Saturday, May 4th is the 16th annual World Labyrinth Day (WLD) and you are invited to celebrate with thousands of people around the world!
World Labyrinth Day is an annual international event founded by The Labyrinth Society (TLS) in 2009.
A labyrinth is an ancient, geometric pattern that has a single, meandering path that leads into the center and out again. Its design is based on a circle, the ancient symbol for healing, unity and wholeness.
The Labyrinth Society, in collaboration with Veriditas, The Legacy Labyrinth Project, and the Australian Labyrinth Network extends an invitation to anyone to "Walk as One at 1 (pm)", joining other participants around the globe in creating a wave of peaceful energy washing across local time zones. Individuals or groups can get involved in private or public walks on a full-sized labyrinth, or let their fingers do the walking on a finger labyrinth.
Ellen Bintz Meuch, World Labyrinth Day Coordinator, noted that on World Labyrinth Day 2023, there were 210 events registered i on six continents. Twenty-six (26) countries and six (6) Australian territories participated, including people from thirty-nine (39) US states.
TLS member, Maia Scott is a California artist and labyrinth builder who created the Garden of Sacred disEmbodiment art exhibition at Root Division, (part of Crip'd Ecologies) in February and March 2024. The installation featured a three-circuit labyrinth made from twisted cordage and shapes of hands created with "intention towards peace and compassion made by the community at large at local libraries, farmers markets and other organizations in collaboration with Museum of Craft and Design."
She created a tactile Peace Sign Labyrinth made from a collage of fractals she made on her iPad, she used the male half of standard snaps to give the outline of the paths a three-dimensional feel.
Maia Scott with her self portrait, 'Maia Gaia.' Details, clockwise from top left: hand labyrinth, flower-eye labyrinths, womb labyrinth made from handmade paper and paint.
(Image by Maia Scott) Details DMCA
On the opposite wall she created a self-portrait from a Mylar cut-out of herself, which she describes "as a tree with upstretched arms that have sort of Mickey Mouse fingers complete with a head full of flying spiky hair and feet that are actually roots. Many cutouts of my hand labyrinth, literally made from my handprint, represent the leaves in the tree. Of course, Gleam (her guide dog) is also present at my left side, wearing a harness made out of the same dappled, green and gold paper that my labyrinth womb is made from. She becomes a sort of bush blooming with flowers which are made from eye-shaped labyrinths. Three circuit labyrinth moon phases arc across the top of the space, also on reflective silver materials."
Maia's metallic wax seal stickers stamped with her spiral hand labyrinth pattern.
(Image by Maia Scott) Details DMCA
Maia also created 3-D, metallic wax seal style sticker stamped with her spiral hand Labyrinth pattern, noting, "I've always loved the tactile nature and mystery of wax seals, but averse to burning myself and ruining things with drippy wax. So, when I learned that I could get wax seal stickers made with my own artwork, I decided I needed some to personalize book projects and who knows what else!"
Elizabeth (BJ) Mosher is a TLS member, a trained Veriditas Labyrinth Facilitator and is the resident Labyrinth Facilitator for the Kripalu Yoga and Wellness Center of Northern New York, where she is also on the board of directors. In adddition she is a Reiki and Karuna Master teacher.
Nancy Pfeil with the singing bowl at Kripalu Yoga and Wellness Center in Adams Center, New York
(Image by BJ Mosher) Details DMCA
She lives in Alexandria Bay New York near the Canadian border with her husband Alex.
Monique Carrol and Umbrella on the Labyrinth at Eleuthera Island, Bahamas
(Image by BJ Mosher) Details DMCA
In the winters they live on the beautiful island of Eleuthera Bahamas, and she builds beach labyrinth wherever she goes!
BJ Mosher at the Iva Smith Gallery, Hammond, NY, with the angel sculpture by the late Will Salisbury.
(Image by BJ Mosher) Details DMCA
BJ has held a WLD walk every year since the inception in 2009, and notes that this year for World Labyrinth Day, "We will be offering a labyrinth 'Walk as One at One' at the Iva Smith Gallery in Hammond, New York, and also at the Kripalu Yoga Center, both at the same time. For further information, please contact me through my Facebook page, "Elizabeth J Mosher."
For more information, please see the other articles in this series, as well as the links below.
Guide dog extraordinare, Gleam, in the three circuit labyrinth made from handprints.
(Image by Maia Scott) Details DMCA
Labyrinth Ten Bay Beach,Eleuthrra Bahamas 2024 BJ Mosher building at low tide on the water Sand dunes 7 circuit, Labyrinth, which was shortly after reclaimed by the Caribbean sea
(Image by BJ Mosher) Details DMCA
World Labyrinth Day Information
The WLD flyer is available in 11 languages.
Join the global community on Zoom for a handheld finger labyrinth walk led by Rev. Dr. Lauren Artress and/or another online event, some of which require registration.
World Labyrinth Day in Educational Settings was initiated by the Australian Labyrinth Network (ALN) in 2019 in collaboration with TLS.
From 2020-2022, the Legacy Labyrinth Project's Big Connection researched the effects of mindfully walking labyrinths with a shared intention. Here is a link to the final research project published in Frontiers in Psychology.
See "Myth Salon with Dr. Dennis Hall & Dr. Lauren Artress: The History and Phenomenology of Labyrinths" here.
The author, Meryl Ann Butler, is a founding member of The Labyrinth Society and has been building labyrinths since 1992.
