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As you read the rest of the chapter and the stories of rituals celebrated in the labyrinth, being to think about your own life. What transitions are you in or headed toward? What new beginnings, either at an inner level or an outer one, can be blessed? What endings can be grieved and released?

Start small and simple. Allow yourself to experiment. I tell “beginners” that Spirit joyfully welcomes and supports any attempt at sincere ritual. As you allow yourself to play with ritual, your confidence will grow as you experience the power of ritual to mark transitions and harness their enormous creative and transformative power.

After providing ritual guidelines, I’ll take the rest of the chapter to describe several specific rituals that I and others have carried out in the labyrinth. If you get ideas while reading, jot them down. Then work with them with the listed guidelines.

RITUAL GUIDELINES

PREPARATION

What is the purpose of my ritual? What do I want it to accomplish?

Whom do I want to participate, and why? How much, or little, do I want them to do?

How will the completion of this ritual affect my life?

What symbolic actions do I want to carry out, such as burning, blessing, tearing, planting, cutting, burying, or washing?

ENACTMENT

Opening

How will I consecrate sacred space and define its boundaries? decorating cleansing altering lighting

music/music making seating arrangement incense

How will I declare the intention of the ritual?

How, if in any way, will others participate in the opening?

How do I wish to invoke the Sacred? prayer words lighting a candle music

What do I wish to ask from the Sacred?

Middle

How will I carry out the symbolic actions?

How, if in any way, will others take part?

Closing

How will I end the ritual?

How, if in any way, will others take part in the closing?

How will I thank and release the energies that I have invoked?

INTEGRATION

What did I learn from the ritual? How was I inspired by it?

How can I continue to incorporate the gifts of the ritual into my life?

What actions can I take to further ground the ritual in my life?

DAILY TRANSITIONS

Simple ritual in the labyrinth can mark beginnings and endings throughout the day, allowing you to be more open to the presence of Spirit in your life and more conscious of your intentions as you move through the day.

Gretchen Schodde and I created a ritual to begin the day we call “bringing in the Light” for dark Northwest winter mornings. When I am at Harmony Hill, Gretchen and I light candles at the entrance to the labyrinth, silently invoking Spirit in the darkness, and then light candles marking the four directions at the perimeter, inside the turns, and finally at the center, at the foot of the redwood tree. As I light the candles, I ask for Spirit to light my way throughout the day. I become clear about my intentions for that day, from specific (for example, to be fully present to participants at a retreat I am leading), to general (to remember to breathe, or let go and let God). Then I spend some time in the center in brief meditation and walk out.

Schodde, who lives at Harmony Hill, has incorporated the ritual into her daily wake-up routine throughout the long dark winters. “I first light a candle when I wake up in the dark, rather than turning on a light,” says Schodde. “I then carry that candle out to the labyrinth. I have to walk much more slowly and meditatively than usual since I’m carrying the candle. I light the candles in the labyrinth, or just one in the center if I’ve got a lot to do. Lighting the candles is like blessing and thanking the labyrinth as a place that people can come to be restored and welcoming anyone who will show up that day to walk it.

“I then carry a candle from the labyrinth into my office and light a candle there before I turn on lights or computer. It reminds me about what’s really important as I move into the workday. It also helps me hold an intention of keeping my life balanced between work and spirit, honoring what’s important at the inner