Interview with Lauren Artress
Moderator: Kathy Carmean
APRIL 7, 2003
Kathy Carmean: Welcome to One On One. My name is Kathy Carmean, and today our very special guest is The Reverend Dr. Lauren Artress. Dr. Artress is an Episcopal priest, a psychotherapist, and author of Walking a Sacred Path, which reintroduced the labyrinth as a form of walking meditation and prayer. Since 1986, she has served as canon for special ministries at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco and founder of Veriditas, a worldwide labyrinth project. Dr. Artress has become the most visible, sought-after leader of the labyrinth movement around the world. Her personal focus is on creating group events that nurture the connection between the human and the divine.
Welcome, Dr. Artress.
Lauren Artress: Thank you.
Carmean: This interview may be the first exposure people have to the labyrinth, and many might be surprised to learn that the very first one was placed in Chartres Cathedral in France in 1201 as a reconciliation process. How would you describe the labyrinth to someone for the first time?
Artress: The labyrinth is a pattern that is actually laid in the floor of most of these great cathedrals. It's 42 feet across, and it's one pattern-- a large circle that has one path that begins and leads all the way through it. So you're not going to miss any inch of the whole labyrinth. You just simply follow the paths. A lot of people confuse this. It's not a maze. It's actually designed to help you find your way. It's not designed for you to lose your way in it. The labyrinth is one path with eleven circuits, which means it goes around the center eleven times. This is the pattern in the floor of Chartres Cathedral in France. They are called pavement labyrinths. They are flat to the floor and inlaid in the floor.
Carmean: In reading your book, I understand that oftentimes people will interchange the word "labyrinth" and "maze," and this is really not correct. Could you explain the difference to us, especially from a spiritual development perspective?
Artress: They are confused in our language. A maze has cul-de-sacs, dead-ends, many entrances or exits, and so you're brought out into the outer world, kind of trying to find your way. It's often anxiety-producing, too. A labyrinth, because it has one path, is really a spiritual exercise--you simply trust the path. Then you realize how much is in the way of just trusting the path, even though your cognitive mind knows that it will take you to the center. You meet yourself. You might be anxious. You might be judging. You might be scolding yourself that you're not going to do it right. It becomes a mirror of the soul as you are walking the labyrinth.
Carmean: When you began this journey over ten years ago, the labyrinth had not been used for over 300 years, I understand. What led you to rediscover the labyrinth?
Artress: It was a circuitous process, just like the labyrinth. I certainly was looking for large group spiritual programming, because at that point I was directing a center called Quest: Grace Cathedral Center for Spiritual Wholeness. So spiritual programming was very important, but really more close to home was the fact that I just felt like a failed meditator. I could get up in the morning, focus my mind, concentrate, quiet my mind. But I couldn't do that when my stress level went up beyond some invisible threshold. Just when I needed a practice, I didn't have it.
After seeing this repeated pattern over several months, really several years, I decided, there's got to be another way to quiet my mind so I can reach deep within myself. And walking was the key. Moving my body was the key. As long as you're moving and finding your own natural pace--which we encourage people to do in the labyrinth--then your mind comes into synchronicity. It falls into sync with the flow of your body.
Carmean: So it really sprang from a desire to get quiet yourself?
Artress: Yes, very much so.
Carmean: In your book Walking A Sacred Path, that you published in 1995, you wrote of how you had to learn about the divine art of sacred geometry in order to understand the labyrinth, and you had some pretty funny passages about that as well. Could you please explain how geometry can be sacred and why it's so critical to the labyrinth?
Artress: Especially since I got a D in it in 10th grade?
Carmean: Well, you didn't tell us it was a D. You just said you passed.
Artress: Geometry is sacred when it is mirrored from nature. The labyrinth is based on not only the circle--which is a universal symbol in all cultures around the world--but it's also based on the double spiral. If you think of ocean waves coming in and out, that's all spiral. If you look at the water going down your drain, it's spiral. There's spiral patterns. If you look at seashells you can see spirals. Spirals are in nature. So when geometry is reflecting that, it's called sacred.
Sacred geometry was an art in the Middle Ages that is lost to us now. It's based on everything being in proportion to itself, but not necessarily symmetrical. Many people are fascinated with sacred geometry and are caught up with drawing the labyrinth from Chartres--the eleven circuit medieval labyrinth. They draw it again and again. Some people base it on the Vesica Piscis. Personally I haven't gotten into the specifics of sacred geometry. You know, when we took our geometry classes, I get into more of the metaphoric understanding of it that some people describe as the envelope of pulsation. It's a way of being able to contain energy and create an energy center because of the design and the specifics of the drawing.
Another way of describing sacred geometry is frozen music, and I love that image, because, in a way, when we come to the labyrinth and begin to walk it, we're the frozen music. Then as we begin to follow the path you're turning left and then you're turning right, and then you're turning left again. You move through this wonderfully gracious pattern, and it unfreezes you. It opens your heart. It opens your mind. It quiets yourself so you can find your basic flow and be in rhythm with yourself.
Carmean: What beautiful metaphors to invite us to experience it. In Walking a Sacred Path, you quote Søren Kierkegaard who said, "Every human being comes to earth with sealed orders," then say that the labyrinth can be a transformational tool to help people discover and connect to their individual gifts to use to better humankind. You go on to say that "Spiritual restlessness is rampant because many of us feel we aren't using our gifts."
Lauren, how can choosing to walk the labyrinth lead us to the answers that we seek?
Artress: Walking the labyrinth really somehow turns the key and the lock for many people. Many people feel that we aren't living out what they're here for; that they haven't found their sealed orders. And, of course, sealed orders can change, too, as you move into a different phase of your life.
I think this is part of the mystery, Kathy, of the labyrinth, because I can't exactly answer how that happens specifically. I do think it has to do with the sacredness of the design. It comes, I believe, from the School of Chartres, which is an esoteric or metaphysical or you might say mystical school from the Fifth Century to the Twelfth Century. It uses the metaphoric part of the brain. When you're walking the path, it is symbolic of your path in life. You realize that we're not only human beings on a spiritual path; we're spiritual beings on a human path. That beautiful inversion begins then as your spiritual self sees the bigger picture--[you realize] your presence here on earth is valuable, and you have something to contribute.
That's one thing, and then there's this beautiful understanding that the labyrinth is very gracious. People who are very hard on themselves, beating themselves up, giving themselves negative messages all the time, begin to hear that in a new way. In fact, they begin to realize that they're doing it. And so the sense of ease, non-judgment and self-acceptance, all of those things flow out of the labyrinth walk.
Those are very good beginnings for us to get our feet on the ground, to be able to understand, "Hey, we're here for a special reason, each of us. Like Hildegard said, "It doesn't have to be original, but it has to be unique." [That comes from] the sense of being present and walking the labyrinth, especially in groups, because people get the sense that we're really in a cosmic dance--we're all on this planet together; we're all walking the path together, whether we know it or not.
Carmean: You've also noted that sometimes people have an uneventful experience in the labyrinth while others have revelatory experiences. What accounts for these different experiences? Is there any preparation one can do before entering the labyrinth for the first time?
Artress: Let me start with the last part of that question. When you approach a labyrinth, it's good to take a few moments to quiet yourself, to bring yourself into your own presence. Some people might say a prayer for the intention of their walk. Let yourself be comfortable, notice your breathing. Then as you begin to walk it, just simply allow yourself to follow the path and follow your own natural pace. That's really key. Some people who feel they should go slow will lose their balance, because it's really important to find your natural pace. And that will change throughout the different phases of the walk.
I also think it's where we are in our lives. Somebody might have just gotten bad news that one of their parents had a diagnosis of cancer or something like that. They might be more receptive. But, also, another element of that question is, our culture trains us to discount our experiences. Somebody can have a very insightful experience and hear, for instance, guidance. That's not unusual in the labyrinth. In the Christian tradition, we call it audition, that you can hear guidance; that some wonderful divine part within us speaks to us. The same thing may happen to another person, and they don't recognize what it is.
One woman came up to me and said, "You know, nothing happened to me in the labyrinth except I felt a deep sense of peace." I don't know what I said to her, but I may have said facetiously, "Oh, gee. I'm sorry. Only peace?" So we do discount. When somebody comes up and says nothing happened in the labyrinth, I always ask them, "What did nothing feel like?" Because then that connects them to the experience and then they realize they had a whole flow of feelings while they were in it.
Carmean: So it sounds like processing after getting out of the labyrinth is probably a good idea as well?
Artress: It is. This is part of the workshops we do, when you have a little more time to process. We do a great deal of processing when we're walking a sacred path in Chartres in France. It's not so much processing to share everything that happened in the walk, because you can diffuse the process by sharing. So you really need to be selective, and that's why I encourage journaling. Because it's still non-verbal, and yet you have a record of it.
Carmean: So process it, but perhaps internally and not share it with others?
Artress: Yes, unless it's a spiritual director or a therapist.
Carmean: Thank you. Lauren, you've been called a pioneer in the renaissance of Western spirituality. You have said that Western Culture has confused religion with spirituality. Can you comment on the relationship between these two?
Artress: Certainly. They are related. I don't know who to give this credit to, but there's the old joke of "Religion is for people who believe in hell, and spirituality is for people who've been there." I think that's really a good way of capturing that spirituality is experiential. Spirituality is about growing in God, growing in understanding of ourselves, and it's in the context and the container of religion. As long as you're deepening in compassion, increasing your patience, decreasing your judgments, and finding some way of being of service in the world, that's what spirituality is about. Now, religion is about that, too, but spirituality is more the application of the religious process.
Carmean: Thank you for that clarification. As a result of people listening to you today, some may want to enter the labyrinth, but might not have access to one in their community. What suggestions do you have for them?
Artress: One is the finger meditation tool, which is finding its way into therapists' waiting rooms, and it's very much available for people who are homebound. It's a wonderful, wonderful tool. There's a sand labyrinth. But one of the delightful surprises now is that you can just about find a labyrinth anywhere. Go to the website at Grace Cathedral, www.gracecathedral.org/labyrinth. Click on the labyrinth locator there, and you can look for labyrinths by city.
Carmean: I am going to make an assumption, Lauren, that your personal experience with the labyrinth has evolved and changed over time. Would you be willing to comment on that for us, please?
Artress: Sure. I sort of feel like a living pigeon. I've been using the labyrinth for many, many years now, about 11 or 12 years. And it's very -- I find it very effective. I used to walk it all the time with the groups that I presented it, under the understanding that I didn't want to give it away without having it inside me. Now, it's imprinted in me. I can go sit in the center of the labyrinth for a few moments and have the same effect or deepening effect as though I walked it. I will walk it if I have time, but often I don't.
I was in Little Rock a couple of weeks ago at the Oasis Center, and they have a beautiful labyrinth. We lit the luminatas, and it was a starlit night, and a beautiful, beautiful place right by a lake. It was just extraordinary. So I have all these wonderful gifts each time I walk a labyrinth wherever I go. It's just full of beauty and full of graciousness.
Carmean: So it's not a one-time event is what I'm hearing you say. It gets richer and deeper and gets imprinted on your heart.
Artress: Very much so.
Carmean: Every time you walk it?
Artress: Very much so. When I first began to use the labyrinth, I said, "Oh, somebody will walk this three times and be bored to death," but it's not true at all. Each time is a very different and original experience.
Carmean: You have said, "I think we're teaching people how to pray. We're teaching people how to find their own natural rhythm. We're teaching people that what we do is okay. And what it's doing for people is that once you are in touch with your natural rhythm, more grounded on the path in your body, grounded in the way it feels to you, the way it comes across to you, people get catapulted into their work. People get catapulted into service. Something catalyzes. Something comes together, and unique things happen. A lot of times, people move directly into service." Do you have anything to add to these words many experiences later?
Artress: Well, I would just underline and emphasize every one of those words, because it's so true that people somehow get in touch with that deep, deep longing within themselves to be of service. And anything that's in their way, they really can see and look at, because, again, the labyrinth being a mirror of the soul, it reflects what's in your way.
For instance, you can be walking the path and feel very, very anxious, and feel you're going to lose your way. You're so frightened about that that it really takes over your whole experience of it. Well, what's that about? [It's important] to be able to look at that and clear that away. Many of us are captives, prisoners of our fears and prisoners of deep long-held feelings of anger or guilt that won't let us go. But once you see it, then you know what you're working with. It's such a wonderful tool that way. Whether the creators of the Chartres labyrinth knew this or not--I think they did. I really do think they knew what they were creating.
Carmean: So it sounds like a discovery process.
Artress: Yes, and it's a God process. It's a spiritual process in that you're discovering how God is working in your life.
Carmean: Well, thank you. I wish we had more time. Lauren, thank you so much for sharing your experiences and your vision for "peppering the planet with the labyrinth for people to connect to their spiritual selves."
Listeners, remember, you can learn more about the labyrinth by reading Dr. Artress' excellent book Walking a Sacred Path: Rediscovering the Labyrinth as a Spiritual Tool. She also has prepared a personal labyrinth kit and personal meditations called the sand labyrinth.
|
