‘Walking into the rock … ’: Labyrinth experience as thin place and [spi]ritual direction

ABSTRACT

This article offers findings from a small study of staff and student experiences in a tertiary educational context at Tabor Institute of Higher Education, South Australia. Participants were invited to complete three curated labyrinth walk and reflection activities over a period of three months as an extra-curricular opportunity for experiential spiritual practice. Analysis of the rich narrative data from participants’ experiences reveals the potential of the labyrinth ritual to enable transformative insights of significant depth and meaning to individuals. Three of the themes which emerged from the data are presented in this article. The first relates to a heightened sense of the dissolution of individual identity into a greater sense of connectivity or fusion with, and to, elements of nature, such as rock, water, and sand. The second speaks of deep emotional connection and processing of a pivotal, personal historical turn in spiritual awareness. The third relates to a movement into unusual peace, a sense of the living and fluid nature of time and space, and the agency of ritual practice as active and something that is ‘at work in the person’ rather than passive, with the person doing the work of the ritual. The researchers were struck by two phenomena in the process. Firstly, the poignant efficacy of non-didactic ritual for spiritual education and growth. Secondly, the interactive and dynamic relationship between the desire of the participants for deep experience, the actual practice of the labyrinth walk, and the importance of mindfulness and context-sensitive curation of the events.

KEYWORDS:

• Spiritual formation
• ritual
• agency
• depth phenomena
• healing
• transformation

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the staff members and students who participated in the ritual and reflective writing and interviews for this project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Phil Daughtry

Phil Daughtry is Dean of Faculty, Humanities and Social Sciences, at Tabor Institute of Higher Education, Australia. His research interests are primarily focussed on the relevance of Christian contemplative spirituality to human flourishing in an Australian context.

Kirsten Macaitis

Kirsten Macaitis is a senior lecturer within the faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Tabor Institute of Higher Education, Australia. Her research interests involve sociology, young people, gender, and spiritualty, particularly focusing on the relationship between religious and cultural experiences and how we can understand spirituality in a contemporary context.

Tick Zweck

Tick Zweck is a practising psychotherapist and adjunct lecturer in the faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Tabor Institute of Higher Education, Australia. Her research interest is in the relationship between human development and the spiritual journey, particularly as this plays out in the therapeutic relationship in a counselling context.