Into the Labyrinth

Last week one of my classes was cancelled so I went to the nearby reservoir. Since California is in a severe drought, it's lower than it used to be when I first discovered it as a teen, but due to recent rains it's not completely empty. It's a peaceful, lovely place to walk around. And... as pictured above, it has a labyrinth.

Here's something about me not everyone knows. I fucking love labyrinths. I doodle them all the time (7-circuit classical style, not Chartres style). I love the myth of Ariadne and the labyrinth of Crete. The movie "Labyrinth" is my favourite movie of all time. And whenever I see a labyrinth of any kind, I have to walk it. I just have to. It's like a compulsion. Something about walking all the circuits to get to the centre just gives me such joy, I can't really explain it.


In San Jose and the surrounding areas I can think of at least five labyrinths off the top of my head that I have walked:

1. The one at the reservoir, pictured above
2. Rosicrucian Park
3. St. Julie's, a church down the street from my house
4. and 5. Two churches just down the block from each other on Fremont Avenue in Sunnyvale

(This isn't even counting labyrinths in nearby San Francisco, like the well-known ones at Land's End or Grace Cathedral.)

According to the World-Wide Labyrinth Locator, a site which I positively adore, there are 12 labyrinths in San Jose, and they don't even list the ones at the reservoir or at St. Julie's. (Most of them are at churches, but that's how it goes.) If I include surrounding cities such as Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, and the like, that number jumps up to 40. (And you bet your ass I plan to try and find every one of them)

But of course I'm only here for, what, five more months now? So of course that means I have to look up New York...

...disappointingly, though, the website only lists 9. For a city the size of New York, I expected more than that. I could probably hit up all 9 in a weekend.

Luckily for me, four out of five of them are on non-church grounds. (Being non-Christian, it can be uncomfortable entering a church to walk in circles and then leaving without saying anything to anyone.) Which means once I try them all and find my favourite one, I'll already have a place for peaceful contemplation just waiting for me in the "city that never sleeps".
 

A Labyrinth Meditation:

Labyrinths are fantastic meditative tools because of the repetitive motion of walking the circuits and because of the symbolic rebirth one goes through when they enter and exit one. They can be used to meditate on problems (as you go in) and solutions (as you come back out), or for whatever else you may need. This website has a fantastic labyrinth meditation that I may have to try at some point. The three basic steps to a labyrinth meditation are:

1. Purgation, a releasing and letting go of the details of your life. 
2. Illumination, when you reach the centre, this is a place of meditation and prayer to receive whatever there is for you to receive.
3. Union, which is joining your Higher Power (whatever it may be) or the healing forces at work in the universe. Each time you walk the labyrinth you become more empowered to find and do the work you feel your soul reaching for.

 Orrrrr you could just walk it for the sake of walking it.

I'll see you all in the centre!
-Nym-