RIVER PATHS will present several layers of information and experiences that expose the parallel rhythms of human life with the rhythms of river life. This workshop will teeter between being “of the water” and envisioning human-water partnerships, providing tools for advocacy and raising consciousness about the preciousness of our water. The three stages of a river coexist beautifully with the labyrinth pilgrimage experience: birth/source, active rapids and youthful anticipation; then a slower middle course/mature age, creating tributary offspring and receiving sediment for new ecosystems, surrendering youth; thirdly, the lower course/old age is the calm delta area, full of deeper sediment, active birdlife, and wisdom at the mouth of the river, spilling its life journey into the sea and bigger world.
Through river images, the labyrinth journey is enriched through themes of emerging springs, surrendering ground, risking falls, setting boundaries, living on the rim, navigating boulders, filling the vessel, dying or gathering nutrients for sediment, and creating new life. The ultimate goal is to walk with new learnings and awareness that weave a path of advocacy for future labyrinth and life work, celebrating the bond we share with water and our responsibility for it.
This class offers river information and experiences of simple improvisation, water-themed chants, short meditations, group movement merging labyrinth quadrants with river life stages, and shared reflection time. Floor labyrinths will be used, specifically Lisa Moriarty’s “Meander Labyrinth,” celebrating the river meander of middle course and including a full outer circuit of all-encompassing life cycle systems.