We created a copy of the Chartres Labyrinth at the HOPE Ripley Center for Hope and Healing on the 2001 Summer Solstice.

On November 30, 2002, we opened our peace project by planting a Peace Pole at the entrance to the labyrinth in a lovely ceremony honoring the four major ethnic groups of the Oxford Hills: Passamaquoddy, English, Finnish, and French; and the remaining children of Abraham-- Muslims and Jews. The six plaques repeat the peace prayer--"May peace prevail on Earth" in the languages of all these peoples.

Each year we celebrate the labyrinth's anniversary on the Saturday or Sunday closest to the solstice. The next will be on Saturday, June 23, 2007 from 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.. Plan on joining us.

Labyrinth Cleanup
We've had two years with lots of rain, mother nature has taken over the labyrinth; so it is getting a clean-up this year. We started it on this year's Solstice Saturday, and we'll be working on it Saturday mornings starating JulyWe trowel the white marble chips out of the lines into buckets, wash it, mix it with dry cement (that will harden in time to keep soil and seed out) and put it back in the lines, so if you can bring your own trowel and bucket, it would help. We'll provide refreshments. You are the company--and that makes the party.

Click here for links to other sources of labyrinth information.

Click here to read about a fascinating 60 minute VHS tape about labyrinths and how you can get one.

Click here for Directions to the Center

(The Peace Pole is to the left on the far side of the labyrinth.)

The story of the Great Labyrinth: (The first three paras below are from a Boston College web article on the labyrinth that is no longer on their web site.)

"Around 1230, as the Cathedral of Chartres was being built, a large labyrinth forty feet across was set with blue and white stones into the floor of the nave of the church. Similar labyrinths were placed in other French Gothic cathedrals, such as Amiens, Rheims, Sens, Arras and Auxerre. Around the eighteenth century, all of these labyrinths, except the one at Chartres, were suppressed. [The labyrinth at Amiens was later restored in 1894.]

These labyrinths were all laid out according to the same basic pattern: twelve rings that enclose a single meandering path which slowly leads one to the center rosette. The path makes 28 loops, seven on left side toward the center, then seven on the right side toward the center, followed by seven on the left side toward the outside, and finally seven on the right side toward the outside terminating in a short strait path to the rosette.

The Middle Ages was a time of pilgrimages. Since most people could not make the grand pilgrimage to Jerusalem, considered by Christians to be the center of the world, and symbolizing the Kingdom of Heaven, they would make pilgrimages to important cathedrals such as Canterbury, Santiago de Compostella and, of course, Chartres. Once at Chartres, they would end their pilgrimage by walking the labyrinth to the center, and then slowly retracing their steps to regain the "outside world" and return to their homes."

The journey consists of three parts: the entrance walk is "Purgation" or cleansing of the affairs of the secular world; attaining the Center brings "Illumination," the enlightenment of the Spirit; and the exit walk effects "Unification" or spiritual self becoming one with secular self.

Recommended reading: Lauren Artress, Walking a Sacred Path: Rediscovering the Labyrinth as a Spiritual Tool (New York: Riverhead Books, 1995)

Labyrinth links:

Bates College, Lewiston, ME, Come, walk ..."for peace."
Usually open Wednesdays, 2:00-4:00
(click the link to e-mail the director, Rev. Kerry Maloney)

Grace Cathedral, SF, CA...the home of Labyrinth studies in America
(Where you can find out about sixteen other labyrinths in Maine, three of which have web sites, and most creators list an e-mail address)

Boston College, Newton, MA, Le Labyrinthe de Boston College

Labyrinth of the Whispering Grove, an excellent example of a seven circuit labyrinth in a natural setting on the coast of Maine.

Labyrinths: Their Mystery and Magic, a beautiful 60 minute video filmed at Omega Institute, Rhinebeck, NY, combining workshops, lectures, and interviews produced by Penny Price Media, 406 Mountain View Rd., Rhinebeck, NY 12572, Phone: (845) 876-0239  Fax: (845) 876-0260
pricemedia@aol.com

The Labyrinth Company, Baltimore, MD, an innovative and inventive force dedicated to promoting the widespread use of this marvelous meditation device.

PAXworks, who have acquired the expertise to build nearly any size, shape, material or location of labyrinth. 

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The lovely back yard at the Center for Hope and Healing in South Paris, Maine, is a perfect setting for such a beautiful structure. There is a circle of trees about seventy feet across, in the center of which is a soft energy vortex.

We began our labyrinth project at the moment of the Summer Solstice, 3:38 a.m., June 21, 2001, a center pivot was placed in the middle of the vortex, and the concentric circles, entrances, labryses and half-labryses of the 40 foot labyrinth were laid out from it using (biodegradable) corn meal. Volunteers dug out the narrow (3") lines and labryses to a depth of 2" and they began the task of lining them with black agricultural plastic and filling them with white crushed marble level with the surface of the ground so that our mower can pass over the labyrinth without disturbing it.

We had a wonderful day doing all of this, and by 4:00 PM the entire path had been laid out and sixteen people walked the path!

The remaining work was completed over two more days and now the finished labyrinth is open to the public. Its formal dedication to the healing of persons everywhere took place between 9:00 am and 3:00 pm on July 14, 2001 in the form of the footsteps of all those who chose to walk the path and all those who supported them. We were supported by the voices of the Circle Voice singers and the Celtic Harp of Christina Tourin. It was a lovely experience.

Please send us an email for help in getting here and for answers to any other questions you may have: hope-at-hopehealing.org

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Directions to the Center for Hope and Healing:
South Paris is 25 miles north of Gray on Route 26. At Market Square in South Paris, Route 26 takes a sharp left turn toward Bethel. About 1/10 mile north of Market Square lies Moore Park with maple trees and an attractive gazebo. Rte. 26 goes to the right of the park, and High Street goes to the left of the park. The Center for Hope and Healing is opposite the gazebo at 52 High Street, and there are signs out front. There's lots of room to park on both sides of the street.

To get to the labyrinth, park out front unless you are handicapped, and go up the Center's driveway past the garage where you'll see the white marble of the labyrinth in the lawn ahead of you. Handicapped people are welcome to drive all the way to the labyrinth if the lawn is dry and firm; otherwise leave your car on the hot top driveway next to the garage.

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