Walking the labyrinth to inner peace

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This article was published 30/01/2002 (8653 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A complex, swirling pattern painted on the floor of a Fort Garry church is helping a growing number of Winnipeggers find peace, harmony and relaxation.

The people are labyrinth walkers, seeking to meditate or to tap sources of spiritual energy by walking between the white and yellow lines that were painted on the basement floor of Fort Garry United Church hall last fall. The labyrinth was painted as a co-operative venture between the church and a community group called Healing Circle.

“A labyrinth is meant to guide you, to lead you to a safe place,” says Anne Nesbitt, who co-ordinates the walking sessions. For many, that safe place is at the heart of the labyrinth, where many participants stop for a “spiritual experience”.

Before walks, Nesbitt advises participants to calm themselves and walk around the outside of the pattern before entering. Once in the labyrinth, they move slowly and deliberately, focusing not on where they are going but where they are at the moment.

That focus on the here and now, she says, is part of what gives the labyrinth its power. She also points to the curves and turns in the pattern, which she says make walkers shift their balance and use both sides of their brains. There’s also a large element of mystery to the power of the labyrinth.

“The other aspect of it is that we really don’t know anything about it,” she says.

Adherents say walking the pattern provides relaxation and calm.

“The second time I walked the labyrinth, I got into that meditative state,” says Beth Peto, a walker who was attracted to the labyrinth after taking a Walking with Chi course from Nesbitt. “I’d never had complete relaxation before and the relaxation I felt lasted a long time.”

Terri Smith has been walking the pattern with Nesbitt for three years. Before it was painted on the floor of the church, Nesbitt used to set up a temporary labyrinth using string. She and many of the other walkers find a form of spiritual renewal in the twists and turns.

“It’s a way of connecting with a higher spirit, higher self, higher energy,” says Smith.

Walking the pattern on a recent Monday, Ollie Goodes said she was looking for healing energy in the labyrinth. Her son and daughter-in-law in Montreal were fighting the flu, she said, and she was hoping to direct some of the power of the pattern their way.

“Sometimes you walk the pattern and, whew, you feel the energy so strong,” she said.

With regular Monday morning walking sessions and full-day workshops, the labyrinth is attracting a growing number of curious walkers, but though the concept has recently come back into vogue, it’s actually as old as Western civilization.

The Greek legend of Theseus and the Minotaur dates back to the Minoan period on the island of Crete around 2,000 B.C. But where the Fort Garry walkers have a calm, safe, spiritual experience in the maze, the highlight of Theseus’s labyrinth walk was killing the flesh-eating Minotaur who dwelt within.

Other examples of labyrinth patterns and images abound in history. In medieval Europe, labyrinths were created in churches and were walked by penitents. The most famous of the church labyrinths is on the floor of Chartres Cathedral in France, and it is that pattern that has been painted on the floor of the church hall in Fort Garry.

Nesbitt notes that the concept of the labyrinth is a major theme in literature and legend, as identified by the author Joseph Campbell, famed for his theories about the nature of legends. On a less exalted plane, science fiction aficionados will recall that in Roger Zelazny’s classic Amber series, the immortals acquire their power to travel through space and time by walking a pattern (we won’t even get into all the terrible stuff that happens when blood is spilled in Zelazny’s labyrinth).

Walkers gather every Monday at the Fort Garry United Church, at 900 Point Road, from 11 a.m. to noon.

Full-day workshops include meditation, tai chi, visualization and discussions, as well as several opportunities to walk the labyrinth.

For information on labyrinth walks, call Nesbitt at 269-0101.

PHOTO LINDA VERMETTE/WINNIPEG FREE PRESS