Copyright 2012 Ian Ellis-Jones. All Rights Reserved.

1. WALKING THE LABYRINTH
By The Rev. Dr Ian Ellis-Jones
The labyrinth is found in various forms in most religious and spiritual traditions and cultures, including
Christian, Buddhist, Native American, Greek, Celtic and Mayan). The labyrinth has been around for
over 4,000 years, provides innumerable opportunities to walk with an open heart and mind. In the
process of walking mindfully and meditatively, whether in a labyrinth or elsewhere, you gain insight by
simply walking---and observing. Yes, walking can be a spiritual, indeed a sacred, experience, and the
labyrinth is a powerful ‘tool’ for psycho-spiritual growth, self-alignment and transformation. The labyrinth
brings us back to our 'centre', that is, to the 'core' of our being, which is the very ground of being itself---
the very self-livingness of life!
The labyrinth, with its mandala-like shape and pattern, is a most ancient archetypal symbol. Now,
symbols are very important ‘things’. The Greek word sumbolon (‘throwing together’) ‘means really a
correspondence between a noumenon and a phenomenon, between a reality in the higher archetypal
world and its outer physical expression here’. However, the labyrinth is more than just a symbol. As a
walking meditation, the labyrinth is a ‘living symbol’ – what H P Blavatsky referred to as ‘concretized
truth’ – in that it not only ‘symbolizes’, ‘represents’ or ‘stands for’ something else (the ‘inner reality’ and,
in this case, ‘inner spaciousness’), it actually is instrumental in bringing about that reality and, in very
truth, is that reality. Life is dynamic and not static. So is the labyrinth. Walking the labyrinth, in the form
of 'Circling to the Centre', is engaging in a nonlinear, psycho-spiritual, transformative ritual.
The labyrinth is also a metaphor, and an objective metaphor at that. It is a metaphor for the so-called
spiritual journey. Now, I have written elsewhere that, in a very profound sense, there is no journey. We
are already ‘there’. The so-called ‘there’ is nothing more nor less than the eternal here-and-now---and
‘it’ is, or at least ought to be, more than enough for us! We simply need to be consciously awake, from
one moment to the next. That is perhaps why the labyrinth has only one nonlinear path over which you
meander back and forth, and that path is unicursal – that is, the way ‘in’ is also the way ‘out’ – as well
as being operatively multicursal. (So it is with life. I will have more to say about that below.) Actually,
the metaphor of the labyrinth is not so much the labyrinth but the walk itself.
I love the symbolism of the circle. In metaphysics and esoteric spirituality the circle represents the
whole universe, eternity, infinity, life itself (as well as the continuum of life), reincarnation or rebirth,
God, Spirit, perfection, oneness, the unity of all persons and things ... and so many other things as well.
A circle has no beginning and no end, and so refers to what some refer to as the ‘cycle of existence’.
Now, the great monotheistic religions assert that life is linear – that is, life had a definite beginning, and
life will come to an end at some future point in time. Buddhists and certain others see life as being
cyclical and nonlinear in nature. I lean more toward the latter view, but not in the rather mechanical way
it is sometimes presented in Buddhism. One thing I do know is this---life is a spatiotemporal continuum
of moment-to-moment experiences. Life is endless. In that regard, I love these oft-quoted lines from
The Bhagavad-Gita:
Never the spirit was born, the spirit shall cease to be never. End and beginning are dreams.
Birthless and deathless, timeless and ceaseless remaineth the spirit forever.
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2. When we think of Aristotle we tend to think of logic, reason and frame-by-frame thinking, but it was
Aristotle who said, ‘The soul thinks in images.’ I like that. The soul thinks in images. We need symbols,
metaphors, ritual, myth and legend, for by means of those things we find connection.
Now, back to walking the labyrinth. There are three basic designs to the labyrinth---seven circuit (being
perhaps the most common design today), eleven circuit, and twelve circuit. More importantly, there are
three stages to walking the labyrinth: first, the path in to the centre; second, the centre itself; and third,
the path out of the centre.
As already mentioned, there is only one meandering path leading to the centre and back out again---
and there are no dead ends! A maze is altogether different. It has dead ends and trick turns. Some
cynics will say that life is like that! Well, the labyrinth is not like that. If you keep walking, you will reach
the 'centre'. In my view, life is like that. Yes, as has often been said, no one is lost who knows the 'way'
home. You see, there is no one 'right' way to walk the labyrinth. Being a Buddhist and a Unitarian
Universalist, I love that! (I have no patience whatsoever for those who assert that there is only one way
to Heaven, God or whatever.) Here, however, are some simple guidelines for walking the labyrinth.
In the Western Christian tradition there are three basic stages to the spiritual path or journey or the
‘mystical’ experience: purgation (or purification), illumination (or contemplation), and union. That is
known as ‘The Threefold Path’. Outside, or beyond, the Western Christian tradition, we can speak of
the ‘three R’s’---releasing (that is, emptying the mind, and letting go of 'self'), receiving (that is,
experiencing an ‘at-one-ment’ with All that is), and returning ... calmer, and with a deeper connection,
as well as sense of connectedness, to oneself (that is, the person you are), to others, and to life itself.
The mystic Paul Brunton expressed it beautifully when he wrote, 'We must empty ourselves if we would
be filled.' I have found in my own life that walking the labyrinth mindfully is a simple yet wonderfully
powerful tool for self-emptying and spiritual infilling. The Rev. Dr Lauren Artress, an Episcopalian
(Anglican) priest, is the celebrated author of several books on the labyrinth including the
invaluable Walking a Sacred Path: Rediscovering the Labyrinth as a Spiritual Practice. Dr Artress, a
renowned ‘labyrinthologist’, writes that walking the labyrinth enables a person to 'gather an inner
spaciousness inside' – a transrational and nonlinear experience that others refer to as entering sacred
time and space. Dr Artress writes, 'We [have] lost our sense of connection to ourselves and to the vast
mystery of creation. The web of creation has been thrown out of balance.' (The great mythographer
Joseph Campbell used to say more-or-less the same thing.)
I need hardly say that there is great benefit in walking the labyrinth---mindfully!
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