How to walk a labyrinth
Lauren Artress and Veriditas have compiled decades of experience and feedback from labyrinth-walkers to develop a framework that can help facilitate a more meaningful experience with the labyrinth.
These are not hard and fast rules. The first thing you need to learn about the labyrinth is that there is no right or wrong way to experience it. The second is that everyone’s experience will be unique.
Originally, Veriditas taught the “three R’s” framework to conceptualize the contemplative process of labyrinth walking, later adding a fourth before beginning the walk itself:
- Remembering: Before you step on to the path, it is helpful to pause and consider what you want from this walk. Are you looking for guidance? Is there something you want to let go of? Is there a quote or prayer you would like to contemplate? Do you just want to be open to wherever the experience takes you? Take a moment to call to mind whatever you want to walk with.
- Releasing: Generally, this happens on the path into the centre. This is where the mind gradually relinquishes whatever is chattering internally, bringing you to a receptive state.
- Receiving: While people can and have received insights, messages, or experiences at every stage of a labyrinth walk, typically people find that they receive some kind of resolution at the centre of the labyrinth.
- Reintegration: Usually the walk back to the starting point is where you start to process your experience. Sometimes that will include making connections between what you received and something else in your life, sometimes it is just a lightness to your step if a weight has lifted. Often this process goes beyond the final step of the physical labyrinth path. Some people find it helpful to talk about their experience to help with reintegration, others seek creative outlets to express their experience, and some privately mull it over in the coming hours, days, weeks, etc.
For more a more thorough overview of what others have experienced on the labyrinth, you can read Lauren Artress’s book Walking a Sacred Path or follow the links to Veriditas and the other links listed below:
Further Labyrinth Resources
As a Certified Veriditas Labyrinth Facilitator, I’m happy to answer questions about the labyrinth, but there are also some amazing resources available online:
- To find a labyrinth near you, you can use the Worldwide Labyrinth Locator.
- Veriditas has many resources for enhancing your personal experience of the labyrinth.
- World Labyrinth Day, held on the first Saturday in May every year, brings together enthusiasts on labyrinths around the globe and provides an opportunity for education about local labyrinths and how labyrinths are used to build community.
- Labyrinthos has a wealth of research about labyrinths and mazes, particularly regarding their history.