In recent decades the rediscovered meditative practice of labyrinth walking has been building in popularity across the world.
Historically found in many ancient cultures it is believed to have been adopted into the Christian tradition around the fourth century. By the middle ages labyrinths were installed into cathedrals across europe, often along pilgrimage routes and sometimes seen as a ‘pilgrimage in-place’ in times when a pilgrimage to another place, such as the Holy Land, was difficult to make.
Bishop Jeremy Greaves, contrasts mazes and labyrinths by saying: “A maze is designed so that you are tricked and confronted by choices – you are challenged to discover the maze’s centre—but a labyrinth has only one winding path to its centre.”
Much like our lives, whose twists and turns leave us metaphorically lost and disorientated at times, the message of a labyrinth is that although the world around us (and in us) will change in difficult ways, there are traditions, paths and practices that will hold us throughout.
Weather permitting, a 9 circuit chartres labyrinth is available to walk on the Montville Village Green on the second Saturday of the month (coinciding with the Montville markets.)
