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57 °F Forecast | Road Cams Tuesday, August 3, 2004 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Prime Times Wellness Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Rogue Valley's Finest EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People MARKETPLACE Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Classifieds Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend June 2, 2004 Robert Ferre, director of Labyrinth Enterprises in St. Louis, Mo., paints a labyrinth with the help of two assistants Saturday at Trinity Episcopal Church in Ashland. Labyrinth mirrors life’s spiritual quest Circuitous path will be dedicated June 19 at Trinity Episcopal Church in Ashland By JOHN DARLING for the Mail Tribune ASHLAND — A "labyrinth master" spent the better part of the last week painting winding pathways for the Rogue Valley’s first permanent labyrinth at Trinity Episcopal Church. The $135,000 40-foot-wide spiritual walking path project is modeled after the famous labyrinth at Chartres Cathedral in France. It is scheduled for a public dedication ceremony June 19. Noted labyrinth master Robert Ferre, who has created 800 of them all over the United States and Canada, laid out the circuitous pathways at the church, right next to the busy, noisy intersection at Lithia Way and Second Street, where supporters say the din will disappear in the rite of contemplation. "This is the day we’ve been waiting for," said Trinity’s Rev. Anne Bartlett, watching the process last week from the wooden benches underneath a pergola-covered terrace surrounding the fixture. "It’s been my dream for a long, long time." The small park and labyrinth are a 24-hour public space, Bartlett said, "It’s a gift from us to the Ashland community. We want people to walk it, eat lunch here in the garden and reflect in the ancient tradition of walking meditation that takes you closer to God." Advertisement The space will be used by the congregation and the public for memorials, weddings, ceremonies and classes on how to enhance inner peace, she said. Ferre and fellow labyrinth master Judy Hopen, both of Labyrinth Enterprises of St. Louis, Mo., traced the looping concentric circles using a steel tape measure fastened to the center by two 50- pound barbell weights. Then, with durable acrylic resin, they paint the 3-inch wide spaces between the paths an earthy tan, matching surrounding buildings. The labyrinth will be open for public use. The opening dedication and processional ceremony is scheduled for 5 p.m. Saturday, June 19, and it will remain open until 9 p.m. The labyrinth and other recently completed church building projects will be consecrated as "sacred space" at 7 p.m. Sunday, June 20, by the Rev. Johncy Itty, Episcopal bishop for the Diocese of Oregon, with a liturgical service intended for the congregation but open to the public. "The labyrinth represents a place apart, which at the same time exists in the midst of our busy life," said Trinity’s assistant rector, Harvey Ray. "It’s not here to enable you to escape from life, but to integrate it into the fullness of the rest of life." Labyrinths go back at least 4,000 years to the pagan cultures of Crete, Scandinavia and many other places, but emerged in Christian manuscripts at the end of the Dark Ages, about 800 A.D., then in Europe’s cathedrals, like Chartres, in a period of "great intellectual advance," about 1200 A.D., said Ferre. "The labyrinth and every other aspect of the cathedral represented one’s spiritual life and how we get from earth to heaven and find salvation," said Ferre. "The path of the labyrinth was the circuitous spiritual quest in life. They were sometimes called ‘Jerusalem,’ meaning if you couldn’t do pilgrimage to the Holy Land, you could do this." Finishing off 112 "lunations" — semi-circles around the labyrinth’s circumference, representing the nights of four lunar months — Hopen said, "I love working with my hands and doing it in spiritual work that people use to gain spiritual transformation, instead of crunching numbers in some cubicle." The labyrinth, Hopen added, "demands that people try and find a balance, something to oppose the extremes of the frenetic life we lead — and get back to spirit and nature. When people walk the labyrinth, they leave the essence of their presence here." A labyrinth looks simple — a series of concentric circles, threaded with serpentine pathways forming the longest distance between two points, the entrance and the center. It differs from a maze in that there’s only one way to go — no forks or choices. It’s intended to model life itself: You see and often approach the goal but must go through many reversals to get there. Ferre and Hopen don’t strive for the "severity" of perfect circles in the 100 labyrinths they do each year, finding that "variation (no more than half an inch) makes it pleasing to the eye." The labyrinth’s immediate surroundings were designed by Ashland architect Greg Covey and built by Ashland contractor Sean Downey with a large gift from the late parishioner Marcia VanDyke and donations from the congregation. Ferre’ said the Trinity space is "gorgeous," because of the plants, benches, pergolas and columbarium (wall for ashes of the dead) that form a boundary around the labyrinth, so "you feel the difference in energy as you step into it." The extremes of church and columbarium on the south and busy traffic to the north, Bartlett said, is representative of "finding the calm center, the spirit and the connection to God in the middle of life’s chaos." Bushes and trees — ginko, red oak, juniper, maple and Japanese snowbell—in the coming three to five years will visually obscure traffic, muffle some of the noise and offer privacy and shade, yet maintaining an open feel, said Covey. Parishioner Sara Hopkins-Powell and a prime mover on the project will schedule use and lead public classes on the use of the labyrinth. The path is open to individual public use without an appointment. The labyrinth, a replica of Chartres, is aligned to the four alchemical elements — earth, fire, air and water — and four directions, with the entrance on the west, making you face east (sunrise) at the start. A pond to the east, with water trickling from a rock, honors the story of Moses bringing forth water from a rock in the desert. "It’s absolutely terrific," said parishioner and retired biology Professor Frank Lang. "The traffic noise becomes white noise, like ocean waves on a beach, that you finally don’t notice." Organizers of two other permanent labyrinths in Oregon — at Three Rivers Medical Center in Grants Pass and Sacred Heart Medical Center in Eugene — came to watch the creation of the circle, lauding its increasing popularity as a non-denominational, non-doctrinal tool of sacred realization. "It’s always a calming, integrating experience for me, such a subjective tool," said Anne Gordon of Sacred Heart. "It’s visible, accessible, not hidden away. Everyone gets something different. It offers complete lack of dogma, which I think is great. It’s a dogma-free zone." Martha Shonkwiler of Three Rivers said, "It honors unity and diversity at the same time. This could become the focal point for the town, a place where we acknowledge our need to look inside ourselves, instead of always looking outside. It’s an ancient tool that’s having a rebirth in our culture in a time when we need to look at the non-material side of ourselves and of life." Cathy Carrier of Ashland called it "a great way to center yourself and your connection with the universe. You can feel the energy. Too, it allows people who don’t want to be associated with a church to express themselves within the church setting." Gordon added, "It’s a focusing device that helps us achieve the difficult task of stopping the mental chatter and the check-off lists we all run around with. Most of the time, I don’t know what I’m going to focus on. The labyrinth delivers that. It’s time out of time." John Darling is a free-lance writer living in Ashland. E-mail him at [email protected] Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2004 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback ADVERTISERS A D V E R T I S E R S RESOURCES Oregon Road Conditions & Cams SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Since We Asked Food for Thought Wellness Connection Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Opportunities Prime Times