Mixed Media A lecture on labyrinths
To walk a labyrinth is to simultaneously focus one’s mind and lose oneself, following a circuitous pathway that is not a maze but can contain secrets. The discoveries available in a labyrinth are individual and internal to each walker, and reasons for walking range from basic curiosity to the need for deep emotional transformation. The healing powers of labyrinth walking are espoused by New Age spiritual practitioners, but the practice seems to reach far back through history. Images of labyrinths appear on coins from Crete dating to 430 BCE, as well as on the walls of prehistoric caves, Medieval European churches, and even in Native American communities, among other places.
In 1996, a spiritual leader named Lauren Artress founded Veriditas, the World-Wide Labyrinth Project, to “pepper the planet with labyrinths,” and in 1998, a local group founded the Labyrinth Resource Group (LRG) in Santa Fe. A year later, the group built its first labyrinth on the grounds of the Museum of International Folk Art — a replica of the labyrinth on the f loor of Chartres Cathedral in France. There are now over 30 labyrinths in Santa Fe constructed by the LRG, including at elementary schools and at private homes. To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the founding of the LRG, Artress delivers a talk, “The Labyrinth: Its History, Mystery, and Meaning,” at 2 p.m. on Sunday, May 27, in the auditorium at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture (710 Camino Lejo), followed by a labyrinth walk outside the Museum of International Folk Art (706 Camino Lejo). Rev. Artress received the honorary title of canon of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco and is the author of Walking Path: Rediscovering the Labyrinth as a Spiritual Practice (1995) and The Sacred Path Companion: A Guide to Walking the Labyrinth to Heal and Transform (2006). Admission to the talk is $20; tickets must be purchased in advance at labyrinthresourcegroup.org. For more information, call 505- 474- 0002. — Jennifer Levin