Unity Spiritual Center hosts candlelight labyrinth walk June 28

Unity Spiritual Center will host a candlelight walk in its replica medieval labyrinth on June 28.

Unity Spiritual Center in Westlake will be hosting a beautiful candlelight walk this Friday, June 28, at 7 p.m. At 90 feet in diameter, Unity’s outdoor labyrinth is one of the largest in Ohio. This meditative experience, “Walking a Sacred Path,” will focus on the Lord’s Prayer and the seven steps to transforming your life. This event is free and open to the public.

Why walk the labyrinth? The world is thirsty for a connection with the soul, and the answer can be found in the renaissance of this ancient image. The mysterious labyrinth is a symbol of wholeness, combining the circle and the spiral into a meandering yet purposeful path.

It invites us to walk in peace on its beautiful path, offering tranquility to the mind, relaxation to the body and serenity to the spirit. Labyrinths are not to be confused with mazes, which have multiple paths requiring choices and often walls or hedges. Labyrinths have only one path.

Long forgotten and sometimes feared, they have lain dormant in the archives of the Christian mystical tradition under centuries of dust. The labyrinth is an old watercourse that dried up over time and circumstances. But it is filling once again with clear, cool waters, inviting us to drink. The labyrinth has been awaiting rediscovery, longing to guide us, awaken us as we walk our earthly path. The time has come.

Labyrinths have been known to the human race for over 4,000 years but disappeared some 400 years ago. Labyrinths can be found in almost every religious tradition. The Kabbalah or Tree of Life is found in the Jewish mystical tradition. The Hopi Medicine Wheel and the Man in the Maze are Native American labyrinth traditions. The Cretan labyrinth is the oldest known labyrinth, dating back nearly 5,000 years ago. The Celts and later the Christian Celtic Church frequently built their labyrinths in outdoor settings.

The center of the labyrinth is a rose with six petals, one of the great lost medieval mysteries. The secret of the rose with six petals is its perfect correlation to the Lord’s Prayer. Each petal represents a different teaching found within the prayer, and the central circle represents the essence and wellspring of love, as love must feed into all aspects of our lives in order to achieve true fulfillment. The rose is the symbol of the perfect spiritual practice; it is our map to the source of miracles.

Unity’s labyrinth is modeled after the world-famous labyrinth at the 800-year-old Chartres Cathedral in France. The rose at the center of that labyrinth is unique in that it is the only medieval labyrinth where the center is represented by the six-petal rose, which can be viewed as a portal to spiritual transformation.

You don’t have to be a practicing Christian to use this process. You simply have to believe in a higher power and believe that your life has a purpose within that higher power. God gave us everything we need within ourselves to manifest a perfect, abundant, happy, love-filled life, and to feel great and have fun while doing it. The Lord’s Prayer is his handbook for fulfillment, and the six-petaled rose is the map that guides us through it.

These six petals represent faith, surrender, service, abundance, forgiveness and overcoming obstacles, all leading to the center, which is unconditional love. Experience all this for yourself on Friday, June 28, and be a part of this beautifully moving candlelight walk at Unity Spiritual Center, 23855 Detroit Road, just west of Clague Road. For additional information, visit www.unityspiritualcenter.com or call us at 440-835-0400.