Labyrinth Project
The Labyrinth Project
We offer very special thanks to Alice Sleight for her contribution (in
memory of her husband Frederick W. Sleight) to the building and construction
of the “Prayer Labyrinth”. Construction began on the Labyrinth in January
and is now complete. A blessing of the Labyrinth will take place April 8 at
11 am, with introductory classes throughout the year.
Alice is an active member of St. Margaret’s, best known for her service as a Lay Reader, Chalice Bearer, and Eucharistic Minister. Alice was the Founding Chairman of Loaves & Fishes (F.I.N.D.) Food Ministry, and is an occasional substitute Organist at local churches in and around the Coachella Valley.
Because of her generous contribution, the “Prayer Labyrinth” will be a timeless art of prayer in approaching the divine and a method that activates a conversation from our hearts to the heart of God.
What is the Labyrinth?
The labyrinth is an archetype, a divine imprint, found in all religious
traditions in various forms around the world. By walking the labyrinth, a
design laid in or on the ground, we are rediscovering a long-forgotten
mystical tradition that is being reborn in modern times.
Our 40-foot labyrinth is like the one at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, which in turn is modeled on the one laid in the floor of Chartres Cathedral in France around 1220 AD. It is in the nature of an archetype for its origins to be obscure, so no one really knows when or where labyrinths were first used. We do know that they were found at sites around the world, such as the 4,000 year-old labyrinth on Crete, stone labyrinths in Scandinavia, and ancient representations in India and China.
Labyrinths are designed in accordance with sacred geometry (the design of the
Universe), based on ancient knowledge that was also intuitively articulated in architectural forms. This Chartres-style labyrinth is based upon the thirteen-pointed star. Through proportion, placement and position, using a complementary system of numbers, angles, and designs, the mind is induced to a state of rest, comfort and harmony, leaving it open to other levels of awareness.
A labyrinth is not a maze, where the walker must make choices that often lead to dead ends. The labyrinth has only one path in and out. The path twists and turns, being like a mirror for where we are in our lives; it touches our
sorrows and releases our joys. Walk it with an open mind and an open heart, to receive all that it has for you.
Why Do We Walk It?
We live in a time of extreme spiritual hunger. People are seeking ways to enhance and deepen their awareness of God. The labyrinth can be such a tool, as a prayer walk, or walking meditation.
Walking the labyrinth can provide:
a. A quieting of the mind.
b. A grounding and centering of the self.
c. A sense of being healed.
d. Increased unity and wholeness, on both individual and community levels.
e. An increased awareness of self and relationship of the self to others and to God.
f. A vehicle for God’s voice to deepen our understanding of the mystery of ourselves and of God.
g. Experiences in which we move out of chronos time into kairos time, from clock time to dream time, into a state in which we can non-judgmentally receive and accept whatever arises within us.
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