Customer Reviews

Walking a Sacred Path: Rediscovering the Labyrinth

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Lauren Artress has presented a very comprehensive treatment of the subject of labyrinths. Many people have absolutely no knowledge of labyrinths and feel it must be a New Age device. Artress gives a great deal of historical background and puts the use of the labyrinth in a modern perspective,as well. She also deals with the metaphors and symbolism inherent in the labyrinth.

In this broken and aching world,the labyrinth offers us all a chance to explore the path to healing and wholeness. Artress is an Episcopal priest and a Jungian Psychologist. She offers many reasons for walking the labyrinth, as well as possible approaches to the walk. She happens to work in a church but this meditational tool can be used by people of all cultures abd religions. It is a way to go on a personal pilgrimage to become better acquainted with oneself.

Lauren Artress is very involved with the technique of the labyrinth and she inspires others to experience it for themselves.

Just returned from walking the Labyrinth at Grace Cathedral. A graced space. A healing pace. A slowing down. A looking inward. A looking outward. An appropriate fit between ancient symbol and present reality. This book provides historical information as well as possible creation of a local labyrinth.

This book has great depth and profound meaning for anyone on their own sacred path. It has helped me to begin to understand the mystery that is the labyrinth. If you've never walked a labyrinth, this book can introduce this ancient practice to you. If you have walked a labyrinth, consider yourself fortunate to have such wisdom and insight from the Rev. Artress. This book is a must-read for anyone wishing to have a deeper connection to God.

And by 'wild' I mean natural, authentic. This book is wonderful. It explains labyrinths, explores their purpose and delves into the ancient meaning of sacred geometry, something I'd never heard of until I read this book. Dr. Artress started me on my labyrinth walks...and I've walked the labyrinth many times, for many years - usually 5 or 6 times in a year - at the original labyrinth at Chartres Cathedral in France, and in a meadow and a farm in Ireland and one very ancient labyrinth attributed to the Vikings on the coastline in Northern Sweden. There are several really beautiful labyrinths in Los Angeles that I walk in sunlight and moonlight, in rain and wind. Walking the labyrinth is transformational for me - it brings me peace and serenity and stokes my creativity into a rush of ideas. The labyrinth is unique every time; its message is alway relevent to my circumstance or dilemna. The turns, and reverses, my steps, others on the path - it all speaks to me in metaphor and poetry and reveals secrets I might never have uncovered without the walk. It's a truly mysterious, mystical and mighty pathway to the personal sacred. Elaine Maginn Sonne, Ph.D., Author of Legends of the Stones

I feel fortunate that we have a Labyrinth locally and I can attest to the meditative properties of this tool. Every walk is different. As our labyrinth is outside, it offers such experiences as walking the labyrinth with an ant or being scolded by a wren. The pattern may seem chaotic sometimes, but "You need chaos in your soul to give birth to a dancing star"(Nietzsche).

Dr. Artress is both a psychotherapist and a pastor at Grace Cathedral, and offers many personal stories from participants. Some of these seem fanciful and she leans toward Jung's psychology (and dismissed Freud in a single sentence "The scientific myth, helped along by Freud, has taught us to trust the outer world"). Her perspectives on the labyrinth as archetype are important. She also offers exposure to some mystics such as Julian of Norwich, Teresa of Avila and Hildegard of Bingen. Perhaps the discussion on the "Feminine" becomes decisive when she talks about Christ as part of the patriarchy.

The chapter on basic approaches to walking the labyrinth provides useful methods and will broaden my experience. Reading the book is fine, but what is most important is the walking (check out the Grace Cathedral's labyrinth locator web site if you don't know where one is). For those who like a metaphoric view of Labyrinths, Jorge Borges's book Labyrinth offers some fascinating stories. Dr Artress should be thanks for initiating the Labyrinth Movement.

This book has great depth and profound meaning for anyone on their own sacred path. It has helped me to begin to understand the mystery that is the labyrinth. If you've never walked a labyrinth, this book can introduce this ancient practice to you. If you have walked a labyrinth, consider yourself fortunate to have such wisdom and insight from the Rev. Artress. This book is a must-read for anyone wishing to have a deeper connection to God.

Lauren Artress is a Canon Pastor of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, and is on the Editorial Board of Presence Magazine. She is also the author of The Sacred Path Companion: A Guide to Walking the Labyrinth to Heal and Transform and The Sand Labyrinth Kit: Meditation at Your Fingertips.

She wrote in the Introduction to this 1995 book, "This book is about the sacred pattern of the labyrinth, an ancient mystical tool that can help us prepare ourselves for the 'transformation of human personality in progress' and accomplish a 'shift in consciousness' as we seek spiritual maturity as a species. We are called to do nothing less."

Here are some quotations from the book:

"Labyrinths are usually in the form of a circle with a meandering but purposeful path, from the edge to the center and back out again, large enough to be walked into. Each has only one path, and once we make the choice to enter it, the path becomes a metaphor for our journey through life, sending us to the center of the labyrinth and then back out to the edge on the same path. The labyrinth is a spiritual tool meant to awaken us to the deep rhythm that unites us to ourselves and to the Light that calls from within. In surrendering to the winding path, the soul finds healing and wholeness." (Pg. xi-xii)
"I have noticed when I mention the word labyrinth to people without showing them an image, most people think of a maze... This is understandable since the labyrinth has not been in use for approximately three hundred fifty years." (Pg. 50)
"The labyrinth is a large, complex spiral circle which is an ancient symbol for the Divine Mother, the God within, the Goddess, the Holy in all of creation... The Divine feminine is often the missing piece for which both women and men are searching." (Pg. 67)
"Sometimes people who can walk will not have enough stamina to go the whole distance, nearly a third of a mile, all at one time. When this is the case, I usually keep an eye on them and when they want to sit, they give me a signal and I will walk in with a chair for them to sit on and rest wherever they are." (Pg. 87)

This is an enlightening look at an ancient spiritual trek. Some might call it new age but, really, it's very cool - not creepy, not even unusual - it's a meditative form that's remarkably familiar no matter who you are.