Invitation, 9/22

Norma, Justin, friends and relatives of John:

Mark, Tom, Beverly, Nancy, Billy Reed and John’s cousins: David, etc.

Re: Dedication of Cairn and Labyrinth in memory of John McGill.

From: Paschal Baute

Date: Aug 22

John wanted his Memorial service here at our retreat center on Winchester Road. We are now ready to do this this, simply with ourselves.

The best time this fall for a visit for Norma and Justin seems to be September 22, Saturday. Can we plan on that day to be here in Lexington? Meet here to dedicate the cairn in John’s memory and together bless the labyrinth? Please bring a stone to John’s cairn, for the space reserved in the labyrinth. After placing the stones, we may linger a bit, walk the labyrinth if you choose and will probably share some lunch here or nearby.

I am really proud of what we have been able to do here, Turner Lyman, my wife Janette, and Barbara Lyman. It was 4 months of planning and work, but also a work of love. 24 truckloads and almost 200 hours. Pictures do not do it justice. You have to see it, experience it, and perhaps also, walk it. Your presence, in John’s memory, will bless it much more. I have a blog on various aspects of the project listed below.

Please mark Saturday, 9/22 on your calendars at 11:00 a.m. Come down the outside stairs to the lower patio and we will gather there.

Driving Directions below. Plan about a half hour from most places in Fayette County unless you are already near Hamburg or the East Side of town.

Our sponsoring group, the Spiritual Growth Network of Kentucky, an interfaith group encouraging deepening the personal spiritual journey, just completed our 18^th anniversary on August 18, and offered their blessing. Also the latest picture is also posted on the blog. See

http://labyrinthlexingtonky.blogspot.com/

Directions to our home and retreat center, 4080 Lofgren Court, last subdivision, and last house before Clark County on Winchester Road, US 60. Turn right into court and first gate on your left, follow parking signs.

Lofgren Court is 5 miles east of Man o War extension, past Hamburg, and turn right or east on US 60, Winchester road. From downtown Lexington, or points on New Circle Road, figure 9 miles east of Eastland Shopping Center and New Circle Road on Winchester road. From points west, stay on I-64 toward Ashland past Lexington, get off at Bluegrass Station exit, turn right come 1.3 miles to US 60, then left about another 3 miles, Lofgren Court is last subdivision on US 60, Winchester Road before Clark Co. From points East, come 5 miles west from light at Van Meter Road in Winchester, to first road on left after reaching Fayette County.

In the meantime, be well.

Namaste.

Paschal

I am posting this invitation on the blog, so if you misplacde the directions, but bookmark the blog, you will be able to pull up directions later easily. Title of post: INVITATION, 9/22

PICTURES

See picture posted on right. The archway is the entrance. Total size is 45' x 45'. Type: classical, with seven circles. Zen garden in the middle with bench faces East. The small garden in right foreground is about 60' from Amazing Grace Wedding Garden, towards the lake (toward your right) . The gazebo which can be seen in the Wedding site photos is in the woods to the East of the Labyrinth (to your left) . Cairns can be seen in foreground.

Appointments for walking can be made by telephone (859) 293-5302. These are usually scheduled for Saturday mornings.
More pictures at www.paschalbaute.com/wedding.

Labyrinth Blessing and Dedication, August 18, 2007

LABYRINTH BLESSING AND DEDICATION
Officiant Paschal Baute, August 18, 2007

Welcome, (brief history, Janette and I, Janette and Barbara, Turner and I...) This is already a sacred place made holy by about 160 couples pledging their love, with thousands of their families and friends here praying for them and celebrating their love.

SGN’s sponsoring of the Labyrinth offers to the faith community and spiritual friends the experience of walking a labyrinth as a method for deepening their personal spiritual journey. Such encouragement has been the mission of SGN of Ky for now 18 years.. SGN had its first labyrinth walk here about ten years ago. Today SGN cele brates its 18 birthday. Wow.

The history and mythology of the labyrinth dates back at least 4,000 years. Ancient and new labyrinths can be found all over the world including the native Americans of the Southwest. Contemporary labyrinths have been built in such diverse places across the United States in cathedrals, churches and retreat centers.
_________

Today we come together to dedicate this labyrinth. Maybe each of you might have a personal intention or invocation when we pause at the end. Then SGN members and friends will place their stones on the SGN cairn. We will return for lunch and then have the time after lunch for private walking.

Dear Creator and Inner Spiritual Guide, our God, be with all of us today as we dedicate and set apart this Sacred Path.
Grant that those who come to it seeking your wisdom may find it.
Grant that those who come to it seeking your healing, may receive it. Grant that those who come with guilt and fear may be freed for transformation, and become able to reconcile the past and be released to walk into the future celebrating the gift of their own life.
Grant that those who come as a pilgrim seeking whatever answers they need, may find within a ready source of love, power, and peace.
We ask you to hallow + bless + and sanctify + this labyrinth with your benediction, and grant that it may allow your faithful to magnify by praise and work your Loving Presence among us.

In our fast paced society we often rush, seldom take time for the inner life, Make this stroll here with our souls, a sacred place--a place of peace and joy, a place of love and healing, a place of understanding and knowing.

May the outward beauty of this place summon each of us And to the inward beauty of each heart. As we reach the deep center of our awareness, we accept that our life journey has been incredibly unique yet often similar to others.

When we stand at the center of our lives, we accept that like each flower, we are a gift to the universe, like pollen-bearing stamen, an effloresence bloom, each a unique flower offered to the universe, full of fragrance and fertility.

May all who walk this labyrinth be balanced, centered and grounded; have peace and happiness; be healed according to their needs; have their hearts filled with unconditional love.

May the energy of this labyrinth always be pure, full of light and love. May the experiences of all who walk this labyrinth be for their highest good.

Finally I dedicate this labyrinth with the great Journey song of the New attributed to Mary, read, sung and prayed by every monk, nun and priest every day for the last one thousand years. (Recited here in plain chant.)

Amen, Alleluia.

WALKING THE LABYRINTH: Some Tips.

"One of the oldest images of the mystery of life, death,
transformation and return is the labyrinth,
. . . in which we fear to lose ourselves."

–E.C. Whitmont. The Symbolic Quest.

"No agency today helps us discover who we are --from inside out.
The labyrinth has that kind of power."

- Paschal Baute.

Although there is no right or wrong way to walk a labyrinth, there are a few tips and guidelines to help make it more productive. These are taken from The Sacred Path Companion (A Guide to Walking the Labyrinth to Heal and Transform) by Lauren Artress, (Penguin, 2006)

1. Take Off Your Shoes, symbolically. Leave behind at least some of you everyday pre-occupations. The Labyrinth itself does not transform, but the way one walks it has the power to enlighten, illumine and heal. Quieting the mind and focus of thoughts can be done individually or as a group. Your aim is not to be distracted from your intuitive flow as you walk.

2. Begin with an intention, perhaps a question for your inner life, your heart, your life’s journey, some wondering. What you hold close to your heart is sacred. If you have a dream you do not understand, walk the dream, beginning with “Oncve Upon a Time...”

3. Find your own natural pace. Walk with as much sensory awareness to the total experience as is available to you at each moment. Product people only arrive. Process people arrive with new awareness. If you meet someone on a path, do whatever seems natural.

4. Remember the labyrinth is not a maze. It is not designed for you to get lost. If you lose your way in you will end up back at the entrance. If you lose your way out, you will end up back at the center. Simply start over. Life is full of distractions.

5. Recognize metaphors, or word - pictures. Aristotle said the highest form of brain function is metaphoric thinking. When we are thinking metaphorically the microcosm reflects the macrocosm. Experience becomes a way of teaching us about th bigger picture, life itself.

7. You can never step in the same river twice, so the saying goes. This is true of labyrinth walking. Each journey into the labyrinth will be different.

8. The lion at the entrance represents the hidden lions that keep us from seeing, hearing or grasping what we are not ready to admit. Each of us has hidden lions. Our brain functions out of awareness to keep us from responding to actual facts and things we are not ready to hear or see.

9. Reflecting on the Walk. Some walks can be significant and offer valuable insights. Others ca be like dreaming, lazy, and unfocused. Some method of nonverbal reflection can deepen the meaning of the walk. journaling is the most accessible way. You can bring your journal with you and take it into the labyrinth if you wish.

10. Be comfortable with your walk. Occasionally some find it tiring or exhausting. It is best not to stop but to continue whenever possible. Be aware of your dreams afterwards. Reflect on your experience. Each experience is different.

You can celebrate rites of passage, joyful occasions, a holy day, or change in season by walking the labyrinth. Because the walk is non-denominational, it can be a welcoming multi-faith tool.

Compiled by Paschal Baute, July, 2007

Symbolsim of This Labyrinth

Symbolism of this Labyrinth

The archway portal at the entrance represents the doorways of your life, body and soul: family origin, teen years, high school graduation, job, love, marriage, parenting, and particular relationships. This Portal challenges the invited to understand the mystery of one’s life from outside in and inside out. Who is the person who is you?

The LION at the entrance to the labyrinth represents the Hidden Lions that guard the gates of our awareness, pre-screening what we will notice and pay attention to. Our minds work outside conscious awareness to pre-select what we will notice. Perhaps a best example is the denial of a person with addiction. They simply refuse to attend to evidence, including pleas of loved ones that they have a problem. All sorts of reality is pre-screened by our minds.

Upright stone markers, or patrins, are Rorschach markers in our lives, on which we can project various steps, stages, guides or visions. For one person a marker might stand for Family Influence, for another Church or the Commandments, for another a list of preferred virtues, for another an important relationship or turning point or new direction. You decide.

The cairns or collection of stones represent people and influence of particular persons or events. Three cairns here are family, one particular friend, and a special group of spiritual friends. The several cairns signify the complexity of the networking of our particular histories.

Plants within the labyrinth are not the flowering kind. The labyrinth experience invites the walker to discover the flowers within, budding and emerging.

The Zen garden in the center is simple and round. One can rest there with whatever one holds closest and therefore sacred in one’s heart, appreciating a core value of one’s life that has emerged from many turns.

© Paschal Baute, 2007

The CAIRN

The Cairn
“I will bring a stone to your cairn,” - a Scottish blessing.

A CAIRN is a gathering of rocks and stones, often done by primitive people, to commemorate an event, a battle, a burial, or ritual. Cairns date the to Bronze Age. Probably the most famous cairn is Stonehenge.

Cairns take many forms and vary from loose, small piles of stones to elaborate feats of engineering. In some places, games are regularly held to find out who can build the most beautiful cairn. Cairns along hiking trails are often maintained by groups of hikers adding a stone when they pass.

The word cairn derives from the Scottish Gaelic (and Irish) cairn which has a much broader meaning, and can refer to various types of hills and natural stone piles. Cairns can be found all over the world in alpine or mountainous regions, and also in barren desert and tundra areas as well as on coasts. Below are examples.

Here at the Retreat Center of the Spiritual Growth Network of Kentucky and close to the Amazing Grace Wedding Chapel, we have chosen a space in the Labyrinth for a Cairn dedicated to the memory of John A. McGill. At the dedication in the fall of 2007, John’s friends were invited to bring stones for his cairn.

In some regions, piles of rocks used to mark hiking trails are called "ducks" or "duckies". These are typically smaller cairns, so named because some would have a "beak" pointing in the direction of the route. An expression "two rocks do not make a duck" reminds hikers that just one rock resting upon another could be the result of accident or nature rather than intentional trail marking

In Greek mythology, cairns were associated with Hermes, the god of overland travel. According to one legend, Hermes was put on trial by Hera for slaying her favorite servant, the monster Argus. All of the other gods acted as a jury, and as a way of declaring their verdict they were given pebbles, and told to throw them at whichever person they deemed to be in the right, Hermes or Hera. Hermes argued so skillfully that he ended up buried under a heap of pebbles, and this was the first cairn. --Reference: Wikipedia and other Net sources.

© Paschal Baute, 2007

LABYRINTH, A Walking Meditation.

LABYRINTH

On the island of Crete, about 4,000 years ago, a man sat down in middle of life, to wonder about his personal journey. With its twists and tuirns, false starts and dead-ends, his life journey seemed like a kind of maze. In that awareness, he felt a keen sense of the uniqueness of his own life--with appreciation, understanding and insight. Later, endowed with a Minoan eye for beauty and design, he began to play with drawings to represent his journey. Once he saw a formation of rocks outlining a path up a near mountainous terrain.. He then sketched and built the first primitive labyrinth as a walking meditation for personal awareness..
Similar awareness seems to have happened simultaneously in several ancient cultures. Labyrinths are found in many art forms about the year B.C.E. 3,500. Pliny's Natural History mentioned four ancient labyrinths: the Cretan labyrinth, an Egyptian labyrinth, a Lemnian labyrinth and an Italian labyrinth.

The LABYRINTH is a walking meditation garden with a maze-like path to a center. Participants walk in quiet awareness of the turns and twists of life. It is an ancient form of prayer which has experienced a renewed appreciation in recent years.

Christians in the middle ages who were unable to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land walked labyrinths in their towns and cathedrals as an alternative. Labyrinth may be one of the oldest spiritual exercise in history, as ancient art forms are often found in many cultures dating to 3,500 B.C.E.

The LABYRINTH walk of awareness is designed to bring one to a new center for oneself, an appreciation of one’s own unique and authentic life journey. Many walkers have had powerful experiences of illumination, union, beauty and renewed courage. Some couples use the labyrinth and the Zen garden center for their marital vows.

At its most basic level, the Labyrinth is a metaphor for the journey to the center of self and back out into the world with an expanded understanding of who you are. Tips for walking the Labyrinth are offered on site. Appointment is necessary. Tel (859) 293 - 5302

Our Labyrinth, completed in the summer of 2007, contains a CAIRN dedicated to the memory of John A. McGill, Kentucy Award winning sportswriter and friend of Paschal. Turner Lyman designed and with Paschal’s landscaping, built it. Barbara Lyman and Janette Baute consulted regularly. Ann Siudmak and members of the Spiritual Growth Network of Kentucky were orginal supporters of the Labyrinth experience here in previous workshops. Landscaping is being completed by Janette Baute. Dedic ation is planned in October of 2007.

© Paschal Baute, 2007

Information about Labyrinth, Lexington and this blog.

The Spiritual Growth Network of Kentucky (see links or browse) is a non-profit interfaith educational group dedicated to encouraging people on their particular personal faith journey. This month, August, 2007, we celebrate 18 years of regular meetings and sharing.

We meet weekly on Sundays at 5 p.m. at Paschal's conference room off Winchester Road near the Clark County line, sharing the home of Janette and Paschal Baute. We conduct regular workshops and retreats on various aspects of the spiritual journey. This data is available elsewere.

We have explored the use of the walking meditation via labyrinth on several occasions with temporary outdoors marking. In the spring of this year, 2007, Paschal conceived of a labyrinth as a way to honor his friend John A. McGill, who died in early March. John had asked that his memorial be held here. Our friendship had involved many walks under the trees. For the purpose of convenience his memorial was held at Cumberland Lansdowne Presbyterian church with his friend Rev. Tom Cottingham presiding.

Janette Baute was inspirational in conceiving this labyinth, and Turner Lyman was enthusiastic in contributing his own labyrinth design experience to the project. Conversations began in April, planning in May, with selection and clearing of the site in June. A large woodshed was moved. Actual construction began on July 6 and basically complete in a month.

Aside from the design time, some 150 hours of labor was necessary. A total of 24 cub ic yards or truckloads of dirt, mulch, sand and stone was necessary. Some labor was hired, but most was done by Turner and Paschal. Landscaping has been done by Janette Baute, with cairns reserved for John McGill, Friends of the Spiritual Growth Network of Kentucky and family. Dedications planned for the fall of 2007.

The design is Left-handed, seven-circuit classical, in wooded area, ascending to Zen garden and meditation bench in center, and includes three mature trees and a cairn area. Material - "Rock and garden, PVC pipe on mulch. The labyrinth is registered on the Worldwide Labyrinth Locator. Walking available by appointment, call Paschal Baute, (859) 293-5302. Place is 4080 Lofgren Court, about eleven miles from downtown Lexington, or about 20 minutes drive. Fee: (optional) love offering.

Come and visit. "Be still and know that I am the Lord." Psamlist. On Saturday, August 18, members of the Spiritual Growth Network will celebrate their 18th birthday anniversary and construct an SGN cairn, by bringing a stone.

This blog will contain an introduction to Labyrinth, also to Cairns, the symbolism of this labyrinth, and tips for walking, and if I can manage the importing, some pictures. "Today is the day the Lord has made. let us be glad and rejoice in it."