Labyrinth Journey 1

For some people "purgation" an act of repentance, cleansing the stains of mortal sin, which to some people may seem like a too powerful intent for the humble labyrinth user.

The level of entering personal purgation within a labyrinth is a personal choice and one that does develop according to the frequency of using a labyrinth.For a first time labyrinth walker, this intent should be a very simple and easily achievable task and certainly not a frightening one, like extreme repentence.

A simple way to journey into "Purgation" is with an intent of being a first stage of achieving peace of the mind, quietening the chattering mind.

For many people the word "Purgation" brings up a inner vision of cleansing and purification activity, often with fire or water within our imagery.

The possible awkward thing about this vision is directing it into thinking that our spirit, and our soul, is something that can be "stained" and that it stores bad stuff, which we may sometimes call "baggage".

I prefer to think of Purgation as a first step of transformation that will guide us to a re-connection to the presence of the present. our guiding light, our goddess or god, the great spirit. By doing so, we discover peace, security and a clarity about how to live our lives for this day, and probably longer.

To avoid complications in my writing here, instead of refering to goddess, god, and love I will remain genderless by refering to all of these things as the "great spirit". In your own vision, as you read this, use the divine spirit term that is in your heart and faith that you feel most comfortable with and inspired by.

Upon entering a labyrinth, or any ritual tool, many of us can become overwhelmed by how difficult it is to not think about anything.
Clearing the mind of thoughts may feel like placing ourselves into a place of darkness, even the unknown.

With this awareness it is extremely tempting to fall back into the comfort of our familiar thinking, the trains of thought that erupt and amplify our daily anxiety, our thoughts about "things".

"Things" are not limited to thoughts about objects we can purchase, or wish to purchase, in stores, in shops and online. "Things" are also our visions of desires, comforts, relationships, and our catalogue of hopes and fears.

If we give up thought of all of these "things" we may wonder what would be left for us, and when we wonder this our vision turns to that of a still place of darkness. For many of us this arouses fear and even evokes unbearable terror.

A good dedicated labyrinth journey, and it may take several visits to a labyrinth or labyrinths to make this grow, is the discovering that the "I" we carry is not really defined by what we have and what we relate to. Our "I" becomes defined by the eventual unity with the "great spirit".

It is at this point we can define the elements of "false self" that we have embraced ourselves with that has suppressed our unity with the "great spirit".

This is the the unity with love that is really the common human life's desire and goal, even though many will speak in denial of this.

One important meditation towards the unity of love is an acceptance that every one of us, today, is a cauldron of cultures and genetics. All this adds to our abundance and strength.

There is always more that joins us together than separates us, if we allow it. Boundaries and divisions that humans seem to be skilled at constructing seem to add to our darkness, fear and personal demons as well as seperates us.

Through labyrinth walking, through the path of Purgation, we can quickly dissolve the isolation that boundaries and divisions can put upon us. The conflicts we struggle with inside us and the battles we create within the world, communities, friends and family around us are closely linked. When we find peace with ourselves, we stand a better chance of creating peace with our family, friends, community and in the world.

The first part of a labyrinth journey, Purgation, I feel should not be approached with the feelings, emotions and intent of cleaning inner "stains" and inner "evils" or even inner "blemishes of sins", no matter where we feel they may be sourced.

The labyrinth journey should be about dissolving fears and even faith that is preventing the embracing of divine love.

Purgation walked with sincerity naturally commences with some fear and questions about our courage. With guidance and coaching, from another person, your own guiding light, or maybe even an invisible friend, will open up to the delight of experiencing the "divine Gift".

The "Unknowing" is always a cloud, a mist, and not knowing what will emerge. This is what tempts and arouses fear and caution . Many of the legends of the arrival of the Tuatha De Dannan to Erin tells of them emerging from a cloud or mist.

We all face temptation to deny and repress our fears, analyzing them not as direction but as experiences of weakness. The most potent fear is that of being "wrong" which escalates our desires and demands for "certainty" to attempt to prevent being "wrong".

This fear can create a severe challenging wall that blocks our attention to the Great Spirit, how it embraces us and how it guides us to relate and unite to others in love.

For most of us, it just plainly hurts to "let go of things", and that's what the Purgation Path asks us to do. However, the initial dark experience of Purgation, due to the Unknowing, is essential to open us up to the delightful glowing experience of being truly transformed into the light of love. That's quite a gauntlet of vision and emotions for some people, but well worth the journey for the cleansing it serves.

I feel some people may stumble when their Purgation Path is focused on "purity of soul" through using prayers and meditations on sin and its consequences, and especially on the upcoming judgment during our passing. This is defined by some faiths as a judgement of us entering hell or heaven.

I feel the intent of this type of Purgation Path is about accepting that guilt and stained soul exists rather than be a motivated journey through purgation.

Purgation is sometimes defined as a war against temptations that lure the soul to "sin" through fast pleasures to the senses rather than the journey to unity with the Great Spirit, or as some faiths say "will of God".

Some "religious" teachers speak of Purgation as being the revelation of the weaknesses of our soul and its temptations to sense gratification. These teachings I feel could detour us from our unity with the light and love of the great Spirit, or as many preachers say
"The Grace of God".

Some spiritual writers speak and teach of two paths of Purgation, two paths towards the purification of ourselves towards a spiritual way.

They write of the "active path of Purgation", one of labour. walking and work as prayer. which opens the heart to recieve the grace of the Great Spirit that reforms and transforms us during our activity.

The other is the "passive path of Purification", times of contemplation and prayer through stillness and silence which opens our hearts to accept the love and light of the Great Spirit.

Within a labyrinth walk it is easy and possible to do both as we could invite you to mow the pathways or weed the tree beds :-) . Or you may prefer or include stillness and silence at a sweet spot in the labyrinth that gets your attention and sense of comfort and sanctuary

Now I will continue this journey into "Illumination"

Illumination is about our journey from our mental and emotional "demons" into the light, the light being inspiration, awareness of our guiding spirit, a general all over feel good feeling, creative vision, or simple "wow, now I get it!!"

Before I feature my words on Illumination, connected to Labyrinth Journeys, I would like to focus on something said at http://www.harekrsna.de where the lotus flower is featured.

There the page tells us how the lotus rises from unclean water and blossoms into a pure uncontaminated flower to provide us with a symbolic vision and sensory perception of of purity and resurrection.

Lotus is used in divine prayer to provide vision of how we can discard impurities that block enlightened thinking and move into illuminated regeneration.

Folks, I wish I could grow lotus flowers within our labyrinths so I reveal this there. I have looked up root and seed suppliers. It seems there is a way if we can bring them indoors in winter.

In esoteric Buddhism, it is said that the heart of beings is like an unopened lotus. When the spiritual nature develops from the heart spirit our spiritual lotus unfolds and blossoms. This is why the Buddha is depicted sitting on a blooming lotus.

Most of you reading this will connect to this from your yoga, meditation and herbal studies as the lotus teachings and mythologies are not exclusive to Buddhism.

The path of Illumination, that follows Purgation, is the awareness of what darkens our heart and being. It is the casting aside our veils of denial. It is that sudden eruption from the depths of our soul that fills out mind with "Wow this is it! Now I get it! Now I understand!". Its the moment the switch is found and switched on.

Illumination is when our entire being is enlightened, is illuminated by what we may later describe as "spiritual things".

We immediately use this new illumination to replace emotional and sensory gratifications we may have used and leaned on before. Some call this a move from physical and material love to an illumination and caress of the great spirit, that many call god, goddess and allah.

Illumination can also be when we find an inner way, ann inner light, an inner warmth, that causes us to fling off our cloaks of "dependence" and even "addiction".

It could be the time we realise we have smoken our last cigarette, drank our last whisky, bet on our last horse, snorted our last cocaine out of dependence or addiction.

I suggest this does not mean stop these things.
It means stop being led and controlled by them.

The advanced way is to be able to change from pathways of addiction to pathways of choices that are truly external to dependence.

This could include enjoying a glass of malt whisky to sense and enjoy its flavour, texture and warming rather than drink as an elevating need. It could include attending a horse race meeting as an experience of entertainment and not with a dream of expectancy of a big win or a fear of a big loss.

Sustaining our way on the path of Illumination is to develop this into our instinct.

Instinct is where we have a constant attention of our mind and body. An illumination instinct can deveop into a unity instinct which is when we become aligned to the real passions of our spiritual heart.

This is what elevates our spirit into awareness of the Great Spirit, our god, our goddess. There are many expressions of the Divine that we allow to dwell inside us!

This new instinct could include indulgence in our new love of silence and retreat
and indulgence in simplicity in our actions.

This does not mean we neglect the rest of how we live such as through our families, friends, jobs and careers. Indeed it does not mean recreation is avoided, because recreation indulged with and guided by illumination is a very high level of lasting fun.

Some spiritual teachers have taught, and still do teach, that a soul experiencing an illuminated state is like being released and free from invisible torcherous imprisonment.

As we know, illumination is never permanant. Life keeps changing, situations happen, challenges happen and we never know when these changes will happen.

Knowing how to handle purgation back into illumination becomes a valuable, and over time,
well practiced tradition and indeed an instinct.

I do not think any life can end its moments of darkness.
Often the most severe challenges are yet to come to us.
Learning and growing wisdom and instinct to help us handle
these moments during our life becomes more and more valuable.

With myself, this is perhaps the best value of Labyrinth Walking,
which I offer to show visitors here at Carrowcrory.

During rebounds back into times of darkness and desolation
we also experience the return of temptations as fast solutions.
Externally, our lives can suddenly be afflicted by persecution on us
by other people and friends suddenly turning against us
with ingratitude and even deception when we least expect it.

Through knowing your own path of purgation back to illumination,
and knowing how to do this instinctively, such as through labyrinth
solutions we offer along with patience and love, shackles will always
be quickly released again to bring you back to the freedom state of
love that Illumination serves.

The path of Unity is a way towards perfection. This part of a labyrinth journey, as with other tools of meditation and prayer, is a journey leading away from temporal things and travelling towards a place of calm and immense peace.

On this path our motivation inspired by desires is set aside and is replaced by an openess to the "great spirit" according to what we name this. Several spiritual teachers call this unity or union with, God by love, a state of "perfect charity", a state of "grace", a calling to charity and service.

When we open to unity with spirit, after illumination, it seems like the mysteries of "supernatural" life are suddenly mysteries no more due to a new clarity. What we once called "mystery" we suddenly call "truth".

Our questions may still be there. Have you noticed how discovery always opens up more questions? We seek knowledge but our reward, if we allow it, is wisdom. Wisdom is allowing ourselves to be within a question and not creeping around it in fear. Being within questions is a way of live, its living and forever embracing.

Often a sense of mystery or curiosity of the unknown motivates us into meditation and contemplation. We offer our labyrinths as tools for this, though there are other ways too.

The experience of unity is not usually a lasting experience but a state of the cycle of purgation, illumination and unity. Its like any cupboard or shelf we clean up, it gradually clutters up and gets dusty again.

A return to Unity requires repeated contemplation and meditation, as much as we can allow into our living. "The fire of Divine love" needs a constant fuel source.

A hearth fire that can be flaring with flames one moment, then slowly the flames reduce. When new logs are placed onto the fire, to prevent the flames and heat going completely away, there is a short time of darkness and smouldering before the abundant flames return to warm us again. The heat and flames in the hearth are rarely constant, just like our Divine love.

Divine love, our unity, also seems to flow like the phases of the moon. Illumination leads to a waxing of Divine love, an increasing embracing of spiritual sensation. It's highest tide is when we feel we have the closest union and even intimate conversation with the great spirit.

Then there is a surprise and even a sense and fear of abandonment when there seems to be a waning of Divine love, and we just cannot work out the reasons why this happens.

During the waxing of Divine love it is common to experience flood of inspiration that urges the writing of a song, composition of music, chapter of a book or picture to paint. There is a feeling of rising fervour from the mind and heart. I witness this through excitement expressed from several of our regular labyrinth walkers.

This fervour of love, connection and inspiration can seem like a gift that is more precious than all the physical riches and awarded honors we may earn. I find this is an experience that secures our faith and trust. It is a special tranquillity and peace of soul that seems to open our confidence in the grace of the great spirit.

After awhile of spiritual embracing it can seem that suddenly all of this goes into rapid wane due to a set of situations and circumstances we totally unexpect.

At worst this can happen during a sudden accident, rapid illness or natural disaster. At this point we can feel or accuse the great spirit of abandoning us despite our rigid rituals of contemplation, meditation and charity. At worst these sudden situations could cause a distrust of faith.

Understanding the cycles of purgation, illumination and return to unity and how to surf and embrace this cycle does in time, with open spirit, develop our all round heroic virtue and much less disappointment from the flow of life.

When we decide to take the journeys of purgation, illumination and unity, such as through walking a labyrinth, our minds will have already entered into its own journey of sanctifying grace. Without this I do not think this cycle could be achieved and connected.

I believe our soul needs to be fed with prayer, through contemplation, meditation, walk through a labyrinth, medicine wheel or sacred site of nature, as much as our bodies need feeding with food and water. For Christians this may seem like an imitation of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, who despite his own agony prayed with greater intensity.

Prayer in the midst of any torment on our souls is asking the great spirit
for strength, endurance and guidance.

It is at points of torment that many souls turn back and give up. We can often abandon the instinct of prayer just when we were, unknowingly, reaching the point of receiving the grace that returns us back on the road to sanctity.

The basic and repeated Labyrinth Journey of Purgation, Illumination and Unity can be a huge assistance in improving physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual issues.

I have witnessed visitors to our labyrinths release trauma and be gifted with more strength and will to overcome an illness they have. This includes myself who overcame the disabilities of paralytic stroke into the recovering and more labyrinth building within a few months.

Unresolved issues, blocked energy and restrictive physical symptoms can fall away with trusted and intended labyrinth walking.

I coach, encourage and pray that you leave one of our labyrinth sessions feeling empowered, lighter, more joyful and energized.

I am confident that anyone can leave our Garden of Labyrinths at Carrowcory, and any labyrinths they continue to walk, with an elevated spirit. Walking a labyrinth is such a simple idea yet it can be powerful on improving our being.

I feel that walking labyrinth restructures us completely through mind, body and spirit. Labyrinths are a wonderful tool for enhancing and striding us into a journey of regeneration and cleansing.

Walking a labyrinth is wonderful for stilling our minds and transfering our qui, our life-force, into parts of ourselves that needs it most for healing and rebalancing, and often this is not where we think it needs it.

For some people it is like a connection to a presence, some say its their guide, their christ, their ancestors, and more.

In a labyrinth, when unity is experienced, it can feel as if all levels of life and spirit are connecting and connected, the levels of the physical, emotional, psychological, spiritual and the etheric layers all connect and work together in alignment.

At least three sessions at our labyrinths is recommended? Why?

During a first Labyrinth walking session our visitors are curious to follow what the guide is showing and doing. I feel this is usually not enough for folks to "switch off" and truly relax. However, a single visit is a worthy inspiration and better than no visit at all. It is an inspiration and memory that may well be continued later.

During a second Labyrinth Walking session, our minds are more willing and more trusting to let go. especially let go of the controlling of situations we attempt and become anxious about. Within the labyrinth, deeper thoughts, emotions and spiritual issues can be focused on.

During a third labyrinth walking session, it is common for our visitors to feel caressed and filled with light and love that can also allows letting go of dark issues and even disease.

Most important and extremely important is that visitors to our labyrinths are not required to be followers of faith, religion, or order for labyrinth walks to be effective. Labyrinth walks just need a willingness to try walking the labyrinth accompanied with inner desire to transform.

More pictures and videos will be added to explain this Labyrinth Journey further
so please bookmark and return here soon :-)

If you have an opportunity to visit and use a labyrinth in our Garden Of Labyrinths at Carrowcrory Cottage in Co. Sligo, Ireland for purgation of concerns, relaxation, interest, curiosity, and most important of all, for some fun, along with a tea, scones, harps and songs break :-) please make arrangements through ...

Celtic Ways

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