, my own body, my own soul.”

With this shedding of tension, the body can relax into sacred space. One of my favorite forms of meditation over the years has been Buddhist walking meditation. In this sort of meditation, I walk slowly and mindfully, feeling the placement of each foot on the ground. By the quiet awareness of breathing in and breathing out while mindfully taking each step, my body becomes a vehicle for the Sacred: My feet honor the earth and my own path; my breathing becomes the inbreath and outbreath of Spirit.

Walking the labyrinth is very similar to traditional walking meditations in Eastern traditions. Rather than transcending the physical world, as in many kinds of prayer and meditation, walking invites us to more fully inhabit our bodies, finding the presence of the Sacred in the immanence of our breathing and movement.

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