"Mystic"

This is the Eleven Circuit Medieval Labyrinth inlaid in the floor of Chartres Cathedral in France around 1201. Many things are reflected in the labyrinth: the brain, the intestines and the structure of the cosmos.

Dr. Lauren Artress has called this labyrinth a 'divine imprint,' because walking it not only quiets the mind, but opens the imaginative capabilities that lead the way to psycho-spiritual transformation. This sacred path offers safe passage due to its clear boundaries and highly structured path. Labyrinths are not mazes. Mazes are designed to lose your way; labyrinths are designed to find it.

The six petaled rose in the center of this famous labyrinth holds many meanings: the six days of  creation; the rose of Sharon, the lily (a symbol of rebirth) and the petals of the lotus.

[Seeds for Reflection]:
... Have you walked a labyrinth and/or participated with a group using the labyrinth? If so, please describe. What was your interior and exterior experience of this practice?

... What did you notice in walking the labyrinth about the conditions it enables for communion, sense of connection and collective insight?

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Comments

[Sara]

I love this image. It will alwyas remind me of my profound experience in walking the "Chartes" labyrinth at our local Unitarian church. The process of walking the labyrinth was much like any kind of meditative practice, complete with interjections of "thinking", despite desires to empty the mind....but the meditation time at the center brought with it new insights that other meditative practices have not, at least not in my experience with meditation. And, when I journaled about the labyrinth walk after it was over, insights were revealed about the labyrinth as "intestines" and, for me at the time, about "digesting life" - hard to put words on such a personal experience. I can only say that as a newcomer to meditation and the labyrinth, I highly recommend it. I have found the Hunab Ku: 77 Sacred Symbols book to be a very profound meditation/spiritual tool in my journey and I use the book almost daily. It travels in my bag with me and I am always amazed at the new insights that it brings into my current situation.