Labyrinths wind their way through South Jersey
Posted: Friday, March 4, 2016 7:00 am
As you stand in the entrance of the labyrinth at the Free to Be Child Care Center, Director Elyse Smith asks that you close your eyes and listen.
On one particular Monday, cars could be heard rumbling by on Pomona Road. Snow fell softly on a nearby pine tree. Birds chirped. Tranquil sounds.
“May you walk in peace,” states the sign at the labyrinth entrance. This is a place for quiet thinking, although there is no wrong way to walk the labyrinth, Smith said.
Much of the same goes for the labyrinth a half hour away in Longport, at the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer. This one is surrounded by a stone-covered courtyard. It took a reporter about five minutes to wend through the cream-and-maroon path to its center.
These labyrinths and others like them across the country are not the structures of Greek and Roman mythology, with tall walls and minotaurs at the center. Nor are they mazes meant to confuse the people who walk within them, their proponents said.
According to the World Wide Labyrinth Locator website, there are 83 labyrinths in New Jersey. A handful of them are in Atlantic, Cape May, Cumberland and southern Ocean counties. Those who manage the local labyrinths said their paths are meant for meditative and spiritual use.
Labyrinths can be laid out in several ways, but many are circular patterns. There is one way into a labyrinth and a pathway that leads you to a central area for meditation. Once you reach the center, you turn around to renavigate the labyrinth.
“It is not a maze, it’s not a puzzle to solve,” said Tom Subranni, chairman of the board of trustees of the Church of the Redeemer.
Smith teaches her students at the Free to Be center yoga and meditation, things that are part of her own personal practice. Although the children range in ages from 3 to 5, Smith said, they are not too young to understand the importance of breathing and being calm.
“It’s OK to be sad or angry, it’s OK to acknowledge that feeling,” Smith said, rather than suppressing or ignoring such feelings. To help them acknowledge their feelings, Smith said, she encourages her students to walk the labyrinth. There’s a small bench in the middle of the mulch path to sit.
The brick labyrinth was designed and built by Stockton University students in a leadership course in 2012, Smith said. While the labyrinth was being built, Smith taught her students about labyrinths using a pattern on a rug.
Smith said she first walked through a labyrinth around the time she was pursuing her Masters of Liberal Arts degree at McDaniel College in Maryland.
“It’s always been the dream, to have a labyrinth” at Free to Be, she said. “We have visitors come from all over to see the labyrinth, though they call first because obviously we have children here,” she said.
Church of the Redeemer’s labyrinth was inspired by a design at one of the most recognizable labyrinths in the world — at least to those in the know — at the Chartres Cathedral in Paris.
The Longport labyrinth was built in 2000 by church volunteers, with the project funded by a donation from longtime parishioner Milda Clucas Balch, in honor of her late husband. A plaque dedicated to them sits near the labyrinth entrance.
Subranni, who’s been a member of the church for about 30 years, said he walks through the labyrinth every so often. The labyrinth is a form of outdoor ministry, he said. A sign explaining it states, “Walk in peace, knowing that God walks with you, and leave in peace, knowing that God leaves with you.”
“When you get to the center, your thoughts ... you’re calm. Your thoughts just vaporize,” he said. “I would say there’s a spiritual quality to the labyrinth. It’s a public service.”
He added that when the church is open during the summer months, those interested in wending through the labyrinth are encouraged to join for Sunday services.
Both Smith and Subranni said visitors have made special trips specifically for the labyrinth.
“There are folks that come almost every day of the week,” Subranni said, even though the church is only open in the summer. “It’s a wonderful tool to solve problems you may have.”
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