The labyrinth - an ancient pattern found in many cultures around the world - is undergoing an international revival. Coming in many patterns and sizes, some of which date back over 4,000 years, these walking paths - some permanent, some portable - are growing in popularity as places for people of all faiths to find inner peace and connectedness to the divine.
The Contra Costa Times reports on some of the various types of labyrinths that are popping up locally. Reporter Bonita Brewer writes of one 82 year old woman who stays centered with her own spiraling backyard labyrinth. Another woman mentioned in the article walks at her church, but if she's at home and in need of calm, she lets her fingers do the walking along the path of a portable finger labyrinth.
Natural labryinths
While these places were most likely man made, natural labyrinths can be found (and built upon) as well. Helena Mazzariello told the Contra Costa Times she can be found regularly trekking a rock labyrinth that sprang from the mud in the Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve.
"It's a magical place," Mazzariello, who created the rogue Sibley labyrinth in 1990, said. Though never officially sanctioned by the East Bay Regional Park District, it took on a life of its own as hikers started adding rocks to give it permanence.
In many ways, the Sibley labyrinth's journey to the center and back mirrors the path of life, Mazzariello said, noting that some people - maybe swearing off drugs or praying for a deceased loved one - leave poetry or trinkets in the center during their visits.
Not a maze
Devotees note that one needn't be of any particular faith to walk a labyrinth. The paths, which are different from mazes in that there are no dead ends, but most often a single path that winds circuitously to the center and back out again, are places for meditation.
"It's like walking inside yourself, going inside to your own center, praying and then walking out. Sometimes you take problems in and they get solved - sometimes they don't" reported one woman who had her own backyard labyrinth built in 1999 after she toured several in Europe (including an 800-year-old spot at the Chartres Cathedral in France).
"When you're walking, the path of the labyrinth becomes a metaphor for your journey through life," says Lauren Artress, author of a book called Walking a Sacred Path.
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