Walking the labyrinth

Walking the labyrinth is a very ancient form of meditation, very relaxing, and it’s well worth giving it a try. It’s very personal and inwardly focussed, and yet shared with your fellow-travellers in a wordless communion.

Each person’s journey into the labyrinth is unique, although the labyrinth has a single pathway to the centre. We all travel on the same pathway, but each person goes at a different speed, travelling in a different way. Rather like life, the path twists and turns, in and out, and you never know how close to the centre you are. When the path appears to take you furthest away from the centre, you are nearer, and when you appear to be closest, you are actually further away.

The centre – the goal of the journey – can mean different things to different people. For me, it is a metaphor for the Divine: always present, always hidden. In Pagan labyrinths, the centre symbolises the underworld, the inner realm; in Christian labyrinths, it represents the goal of the pilgrim, Jerusalem, with Christ at the centre.

The centre is a place to meditate and reflect on the journey, connect with the Divine, or just look into yourself. The space at the centre is shaped like a flower, or like the rose window of a cathedral. Each of its petals represents one of six kingdoms: mineral, vegetable, animal, human, angelic and the unknown.

The journey back from the centre depicts bringing back the blessing and insight from the other realm to share with your community. As you cross the threshold once more into the outer world, it is a good idea to meditate on the experience, and only gradually ease back into normal conversation.

Pagan labyrinths generally have the path winding through one quadrant at a time, possibly so the walker can meditate on each of the four elements in turn. Christian labyrinths have the path winding back and forth between the quadrants, so that you never know where you are. This is in many ways a more powerful experience, because you never know how close you are to the goal of the journey, so it is a revelation when you reach it. One such labyrinth is the one in Chartres Cathedral, which was constructed around 1200.

The oldest labyrinth design is the Cretan labyrinth, which is a very simple design and can be drawn quite quickly; it is easy to make out of pebbles in your garden or at a camp.

A brief history of mazes and labyrinths

Mazes are recorded in Egypt, Rome, Scandinavia, England, India, and the American Southwest. They are generally believed to symbolise the soul’s journey through life, or the journey of the dead to the underworld.

There are two types of maze: the unicursal (single path) maze and the puzzle maze. Both of these are referred to as both a labyrinth and a maze. However, in the myth of the Minotaur, the labyrinth in which the Minotaur dwells is clearly a puzzle maze (i.e. having dead ends), as Theseus needs a thread to find his way through to the centre. Apparently the legend of Theseus and the Minotaur refers to the maze-like palace at Knossos, which burned to the ground in the 15th century BCE.

The Classical Maze comes in four types, the Serpentine, Spiral, Simple Meander, and Complex Meander. The Roman ones were usually square, but these designs work as circular mazes too.

The principle of the maze was probably discovered in the Neolithic. The earliest recorded mazes were in Crete, 4000 years ago. In Egypt, there was a huge palace complex on the shores of a lake seven days journey up the Nile from the pyramids in form of a labyrinth. This was built by pharaoh Amenemhet III in the 19th century BCE. It consisted of thousands of rooms and twelve large maze-like courtyards, which were probably intended to keep out unwelcome visitors. Amenemhet also created a maze inside his nearby pyramid to thwart tomb robbers. Most Roman labyrinths, on the other hand, were too small to have been walked, and are typically found on the floor near the entrances to houses and villas; many have small city walls (perhaps indicating the walls of Troy) drawn around them. This suggests they served a protective function, and were perhaps believed to have warded off evil influences or intruders — a common function of the labyrinth in many other cultures as well. The tomb of Lars Porsenna (an Etruscan king) at Chiusi in Italy was said to be surrounded by a labyrinth.

The turf mazes of Britain and Scandinavia may have served a similar purpose, but in the Middle Ages they acquired an additional association with May games; hence the name “Robin Hood’s Race” or “Julian’s Bower”. The Celtic name for a maze was Caer Droia, the place of turning, and this was transliterated into English as Troy Town. It was widely believed that England was founded by Brutus fleeing Troy, and the mazes were believed to represent Troy. Mazes in Finland were often called Jericho, referring to the legend that it was destroyed by the Israelite army marching around it seven times. A maze called ‘the walls of Jericho’ also appears in a Hebrew manuscript.

Yvonne Aburrow

Japan, after the news

Last week it was Japan, this week it seems Libya has largely come to dominate the news agenda. Yet even as the camera crews set off for North Africa chasing the latest catastrophe, the death toll in Japan continues to rise - to now more than 21,000 while 180 technicians take huge risks to fight a nuclear melt down.

Rev Sam Trumbore has published the following prayer:

Let our thoughts, prayers and good wishes
move half way around the world to the people of Japan.
To those shivering in makeshift camps
sifting through the debris
for the shards of their shattered lives
wiped away by a wall of sea water.
To those grieving lost family members and friends
lost sources of livelihood and sustenance and
lost accumulated wealth and comfort.
To those stricken with terror,
re-traumatized with each aftershock and
frightened by each fire and release of radioactive steam
at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant.
May the world rally to their aid
as they begin to pick up the pieces.
May efforts to stabilize the Fukushima plant be successful.
May each community rally for mutual support
as they begin to rebuild their lives,
and make peace with their losses.

Spring Equinox

Spring Equinox is a festival of balance, as day and night are equal (but after this the days get longer). It’s also the time when the coming of Spring is really becoming apparent.

According to Bede, the ancient Germanic pagans honoured a goddess called Eostre or Ostara who was associated with hares and the Moon and eggs; however there is no reference to this goddess in any other text.

Although Spring Equinox is about the balance between darkness and light, with the light in the ascendancy, an important point about Pagan symbolism is that darkness is not seen as negative, but as a time of rest and renewal and refreshment before the return of daylight. Some people use darkness as a metaphor for ignorance and evil. That symbolism has no place in Pagan ritual.

In Wicca, darkness does not symbolise evil. The darkness is necessary for rest, growth, and regeneration. Death is not evil, but a necessary adjunct to life. If there was no death and dissolution, there could be no change or growth. The cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth is part of the interaction of the polarities. Suffering is also part of the process of growth; just as a tree is shaped by the wind, we are shaped by our experiences. It is only by experiencing suffering that we acquire sufficient depth to know the fullness of joy. It is then that the full light of consciousness dawns in us, and we achieve mystical communion with the divine.

Spring Equinox can be celebrated by a tug-of-war between two teams representing the darkness and the light, or by Easter-egg hunts, or by painting eggs.

Visualisation

Visualisation is a practice used by many Pagans to explore and transform the inner self. It is derived from the Kabbalistic practice of pathworking (visualising the pathways on the Kabbalistic Tree of Life). Visualising can develop the imagination and be relaxing and gently energising.

Here's an example of a visualisation:

The sea shell (by Yvonne Aburrow)
Start from a high tower in an upper room. Descend ten steps. Walk down the hill on which the tower stands, along a track down to a round cove, where rocky outcrops enclose a calm stretch of water and a smooth slope of sand, and a stream runs down the beach to the sea. Walk to the edge of the sea (you can paddle or dive in, whatever you like) and find something which is meant for you under the water (could be a shell or a pebble, or whatever). When you are ready, return to the shore.

Now it is time to return back up the slope, through the fields to the door by which you entered. Retrace your steps up to the door, open it and close it behind you. You can lock it if you want. Then climb back up the steps, and return to the space in which you are sitting.

(This visualisation is good for preceding a story-in-the-round or other storytelling activity, as it symbolises accessing the subconscious.)

Other ideas for visualisations

• Some of the meditations and prayers available from the Unitarian Universalist Worship Web
• Pagan themes: the eight festivals, the four elements, stories from mythology
• Stories and poems from other spiritual traditions, especially Sufism and Taoism
• Some of the parables of Jesus would make excellent visualisations (e.g. the pearl of great price, the mustard seed, the parable of the seeds)
• Themes from Jungian psychology – e.g. different archetypes

Safe visualisation practice

• Create sacred space – light a chalice, say a prayer, create a sacred circle, or whatever you feel is appropriate
• Do not visualise yourself leaving your body
• If you do any inner work with the emotions, have a trusted friend or group who can pick up the pieces if it becomes distressing
• Eat afterwards in order to ground yourself
• If you open your chakras, close them again (all except for the crown and base)
• It’s best to use simple visualisations that can be memorised, rather than using a tape. If you buy tapes, first listen to them all the way through without visualising to check you are happy with them.
• Work out what the purpose of your visualisation is before you start.
• Don’t take part if you feel uncomfortable with the person leading the visualisation – your instinct is probably correct.

Centring prayer

Many people do not believe in a personal God or in miraculous interventions, so we find it difficult to pray. But prayer is not just about asking for things. It can be contemplative. It can be about communing silently with the universe, or self-examination, or holding loved ones in your thoughts, or increasing mindfulness.

Centring prayer is a spiritual practice that was developed by Christians in response to interfaith dialogue with Buddhists.

The practice involves choosing a word that expresses a positive quality of the Divine (whatever you conceive that to be), such as love, peace, joy, silence, creativity.

Take a moment to decide what this quality means for you; now hold the word, or an image that represents it for you, in your mind and in your heart. Just focus on that concept; don’t worry if your mind drifts off – don’t follow the train of thought, just bring your mind gently back to the concept.

As you breathe in and out, you can say the word silently to yourself, trying to experience the quality it describes.

Ideally, the prayer will reach the point where you are not engaged in their thoughts as they arrive on your stream of consciousness.

Loving kindness meditation

Many Buddhist traditions practice Metta Bhavana, or loving kindness meditation. (Metta means loving-kindness.)

The way I do it is as follows.

The meditation is in several stages (the classic version has five). At each stage I silently recite a mantra, linked to the breath. The first line is said on the inbreath, the second on the outbreath, and so on.

May you be happy
May you be well
May you be safe
  and free from injury
May you be filled
  with loving kindness.

This is a shortened version of the full mantra, and therefore easier to remember.

The first stage of the meditation is to wish yourself loving kindness (so the mantra is "May I be be happy, may I be well..." etc).

The second stage is to wish loving kindness to someone you love.

The third stage is to wish it for someone you like.

The third stage is to wish it to someone you are neutral towards.

The fourth stage is to wish it to someone you dislike, or who has hurt you. (Don't start this one by trying the most difficult person in your life, as it can be quite painful - start small and work upwards.)

The fifth stage is to wish loving kindness to a small group such as your immediate circle of friends (or you can imagine the previous four people together in a group).

The sixth stage is to wish loving kindness to your immediate community (place of work, spiritual community or neighbourhood). At this stage I send loving kindness to Wiccans and Unitarians everywhere.

The seventh stage is to wish loving kindness to everyone on the planet.

The eighth stage is to wish it to all sentient beings.

The benefits of this meditation are manifold. It is very calming and soothing; it allows you to focus on your breath, and relax into feelings of loving kindness and safety; it helps you to feel connected to all beings, and to expand your imaginative sympathy to encompass them; and it helps you to overcome negative feelings towards people you dislike, which can really improve your relationship with them, and help you to forgive them. It also has beneficial effects on the brain, as it has been shown to reduce the "fight or flight" instinct in situations where it is not needed.

Missing pages

The timely launch of a new campaign to mark the shared history and heritage of Jews and Muslims and in particular the contribution Muslim communities made to sheltering Jews during the Holocaust.

Scarlett Epstein, who was 14 at the time of the Shoah, writes: There were 200 Jews in Albania before the war and over 2,000 Jews after the war. This clearly shows that Albania became a safe haven for Jews during WWII because the Albanian Muslims, under their code of Besa, risked their own lives to help Jewish refugees survive the Holocaust. I hope this will provide a model to be emulated by present and future generations and thereby ensure a better world for all.