Exploring the Labyrinth_ A Guide for Healing and Spiritual Growth - Melissa Gayle West [66]
SEASONAL TRANSITIONS
The labyrinth can be used to mark transitions in the cycle of the seasons as well as personal transitions. Honoring Summer and Winter Solstice, Spring and Fall Equinox, in the labyrinth is important for two reasons. First, the ceremonial honorings reconnect us to the cycles of seasons, powerful rounds of birth, death, and rebirth, that seat us within the sacred cycles of the earth and of life itself. Second, because these are transition times in the great rounds of life, they can be powerful times for personal reflection and taking stock of life direction.
I love to mark Winter Solstice in the labyrinth. Living as far north as I do, the light becomes perilously transient as the winter deepens. Celebrating this solstice in the labyrinth is a way to remember that the Light, and new life, will return to the earth and our lives even in the midst of deepest darkness. It is also a powerful reminder of the light that we all carry within us, in hearts and souls and spirits, no matter how dark it is outside. Rituals center around lighting candles, releasing the old by speaking or burning that which is to be released, and inviting in new life, new relationships, new projects.
Spring Equinox is a time for both celebrating new life, and reflecting on balance, since this is one of the two times of the year when light and darkness are equally balanced. Rituals at this time involving the labyrinth can include planting bean seeds in paper cups in the center. Use broad flat beans such as fava beans, and write on each one something that is just starting in your life that you’d like to welcome into being or dreams you would like to “plant” in the upcoming year. Make your symbolic action be planting them in paper cups at the center of the labyrinth.
You can also do a ritual around reflecting on balance in your life, balance between self- and other care, between work and home, and so on. After reflecting in the center of the labyrinth, write down one commitment you can make for restoring balance in your life. Speak it out loud in the center, and ask Spirit to help you.
Summer Solstice is a time to celebrate the Light and life in its fullness. I love to decorate the labyrinth altar with wreaths of St.-John’s-wort, a herb that breaks into gloriously sunny blossoms right at solstice. Like many other labyrinths, the redwood labyrinth at Harmony Hill is oriented so that the entrance faces exactly where the sun rises on Summer Solstice. Gretchen Schodde and others walk the labyrinth at Summer Solstice dawn—quite a feat for this far north, since solstice dawn occurs about 4:30 A.M.!—welcoming the day of the zenith of the Light.
Rituals for Summer Solstice center on gratitude for the Light around and within us all and celebrate the richness of life blossoming everywhere at the height of summer.
Autumn Equinox is once again a time to reflect on balance. It is also a time to celebrate that which has been harvested in the past year and to prepare to turn inward once more as the darkness deepens.
Rituals for Autumn Equinox can center on reflecting on balance, as in the Spring Equinox. You also can ritualize thanksgiving for what is coming to fruition and harvest in your life. Take symbols for these into the center of the labyrinth, and express gratitude to Spirit for the harvest, asking the continuing guidance of blessings of Spirit in further harvests.
You can create rituals for Autumn Equinox around acknowledging moving into the dark and inward time of the year. Take some time in the center to turn inward. What healing needs to be done at an inner level? What in your own personal shadow is asking for attention and healing? Reflect on these questions, and make a commitment to work with healing one specific inner wound. Speak that commitment out loud, and ask that all the healing energies of the spiritual world come to help you in this undertaking.
The opportunities