According to Angeles Arrien in The Signs of Life, “The spiral symbolizes the process of growth and evolution. It is the process of coming to the same point again and again, but at a different level so that everything is seen in a new light. The result is a new perspective on issues, people and places.”
Walking a labyrinth is a contemplative practice. Walking is a rhythmic movement, which stimulates the right and lefts sides of the brain. This helps to balance mind and body, to integrate thinking and feeling, to process old experiences and allow new ideas to emerge. Walking a labyrinth generates an inner stillness that enables us to tap into our inner knowing, our intuition.
Helen Curry states in The Way of the Labyrinth, “People all over the world are discovering that the ancient practice of walking labyrinths not only solves problems, but also soothes the nerves, calms the soul, mends the heart, and heals the body. It can help bring us into balance giving us a sense of wholeness. Labyrinths offer the opportunity to walk in meditation to that place within us where the rational merges with the intuitive and the spiritual is reborn.”
The Lavender Spiral of Life Labyrinth at Raven's View Farm invites visitors to explore and experience walking meditation.
The labyrinth is believed to be an archetype created in the collective unconscious. A labyrinth is a spiral path that was used in ancient rituals as a symbol of initiation, death and rebirth, fertility and was used in rites to honour mother earth and to commemorate the spiritual journey.
The Labyrinth at Raven's View Farm is different from the traditional pattern you may have encountered in churches, hospitals or parks. It is a series of seven lavender spirals, planted within a seven-pointed star anchored by Prairie Skyrise Aspens. These columnar trees are the pillars that demarcate this temple garden dedicated to Gaia, Goddess of the Earth. Each tree becomes your entry point into the labyrinth. Marked by seven different varieties of lavender you walk in the direction our planet spins, clockwise, from one lavender plant to the next one of its kind in the next row around the seven rays of the star in a spiral until you reach the centre.
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