A walk in time – Workshop at San Juan Island’s Moon and Sixpence celebrates growing labryinth movement

This Saturday, “Walking A Path of Trust,” a workshop held at the labyrinth at Moon and Sixpence on San Juan Island, will celebrate this ancient symbol of rebirth and liberation.

The labyrinth has been renewed as a contemporary path of reflection and insight by Dr. Lauren Artress, a theologian and psychotherapist who is based at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco.

The earliest labyrinths, found inscribed into the walls of burial sites and on coins, date back thousands of years. It’s an image found throughout many spiritual paths: the Jewish mystical tradition, the Hopi Medicine Wheel and the Tibetan sand mandala.

As Christianity developed throughout Europe, many Gothic cathedrals were build on the sites of ancient labyrinths and were sometimes, as in Chartres Cathedral, actually included in to the floor plans. They were sacred paths where the symbolic pilgrimage to the Holy Land could be made closer to home.

These days the labyrinth movement is flourishing. It’s used in hospitals for stress relief by both staff and patients, in schools for children who suffer from attention deficit disorder and in cities by professionals who want a moment of peace and reflection in the midst of their busy working day.

Many walk the labyrinth for healing: grieving lost loved ones, facing their own struggles with illness, coping with change. Many value the experience as a time to reflect upon the past and connect to a greater sense of possibility for the future.

The labyrinth, which has one circuitous path, is not a maze. There are no dead ends. It is a path upon which ordinary ways of thinking and responding can find an extraordinary footing. As Lauren Artress says in her book “Walking the Sacred Path”: “The circular path inward cleanses and quiets us as it leads us in. The unwinding path integrates and empowers us on our walk back out. Walking out of the winding path, we are literally ushered back out into the world in a strengthened condition.”

The facilitators of this weekend’s workshop are David Bentley, Janet Thomas and Ev Tuller. All three did their labyrinth training with Lauren Artress. They will be leading sessions on: “Questions Along the Way: Trusting your own path”; “Writing Your Way Home: How to trust your inner writer”; and “A Place of Trust: How a space can encourage trust”. Participants will take part in all three sessions.

The workshop is 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday from at the Moon & Sixpence Weaving Studio, 3501 Beaverton Valley Road. The cost is $50.

The workshop is limited to 18 participants. Call Ev Tuller at 378-4138.

contributed photo

The labryinth at Moon and Sixpence bed and breakfast was created by owner Ev Tuller and friends to celebrate this meditative practice.

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