THE LABYRINTH, PAGAN SPIRITUALITY
Pastor Dale Morgan
THE LABYRINTH, PAGAN SPIRITUALITY*
Updated December 27, 2007
On October 13, 2007, Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisburg,
Virginia, dedicated its new labyrinth. It was the fulfillment of a
15-year dream by Wendy Miller, professor of spiritual formation
("Following the Path of Prayer," Mennonite Weekly Review, Oct. 24, 2007).
This is only the latest example of how the Pagan-Catholic labyrinth is
gaining in popularity among evangelicals.
The June 1, 2004, issue of The Mennonite featured an article on
labyrinths. Marlene Kropf, who teaches at the Associated Mennonite
Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Indiana, promotes labyrinths. Bethany
Mennonite Church, Bridgewater Corners, Vermont, has a labyrinth in its
lawn. The church's female pastor uses it as a "personal prayer
discipline." Michele Hershberger, chair of the Bible department at
Hesston College uses labyrinths.
Simpson University in Redding, California, has a labyrinth. This school
is associated with the Christian and Missionary Alliance.
Even some Southern Baptist churches are building labyrinths. The
Weatherly Heights Baptist Church in Huntsville, Alabama, built a
permanent labyrinth of stones on its grounds in 2004.
The labyrinth is a circular pattern with a path that winds its way to
the center and which is used as a tool for prayer and meditation.
Used by pagan religions for thousands of years, the labyrinth was
borrowed from paganism and "Christianized" by the Roman Catholic Church
as part of its desperate search for spirituality apart from the Bible.
Native Americans called it the Medicine Wheel; Celts called it the Never
Ending Circle; it is called the Kabala in mystical Judaism
(http://www.gracecathedral.org/labyrinth).
The most famous labyrinth was built into the floor of the Roman Catholic
Chartres Cathedral in France in the 13th century. It has been duplicated
at the Riverside Church in New York City and Grace Cathedral (Episcopal)
in San Francisco, both hotbeds of theological liberalism and New Age
philosophy.
The three stages of the labyrinth walk testify to its paganism. The
following description of the stages is from the Grace Cathedral web
site: Purgation ("a time to open the heart and quiet the mind"),
Illumination ("a place of meditation and prayer"), Union ("joining god,
your Higher Power, or the healing forces at work in the world").
Lauren Artress, a canon at Grace Cathedral, founded Veriditas, The
World-Wide Labyrinth Project, "with the goal "to facilitate the
transformation of the Human Spirit." Observe that Human Spirit is
capitalized, testifying to the New Age view that man finds divinity
within himself. Artress says that she discovered the labyrinth in 1991
through Jean Houston's Mystery School Network, a psychic New Age
organization. This quote by Houston leaves no doubt as to her
philosophy: "As we encounter the archetypal world within us, a
partnership is formed whereby we grow as do the gods and goddesses
within us" (http://skepdic.com/houston.html). Exercises at her Mystery
School Network "include psychophysical work, psychospiritual
exploration, creative arts, energy resonance, movement and dance,
altered states of consciousness, ritual and ceremony, high drama, high
play and mutual empowerment" (http://www.jeanhouston.org).
Artress says: "My passion for the labyrinth has never let up! I think
this is because I get so much from it. I also can teach everything I
want to teach through the labyrinth: meditation, finding our soul
assignments, unleashing our creativity, spiritual practice,
psycho-spiritual healing; you name it! .... It [the labyrinth] has the
exact cosmic rhythms embedded within it. I sense that this design was
created by great masters of Spirit, who knew the pathway to integrating
mind, body and spirit" (Interview with Arts and Healing Network,
September 2003).
There is nothing like a labyrinth in the New Testament Scriptures. When
Jesus taught His disciples how to pray in Matthew 6, He did not even
hint at a labyrinth-type prayer. Rather His instructions were very
straightforward and simple:
5 And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for
they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the
streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have
their reward.
6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou
hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy
Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
7 But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for
they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.
8 Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what
things ye have need of, before ye ask him.
9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine
is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
14 For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will
also forgive you:
15 But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father
forgive your trespasses.
God forbids His people to adopt things from the devil's program and to
associate with pagan things such as labyrinths.
"And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that
believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God
with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I
will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they
shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye
separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will
receive you" (2 Cor. 6:15-17).