
Labyrinths have been known to the human race for over 3,500 years, and have been used in many different religious ways by many peoples. The labyrinth is a single path so there are no tricks to it and no dead
ends. The path winds throughout and becomes a mirror for where we are
in our lives; it touches our sorrows and releases our joys. It is a symbol
for our life's journey. So, we walk it with an open mind and an open
heart - for it leads to healing, to blessing, to self-knowledge, to clarity,
to balance, and the shedding of guilt, while providing us with an embodied
form of prayer.
We invite you to experience the labyrinths as an aid to meditation and
prayer, a place to seek peace, centering, and healing. Time spent here
is healing and refreshing. You are welcome to return as often as you
like.
The
campus of San Francisco Theological Seminary in San Anselmo, California
has both the Spirit
Walk Labyrinth (a Cretan, or classical style) and the Geneva
Terrace Labyrinth (a seven-circuit modified Chartres style). These
labyrinths were funded by an anonymous gift to the Seminary and were
organized, drawn and constructed as a loving gift from Seminary students
to the community.
If
you would like to experience the Geneva
Terrace Labyrinth, it is located at the top of Seminary Hill outside
Geneva Hall (the tall white building with a terrace at the top of the
stairs). While the exterior of this building is patterned after the Basilica
of St. Francis of Assisi in Italy, that church did not have a labyrinth.
The Geneva
Terrace Labyrinth is a seven-circuit Chartres style, patterned after
a turf labyrinth in Great Britain. Geneva Hall offers an elevator from the ground level during library
hours for all those who desire easy access to the labyrinth.
If you would like to experience the Spirit
Walk Labyrinth, it is located at 17 Austin Ave., down the hill
to the west of Seminary Hill between Lloyd-Dobbins Hall and Susanna Baird Hall.
There
is also a permanent, indoor 11-circuit modified Chartres style labyrinth
in Duncan Hall at First Presbyterian Church of San Anselmo. The church
is directly north of the campus of SFTS at 72 Kensington Road. Duncan
Hall can be entered through the central patio from Kensington Road. The
church invites the community to use their labyrinth, but since that labyrinth
is in a mixed-use space, please observe the scheduled times posted for
walking there.
Time spent walking the labyrinths is healing and refreshing. The Seminary
invites you to experience our labyrinths as an aid to meditation and
prayer, a place to seek peace, centering, and healing. You are welcome
to return as often as you like.
On a day when you are feeling playful, imagine the labyrinth pathway
as a river of God’s love which is carrying you along its life-sustaining
current. Relax into the wonderful experience, flowing to the center
and back to the threshold!
Jill Kimberly Hartwell Geoffrion