This past Solstice/New Years marked my fifteenth annual labyrinth meditation walk. It feels like I just began this ritual, but at the same time my life since my first New Year’s Eve labyrinth walk has been quite the labyrinthine journey in itself!

How this ritual began was quite spontaneous. A friend had asked me if I wanted to join her at the local cathedral’s New Year’s labyrinth walk, and so I did. The cathedral was packed with people looking for closure, for healing, for clarity, for hope. It was two-way, uninterrupted traffic on the Chartres Cathedral replica, and yet I really relished in the way this made us all walk very slowly, having to take in the experience each and every moment.

It was at this first labyrinth meditation walk that I came up with what became my annual ritual. On the walk to the center, I think about the past year and all that I wish to understand, release, and let go of. At the center I stand in silent meditation until I feel I am ready to wind my way out. And on the way back through the labyrinth, I think of all I wish to create and welcome in in the year ahead.

This labyrinthine journey is an inner experience and process of coming back to my own center so that I can learn, grow, and manifest from the center of my being outwards, but it’s not a light and fluffy experience. It’s usually filled with acknowledging mistakes I’ve made, things I did wrong, and shadows I need to work on integrating. That first ritual was also quite possibly the most painful one. I remember tears streaming down my face and fears of the future flashing before me, but also the excitement as I embraced and released and opened up space for me to fill in.

The labyrinth is thoroughly known; we have only to follow the thread of the hero-path. And where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god; where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves; where we had thought to travel outwards, we shall come to the center of our own existence; where we had thought to be alone, we shall be in all the world.

Joseph Campbell

Last year I was invited to be a part of a YouTube collaboration for New Beginnings as we entered into 2020. For that event I created a tarot or oracle card spread based on my labyrinth ritual, and I thought I do one for 2021, using The Oracle of the Fool:

1) What am I moving away from? Thoughts – I am moving away from my mind being so busy with all the things I need to and want to do, and from letting stressors overtake me. It’s nice to know the excessive thinking is evaporating.

2) What needs release? Chaos – Being a grand master multi-tasking working mama. 2020 was exhausting and felt often like I was swirling in a chaotic whirlwind. But, it doesn’t have to be that way, and this year isn’t that way. However I do need to re-program my mind and thought patterns around this.

3) Where do I stand now? Meditation – Affirmation that I am getting more centered and finding balance. Keep working on it!

4) What action do I need to take to welcome in the new? Ego – I need to acknowledge my own needs and desires better. I tend to put me behind everything else, especially when not necessary. I am someone I need to take care of too.

5) What is waiting to manifest in the cleared space? Possibilities – Anything and everything!

Let me know in the Comments if you try this spread out! For some more rituals and practices for new beginnings, check out this video:

And if you’d like to walk the Labyrinth with me: