Managing Editor Meryl Ann Butler has been building labyrinths since 1992 and is a founding member of The Labyrinth Society. For more background information on labyrinths, please see her other articles in this series, listed below.
Legacy Labyrinth #1, located in LaFalda, Argentina
(Image by John Ridder Legacy Labyrinth Project) Details DMCA
Annually since 2009, enthusiasts around the globe have been invited to "Walk as One at 1" by walking a labyrinth at 1:00 pm in local time zones, creating an unbroken wave of wellbeing flowing around the globe on World Labyrinth Day.
Dancing the maypole in the classic labyrinth at Whitewater Mesa Labyrinths, NM, 2012.
(Image by photo credit David Thornburg) Details DMCA
World Labyrinth Day is held on the first Saturday in May
WLD has been sponsored by The Labyrinth Society (TLS) for the past twelve years. This year is the 13th, and TLS is partnering with Veriditas, the Legacy Labyrinth Project, and the Australian Labyrinth Network in order to provide a variety of World Labyrinth Day activities.
The American Cancer Society states that walking labyrinths "may be helpful as a complementary method to decrease stress and create a state of relaxation."
Research conducted by Dr. Herbert Benson at Harvard Medical School's Mind/Body Medical Institute has found that focused walking meditations are highly effective at reducing anxiety and eliciting what Dr. Benson refers to as the relaxation response, which can:
- Lower blood pressure
- Lower breathing rates
- Reduce incidents of chronic pain
- Reduce insomnia
Unlike a maze, a labyrinth offers only one path, and requires no decision-making, allowing the walker to enter a state of meditation or reverie.
Shirley MacLaine has a beautiful stone labyrinth at her home in Santa Fe. (The labyrinth starts at 0:40)
Retired Episcopalian priest, Hal Woods, and a group of his parishioners built their Community Labyrinth at All Saints Episcopal Church in South Burlington, VT, in 1999, while he was rector. (Woods had previously held a position at the University of Vermont for 21 years where he developed the Office of Volunteer Programs/Center for Service-Learning, and shared this great tidbit: "at that time, students were getting involved in community projects. One day a citizen activist came into my office wanting to develop a free breakfast program for children in a low income neighborhood, and he wanted to involve UVM student volunteers to make it work. I was skeptical, but pleased when he not only made it work but students remained involved and inspired for many years - an early example of the leadership of a young Bernie Sanders! Leadership that was matched by Jane's work with students in later years.")
Shortly after building the Community Labyrinth, sculptor Kate Pond approached them with a novel idea, and she worked together with Bill Gottesman and Patrick Macmanaway to create the Odyssey of Light, a sculpture that uses a perfectly accurate mirror system to project a cross of light onto the center of the labyrinth on the solstices and equinoxes.
1. Adjusting the mirrors (Pond at R), 2: equinox (Pond at R) 3. Solstice
(Image by Hal Woods) Details DMCA
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