“Moving slowly to a point of stillness.”
Quakers and Labyrinths
Video: South Coast Quakers build a test-run labyrinth for their Beach of Dreams project
David Curtis, a Quaker and a labyrinth builder, speaks to Discovering Quakers about the parallels to be drawn between labyrinths and Quaker practice.
What do labyrinths have to do with Quakers?
“I first came across labyrinths outside of Quaker circles. I did a one day course in constructing labyrinths and it was after that I started spotting labyrinths in Quaker circles: I went to Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre and there was this wonderful big grass labyrinth laid out in the grounds of Woodbrooke College. And then I was at a Quaker Center in California, Ben Lomond, and there's this gorgeous labyrinth laid out in the redwood forest there. And then I saw that Exmouth Quakers had made a labyrinth on the beach as an opportunity for outreach: and it’s a really good tool for outreach because of the parallels it draws with a Quaker Meeting.
There’s something universal about a labyrinth that says something about what it's like as a Quaker to sit in the quiet of a Quaker Meeting. It's a good thing to have set up in places where other people come, who might be a bit curious about what Quakers do.
That’s because anyone can walk a labyrinth. All you've got to do is put one foot in front of the other, and you're moving slowly towards a place of stillness. It's a bit like a child's game: so there's something that appeals to all generations about labyrinths. Anyone can do it, and yet it's somehow it's got echoes of what it's like to sit in a Quaker Meeting and to move slowly towards a point of stillness.”
Image: The labyrinth at Ben Lomond Quaker Center, California
Why are you, as a Quaker, drawn to the symbol of the labyrinth?
“It’s not about the symbol of a labyrinth. I think it's a practice of a labyrinth. As Quakers we have a saying that we ‘reject outward forms’, and I think of the labyrinth as being something you do. It's not just something you look at. It's something that you do, and you understand it by doing it.
You understand the labyrinth by slowly walking towards the centre of the labyrinth. And within that practice, there's a losing of something and a gaining of something. There's a losing of normal mindset, of everyday mindset, and there's a focus that arises.
For me it's reminiscent of the spiritual path: I'm walking around this route, and sometimes I'm feeling like I’m close to the centre, and sometimes I might find myself flung towards the outside of it, and I always get a bit lost. There will come a point where I'm halfway around and I'm thinking, ‘Am I actually moving towards the centre?’
But you just keep putting one foot in front of another, and you pass the same landmarks time and again. Life is like that, isn't it? Life isn't linear. It isn't a straight line from beginning to end. You pass the same things, the familiar landmarks, time and time again, whether they're ones that you like to see, or ones you don't like to see. Life's a bit like that.
So I think importantly, this is a practice, rather than a symbol, and it's a practice of moving towards stillness. And one thing for me that's important is to walk slowly towards the middle, and then to walk just as slowly back out again. There's a there's a moving away from the busyness of everyday life towards this point of stillness. But also there's bringing that point of stillness slowly back into everyday life again. It’s a similar experience in a Quaker Meeting.”
On the horizon: South Coast Quakers are planning to construct a gigantic labyrinth for the ‘Beach of Dreams’.
“The Beach of Dreams Project is a festival of events that's happening all around the UK’s coastline throughout May this year. Quakers in Dorset and Hampshire came together to dream up a local creative project on a section of the South Coast. We’re going to go to Bournemouth beach to make a gigantic labyrinth in the sand and invite people to slowly walk around it.
It's an opportunity to celebrate our coastal environment, and to express Quaker concerns for what's happening to our coastal environment in terms of pollution and climate change. And I'm hoping it's going to be an opportunity to spark some conversations that are at the heart of Quakerism today.”