Seven Sacred Pauses

I am a Veriditas advanced labyrinth facilitator. A part of me is open to the magic and mystery in the universe but, the other part can be skeptical. Maybe it is because I am a Pisces. I have found that the Universe is willing to help me by repeating lessons. Reminders to pause and take note. Let’s call them a pause.

When I was at Chartres the message, I got several times, was I walk among my teachers. I would like to tell you about one of my teachers. A few years ago, I offered a series of public labyrinth walks. As with any walk you never know what is going to happen. On our first walk we welcomed the small group as they arrived and they explored the finger labyrinths. One woman, let’s call her Natalie, was rather taken with a beaded classical labyrinth I have. Natalie told me that she thought this labyrinth would be something her son, who is blind, might like. That was my first reminder to pause. We never know what burdens or challenges people are carrying.

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Can a Buried Stream Summon a Labyrinth?

Hamish Miller and Paul Broadhurst, authors of The Sun and the Serpent, dowsed ley lines in the Glastonbury and Cornwall area finding numerous sacred sites that sprang up centuries ago, along the often-interwoven underground energy currents they termed the Mary and Michael lines. In this century, the long-buried Taddle Creek was influential in the creation of an 11-circuit classical labyrinth here in Toronto, Canada. The lost Taddle Creek appears on a sketch in the city archives in 1797, of the Macauley estate in what is now downtown Toronto.

In 1984 the architects (Thom Partnership and Landscape Architects Fleming, Corban McCarthy) were commissioned to make meaning of a parched, leftover plot of public land enclosed by the Church of the Holy Trinity, the back door of the Eaton Centre and the Bell Trinity building.

They acted upon a whisper from the Taddle Creek, creating a water fountain and basin. Trinity Square Park, also featured three gates leading to a sunken square of lawn.

Sixteen years later, members of the Labyrinth Community Network of Ontario (LCNO) also heard that whisper.

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Find Solace Stone by Stone

The Stone Garden labyrinth resides on the east side of my 4.5 acres of property west of Brantford. As a spiritual tool, I became acquainted with it in the late 90’s through a founding member of LCNO, Anne Tanner. I will be forever grateful for Anne’s influence, guidance and friendship. After becoming a facilitator, I worked with a canvas, Chartres-style labyrinth in my community. I still am drawn to its sacred beauty; however, when it came time for me to build a labyrinth on my property, I chose to build a modified Classic or Cretan left entrance one. My spiritual director, at the time, suggested this style for me, as it was a gentler walk. She was right. The Stone Garden labyrinth has given me 15 years of support and guidance through some very difficult times. I opened it September 15,2006, with a gathering of friends. It was a beautiful ceremony, with all in attendance offering their prayers.

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A Temporary Labyrinth with Lingering Effect

Recently, I met up with three friends to walk the Tree of Life labyrinth that artist Dennis Bolohan was commissioned to design and install beside the library in Cookstown for Innisfil’s bicentennial celebrations which had been delayed due to COVID restrictions.

As a committed labyrinth walker and certified Labyrinth Facilitator I was curious to experience walking the Tree of Life design. The Chartres 11-circuit design is my chosen favourite, but I managed to keep an open mind as we made our way to the entrance where a sign gave us a brief overview of the labyrinth’s background and purpose.

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Labyrinths and Sacred Land

Take your time, pace yourself, there are healing powers within and without.

Spontaneously, these words spring to mind like an ancestor chanting, as I walk the curves of a labyrinth on the side of a windswept hill. The stone-set triskele pattern that my partner and I designed recalls our Celtic origins, and fills me with the triple joys of heritage, our home in the Otonabee watershed, and the panoramic scenery stretching for miles in all directions. Accompanied by birdsong and sheltered by a green canopy, entering the labyrinth is to find a zone beyond normal time and space, where cares and worries are left behind. And however the magic works, I always leave the winding trail with a new feeling or direction, and sometimes, with the answer to a question I don’t remember asking.

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New to the labyrinth?

Now is a good time to learn about labyrinths and our website is a good place to start.

Especially necessary in these times, labyrinths restore a sense of balance to body, mind and spirit.

If you have access to a labyrinth where you can walk at a safe distance from others, you can begin with these basic guidelines.

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Labyrinth news from Rwanda

The labyrinth has reached children in Rwanda, thanks to the efforts of Susan Murphy and on the ground partner, Francine Muhawenimana from the Children's Peace Library. Over a period of two months in 2020 The Children’s Peace Library hosted labyrinth projects. They presented workshops on creating different types of labyrinths that fit into the Rwandan culture: Umuganda (community work) with prayers for peace, finger labyrinths using imigondo art form (cow dung), reconciliation for conflict training and Stick (children's game). The headmaster was so excited he had volunteers paint a large Chartres style labyrinth in the school compound.

Although COVID has stalled this program for now, Susan continues her outreach work with The Labyrinth Society and with us, the Labyrinth Community Network of Ontario. This work was supported by a grant from The Labyrinth Society.

Photo credit: Susan Murphy

Photo credit: Susan Murphy

Trinity Square Park, Then and Now

An historic glimpse of Trinity Square Park begins with a distant view to the time when the Taddle Creek meandered through what is now, a densely urban community. The park is on the traditional territory of many nations including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples.

Trinity Square Park today holds the footprint of its history in Toronto’s downtown.

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A Choice of Videos to enhance your labyrinth walks

These videos were created during the recent pandemic, but they’re available for regular finger walking or to take to your favourite outdoor labyrinth.

This link to a virtual walk and the soulful music of Michael Franklin is yours to experience whenever you’d like.

Try listening and watching while you use a finger labyrinth. Or download it to your phone and use it when you can at the Toronto Public Labyrinth keeping safe distancing.

1. Michael Franklin Musician and Sujeewa - Labyrinth Walker

Other links are messages of welcome from two labyrinth friends.

2. The Rev. Dr. John Joseph Mastandrea- Brief Introduction to the Toronto Public Labyrinth

3. Sujeewa speaking at the Labyrinth

Circle blessings,

Jo Ann Stevenson

NewsNotes July 2016

Three inspiring leaders will guide Veriditas pilgrimages in September: The Reverend Dr. Lauren Artress; Judith Tripp, MA, MFT; and Laura Esculcas.

  • Experience the newly restored nave and labyrinth at the venerable Chartres Cathedral, in France September 10 and 11th. Judith Tripp will weave a sacred circle to explore Mary through lecture, mediation, art, music and ritual. Register for "Meeting Mary."
  • Strengthen connections to ourselves, our communities and the world. Join the Reverend Dr. Lauren Artress September 12 to 16th at Chartres Cathedral to tap artful wisdom and find creative openings on the individual and collective levels. Register for "The Rising Phoenix: Birthing New Images in these Challenging Times."
  • New territory for Veriditas. Register for "Mystical Portugal: Labyrinths, Legends and Sites of the Sacred Feminine". Judith Tripp and Laura Esculcas lead a soulful journey September 19 to 24th into the landscape of the "people of the light," the ancient Celt-Iberian ancestors of the modern Portuguese. Experience the wisdom of the labyrinth and numinous sites connected with the legends of Mary.
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NewsNotes March 2016

  • Like colouring? Look into Zen Doodling Mandalas by Carolyn Scrace. Pages 54-67 are labyrinth-related. Available at the library and bookstores.
  • Check out Kelly Child’s book, The Lehi Key, listed under Philosophical Studies on our Books page.
  • Facilitator directory now includes Facilitator’s websites.
  • 16 new Labyrinths have been added to our directory. Click on the Labyrinth name to see the full listing with photos.
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What Is A Labyrinth?

A labyrinth is a pattern with a single winding path that leads from the entrance to the centre. All labyrinths are unicursal, that is, they have only one path. Mazes are multicursal. Their many paths present a puzzle which the walker must solve in order to reach the centre.

WHAT DOES A LABYRINTH PATTERN LOOK LIKE?

There are two basic labyrinth patterns, the Classical or Cretan, which has seven paths or circuits that surround the centre, and the Chartres or Medieval style, based on a pattern set into the floor of Chartres Cathedral in France in the early years of the 13th century, which has eleven circuits leading to the centre.

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Labyrinth Walking: A journey of the body, mind, and soul.

Reprinted from alive.com (April 2011) by Josie Padro

When a friend invited Jo Ann Stevenson to walk a labyrinth, she had no idea it would have such an impact on her life. As she followed the circular path, her thoughts turned to her recent cancer diagnosis.

“I was aware of the curves and that breast cancer seemed to me a curve that had been thrown into my life, so I had the feeling that I was walking on my life path,” says Stevenson.

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On the Ground, in the Wild, a Path to Inner Peace

Reprinted from New York Times (December 20, 2007) by Anne Raver

Reisterstown, Md.

It was a gray, blustery December day when I walked the labyrinth in the woods behind Pamela White’s ranch-style house in Glyndon, an old community a few miles from my place. The town started out as a Methodist revival camp and a summer place, 10 degrees cooler than the city, for wealthy Baltimoreans. My grandmother used to go every summer and get closer to God under a big tent. The camp is long gone, and now the streets are lined with Victorian houses with wide porches, mixed in with 1950s ranch houses.

Ms. White has a two-acre stand of woods out back, with a low, curving stone wall at the edge of the forest, which slopes down to a natural bowl in the land where stones mark a spiraling path laid beneath tall oaks and poplars.

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Wend Your Way to Peace and Contentment

Reprinted from Toronto Globe and Mail (June 16, 2007) by Melissa Whetsone

Every month, Leslie Bolt puts on her walking shoes, pulls the laces tight and heads from her home in Unionville to the Eaton Centre. But it's not visions of iPods or a new summer dress that fill her head. Instead, she pictures herself rising from her wheelchair and walking a labyrinth.

Just beyond the doors of the shopping mecca sits the Toronto Public Labyrinth. Within its circular shape, which measures about 22 metres in diameter, is a path marked by two-toned interlocking bricks. The path weaves walkers left and right before leading to the labyrinth's centre and back out.

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Winding Paths Can Lead to Wellness

For centuries, labyrinths have been used to promote physical and spiritual health

Reprinted from Toronto Star (January 05, 2007) by Janice Mawhinney, Life Writer

Physiotherapist Angie Andreoli says it's an uplifting experience to watch patients from the Toronto Rehab foundation walk or wheel through the Toronto Public Labyrinth in Trinity Square Park.

"I have seen people with poor energy, who are unable to walk longer than the hallway, walk the labyrinth with purposefulness and a sense of joy. That is very special," she says.

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