Pilgrims have been walking to Sacred places known for healing for centuries. I personally have walked with other pilgrims to a few of these Sacred places. Mont-Saint-Michel in Normandy,France, El Santuario de Chimayo, north of Santa Fe, New Mexico, the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Birmingham, Alabama, and most recently, the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes, in Lourdes, France. I brought home with me healing dirt from Chimayo, and healing water from Lourdes. All of these places have the energy of miraculous healing.
Pilgrims also walk the labyrinth. I have not had to travel quite so far to walk a labyrinth. The contemplative practice of walking a labyrinth grew out of the medieval commitment to going on pilgrimage. A classical labyrinth has seven cycles, each representing a stage of life, and seven U-turns, as we learn to change course at least that many times in a normal life.
The turning circuits of a labyrinth remind us that life is change, transformation, and repentance – metanoia – turning around. During Lent this year, a time of metanoia, a time of changing directions, even making the 180 U-turn, walking a labyrinth is a walking meditation and prayer and making the decision to not take one more step in the direction you are going. Metanoia means to change directions, and to go a different way.
Walk on the labyrinth as if on pilgrimage, without a goal beyond the experience itself. Move consciously and slowly. Let the path teach its own lessons. Trust the path.
Our bodies want to heal. Movement and flow of energy heals.
To find a labyrinth close to your location, I have included this website :
https://labyrinthlocator.com
Please share if you were able to locate a labyrinth, and please share your labyrinth experience.