BRATTLEBORO — On Wednesday, May 10, and Thursday, May 11, Brattleboro and Putney will host the Labyrinth for America walk.
Clive Johnson, an interfaith minister and writer from England, along with Sadelle Wiltshire, a Veriditas Certified Labyrinth Facilitator, spoke about the nature of the event they started, its history, and clarified misconceptions.
Participants at these walks, they said, are welcome to walk the Baltic-designed path for symbolic, healing, and/or individualized purposes. Its utility is diverse and can be determined by participants to meet their own needs and wishes.
Sadelle Wiltshire, who leads labyrinth walks in Putney and Bellows Falls, discussed the difference between the labyrinth and a maze.
“A 'labyrinth' in the sense that we are using it is not a 'maze.'” she said, “... [A] maze is meant to confuse.”
But a labyrinth “is a path - a single, unicursal path [leading] to the center, [with] one same path out ... with lots of twists and turns.” Twists and turns, she noted, that resemble those of life as well.
“[The labyrinth] throughout history usually made an appearance ... in times of great tumult in the world, and I would say we are certainly in one of those times of tumult right now,” Wiltshire said.
Johnson agreed, noting that their project was “birthed at a time of change and uncertainty in the USA.”
Balm for a turbulent time
“I was in Houston, Texas, the very week after the election last November, and felt troubled by many of the people that I was with who felt shock and uncertainty, quite disturbed, and several in tears,” Johnson said.
“It occurred to me that the labyrinth doesn't ask questions about politics or beliefs. It offers a safe, nonjudgmental place, where people commonly feel peace after walking,” he said.
Wiltshire noted “There are so many ways that it can be interpreted. For some people, [the labyrinth] is a spiritual practice, for some it's just a way of going to find a little bit of peace.”
She added that labyrinths are about 4,000 to 5,000 years old.
“The date keeps changing based off of the latest archaeological findings,” she said. “There were smaller inscriptions on walls and carvings. In the Middle Ages, they started appearing on the ground ...” And, around that same time, labyrinths began appearing in churches.
“Similar shapes of the classical labyrinth have popped up in the Southwest, India, in Scandinavia, really all over the world.”
Wiltshire and her colleagues were trained to expect to have skeptical and cynical responses to the practice of the labyrinth walk.
An archetypal pattern
“There have been people who think it's this 'new age-y' thing, or something that can't be trusted,” she said. “But this is an ancient archetypal pattern, and there's no denying that the pattern has shown up throughout our cultural history.” The labyrinth walk is not, as it turns out, an ethereal and impractical cause, but an implicit expression of world history.
And, Johnson says, it is not something that is solely relevant to a particular group of people. It can be universal.
“This morning,” Johnson said, “I was with someone who described herself as 'Indiana's #1 Democrat.' In Madison, Wis., I met a dedicated Republican and staunch supporter of the president. The labyrinth has traveled to different neighborhoods, and attracted people from different faith traditions, and folks who have no firm beliefs. People of all ages have walked it, including several preschool groups. I've been told by some folks that they're not native to the U.S.”
Johnson's hopes for the walk? “I love to see communities come together, so it would be wonderful to see folks who may not often have a chance to join in local associations and neighborhood groups come along to a walk - as well as those who are busy in the community too, of course!”
Johnson said he doesn't have any singular “grand plan” for his trip. But he added, “what is becoming clear is that I'm becoming more attuned to following a leading from the heart [rather] than from the head - and this is often taking me in unexpected directions.”