Monday, September 29, 2008

Sacred Labyrinth in the Garden














Image courtesy of http://www.terrastudios.com/labyrinth.htm


“The labyrinth is truly a tool for transformation. It is a crucible for change, a blueprint for the sacred meeting of psyche and soul, a field of light, a cosmic dance. It is a center for empowering ritual.”
-- Lauren Artress (1)

Gardening is not just about growing food, but about taking time to reconnect with Spirit. A powerful tool for meditation and reconnection is the labyrinth, an ancient symbol of going within and being reborn. While you do not need anything special to meditate and connect with Spirit or with earth allies, having a spot dedicated to spiritual practice can help motivate and support your journey of awareness. A labyrinth leads one to communion with Spirit through meditative movement. Walking the labyrinth’s spirals connects your feet with the Earth, centering and grounding your body and spirit. It aligns you with your path as a spiritual gardener.

A labyrinth in the garden adds beauty and a spiritual focal point. You can shape it out of stones, mulched pathways, little lights, or even rope. If you have a patio, consider painting a labyrinth right on the concrete, or forming one out of tiles. Even a foot-by-foot labyrinth shaped in plaster or carved in wood can be traced by your finger as you sit in your garden. You might follow the classic or medieval labyrinth shapes, or form a simple spiral, which affords almost the same meditative qualities as the twists of a labyrinth.



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1. Artress, Lauren. The Labyrinth Society. http://www.labyrinthsociety.org/. Accessed November 2, 2004.




Excerpted from Sacred Land: Intuitive Gardening for Personal, Political, & Personal Change (Llewellyn, 2007) by Clea Danaan.

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