Our Weekly Tip: Find Your Way With a Labyrinth

Credit: labyrinthnz.com

Our tip of the week: Labyrinths have been with us for thousands of years. The Reverend Lauren Artress uses labyrinths in ritual, and champions its use as a tool for emotional and spiritual healing in the grieving process.

In a recent interview with her (which you can read here and here), she and I discussed the use of labyrinths in memorial services. Artress had me in tears as she described a few touching instances, in her wealth of experience, where the labyrinth was utilized as a beautiful container for an end-of-life ceremony, as well as in the process of grief.

As Lauren describes it, the pattern of the labyrinth — especially the Chartres style 11-circuit pattern — occupies the mind so that the deeper, intuitive parts of ourselves can come to the surface for healing.

I want to share several ideas to inspire our SevenPonds readers to think about incorporating the labyrinth either into a memorial celebration, or to consider a few creative ways it could be used to heal in the bereavement process.

How-to Suggestion: Lauren strongly urges people to use a trained facilitator if they would like to use the labyrinth in ceremony, or for a specific healing use in a large group. The facilitators are trained to hold space for the entire group, which Lauren describes as a spiritual practice in and of itself. If you want to integrate a labyrinth into a large gathering, you can find a trained facilitator through Veriditas, Lauren’s labyrinth organization.

Lauren shared one story of a woman who was in the final stages of a terminal illness who wanted to be at her own end-of-life ceremony. She hired a facilitator, who created a ceremony that put her in the center of a labyrinth. Her friends and family walked into the labyrinth, and around her, in silence. As they walked out of the labyrinth, there was a large sheet of paper where they could write their thoughts, feelings, wishes and goodbyes. So. Beautiful.

In another story, Lauren described a bereavement group that set up a labyrinth with places to put up pictures of their loved ones who had died. In silence, as they walked through their sacred space, they each saw images of their shared individual grief. I can’t think of a better way to frame finding solace in community.

You may also find solace in simply walking a labyrinth. Use the labyrinth locator to find one near you, and remember Lauren’s advice to find a style that works for you, and to find your own pace when you walk it. Or you can hire a celebrant to help you create a ritual for your ceremony.

I was deeply moved and inspired by my conversation with Lauren. I hope to pass some of that inspiration on to you, dear readers.