Who said labyrinth work was boring?
This weekly installment of my book The Aquarian Labyrinth - A New Pattern for a New Age brings us to one of my favorite parts. Singing and dancing. Dancing the labyrinth is something that feels like a step back in time to a simpler way of looking at the world. No matter what culture you come from, our ancestors danced and sang in times of joy, sadness, pain, and healing. I hope this section helps you to find what you seek within the Aquarian Labyrinth.
Thank you once again for taking the time to read my book one chapter per week at a time. I appreciate all of the feedback I have received.
Blessed Be
Llynnette VanHooser - Author of the Aquarian Labyrinth - A New Pattern for a New Age.
Chapter 2.1 - A Little Song and Dance - from the book The Aquarian Labyrinth - A New Pattern for a New Age
Dancing the Labyrinth Path, Songs & Chants
After dinner, the facilitators of the workshops made a small auditorium available to Sig as it was starting to get very cold outside and by now was quite dark. Sig got everyone together for some team-building exercises with the class. Some of them I remember from campfire girls, gee who even remembers those? One of the games he did involve 4 bricks and 2 boards, where the whole class was on one big team. The object is to get everyone across the “river of acid” and each person can only cross once. I don't know the actual name of the activity but it is a very good team builder!
The activity that impressed me the most was a “dance” that he taught us. We were inside the auditorium with the storm outside gearing up for snow. I could feel the energy grow as the dance began. First, he taught us a simple chant. The tune is very old. I have heard many versions of the lyrics to the same tune, but I had never heard of this one. The version I was most familiar with was Rose Red. If you ever spent any time at Renaissance Faire, I'm sure you've heard it. It's most beautiful when sung in a round with three. The song I heard that night was also sung in such a round.
The version I heard that night was. Dear friends, dear friends – will I ever see thee again- you have given me your treasure- I love you so.
We sang it in a round that night, and the ancient power was thick in the air. Not only did we sing this song, but we also danced a very simple dance that was more like walking in rhythm than dancing. We held hands starting in a circle and ending up in a spiral. As this spiral continued, I could feel the majickal/psychic energy building in the room.
Once the first person in the chain reached the center, they would go under the arms of the people that were in front of them working their way back out of the spiral. It was at this time that the energy started to subside. It was also at this time that the thought came to me again. A continuous path would make it possible to do a dance like this. I really didn't give it much more thought than, Gee that would be nice if...
I have since learned that power is built on such fleeting thoughts. Sometimes your subconscious for whatever reason will decide to hold on to something like that and run with it, unbeknownst to us.
15 years later...
Shortly after the new pattern came to me, I started hearing a tune in my head. This is nothing new for me, as I usually have a tune or two running around in my head. What was odd about this tune is that I hadn't heard it in quite a while. It's not usually a song I sing. It was a tune that is usually sung in a round with at least two other people, as I had mentioned earlier in this chapter, and I didn't have any singing partners at the time.
This tune coming to mind started me thinking about that night so long ago in Lilydale. The trouble was, at the time I couldn't remember the words to it. I remembered how it felt to hold hands in a group and dance in a spiral. It flashed in my head and in my heart. I realized that the dance of this sort could be done on the new labyrinth pattern. Since this pattern has both an entrance and an exit that are right next to each other – a group could start a the beginning and dance all the way through the labyrinth then go right back in to start again since no one has to give room to pass for people coming out. I knew instinctively the flow would be amazing, and I longed for the time when I could experience that flow. Suddenly I had an image of just that. A group of people dancing the labyrinth. Raising the awareness of peace and healing. Not just for the planet collectively, but for each of us individually. Indigenous cultures of all continents have used dance as part of their spiritual walk. As part of their healing, and as part of their magick. I believe that every-time we walk a labyrinth, the planet heals a little more. The more labyrinths that are built and used, the more healing occurs. Not only for the plant but for her people as well. Each step on the labyrinth path is a step towards peace. I will talk more about that later.
I could see people singing and dancing the labyrinth, turning and dancing, singing and weaving. I thought about it all day as if another riddle had been placed before me to solve. The labyrinth is a riddle in and of itself, and now it was asking me to find It's song. The tune was there, it just needed words.
Months later as I was building the first Aquarian Labyrinth, the words came to me, while I was down on my knees placing stones. With the tune still playing in my head, the words came to me in such a flood, I had to run to my car to get a pen and paper. I am not a wordsmith by any means. I am not one who is known for writing songs or poetry. On the contrary, these gifts usually evade me. So the idea that this even happened was just one more amazing experience to add to the long list of amazing circumstances on this wonderfully special journey I now found myself on.
As I said before, the words just came in a rush, and those words were: Labyrinth, Labyrinth - Walk this spiral path of light - Finding Peace, Love, Joy, and Healing - At the heart.
This was such an overwhelming experience for me because as I said before, I am not usually lyrical. After that day the tune was there, in my head, every day until the labyrinth was completed, and then some.
On the day we consecrated the labyrinth which happened to be Winter Solstice 2011, I walked it and sang the song as I walked. It was wonderful. It set a nice pace for walking. I had to watch my footing periodically where the rocks were a little close together, But still, the pace was perfect for strolling through the twists and turns in rhythm. I could feel the energy grow as I made the last few rounds before the path goes to the center. When I reached the center, I could feel a playfulness, and a definite healing vibration permeated the atmosphere. Besides the incense and sage that was burning, I could see a light mist that seemed to envelop the area of the labyrinth.
The air was still and created a kind of smokey bubble around the labyrinth, but it wasn’t really smoke, it was something else. More like a type of spirit cloud, where the spirit gets so thick over an area that it will appear smokey or misty.
The song permeated my dreams for weeks, at times accompanied by dancers. I wasn’t sure why this was. I was actually confused by it. Then I realized that I knew all along. We are sentient beings, meaning that we have senses, five to be exact, and the music/singing/dancing was stimulating a different portion of my senses by adding dancing, rhythm, a heartbeat. My heartbeat, the earth's heartbeat, humanity's heartbeat. As the last line of the song says, “...at the heart”, which can also be sung as “...in my heart”. The heartbeat of the labyrinth is an extension of our collective heartbeat as a race. What if the labyrinth were a key to unlocking how to realign our heart with the heart of our Earth Mother – Mother Earth?
Being a body-worker, I notice a big difference in the way my clients relax depending upon if I have music playing in the background as opposed to when I don't. I notice when there isn’t music, they seem to want to fill in the silence with something so they tend to get chatty and that usually distracts from full relaxation.
I know how important the senses are. Because I do bodywork I try to incorporate the five scenes as much as possible into whatever modality I am working in. I believe it opens the client up to a deeper experience and gives them a chance to possibly connect with their sixth sense and be much more proactive in their healing experience.
I believe the same to be true with the labyrinth. It has the ability to engage all of our senses if we allow it.
After the first labyrinth was finished, I found myself singing and sometimes humming the labyrinth song. After a while I also found myself dancing. Not dancing in the conventional or modern sense, but dancing in an ancient sense.
This felt old, both in its rhythm and in its simplicity. If you are a dancer you may find it a bit boring. However, if you are allowing the spirit to guide the dance, you will find it easy to follow, and the flow that happens will soon show you that there is more to dancing the labyrinth than what appears on the surface.
Basically it's just walking in rhythm. One foot in front of the other to the rhythm of the music or even the sacred rhythm of your heart. It can be done by just dancing through the labyrinth, Or it can be done in other ways. My favorite is to turn sideways facing the center and continuing to face the center as the switchbacks try to turn me around the other way.
Another fun way to do it is like described above but without continually turning to the center and allowing yourself to be turned either toward the center or toward the outer circle by the switchbacks of the labyrinths turns. What will happen is this, you will sometimes be facing the people in front of you and sometimes they will have their back to you. Sometimes you will be moving in the same direction as the person you are facing and sometimes you will be traveling in the opposite direction. This makes another great metaphor for life, sometimes you are traveling in the same direction as those around you and sometimes you are traveling in a different direction than those around you, either way, it's okay, we will all end up where we belong. This is one of the many lessons of the labyrinth. Everyone will walk it differently, in their own unique and beautiful way and none of them are wrong.
Copied by the Author Llynnette VanHooser from the book - The Aquarian Labyrinth - A New Pattern for a New Age.
The above is chapter 2.1 of my first book The Aquarian Labyrinth - a New Pattern for a New Age. I am Llynnette VanHooser and I look forward to hearing from you on how you are enjoying the free book chapters. Feel free to click on the Amazon link below to order my book on Amazon or Kindle.
Have a Blessed day!
Llynnette VanHooser
Llynnette.com - All of my interests in one place. #Llynnette #Ettennyll
AquarianBodyHarmonics.com - Energetic Healing Arts #AquarianBodyHarmonics #ABH
AquarianLabyrinth.com - A new Pattern for a New Age #AquarianLabyrinth
DuWackyDu.com - DuWackyDu Homestead #DuWakcyDu
