Labyrinths and To Do Lists- May 2024
World Labyrinth Day, The Fool's Calling Tarot Course, Book Recommendation, Writing Update, & so much more!
World Labyrinth Day
Each year, the first Saturday in May is World Labyrinth Day, this year on May 4. The magic of walking a labyrinth is difficult to describe, but simply stated, walking a labyrinth can change your life. My life dramatically changed in 1999 after I walked the indoor labyrinth at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. My barefooted pilgrimage to myself that day led me to discover not only unknown parts of myself, but offered a way of exploring a world filled with beliefs, thoughts, and experiences I’d never dared to dream. Now, twenty-five years later, I’m still walking, exploring, and being comforted and taught by, the labyrinth.
Saturday, May 4 is World Labyrinth Day. The international walk this year is titled “A Rolling Wave for Peace.” You are invited to walk a labyrinth wherever you are, (or walk the one in the picture below with your finger) at 1 pm in your time zone, joining a rolling prayer for peace around the globe.
World Labyrinth Day is sponsored by The Labyrinth Society and Veriditas, organizations that teach and promote labyrinths around the world. On both websites below there is a labyrinth locator to help you find a labyrinth near you, and to answer your questions about walking the labyrinth.
https://www.worldlabyrinthday.org/
A labyrinth is not a maze, you can’t get lost. There is one path into the center, and you walk the same path back out. The walk is meditative and mystical. The 11-circuit labyrinth pictured is a drawing of the famous one on the floor of Chartres Cathedral in France. You might enjoy learning about this particular labyrinth here:
https://www.cathedrale-chartres.org/en/cathedrale/monument/the-labyrinth/
Dr. Lauren Artress, Canon Emeritus of Grace Cathedral, who brought the labyrinth project to the United States, says in her book, Walking a Sacred Path: Rediscovering the Labyrinth as a Spiritual Tool, that the labyrinth walk has three stages: purgation, illumination, and union. Winding your way to the center is a time of releasing and letting go. In the stillness of the center, illumination comes, and your walk out is a joyous union, a oneness with yourself, and with all that is.
I will walk the beautiful labyrinth etched on the floor of a church near me at 1 pm on Saturday, May 4, setting my intention for peace. I hope you’ll join me wherever you are at 1 pm in your time zone.
I’m so happy to connect with you and I’m grateful that you have taken a course with me and subscribe to this newsletter! If you missed my last newsletter, you can read it here.
Dreams Do Come True-April 2024
The Eternal Writer and What I’m Doing
“To-do Lists as Journals” (I’m working on a course about this!) I write almost non-stop. I’m always writing, sometimes making notes about new stories, about research for stories, writing poems on scraps of paper, creating a zillion new Facebook posts for my Facebook pages. I’m forever journaling – writing is how I process what I think and feel. I write other peoples’ words – I keep notebooks of quotes from literature and song lyrics. I can quote long passages from my favorite books, plays, and songs. I write scripts for my podcast episodes. Even my to-do lists become journal entries. T.S. Eliot measured his life in coffee spoons. I measure mine in to-do lists. Watch my newsletter for more information soon!
I’ve recently submitted a poetry collection and a creative nonfiction work to a wonderful publication. I’m holding my breath in hopes these works are accepted. Fingers crossed.
The course I’m taking with author Janisse Ray is amazing and I’m learning so much! I hope you’ll subscribe to her Substack. Click here:
A fun comedy is coming to a local theater! I portray a feisty, no-nonsense owner of a wedding venue. I’ll tell you more when the publicity is released. In the meantime, please pray I learn my lines!
You’ve asked me to teach my “Crow Knows” course again, so watch for it early this summer. My artist friend Marybeth Bradbury recently wrote about her bird encounters in her newsletter. I hope you’ll read about her experiences:
The Fool's Calling:
Your Personal Myths and Archetypes in Arcane Symbols
A Self-Paced Tarot Course About YOU and Archetypes!
THIS is the in-depth, self-paced Tarot course you requested me to create!
It’s not too late to enroll! You can join this course anytime you like. The first lesson is sent to you on the Monday after you register. I hope YOU will join us on this quest! DEEP gratitude to the many of you who are already enrolled!
Do you seek new ways to learn about yourself and the world around you? For hundreds of years, Tarot symbols have been a gathering place for world beliefs and a source through which we can discover common ground among us and within aspects of ourselves. Tarot offers an exploration of myths and legends, and of cultures and beliefs, that are as old as time and as modern as this moment. For many years, the symbols of Tarot have guided my travel to the world around me, and to myself. Tarot can guide you too on your journey to self.
Venture deeply with me into the myths, legends, beliefs, and cultures of Tarot in this exciting self-paced 38-week course! Tarot wisdom guides your path to your deepest self, while this esoteric knowledge hides in plain sight on the 78 keys of traditional Tarot.
NEW to Tarot? No problem! This course lays the foundation for a deep exploration of the knowledge that supports the meaning of Tarot. This course is not a course in divination or using intuitive skills but rather grounds you in the underpinnings of the time-honored meanings of the keys.
Here are some questions this course answers:
Why on some keys do we see Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Egyptian, Greek, and Roman symbols? How do they work together?
How does learning the mythology related to the keys enhance my understanding of symbols on the keys?
Why do some symbols, such as flowers, pillars, and feathers, repeat on various keys?
What do landscapes and buildings tell us about our journey through Tarot?
What do the symbols teach me about myself?
AND SO MUCH MORE!
Details and registration on my website: https://debbowen.com/product/the-fools-calling-your-personal-myths-and-archetypes-in-arcane-symbols/
Book Recommendation
It isn’t necessary to read Dr. Lauren Artress’s book before you walk a labyrinth, but you may want to read it afterwards. Dr. Artress created a groundswell of interest about the labyrinth after her visit to the one on the floor of Chartres Cathedral in France. She created the first one in the US at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco when she was a priest there.
Today there are thousands of labyrinths across the US, and the number grows every year. They are on the floors of churches, in parks, on hillsides, in hospice gardens, on private land, and more. As my sweet friend Jean the palm reader was dying three years ago, I was walking the seven-circuit labyrinth at our local hospice care center while her family said goodbye.
The circuitous route that winds around ancient labyrinth patterns is as old as humanity itself. Meditative, magical, introspective, inspirational, solitary – the way of learning who we are as we walk the well-worn path is a gift beyond measure.
I invite you to read Dr. Artress’s book. Then walk a labyrinth. Again. And again.
Writing Update
Click on the links below to read my most recent works in Salvation South:
NEW!! “The Coyote’s Journey”
https://www.salvationsouth.com/the-coyotes-journey-nature-essay-deb-bowen/
“Takin’ Up a Poundin’”
https://www.salvationsouth.com/takin-up-a-poundin-christmas-story-deb-bowen/
“Tidal Wave Terror”
https://www.salvationsouth.com/ground-truth-from-the-climate-reckoning-janisse-ray/
“Where I’m From: Seven Decades in Seven Scenes”
https://www.salvationsouth.com/where-im-from-seven-decades-in-seven-scenes-deb-bowen-poem/
“Mending Nets”
https://www.salvationsouth.com/mending-nets-north-carolina-barrier-island/?mc_cid=c4bb217ffc&mc_eid=fae2a9a622
“A Talisman for Poseidon”
https://www.salvationsouth.com/a-talisman-from-poseidon-hurricane-donna-1960/
Podcast
Deb’s Facebook Pages
Another way you and I can connect is through my Facebook pages. I’d be honored if you’d follow my pages. They are a great way to see up-to-the-minute news! I so hope you’ll LIKE and FOLLOW and feel free to comment and share posts!
Deb Bowen, Author
PsychicTeachers
Witches of the Shore
Just One More Thing Before You Go
Ever spinning, ever dancing, we are connected by threads as fragile as gossamer, as strong as steel. - Deb Bowen
Thank you!
I love the idea of To Do Lists as journals. I look forward to the course.