Spiritual Practice - An Advent Labyrinth

This Advent season, consider incorporating a labyrinth walk into your spiritual practice. Alternatively think about creating an Advent spiral like the Waldorf schools use, that you can walk at your leisure throughout the season. Use the labyrinth locator to find labyrinths in your area. Here is a wonderful guide for making a winter Advent spiral that could just as easily be applied to a labyrinth. If you can’t find a labyrinth near you or are disabled use a finger labyrinth or find a template online to use. If you have plenty of land at your church, you might like to create your own Advent labyrinth or Advent spiral for the rest of the Advent and Christmas season. I think the Advent spiral is easier than creating a labyrinth and forms a unique practice for the season.

Walking a labyrinth provides a simple yet profound way to cultivate peace and maintain your hope during this chaotic, over-commercialized time of year. There is no “required way” to walk the labyrinth. You don’t need to think to walk a labyrinth, in fact it is best if you are able to empty your mind of worries, anxieties and your “to do list” for the next week. However, this is not like sleepwalking! You must still remain alert to stay on the path. This combination of a resting mind with reduced mental activity and alert attention of heightened awareness makes the labyrinth ideal for walking meditation or prayer. The turns of the labyrinth are thought to balance the two hemispheres of the brain resulting in physical and emotional healing. As reaching the centre is assured, walking the labyrinth is more about the journey than the destination, about being rather than doing, integrating body and mind, psyche and spirit into one harmonious whole.

The labyrinth represents our passage through time, space and experience. Its many turns can reflect the journey of life for us, with its many changes of direction, transitions, and uncertainty but also discovery and achievement. Unlike a maze (which has dead ends and false passages), the labyrinth has a single path that leads unerringly to the centre where sometimes there is a small altar, a place to sit or a pile of stones that people have placed as symbols of releasing and receiving on their journey. The labyrinth shows us that no time or effort is ever wasted; if we stay the course, every step however circuitous, however many turns, however distant it seems, takes us closer to our destination.

The labyrinth is like a pilgrimage. It meets each person where they are and helps them to take the next step on their spiritual path. Because it is so personal, it is a spiritual practice that can be enjoyed by everyone. There is no single “right” way to pray a labyrinth. Praying in whatever way helps you connect with God during the labyrinth encounter is the “right” way for you and serves as the best guide possible. Journalling and/or praying before or after the walk may help provide focus and insights.

If the labyrinth you are walking is crowded with other walkers, feel free to walk around those whose pace is different or if they stop. It’s okay for other people to move around you. Some find it helpful to stop at each turn. Some like to move at a measured but steady pace until they reach the centre. The path is a two-way street. Do what comes naturally when you meet someone else, just as you would if you were walking a narrow sidewalk.

Many have found that reciting Scripture on the labyrinth focuses their attention on biblical teaching and their relationship with God. For instance, a person may find it helpful to pray, “You show me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy” (Psalm 16:11) or Jesus’ words, “I am the way and the truth, and the life” (John 14:6) while moving on a labyrinth. You might like to choose your own scripture and write it on a pice of paper or a card before you walk.