Skip to content

Faith Foundations: Dancing on the Labyrinth?

Do you know what a labyrinth is?
8578274_web1_joan-mug

“Let’s dance!” Lauren Artress, Spiritual Director

Do you know what a labyrinth is? It is a pathway, over 4,000 years old, that takes the walker into the centre…and back out again. Not a maze, which has dead-ends that trick and scares us, but a path that leads to peace and sacred mindfulness. Sounds solemn and serious, doesn’t it?

So where does the dancing part come in? Do you sense that a memory is coming up? Yes, here it is.

A few years ago I was dancing on an indoor labyrinth at the Mount Carmel Spiritual Centre in Niagara Falls, Ont. Rain and wind were pummeling the windows of this old monastery. Immersed in Spiritual Direction studies — studies that were often serious and solemn with soul searching and discernment — it was intense work. Dancing with others, including priests and churchy-type folks, to music we were making up as we went along — not at all what I expected to do.

The facilitator was training us in all-things–labyrinth. After several candlelight walks on this beautiful labyrinth, she turned up the lights, turned on some crazy music and said, “OK, class…let’s dance!” What? We were exhausted and only wanted to go to our rooms, message family, and get to sleep.

But then one person began to laugh, dance and jump around. There is always one person in a class, right? No, it wasn’t me. But, after a few minutes, others joined in. I did too. And suddenly I wasn’t exhausted anymore. The energy of laughter, music and dancing brought us back to the reason we were here: to learn and love and listen and celebrate. Oh, and to graduate and get that coveted certificate.

If you think that your path should only be a solemn one and that you must be serious in order to be spiritual; if you believe that there is only one way to go and it is so difficult that you may as well stop…I am here to tell you that it is OK to dance and jump over the lines! In fact, I can almost hear the Divine One laughing as we do.

(We have a labyrinth right here in Castlegar. Behind the Community Complex, through the gate, come and dance with me. Wednesday mornings at 11 a.m.)