I began this series of entries discussing the phase in life that I am passing through. A process where I question the beliefs with which I have been indoctrinated and adopted as my own. Miguel Ruiz in “The Four Agreements” talks about us agreeing to uphold the beliefs handed to us by our elders. We surrender to them. A process called Domestication. End of story for many people. But for others, over time, we learn that the agendas of those who influence us may differ from our own. By living in their beliefs we find we become in conflict with our true selves.  

It was my quest to move beyond the material, the visible, that which has been demanded, that which is enforced - to try to respond intuitively to the empowering realm of possibilities. While at Quantum Leaps Lodge I read the story of the creation of the beautiful labyrinth located on crown land adjacent to the Lodge property. It is bounded on two sides by the Blaeberry River and an alluvial stream. The later has a tendency to flood the area after heavy rains and wash out the labyrinth. Then it is painstakingly re-built.

Briefly this is how it came to be.

There are many sacred places in the world which infuse people with visions, inspiration, wisdom and messages. One such place is Mt. Shasta. It was here that Mikah Elaya was drawn to channel the message of the Archangel Mikael. He gave her a task to complete. She had to construct a crystal grid in the shape of a 6 point star in the Canadian Rockies in 1989. Later Mikah Elaya learnt that she was not the only person to receive such a message. The same year and during the same two lunar months, two other women constructed similar grids. One was in the Colorado Rockies and the other in the Andes Mountains of South America.

Directed by her non physical guide, Mikah Elaya laid crystals at special sites including Lake Louise, Mt. Assiniboine, and the Athebasaca Glacier.

A final mission for Mikah Elaya was to locate an electro magnetic vortex in a mountain in the Blaeberry Valley north of Golden, B.C. for the 9th Sacred Site.  Mykah Elaya and friends built the labyrinth at the foot of the mountain.

 Skeptics will raise an eye brow. I remain open to the possibilities. Was I influenced by the story? I can only tell you the reaction I had following two walks in the Labyrinth.

The first walk occurred shortly after I had arrived at the retreat centre and while alone was discovering the landscape. Although there are at least three labyrinths in Toronto, I have never walked in one.

The picture shows the pathway through the labyrinth leading you to the centre and back out again. It is a time of centering, meditation and moving towards one’s own centre. Gradually to retreat further from external distractions to engage in tuning into the sounds of self. The sun beat down on a hot afternoon. There was the distant tinkle of running water, the odd rustle of the wind in the trees. An occasional butterfly lazily drifting across my field if vision, sometimes to rest on warm stones. It was a time to feel that inner peace. It was a time to awaken inner strength; a time to heed some inner wisdom.

My only distraction was to occasionally notice on the path some large paw prints in the baked mud. I was conscious this was bear country. I shrugged that knowledge off. Later I was to meet two large dogs near the river and to learn that bears have 5 pads and claws not 4 – useful information. The time of centering that the walk provided, brought me closer to the non material, non competitive reality. I was reintroducing myself to me.

The second walk took place 6 days later. The retreat was over and those of us who remained were to be treated to a rafting ride down the Blaeberry River. I was aware of having absorbed so much that I would take home with me. I had learned from the wisdom of Neale Donald Walsch. I had experienced the skills of Master Young Hee in our introduction to Dahn Yoga. Brian, our Quantum Leaps Lodge host had taught us to face our fears with the exercises such as fire walking. Annette, our hostess, had nourished us with exciting organic food and relaxing massages.

It was time for my final labyrinth walk. The sun shone from a clear blue sky. I began my walk to the centre of the labyrinth, my path marked by quartz stones. Was I feeling the pull of an electro magnetic field? Was it influencing my reality? All I know is that when I reached the centre of the labyrinth I became light headed. Yet my feet felt firmly attached to mother earth. Indeed I felt rooted. But the upper part of me felt it was swaying. In those few moments of stillness, my whole world seemed to stop and I knew what it felt like to have embraced the whole. There was movement in the air and I was moving with it. My feet on dried mud, firm. The circles of the labyrinth radiated out around me, holding me, protecting me. I felt safe in my new found knowledge. I felt as if my connection to the whole would not lead me astray. Indeed how could it? It is only when one feels detached from the whole that one can get lost. But when one is within the whole one is connected to everything. A sacred moment in a state of being which is only love.

I was taking deep breaths as I retraced my steps to the outer edge of the labyrinth. I felt energized, determined, sure of my path. Joy came from the knowledge that no one could tell me I am wrong about what I experienced or how I interpreted my reality. My perception was mine. I felt the energy of the mountain. And it was me.

To be totally accepting means not to quarrel with what is showing up right now. It means not to reject it, or throw it back, or walk away from it, but to embrace it, hold it, love it as if it were your own. Because it is your own. It is your own creation, with which you are well pleased -- unless you are not.  
If you are not, you will resist owning what you have created, and what you resist persists. Therefore rejoice, and be glad, and should the present circumstance or condition be one which you now choose to change, simply choose to experience it in another way. The outward appearance, the outward manifestation, may not be altered at all, but your inner experience of it can and will be changed forever, simply out of your decision about it.
Friendship With God
Neale Donald Walsch
Page 320

Having watched the first group of rafters depart before I went to the Labyrinth, I now joined the others by the river bank to await the return of the raft to begin my trip.

Soon we were drifting downstream past flowered banks and stony shoals. Past fallen trees which during swollen surges had traveled down river, only to be anchored as the level of the water dropped. We drifted by ever green forest with the mountain backdrop. Gradually the river narrowed and steep cliffs rose up on either side.  

At the end of our trip we hauled the inflated raft onto the bank by a meadow of seeding wild flowers. A bald eagle circled overhead as we drove back to Quantum Leaps Lodge.

There were feelings of peace and contentment, a coming together of all my parts in a unified flow. I sense my authentic self being revealed. No major transformation, just confirmation.  I also knew I would break my arrow the following day.