Description
Walk With Me – Modern Labyrinth Chants by Juliet Millard, PhD, Ceritifed Labyrinth Facilitator
These four peaceful labyrinth chants are teaching songs that can help guide our walk and deepen our labyrinth experience. They help us create a peaceful state of mind, and to understand the steps involved in the inspiring and uplifting process of walking the labyrinth.
The chants can be used in succession to deepen the three stages of the journey:
1. The walk into the labyrinth, when we are releasing tension, negative thought patterns, and distressing emotions, and beginning to re-learn adaptive, positive patterns of thinking and being.
2. The reflective meditation in the center of the labyrinth when we can open ourselves to receive new blessings, to experience peace of mind, and to perceive different perspectives and understandings about our lives, our deeper selves and our relationships.
3. The return walk, where we can allow the process of integration to gradually unfold, as we bring back from the center the peace and inspiration we received, to heal and enrich our daily lives.
The first chant, “Walk With Me” invites our Higher Power, our Inner Self, to guide us to a state of mind/body where we can let go of negativity, of darkness, and receive and embrace the Light of our Spirit, the positive, healing energy of our higher nature.
This introductory chant is followed by a wisdom chant, ”Trust Your Heart, Trust the Path”, that encourages us to trust our own hearts, and to trust the twists and turns of the path. It gives us permission to feel, to fully experience, to express and to release whatever thoughts and
feelings arise as we are walking – perhaps joy, perhaps sadness, perhaps deep disappointment, and new hope and a sense of inner peace. We are sometimes surprised by what can suddenly emerges from within us, and the labyrinth is a safe place to be with our feelings, even when they are strong and/or confusing. As we walk we may express our feelings through laughter, or tears, through movement or song. Like clouds in the sky of our mind, we
can watch our thoughts and feelings come and go as we continue along our gentle, supportive path.
The third chant, “With Open Heart and Open Mind”, reminds us of the attitude of heart and mind that we need to sustain throughout our labyrinth walk. This openness helps us to receive the blessings available to us as we open ourselves to the spiritual energies that emerge from
deep within ourselves. We gradually quiet our minds, open our hearts, and let go of whatever it is time to release and heal. We patiently walk the winding path to the center, letting go of the need to control the unfolding of the journey. This new openness can facilitate changes in emotional patterns that no longer serve us, and can help us to find the deeper wisdom we are often seeking as we walk the labyrinth.
In the center we can pause for reflection and meditation, and may receive new perspectives and understandings about those aspects of our lives that challenge or distress us. New creative energies can arise as we make space within ourselves to express and fulfill our inspiration and possible new directions.
The final chant, “Step by Step” helps us in the process of integrating the 3 stages of our labyrinth walk: As we complete our walk, free of judgements and intellectual constructs, the guidance we may have received can facilitate change and healing, and a deeper daily walk with our own selves and our Higher Power. The inspiration and insights from our walk may continue to arise in the days and weeks that follow, and This process can be renewed and
deepened by returning to the labyrinth to continue the ever-unfolding journey of releasing, receiving and returning on the winding paths.
- Walk With me
2. Trust Your Heart
3. With Open Heart
4. Step By Step
