Labyrinth Magic

With an Autumn Equinox Ritual to Bring Us into Balance

I have to build a labyrinth…

I woke up one day a couple years ago feeling nudged by Spirit to build a labyrinth. It was maybe less of a nudge and more of a ‘you gotta do this now’.

OK, I HAVE to build a labyrinth.

The impulsive magic maker in me accepted this challenge with total fervor. When INSPIRATION strikes, I’m all in. Like ALL in. It took me a while before I located the perfect spot on our land circled by pines with views of the Blue Ridge mountains, but when I did, I got to work immediately. Within two or three weeks I, along with a few friends, gathered all the stones, mapped out the lines, and built a labyrinth.

Building the Labyrinth

The funny thing is, I don’t even know a lot about them. Undoubtedly more than some, but my knowledge skates the surface of their history and uses (but frankly, their 4000 year history is still somewhat of a mystery, even to the scholars). I’ve had the privilege of learning about and walking labyrinths from my dear friend and Spiritual teacher, Yukiko Amaya | My Goddess Path. She built one on their land during my Two Year Spiral into Goddess with her where we used it as an initiatory practice when I became a Priestess of Goddess under her tutelage (more about this in my fun labyrinth chat with life coach extraordinaire Kristen Forno | Life Threading available to paid subscribers). I was recently reminded of my first experience walking one indoors with another teacher of mine, Jennifer Halls, about eight years ago when I attended a women’s retreat on intuition and creativity. Since then I’ve walked our labyrinth dozens of times, and just in the past six months, I’ve walked two labyrinths in and around Santa Fe, NM, and found one at the Edgar Cayce Center in Virginia Beach to walk on my birthday. All three were very serendipitous occasions, which is part of labyrinth magic!

The thing about working with Spirit is that I often don’t fully know the WHY, but there’s always a KNOWING accompanied by a curiosity to learn more. There is still so much more to discover, but to borrow a friend’s phrase, here are the things I know:

I know labyrinths are portals: into Spirit, into the land on which they are built, into the body, into the ancient wisdom we carry in our bones, into our souls.

When I built my labyrinth, it was a practice of entering into deep relationship with the land. Not only did the land guide me in terms of placement, but each stone told me where it belonged. The night that I opened the labyrinth for the first time, walking it at sunset, our cat Vishnu joined me, followed by a huge barred owl who landed on a pine bough right in front of me. As I stood in the center and called in the directions, a practice of honoring the wheel of the year, the turning of the seasons, the elements, Goddess and Spirit, I felt this expansive wholeness—holiness—come over me as I gazed with wonder at the beauty all around and within me. I talk about MAGIC a lot. Most of the time, I don’t use it in the witchy sense of spellwork and charms; I use it to mean ALIVENESS, ENCHANTMENT, WONDER, AWE, EXCITEMENT. If glitter were a feeling, that’s magic! When we allow ourselves to fully be present in the moment, our minds’ chatter subsides, our breath gets slower and deeper, you start to see through a more vibrant lens, our hearts open, and we become receivers of all the loving energy available to us from the trees, animals, the moon and sun, the grass beneath our feet, from Spirit—this life force energy that animates us all. So in the center of the labyrinth, it’s a place where I let magic in. And that first night of walking this labyrinth was just that: pure magic.

I know that when you are lost in life, labyrinths can help reorient you to your path, your feet connecting with the sacred ground, the twists and turns while symbolizing life’s challenges can shake you loose from outmoded patterns, give you a new perspective. When you are out of balance, labyrinths bring you back to center, to the heart. The focus that it takes to walk within the path engages the thinking brain, allowing you to open up to the intuitive, creative energy of Spirit.

I know they are a place for receiving and returning with gifts and wisdom from Spirit. They are a place of reverence and connection.

I know they like to be walked with bare feet, soles/soul to the earth.

I know they are MAGICAL and transformative, and that our ancestors have known their power since 2000 BCE.

And I know how excited I am to share a very special conversation with a very special friend about our experiences with labyrinths, as well as a very special virtual labyrinth walk in honor of the Autumn Equinox.

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If you aren’t a paying member yet, JOIN NOW (it’s only 5.55 /month or $55 /yearly) to watch the interview and to experience the VIRTUAL LABYRINTH RITUAL I created just for this community!

Or, if that’s not in the cards right now, I encourage you to find a local labyrinth to walk in honor of the Autumn Equinox. And if you’re super local, come walk with me!

To find one near you:

www.labyrinthlocator.org

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LABYRINTH TALK & WALK FOR THE AUTUMN EQUINOX

As my vision for the Creative Heart Collective started to take shape, and I knew I wanted to offer rituals & seasonal celebrations for the membership community, I immediately felt called to use the labyrinth as the framework for the Autumn Equinox Ritual. This year in the Northern hemisphere the equinox falls on September 22nd, marking the first day of Autumn, where day and night are equally balanced, before we descend into the long nights of winter.

In this virtual labyrinth walk, you will be called on a pilgrim’s journey to find your wholeness—holiness—at this threshold between light and dark, outer and inner, growth and rest, movement and stillness.

Join me and my friend Kristen Forno of Life Threading, a mystical, magical, compassionate, loving, life coach, as we share our experiences, wisdom, lots of resources, and a beautiful, balancing labyrinth ritual for you to come home to yourself during the Equinox. It’s our first episode of (hopefully) many, many more ‘Coffee with Spirit’, a video/podcasts exploring (and being curious about) the magic, mystery and transformative experiences we’ve had while pursing lives led by Spirit.