How do we pray? Pamela Cooper-White, in sharing her experience of the labyrinth and its roots, describes a fully embodied form of prayer. Read more here about this form of prayer that many of you have shared at Holy Trinity—and read on page 6 of the downloadable PDF or printed version a word from the Rev’d Susan Latimer, former Associate Rector at Holy Trinity, about her experience of bringing the labyrinth to Decatur.

My first encounter with the labyrinth was on a windy, rainy San Francisco afternoon, as I accompanied a dozen of my seminary students from the Graduate Theological Union to meet the Rev. Dr. Lauren Artress at Grace Episcopal Cathedral. After extensive research, Lauren (then Canon Pastor of the Cathedral) had recently opened the first full-size North American replica of the labyrinth from Chartres Cathedral for spiritual seekers to experience this ancient form of walking meditation. For many of us began that day a journey that has continued to nourish our relationship with God, with other people, and with God’s creation.

What Is a Labyrinth?
A labyrinth, simply stated, is a carefully designed winding path that leads to a center and back out again. The earliest, c. 2500 BCE, may still be seen on Mount Knossos, Crete. Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Jung believed that such circular pathways are archetypal symbols of Wholeness. By walking on them, or tracing them with the eyes or the fingers, we are reminded of the unity of our own bodies, minds, and spirits, and also the unity between the Divine and the Creation!

It is important to note that a labyrinth is not the same as a maze. A maze is designed as a confusing spatial puzzle where we get lost and have to use our rational minds to find our way out.

A labyrinth, by contrast, has no choices to make, no tricks, and no dead-ends. It is a single path, folded into “circuits,” with a six-petal rose at the center. Simply by following the path, we are led into the center, and then return the same way out again. Because the labyrinth does not require thinking to stay on track, it allows rest for precisely the rational part of our brain/mind that the maze recruits. When this active thinking part of ourselves is quieted by the repetitiveness of the labyrinth’s winding circuits, other parts of our brain/mind are allowed to drift into consciousness—images and memories that we often only encounter in dreams. Like other forms of meditation or contemplative prayer by stilling the noisy clamor of the rational mind’s “self-talk,” we may encounter the “still small voice” of the Holy. The labyrinth also involves walking (or tracing the path on a finger labyrinth), and as such is an embodied form of meditation—our bodies are temples of the spirit (I Cor. 6:19). As a walking meditation it also belongs to the ancient practice of pilgrimage.

Approaches toPraying with the Labyrinth
On that windy San Francisco day, Lauren Artress first invited us to take off our shoes—not only to protect the intricately painted canvas, but as like Moses, we take off our shoes out of reverence for holy ground. Some people also pause for a moment at the entrance of the labyrinth, to center themselves. Then we begin to walk!

Lauren links the threefold pattern of walking in to the center, being in the center, and walking out again with a Threefold Mystical Path: “Purgation (or Shedding), Illumination, and Union.” Using this pattern, one uses the walking-in to release any tensions or preoccupations, and to allow our frenetic thinking minds to quiet. Upon reaching the center, we dwell for a while, quiet and still. This is the place of Illumination, where the Spirit may give us words we needed to hear, an “aha!” moment that we had perhaps been suppressing with our conscious minds, or just a sense of healing calm. The symbol here is “Union”—we may experience empowerment that comes from the Divine, to take up our call and then turn to walk back out into the world again—where we are called to bring our unique gifts, our vocations. It is therefore not a self-centered practice intended just to make us feel good, but rather it is a powerful symbol of the Christian life and walk—nourished by communion with God, and empowered for service to the world and one another. It is in a very real sense, then, also a Eucharistic symbol, because it is a place, offered in and through community, where we experience communion with the divine and the creation, and empowerment to live out our lives in Christian witness and service.

Other approaches to praying the labyrinth include walking with a particular life question in mind. “Answers” may not pop up immediately like a stunning revelation, but more subtle shifts often occur after the labyrinth walk that may seem to loosen the knot of a problem, or help us to view an issue in a new way. Some people like to walk with a mantra going through their minds, a word or phrase that helps to quiet the conscious mind. Physically, too, there are many different ways to “walk” the labyrinth. People may leap, crawl, wheel in wheelchairs, even dance!

The Gifts of the Labyrinth
It’s probably a good idea, especially when first walking the labyrinth, not to expect a great mystical vision or stroke of insight. Contemplative spirituality is gentle. It is not magic, and there is no wand to wave away all our pains and problems. That being said, people do have life changing experiences with the labyrinth. We are restored in the stillness of the Center to what Buddhists call “beginner’s mind,” or what the poet Keats described as being “without memory or desire.” We are opened up to new ideas, new insights, new commitments and actions. The labyrinth is not a cure-all or a gimmick. It has been proven again and again to be a powerful tool of healing, growth, and empowerment for those who enter it with a mind and heart open to God’s light, love, and peace.

By the Reverend Pamela Cooper-White
The Reverend Pamela Cooper-White is the Ben G. And Nancye Clapp Gautier Professor of Pastoral Theology, Care and Counseling at Columbia Theological Seminary, and an Assisting Priest at Holy Trinity Parish.