"As mindfulness and meditation have gone mainstream, people around the world have been turning to labyrinths as a spiritual exercise or for stress relief," says WLD coordinator, Lars Howlett. "Based on an informal event survey in 2017, over 5,000 people participated in WLD from more than 45 states and 20 countries."
TLS notes that celebrations of World Labyrinth Day can be posted and found via the events calendar of the Labyrinth Society. The World Wide Labyrinth Locator is another resource for finding labyrinths in your local community or while traveling throughout the world.
Labyrinth at Peace Village
Peace Village is a tranquil retreat center in New York's Catskill Mountains that offers spiritual weekend retreats. It is run by the Brahma Kumaris.
The Brahma Kumaris are a spiritual and educational organization which had its inception in India in the 1930's, and which is currently an NGO affiliated with the UN. They have a focus on spiritual education, meditation, philanthropy, renewable energy and sustainable yogic agriculture.
Founded by a male philanthropist, the organizations has nevertheless had a predominantly female leadership and membership, and has been a strong supporter of a woman's right to make her own personal life decisions in spite of a patriarchal culture. The movement has over 8,500 centers in 100 countries, with a headquarters in Mt Abu, India.
When Peace Village opened in 1999, a shooting range still remained on the property they had purchased. In 2000, Eric Larson, senior 'brother' at the Brahma Kumari's main U.S. headquarters, along with Peace Village residents Vjai and Colette, unearthed the blacktop from the shooting area with crowbars. After Larson spray painted the pattern of a 7-circuit Classical labyrinth on the dirt, they all repositioned the pieces of the blacktop onto the pattern, creating the labyrinth path and transforming an area which had been used for more violent activities into a space for peaceful spiritual experiences.
OEN's own contributer, Chuck Nafziger, is a retired mechanical engineer and a labyrinth builder who lives in the neighborhood of Alger, Washington. I interviewed him about his recent projects.
Meryl Ann Butler: Thanks for visiting with us Chuck! You recently completed the Silver Creek Labyrinth, and it is beautiful! And you've also completed a couple of other labyrinth projects, too. What attracted you to labyrinths?
Chuck Nafziger: The labyrinth path has been showing itself to me for years and I am just following it. Seventeen years ago, when I was associated with the Fremont Arts Council, a friend gave me a book, "Labyrinths, Ancient Paths of Wisdom and Peace" by Virginia Westbury. I glanced at the book and appreciated its direction, but the book just went on my bookshelf.
In 2006, when I moved to my rural paradise with a little acreage, another friend told me I needed a labyrinth. She and her boyfriend cleared a knoll near my cabin and then asked how to lay out a labyrinth. I pulled out the book and we all went out with a sack of flour, some rope and a tape measure, and laid out a fairly simple seven path labyrinth.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
3
3
2
