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  • 23 Feb 2022 7:51 PM | Anonymous member

    Why the labyrinth is relevant in 2020.   author:  Emily Simpson 

    Buckminster Fuller wrote, ‘If you want to teach people a new way of thinking, don’t bother trying to teach them. Give them a tool instead, the use of which will lead to new ways of thinking.’ The labyrinth is just such a tool with the capacity to show us a new way of being in the world. It is a gift for uncertain times because it is that rare and precious thing, a universal symbol within which all our perspectives can find a home. The labyrinth teaches acceptance, inclusion and flow. Acceptance of the path and its obstacles. Inclusion of the other, both within and without, and to be in flow with all that is. We are held by the structure of its winding path and received by its mystery.

     

    Walking the labyrinth is often considered a threefold path: releasing on the way in, receiving in the middle and then returning. This idea blends well with Jungian analyst, Helen Luke’s principles of the Divine Feminine: ‘Receiving, Nourishing and Birthing’. If we synergise these concepts, then the path receives what we release on the way in, nourishes us with inspiration as we pause in the centre, then births us back out into the world, refreshed. It’s a symbolic integration of our capacity to give and receive, a true mystic path. Rather than merely a personal sense of activating the intuitive aspects of consciousness, it’s a much bigger idea of the Great Mother rising up to meet us, using the labyrinth as her portal.

     

    As an archetype, the labyrinth has no opposite; but its shadow is the maze (ultimately just a complicated labyrinth). The labyrinth welcomes and soothes with the ease of its step by step journey, whereas the walls and dead ends of the maze are designed to frustrate and confuse. The maze has been the dominant paradigm for so long, most of us barely notice we’re in it. To its detriment, Western culture has valued head over heart and thought over feeling. The rules and hierarchies are so deeply woven into our social fabric that it’s hard to imagine any other way of being.

     

    The maze is a game with more barriers than freedoms, whose primary goal is power and control. In corporate life, an organisation which operates like a maze would be adversarial and competitive, a dog-eat-dog environment in which the end justifies the means. Employees chasing individual agendas rather than working as a team. The labyrinth is a game with more freedoms than barriers, whose primary goal is flow and acceptance. An organisation which operates like a labyrinth would be more collaborative, an interdependent community of individuals.

     

    The labyrinth is a form of ‘maze therapy’ offering us the opportunity to experience ourselves as vessels through which power flows, rather than seeing power as something external to self. It is a paradigm within which we can access real power. The power of our essential nature. Not power over, which is the obsession of the maze, but power with. A mutually expansive sharing of the destiny of our world.

     

    So how do we know if we’re living in a labyrinth or a maze? It’s all a matter of perspective. When we feel lost and confused, we’ve probably turned our path into a maze. The signs are anxiety, comparison and a need to control things. The myth of the maze is that it is real, that there’s no alternative. When we surrender to fear we build walls and create dead ends. We can only be free when we accept our experience and see how it might be transformed into something useful; when we realise that what’s in the way, is the way. We are the alchemists of our own lives and the lead with which that alchemist is working and we are the gold it becomes.

     

    The coronavirus has highlighted many problems at the heart of our social and economic systems. It could be seen as the minotaur of our times, the hidden beast that must be confronted in the maze of modern life. The minotaur represents the shadow of our nature, the unconscious material we choose to ignore about ourselves. In the myth, Theseus slayed the Minotaur and managed to escape the maze, but he couldn’t do it alone; he needed the spool of thread given to him by Ariadne, to find his way back out. The hero aspect of our nature ventures into the dark of the subconscious mind to slay the monster of fear or shame but it needs to be guided back to the light by the intuitive heroine within. The great task of individuation involves slaying all the monsters we keep locked in the heart of our interior labyrinth. Not just once, but over and over again.

     

    Our cultural minotaurs are the aspects of modern life that are draped in shame. The choices made to serve the few at the expense of the many. The malignant delusion of endless growth on a planet with finite resources. The rape of the earth, the pollution of the seas, the enslavement of millions. These are truly monstrous realities which, when fully acknowledged can be overwhelming. The answer is to do what we can from where we are, one step at a time. To clean up our small patch of ground and support those who extend their reach beyond. The gift of these minotaurs is to wake us up to the interconnection of all things. To show us our power to destroy and to create. We have the power to change our minds and change the game; to honour and revere the immense blessing of the earth instead of claiming dominion over it. The labyrinth invites us to tune ourselves to what is possible. To reach down into the earth and up into the stratosphere, bridging spirit and matter within the vessel of our being. As a living metaphor, it helps us remember that we are held and blessed by all that is. Even this.

     

    Emily Simpson, June 2020.


  • 19 Feb 2022 6:28 PM | Anonymous member

    World Labyrinth Day in Educational Settings

    We are so excited to be offering another set of practical and purposeful resources for educators to plan exciting, experiential activities for learners on World Labyrinth Day in Educational Settings, Friday 6 May 2022.

    This year’s theme is Heart, Hands, Head & Feet for Peace.

    The resources include:

    • ·        A Poster: to advertise the day
    • ·        A Guide: including big ideas about peace, a big question about peace, reflective questions and lots of detailed activities involving hearts, hands, heads and feet
    • ·        Explanatory Notes: directly linked to the Guide for easy reference
    • ·        A Short Introduction to Labyrinths: a set of powerpoint slides suitable for use with all age groups
    • ·        A checklist: to help with planning

    Our hope is that even more schools, early learning centres, home schools, colleges, universities, kindergartens, and schools online will come on board, take part and share their experiences with us. Last year we saw activity all around the globe, so let’s broaden it even further this year so that more and more individuals and communities within the education sector are informed, exposed to and educated about the potential and benefits of labyrinth walking!

    More information: https://aln.org.au/wldes-resources


  • 19 Feb 2022 6:26 PM | Anonymous member

    Event announcement for newsletters or social media

    World Labyrinth Day: Connections 2022

    The Labyrinth Society in collaboration with Veriditas, The Legacy Labyrinth Project and the Australian Labyrinth Network invites you to walk a labyrinth with all global citizens on Saturday, May 7, 2022.

    As in previous years we are hoping to create a unified wave of peace around the world by Walking as One at One (1 pm your time) wherever you are, as appropriate.

    ·        WLD 2022 is asking people to create an event, virtual or physical, to bring people from your community together to amplify the energy of our wave of peace.

    ·        An opportunity to join a Zoom Finger Labyrinth walk will be available on May 7.

    ·        Join the opportunity to be a part of the research for The Great Connection 2.0. The continuation of this research, which began last year on WLD, will find out how our unified healing intentions on WLD make an impact on the energy of our communities and world.

    ·        Educational Settings around the world will be holding events on Friday, May 6.

    ·        Join our Facebook page to stay up to date with all the information.

    Visit www.worldlabyrinthday.org for more information, resources, videos, and ideas.

    Watch for pre-WLD events to spark ideas to help you create an event of your own.

    If you plan to create an event in your area, please register it on the site.

    For questions, comments for additional information, contact Ellen Meuch, WLD Coordinator at meuch@msn.com.


  • 19 Feb 2022 5:03 PM | Anonymous member

    Copied From Joy Bowles post on facebook     If you are hanging out for some in-person time with other labyrinth lovers, our Gathering is finally happening! 25-27 March - arrive at Mt Carmel for dinner and our first live Zoom presentation with Tony Christie. Or if you prefer, you can Zoom in and save on travel and accommodation. Go to aln.org.au and you'll see the link under the Events page. There's also a link to our AGM which will be held on Sat 26 Feb at the Gathering... Please register, so we know who's planning to attend  https://aln.org.au/events

  • 3 May 2020 4:28 PM | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    We had great fun on World Labyrinth Day, as some of us joined in viewing Mark Healy on Zoom as he walked a lovely labyrinth he has made in Tasmania. 

    Here is a link to the recording of the walk, and a link to the reflections we shared afterwards... most moving!

  • 8 Dec 2019 12:37 PM | Anonymous member

    Hi to labyrinth lovers

    I was very pleased to put in a successful grant for our Mid North Suicide Prevention Network for a labyrinth at Jamestown for those who have been affected by suicide

    It was pleasing to have the Northern Areas Council support the construction of a labyrinth in Jamestown as a place where people who have been affected by suicide in our region can walk, and spend some quiet time in contemplation.

    It is intended to hold a meeting with anyone who has been affected and wishes to have input into making art pieces that capture their loved ones, the challenges faced in rural communities, as well as a place where there experience has been meaningfully acknowledged by community members.

    The initial meeting will be held in March next year, where the aspects of making a special place, and in the form of a labyrinth, shall be shared.

    Hospitals and other community centres around the world are embracing labyrinths as part of a healing journey, whether it be for mental health, cancer recovery, or for the pleasure of walking a labyrinth.

    The photo gives some idea of the basic shape of the labyrinth which will be constructed on a site suitable to the public and Council.

    Felicity Martin     https://www.facebook.com/hallettgalleryfelicitymartin/

  • 13 Oct 2019 7:42 AM | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    Read this article on the labyrinth at San Remo, where our beloved Lorraine and Geoff have their heart's home :-)


    News article_World Labyrinth Day at Phillip Island and San Remo.pdf

  • 3 Jul 2019 9:59 PM | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    from David Whyte, poet, Consolations

    MATURITY

    "Maturity is not a static arrived platform, where life is viewed from a calm, untouched oasis of wisdom, but a living elemental frontier between what has happened, what is happening now and the consequences of that past and present; first imagined and then lived into the waiting future.

    Maturity calls us to…a bigger picture, a larger horizon; for a powerfully generous outward incarnation of our inward qualities and not for gains that make us smaller, even in the winning.”

    This is who we are - ALN Council Carriers July 2019

    from David Whyte, poet, Consolations

    BEAUTY

    “Is the harvest of presence, the evanescent moment of seeing or hearing on the outside what already lives far inside us; the eyes, the ears or the imagination suddenly become a bridge between the here and the there, between then and now, between the inside and the outside; beauty is the conversation between what we think is happening outside in the world and what is just about to occur far inside us."

    What the labyrinth is to many of us - ALN Labyrinth Lovers

  • 1 May 2019 10:57 PM | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    It's fun to share labyrinth news articles - here's one by Meryl Ann Butler from OpEdNews about World Labyrinth Day coming up this weekend - love the pun 'May the Fourth be with you!'


  • 10 Apr 2019 3:56 PM | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    We had a wonderful time at the 3rd ALN Gathering down at St Clement's retreat centre in Galong, NSW (near Canberra). It started with a labyrinth tour of three labyrinths in Canberra, lovely to see and feel three very different styles and purposes of labyrinths (the Arboretum, the Australian Christianity and Culture Centre, the Clare Holland House hospice). Then we drove to Galong, and had a very engaging day of the use of labyrinths in ritual and ceremony with Robin Clayfield and Mark Healy. The Gathering itself was a joyous community-fest, with workshops and several labyrinth walks, and spontaneous offerings of rituals around the meal-times, which nourished my spirit as well as my heart and body. We'll post a Gallery page soon... 

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