The Path That Leads Us Back to Ourselves

What if you could enter a path without knowing exactly what you were looking for, and trust that the walking itself might be enough?

For thousands of years, people have created labyrinths as spaces for contemplation, ritual, pilgrimage, and reflection. Labyrinth patterns appear across cultures and centuries, with designs found on ancient pottery, tablets, and tiles dating back thousands of years. Over time, the labyrinth became especially associated with pilgrimage and contemplative practice.

But what makes walking a labyrinth so powerful?

A Labyrinth Is Not a Maze

At first glance, a labyrinth may look like a maze. But there is an important difference. A maze is designed to make you choose. There are branches, wrong turns, dead ends, and decisions about which direction to take. A labyrinth asks something very different of us. There is only one path in and one path out. You don't have to figure out where to go. You simply follow the path.

It twists. It turns. At moments, you may find yourself seemingly close to the center, only for the path to carry you farther away again. And then, without quite realizing how you arrived there, you find yourself at the center.

This is part of what has made the labyrinth such an enduring metaphor for the spiritual journey. Veriditas, an organization dedicated to the labyrinth as a contemplative practice, describes the path's many turns as a powerful metaphor for life itself.

We rarely travel in straight lines, either.

We move toward something and then away from it. We encounter unexpected turns. We revisit places we thought we had already passed. Sometimes we feel certain of where we are going. Sometimes we simply have to keep walking.

And somehow, the path continues.

Meditation in Motion

For some people, traditional meditation can be difficult. Sitting still while trying to quiet a busy mind isn't always easy. A labyrinth offers another possibility: meditation through movement.

Instead of asking the body to become still, the labyrinth gives it something to do. One foot follows the other. The path provides the direction. The mind is freed, for a little while, from deciding where to go next.

Veriditas describes labyrinth walking as a practice that can help quiet the mind, ground the body, and open space for reflection. People approach the labyrinth for many reasons—prayer, discernment, grief, creativity, healing, celebration, or simply a few moments of silence. There is no particular experience that someone is supposed to have.

That may be one of the most beautiful things about it. You don't have to arrive with an answer. You don't even have to arrive with a question. You simply arrive.

Walking Into the Mystery

On Sunday, October 11 at 2 PM, The Red Shoes invites you to experience this ancient contemplative practice for yourself during Walking Meditation with Mystery. We will create space for a slow, meditative walk on an indoor labyrinth. You'll be invited to enter the path at your own pace. As you walk, perhaps you'll notice your breathing. Perhaps you'll become aware of how quickly (or slowly) you naturally want to move. You may notice impatience when the path seems to take you away from the center. You may find yourself thinking about a decision, a relationship, a loss, a hope, or a question you have been carrying.

Or you may simply walk. There is nothing you need to accomplish. The invitation is to notice.

This gathering will be facilitated by Wendy Herschman, former Executive Director of The Red Shoes, who has shared the practice of the labyrinth for many years, and Jami Prince, who recently traveled to Chartres, France, where she received labyrinth facilitator training through Veriditas.