The path winds through the four quadrants, which may represent the directions, East, South, West, North; the seasons, Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter; the elements, Fire, Earth, Water, Air; the phases of life, childhood, youth, adulthood, elderhood; or even our human dimensions, physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. As the path weaves throughout, it becomes a mirror for where we are in our lives, and a call to balance and wholeness.

One common approach to the labyrinth is based on the threefold path, which refers to Releasing, Receiving, and Integrating. Going in, the goal is to release worries and concerns. The walk quiets the mind and the journey invites thoughts and feelings without judgments. Reaching the center, we receive illumination, insight, clarity and focus, often through prayer and meditation. For many, the center is a symbol for that place we constantly seek - the place where we feel safe, whole, loved, at peace and at home with our lives and ourselves. Then, in leaving the center and walking out on the same path that brought us in, we are granted the power to act, to integrate, to take on renewed strength and joy and to make what was received during our labyrinth walk real in our lives.

A labyrinth’s potential lessons are innumerable. In addition to gaining new personal insights each time I walk this ancient path, so too have I learned much in simply watching others on their walk. In manifold ways, people do the labyrinth the same way the do their lives.

The labyrinth is an intriguing tool for understanding our psychological and spiritual journey. Our most frequent labyrinth walkers, of late, have been groups of elementary, middle and high school students. Each time I teach these young people about the labyrinth, I am moved, delighted, inspired and awed at their insights and experiences.

One thirteen year old related how she carried a small piece of wood into the labyrinth and placed all the things that no longer serve her in her life into that piece of wood. Upon arriving in the center, she dropped the wood, symbolically dropping those old ways. Next, she found a small acorn and carried the acorn with her back out of the labyrinth, placing all that she hopes to accomplish and incorporate into her life within the seed. When she reached the outer perimeter of the labyrinth, she buried the acorn.

As the 55-foot fieldstone and gravel labyrinth at Earth Teach nears its first anniversary on the first solstice of the new millennium, we are excited to be introducing people to it almost every day, regardless of weather or even the hour. As you approach the meadow on foot, your senses begin to expand, you smell the sweet aromatic perfume of mugwort – aremisia - the goddess Artemi’ own herb to ease the pain of the birthing process. Your ears tune in to the wind moving, like ocean waves, through the oak, cedar and pine trees nearby. Your eyes soften with the beauty, which calls forth, and perhaps expands, your vision of what is possible. And then, your heart and soul stretch, and you step upon the labyrinth path – courageously moving forward on life’s sacred journey.