Labyrinths From The Outside In: Walking to Spiritual Insight―A Beginner's Guide - Softcover

Donna Schaper & Carole Ann Camp

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1893361187 ISBN 13: 9781893361188

Publisher: SkyLight Paths, 2001

Synopsis

The user-friendly, interfaith guide to making and using labyrinths―for meditation, prayer and celebration.

"People often confuse labyrinths with mazes. In some ways, labyrinths are like mazes; but a labyrinth has become more than a maze, because in a labyrinth you are never lost, you are always on the path leading into or back out of the center. You find the center if you walk the path. A labyrinth is like a maze with a certain answer. It is maze-plus―once you know the labyrinth, you know there is a way into the center. Mazes remain puzzles: they can perplex permanently. Labyrinths are designed with the eventual solution fully on display. If we but walk the path, we get home."
―from the Introduction

A labyrinth is a circuitous path that people have used as a form of prayer and meditation for thousands of years―a path that is being rediscovered as a spiritual tool in our own day. There are now more than five hundred labyrinths in North America, made of stone, cement, sunflowers, grass, or canvas; indoors and outdoors; in Christian, Pagan, and even non-religious settings; and adaptable for use by people of all spiritual backgrounds. This guide explains how the labyrinth is a symbol that transcends traditions, and how walking its path brings us together.

Here is your entry to the fascinating history and philosophy of the labyrinth walk, with directions for making a labyrinth of your own, or finding one in your area, and guidance on ways to use labyrinths creatively for:

Prayer · Stress reduction · Faith rituals · Commemorating personal or family milestones · Meditation · Celebrations of all kinds

Labyrinths is a twenty-first century method of approaching the sacred―are a spiritual practice more ancient than Stonehenge or the ruins of Troy. This practical and inspiring guide will help you to explore them.

About this title

Review

"Labyrinths, labyrinths, labyrinths! They are popping up all over. If you are not sure what they are, or want to learn more after one intriguing labyrinth walk, this is a great place to start!"
―Lauren Artress, author, Walking a Sacred Path: Rediscovering the Labyrinth as a Spiritual Tool; Canon of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco

"Both elegant and openhearted, both practical and mystical, this slender lovely book walks us home to the heart."
―Julia Cameron, author, The Artist's Way and God is No Laughing Matter

"This book is at once philosophical and practical, informational and instructional, traditional and contemporary...a warehouse of treasures for labyrinth walkers of all experience levels."
―Robert Ferre, director, The St. Louis Labyrinth Project

About the Author

Rev. Dr. Donna Schaper, widely recognized as one of the most outstanding communicators in her generation of Protestant clergy, is senior minister at Judson Memorial Church in New York City. She is author of several books, including Alone, but Not Lonely: A Spirituality of Solitude and Sacred Speech: A Practical Guide for Keeping Spirit in Your Speech, and is a contributor to Claiming Earth as Common Ground: The Ecological Crisis through the Lens of Faith.

About this edition

• Publisher: SkyLight Paths
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 1893361187
• ISBN 13: 9781893361188
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 187