Walking A Sacred Path
Rediscovering the Labyrinth as a Spiritual Path
by The Rev. Dr. Lauren Artress
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The Great-grandmother's Thread, pg. 14
The traditional
God is a God "out there," a transcendent God who acts through history—a God outside of ourselves who keeps track of whether we follow the rules. This transcendent God is more associated with God the Father, who no longer satisfies the deep hunger in our souls. In the fairy tale, the source of the thread is hidden, but attached to the princess' ring. To walk a sacred path, each or us must find our own touchstone that puts us in contact with the invisible thread. This touchstone can be nature (as it was for me early on), sharing with our friends, playing with our children, painting on our day off, or walking in the country. It may be the Sunday-morning liturgy and Eucharist. Walking a sacred path means that we know the importance of returning to the touchstone that moves us. The labyrinth can serve as a touchstone.
 The labyrinth stands with a tradition that recaptures the feminine sense of the Source. It utilizes the imagination and the pattern-discerning part of our nature. It invites relationship and offers a whole way of seeing. When we allow ourselves to be whole, we allow new visions to emerge within us and within our cultures. Due to the loss of the feminine, many of us are out of touch with the depths or our beings, our Source. The feminine must be enlivened and welcomed back into our male-dominated world so integration can begin to occur—between feminine and masculine, receptive and assertive, imagination and reason. But we are beginning to awaken, we are being freed to seek, we are feeling the restless force of our own longing. We long for healing and peace with the past.
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Excerpts from Walking A Sacred Path ©1995 by Dr. Lauren Artress used with permission from the author. To purchase a copy of Walking a Sacred Path, visit the non-profit bookstore Sacred Path Books & Art. This link is provided as a service to explorefaith.org visitors and registered users.
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