Labyrinth Walking - Spikenard Audio Meditation

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Click on the above link to hear the meditation.

With this meditation, you can read the words below through once to become familiarized with the content, and then listen to the audio meditation and meditate along with it. Because this meditation is specifically supported by Spikenard, you might have the essential oil either burning in an aroma lamp or place a drop of the oil on a tissue and sniff it or maybe even put the oil in a bath and soak in it while listening to the meditation being played back. Smelling the aroma and hearing its words will transport you into the world of the oil and connect you to a deeper understand of the healing that each oil offers. Remember, this is only one quality of the oil. Each essential oil has many faces…

There is little question why spikenard was such a prized possession in ancient times, why it was so expensive and cherished. Not only did it have to be imported over the Himalayas via India to reach the Middle East and Europe, but its spiritual qualities were well known and therefore sought after. Spikenard carries a very high vibration, a frequency that enables a deep connection to one’s spiritual self and one’s inner being. Its calming and quieting properties enable a deep state of meditation, almost trancelike in nature. It encourages a kind of stupor that opens the higher senses to a keener receptivity whilst tuning out the mundane. Spikenard will lead us on a journey to the heart of Self with the help of the labyrinth found at Chartres Cathedral.

Before you begin this meditation, carefully study and mindfully imprint the image of the labyrinth in your brain. You will need to conjure up its image in the meditation. If this is too difficult, do the meditation with you eyes open and trace the path of the labyrinth with your finger as you listen to the meditation in your recording.

The Meditation:

Imagine you are in Chartres Cathedral in medieval France. It doesn’t matter whether you know what Chartres Cathedral looks like or where it is; by just setting the intention to visualize being there, you will automatically connect to the energies that will transport you there on a cellular level. Your inner Being knows what you want and what lies ahead.

Breathe in Spikenard and sense a swirling vortex of energy surrounding you. All around is a feeling of energy moving, stirring, shifting and pulling you forward into its flow. (Pause and allow yourself to drop deep into meditation so that you can begin to sense the flow of energy) In your mind’s eye you begin to visualize a labyrinth ahead of you on the floor. (Recreate the labyrinth picture in this article in your mind.) It is not a maze where you have choices and wrong turns, but rather it has one path in, that is the same path out. This particular labyrinth is set in stone, built into the base of the nave’s floor of the cathedral. It was created when the cathedral was built and many people have walked the path to the end point of its design, just as you will in your meditation. You can almost imagine the countless feet that have worn these stones smooth. You see, in your mind’s eye, that this labyrinth has a beginning point, the place where you will enter the labyrinth, which is also the way you will eventually return. A labyrinth has a beginning, which is the journey in; a center; and a return journey out. In this meditation you will have all 3 experiences.

Breathe in the fragrance of Spikenard and allow yourself to envision your desire to follow the labyrinth’s route. This path is one that will take you to the center, symbolically to the heart of your Being. Before you begin your journey to you inner Self, you will want to state an intention, create a desire that this journey will assist into manifestation. (Pause and think of something that you wish to create or fulfill. It should be a quest from your Soulic desires.)

Stand at the beginning of the labyrinth, ahead of you lays a path that winds in and around itself as it meanders towards the core. The track is not in any hurry as it creates a pattern of destiny. It weaves and snakes along, taking up as much of the space between the beginning and the end as is possible. There are no shortcuts here. In this representation of life’s journey, from birth to death, we do not want to skip ahead. We want to make the most of every step along the path. On some levels, this labyrinth represents your passage though life and you want to take as long as you can to complete it.

As you step onto the path, at the beginning, imagine you are being birthed into a new way of being, or maybe a thought or desire is being given birth to, or maybe beginning to conquer a challenge to Self is being symbolized in this journey. Whatever you have decided, you are opening to a new level of consciousness into Self. (Pause and honor this entrance). Slowly and consciously begin your journey, one step at a time. Because of the newness of the path, you may feel inclined to run and see what is up ahead, or maybe instead you are unsure and cautious and wanting to take things slowly. (Pause and see how you feel). However you choose to go, it is perfect for you, right here, right now. Continue along your way. In you visualization, does the path remain a constant width or does it narrow or widen at places. Is each of your steps surefooted and confident or are some shaky and uneven? (Again, tune in and see how you feel). Maybe at some bends or curves you get confused or dizzy. You maybe want to retrace your steps to make sure you have gone down the right route. However you walk on your journey, it is perfect. You cannot go wrong.

Remind yourself of your previous inner intent or desire when you first began. Have you been contemplating it as you’ve been going along or have other thoughts and desires come and gone? Does the intent stay the same as you continue or have you been editing it or appending to it or even negating it? Do you still want the same thing, as when you first stepped onto your life’s journey?

Continue to walk, winding ever closer to the center. As you go along, maybe nearing the center elates your spirits and you feel like skipping or dancing the last few twists and turns of the route. Or do you fear the end and slow even further down to stretch out every inch. There is no avoiding the end. The path does and will come to completion. You will eventually come to the center of your heart and meet your inner Being. (Pause and sense what it feels like to be coming close to the end.) Ahead of you is the center of the labyrinth. Your journey will very soon now be complete. All you have done, everything you have felt and realized will soon be over. Are you ready to take the final steps to the conclusion of this journey? Are you willing to meet your end, in whichever capacity that represents? Can you step over the threshold to connection to your inner Being? (pause before you take the last step and full realize what it means for your today.)

Take the last step and stand in the middle of the labyrinth. Tune in and see how you feel. Be present and conscious to all your Being and open to new levels of awareness. You have arrived. You have completed your journey. How does it feel?!? You are home you yourself. Welcome. This is the new you. (Pause and truly be there to all of your Self and all your emotions, thoughts, senses and inner knowings).
Is reaching the end what you thought it would be? Are you content or disappointed? Was the journey more fulfilling than the completion or are you glad it is all over? Sense, feel what is going on inside of you. Honor your feelings. This is your holy place and you are home.

When you feel rested and complete, know there is still another journey for you to take, and that is the one back out. The return journey can be just as provocative as coming in, or it can be as light or as easy as you choose. Turn around and face the path that led you in. Step out of the center and see yourself retracing your steps, winding around the curves, maybe remembering your experiences of each step, or else blithely racing past without any need to remember. Again, the choice is yours and it is all perfect for right here and right now. But at some point you will reach the starting point entrance and you will need to leave that particular journey behind. See the end of the path in sight and walk to it. Before leaving, take a moment and sense how you feel. Then take the last step off the labyrinth’s path.

You may want to revisit the labyrinth again later. And maybe the next journey will be totally different from the first. Each time you walk a labyrinth, you come closer to completion, in every sense of the word.

When you are ready to come out of meditation, turn back and thank the labyrinth for the experience it offered you. Find yourself aware of your breathe. Allow the scent of Spikenard to begin to bring you back into awareness of the room around you, of your toes as they wiggle, of your fingers as they flex. Take a deep inhale, a yawn, a stretch and come back into the present.

The Cretan Labyrinth