c. 1999 Religion News Service
WASHINGTON _ Carefully stepping amid flickering candles and soothing music, easing past other walkers, Marilyn Cromartie maneuvers slowly through a labyrinth in search of a confirmation of a spiritual calling.
Cromartie, a physical therapist who had never walked a labyrinth before, says she felt called to look into initiating a labyrinth for members of her Presbyterian congregation in Fairfax, Va., to walk in prayerful meditation.”Something’s telling me to do this, and I’m listening,”she said.
Cromartie walked on two labyrinths, each painted on canvas, at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington, Va., as part of a two-day seminar co-sponsored by the church and the Smithsonian Associates.
The seminar,”Walking the Labyrinths: Meditation, Transformation and Spiritual Renewal,”brought together practiced labyrinth walkers and others interested in learning more about the trend that is attracting the attention of hospitals, psychologists and religious organizations.”Walking the labyrinth is a personal experience, completely unmediated,”said Darleen Pryds, the leader of the daylong seminar at the Smithsonian and the creator of a 42-foot canvas labyrinth that replicates the octagonal labyrinth found on the floor of the Gothic cathedral in Reims, France.”It’s not confusing,”she told the more than 100 seminar participants, being careful to distinguish between a labyrinth, which has only one path to the center, and a maze, which is a confusing puzzle.”It’s a simple, adaptable tool.” A connotation for the labyrinth that 13th century Roman Catholics would have been familiar with is the Greek myth of Theseus, who, by leaving a string to mark his path, was the only man to defeat the Minotaur, a mythical half-man half-beast who dwelled in a labyrinthine prison.
Pryds, a historian who is assistant professor of medieval and Renaissance studies at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, suspects that in constructing their labyrinths, Christians may have reinterpreted the myth, reading Theseus as a Jesus figure and his heroine, Ariadne, as the Virgin Mary.
Pryds compared modern Western society to the 13th century, when an individualistic age was characterized by a market-based economy and a largely urban-dwelling population.
Some participants agreed the purpose of labyrinth walking today is personal meditative practice. Other regular labyrinth walkers said the experience of following a path alone but also in the company of others _ sometimes jostling and crowding each other _ is a metaphor for life.”It’s a movement meditation,”said Joan, a social science researcher and regular labyrinth walker who asked that her last name not be identified.
Joan said the first time she walked a labyrinth, in early 1998, she understood both the individual and social facets of the experience.”I had seen the pattern, but (in) walking it a variety of things came to me _ the quadrants were the physical, the emotional, the mental and the spiritual, and the interconnectedness of those four.” About the social experience of walking the same path as others, she said,”I saw this as something that you have to deal with in life. You have to meet up with people with different energy patterns.””The whole life experience is there _ all that emotion, the tension, the happiness, the serenity, all things you feel every day,”said Bob Buckmann, a member of the labyrinth committee at the Arlington congregation.
Pryds said there is little evidence from 13th century France of widespread use of the labyrinths at Reims and Chartres cathedrals _ two of the most popular labyrinths today _ by lay people, who would have arrived at the cathedrals on pilgrimage in search of relics of the Virgin Mary or various saints.
Instead, she said, it has been documented that priests would gather around circular labyrinths, made of inlaid marble in the floors of the cathedral naves, and engage in a joyful dance on Easter Monday at vesper services.”It’s truly joyous and it’s fun,”she said, adding that the Reims labyrinth was destroyed in the 18th century partially because there was too much noise in the cathedral from celebrating labyrinth walkers.
The Chartres labyrinth, a round version with a rose-shaped center, was first popularized in the United States in the mid-1980s, when the Rev. Lauren Artress, an Episcopal priest, established a replica at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. Artress has written widely about labyrinth walking, taken groups of walkers to Chartres, and is planning a”millennium walk”on New Year’s Eve to pray for world peace.
The Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington’s labyrinth, a replica of the one at Chartres, was dedicated in October 1995. It was created by 30 volunteers from the congregation.
The labyrinth, which is open twice monthly to anyone who wants to walk it, brings together people with very different religious views, participants say.”There are some people in our community who are not comfortable with anything that is heavily laden with traditional symbolism,”said the Rev. Joan R. Gelbein, the minister at the Arlington congregation who initiated the labyrinth project after learning about Artress’ work.
But Gelbein said that the Christian history of the labyrinth does not preclude a meaningful experience for whoever comes to it.”It doesn’t come with any religion attached to it,”she said, adding that many of her congregants are hungry for spiritual, meditative experiences.”It’s like we’re getting away from the neck-up approach where you analyze everything,”Gelbein said.”Some of us want to experience some things.” Pryds said labyrinth walking is a”spiritual tool”that can be used by anyone.”It’s so adaptable,”she said.”There’s nothing inherently Christian about it, even though they’re found in Roman Catholic cathedrals. The labyrinth as a symbol is really universal. Wherever we’re coming from, we can all bring that to it.” (BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM)
Labyrinths are becoming increasingly popular in a number of religious communities. Next to the Washington Monument, less than a mile from the Smithsonian seminar, an interfaith group observing a”Sacred Space”prayer vigil on the autumnal equinox featured a labyrinth among the Native American, Buddhist, and African religious exhibits and worship sessions.
The”Sacred Space”labyrinth was drawn with lines of sand in the grass, with feathers and stones along the path. The group’s literature identified the seven-circle labyrinth as a form of a Hopi Indian mandala symbolizing Mother Earth.
Pryds said the Catholic history and symbolism of labyrinths are often not discussed because labyrinths are used by so many religious communities _ from Baptist churches to a Lutheran church in Indiana that constructed a labyrinth out of corn _ and in an increasing number of secular institutions.”That’s not really talked about because we’re so eager to make it interfaith,”she said.
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Hospitals and psychotherapists are beginning to use labyrinths to encourage meditation and healing. Pryds said she hopes universities will begin offering labyrinth walks to students.
Pryds’ Reims labyrinth is set up at Virginia Tech at least once an academic year, and she is hoping to permanently establish it soon.”Universities are a stressful institution, especially for students being away from home for the first time, going through exams, living in a noisy dorm,”she said.
Even students who initially balked at the idea of walking a labyrinth later declared the experience”cool,”she said.”They were exposed to something they usually don’t get at the university,”she said.
DEA END LEBOWITZ
