The Sacred Path Companion

For Christmas I bought my mom the book The Sacred Path Companion. After she finished reading it she lent it to me and I finished reading it yesterday. This is a book of ideas about walking the labyrinth "to heal and transform." It was interesting overall and I want to try the exercise she suggests about working with perfectionism (and maybe the one about "critical voices" too). For perfectionism, she suggests an "amplification" technique in which first you walk the labyrinth tempting yourself to stray outside of the path, but not actually doing so--experimenting with balance, etc. so you almost leave the path. Then, she suggests walking it again though this time walking all over it randomly without following the path. This is a dramatic concept for me to consider since I would never consider stepping out of the path. Even though the boundary is just a line of stones, it feels discreet to me--like it cannot be stepped over/breached. It would almost seem like a violation of the spirit of the place to me. But...the idea is an intriguing one. She makes the point several times that there is no one right way to walk a labyrinth.

This book is primarily focused on the Medieval Eleven Circuit Labyrinth--the type that is found on the floor of Chartres Cathedral in France (built around 1200) and on the floor of Grace Cathedral (an Episcopal church in San Francisco). My mom's labyrinth is an older, simpler design labyrinth called a Cretan (or Classical) Seven Circuit Labyrinth.