BOOKS
Walking a Sacred Path: Rediscovering the Labyrinth as a Spiritual Practice by Lauren Artress
Exploring the Labyrinth: A Guide for Healing and Spiritual Growth by Melissa Gayle West
Praying the Labyrinth: A Journal for Spiritual Exploration by Jill Kimberly Hartwell Geoffrion
Labyrinths From The Outside In: Walking to Spiritual Insight, a Beginner’s Guide by Donna Schaper and Carole Ann Camp
ONLINE
Cathedral Labyrinths
Visit San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral at http://www.gracecathedral.org/labyrinth/
The labyrinth has only one path so there are no tricks to it and no dead ends. The path winds throughout and becomes 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.
There are three stages of the walk:
Purgation (Releasing) ~ A releasing, a letting go of the details of your life. This is the act of shedding thoughts and distractions. A time to open the heart and quiet the mind.
Illumination (Receiving) ~ When you reach the center, stay there as long as you like. It is a place of meditation and prayer. Receive what is there for you to receive.
Union (Returning) ~ As you leave, following the same path out of the center as you came in, you enter the third stage, which is joining [the Divine], your Higher Power, or the healing forces at work in the world. Each time you walk the labyrinth you become more empowered to find and do the work you feel your soul reaching for.
