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The labyrinth is a gift to humanity to be used for the benefit of all humankind. So far in this book you have been using the labyrinth to address your individual issues: to look at your own life events seeking answers and insights. You have looked at your relationship with others, with your environment, with the cosmos, and with all of existence. It is now time to look at using the labyrinth for the benefit of humanity. While this always begins with yourself, you are now ready to go further than you have gone before to using the labyrinth as a tool for creating the future of humanity.
The labyrinth has many associations with fertility, creativity, and the birth of new life. The labyrinth is a place of safety and rejuvenation from which creativity in its many forms emerges. For example, you might enter the labyrinth with the seed of an idea, then during the labyrinth walk that seed can germinate and gestate to bring you greater insights, and you emerge from the labyrinth ready to bring your idea to life.
You are living on the edge of creation. You are always creating. What you are about to do is create consciously and actively. Active creation is a conscious act, where you choose how you want to be and how you create your reality. You have a unique contribution to make to the advancement of our human family. William Blake summed this up when he wrote in his book Jerusalem, “I must create a system, or be enslaved by another man’s. I will not reason and compare: my business is to create” (Blake 1802–1820). Your business is also to create.
Act of Creating
In reflecting on how I have been creating and contributing over the years, every thought, every word, and every deed of mine has created something. Many of my creations were unconscious and were not necessarily positive ones. I was not operating from my current level of understanding and awareness. Indeed, most of the time I was not aware that I was creating at all. As I began walking the spiritual path, I learned how I create in every moment. As my awareness grew I began to seek positive creating within myself, and from there to create for the benefit of humanity.
After working with the labyrinth for a short while, I realised the depth of insight and wisdom that was coming to me through the labyrinth. Through walking the labyrinth, insights into a different way of being emerged. Then as I realised the benefits of these insights to others, I began bringing the labyrinth to people. I held workshops to teach people about the labyrinth. I designed, created, and built labyrinths. I also started painting labyrinth images. I have no art training and wasn’t even sure if I could draw or paint until I began. Some of my early paintings were not very good, yet others seemed to carry an energy of something greater than what I was putting into them. I could see and feel that the images I painted were coming from some place deep inside me, or even from within the greater consciousness field of the labyrinth. The labyrinth enhanced and empowered my creativity in this area.
You too have the potential within you to do what you think at first you cannot do. There is something that you are here to create. It may not be art, but it could be writing a book, playing music, creating a beautiful garden, singing, or some other activity that enlivens you and inspires others. Other less recognised acts of creating might involve developing a new method of working at the office, using whatever materials you have to fix something broken, or putting together whatever ingredients are available to make dinner. You just need to start, and once started, it is just like walking a labyrinth, taking one step at a time.
The labyrinth assists you in creating space for the new. It meets you where you are at, and helps open a door to the next most appropriate level of knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. When you have reached, or can touch, the stage where you are aware of your thoughts, your actions, and your part in creating your reality, then you can actively begin creating the present and the future.
Evolutionary Creativity
Humankind has been evolving for several hundreds of thousands of years. The earth has been evolving for billions of years. The universe and cosmos have been evolving for approximately fourteen billion years. This evolution is continuing. All around you, evolution is happening: the earth is changing, society is changing, you are changing. These changes are not happening in isolation. All changes are interconnected. Change in one area is reflected, mirrored, or counterbalanced in another. You are part of this change. You may think that you are just an observer, watching all that is happening with wonder, or concern, or maybe even fear. But, as proven by the observer effect, being an observer affects the results.
In 1998 the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel conducted an experiment on electrons passing through a slit. This experiment demonstrated that when under observation electrons are being “forced to behave like particles and not like waves. Thus the mere act of observation affects the experiment’s findings” (ScienceDaily 1998). In the context of evolution, and in particular creative evolution, you cannot be an observer without also influencing the outcome. The very fact that you are observing means that you are contributing your energy to the experiment, the process of evolution.
Furthermore, what this experiment also means is that when you are looking at something at a quantum level it behaves like a particle, and when you are not observing it behaves like a wave, vibration, or energy. Therefore, everything in the universe is ultimately energy, and energy is influenced by the mind of the observer.
In the world of quantum physics, electrons and events are considered to have potential rather than physical existence, that is until someone looks. The act of observing, then, results in a determination as to which potential is realised. Therefore, all of existence is basically an unlimited quantum field of energy, of infinite possibilities. Everything is energy, and energy can be influenced by the mind. Your thoughts create your reality.
I was talking about this to a group I did a mindfulness class with and told them a story of when I was checking into my hotel earlier that day. I was in a hurry to get to my room and had a long walk from reception to my room. On the way to my room, I thought this key probably won’t work. When I got to the room, the key wouldn’t open the door and I had to go back down to the reception to get another key. The following day one of the people at the class told me that she was late going home on the bus after the class and needed to get home as quickly as possible. She was hoping the bus wouldn’t break down. What happened? The bus broke down! This is how the Law of Attraction works. What you focus on most of the time, you get.
You now know that it is up to you to choose how you want to influence evolution. Your role on earth is to be a conscious creator of a new way of being. By consciously deciding and creating, you are playing your part in giving birth to a new reality. You are the next step in fourteen billion years of creation and evolution.
On the Threshold
Humanity is on the threshold of a quantum leap forward that will propel humankind away from the ego-based, never-ending striving for material wealth and growth. It is not fully clear what it will take for this shift to happen. Daniel Pinchbeck considers that it will “require a mutation in consciousness that can only be self-willed and self-directed.” He further states that “according to this paradigm, it is as if physical evolution has done billions of years of work on our behalf to get us to this point. Right now, it is our choice whether we would like to go forward or fall by the wayside” (Pinchbeck 2012).
Kingsley Dennis thinks that the influences of a certain number of individuals who are in conscious contact and communication can create an exponential level of conscious force. These individuals are “now shifting up a gear and raising levels of awareness on this Earth at unparalled speed … The needed shift in collective and planetary consciousness is unfolding, it appears, according to the law of evolutionary design” (Dennis 2011).
If you are reading this book, then you are most likely one of these conscious individuals who is impacting on and contributing to the evolution of humanity at this time. You probably know other people or friends who are like-minded and living a life of personal and spiritual awareness and growth. As Dennis says, “It is required that we traverse two paths simultaneously; one path requires inward travel, while the other requires that we balance our outer lives so that our intellectual, emotional, and physical faculties are in a harmonious relationship” (Dennis 2011).
Furthermore, you are not alone. Your journey to greater awareness and connection is bringing you into relationships with certain people with whom you will be making a greater contribution than if you were working solely on your own. The work of contributing to a shift in consciousness happens more strongly in groups. You may find that you are drawn to like-minded people and that the conversations and energy around your interactions are contributing to raising the vibration around you and, consequently, of all of humanity.
Apart from talking, there are several tools that already exist that you can use to assist in your creative endeavours. When you incorporate these into your labyrinth practice, you create a multiplier effect greater than the sum of their parts. Two of these tools that we will consider here come from the ancient Vedic traditions and teachings. They are an understanding of the seven lokas, or planes of existence, and the use of the Gayatri mantra. Incorporating them into your labyrinth practices enhances their effect even more.
Seven Lokas (Spheres or Planes of Existence)
To create consciously, it helps to consider on what level you are creating and what has brought you to this point in your own journey of creation. Every day, new events happen without your conscious participation, but it is much more exciting to participate! Being aware of the levels of existence can further enhance your own creative forces and abilities, and put your existence in the here and now in context. In the words of Sri Krishnamurti, “What you are, the world is. And without your transformation there can be no transformation of the world.” In other words, there is no separation between you and all of existence.
Certain ancient Indian texts, such as the Puranas, talk of the seven lokas or spheres that describe the universe. Sri Yukteswar, a master of Kriya Yoga, in his book The Holy Science, writes that the universe has been distinguished into seven different spheres, “commencing from the Eternal Substance, God, down to the gross material creation” (Yukteswar 1949). Moving from our sphere of physical existence, each loka is more spiritually advanced than the previous one. You can progressively move through these realms and ultimately merge with the Supreme Being. The lokas are sometimes known as the seven heavens, and each loka corresponds to a circuit of the labyrinth. The seven lokas as described by Sri Yukteswar are:
• Bhur Loka—Sphere of gross material creation: the physical world.
• Bhuvar Loka—Sphere just beyond the earth: the astral plane. The gross matters are absent from this sphere.
• Swar Loka—Heavenly Sphere: the sphere of magnetic auras. It is “characterized by the absence of the fine material things.”
• Mahar Loka—Sphere of the Atom. This loka is the connection between the spiritual and material worlds. It is called Dasamadwara, the door.
• Jana Loka—Sphere of spiritual reflection, “wherein the idea of separate existence of self originates.” It is called Alakshya, the Incomprehensible.
• Tapo Loka—Sphere of the Holy Spirit, the Universal Spirit, which is eternal patience, as it remains forever undisturbed. Known as Agama, the Inaccessible.
• Satya Loka, or Bhrama Loka—Sphere of God. God, the only real substance (Sat) in the universe.
The first three lokas (Bhur Loka, Bhuvar Loka, and Swar Loka) make up the material creation, sometimes called “the Kingdom of Darkness.” The last three (Jana Loka, Tapo Loka, and Satya Loka) comprise the spiritual creation, “the Kingdom of Light.” In between these is Mahar Loka, or the sphere of the Atom. It is the communication between the material and spiritual creation. It is called Dasamadawara (the tenth door), or Brahmarandhra, the way to divinity. The middle of the seven spheres, just as the heart chakra is the centre of the chakras, is the bridge between the physical and spiritual worlds. This is reflected in the fourth circuit of the labyrinth, that serves to symbolically unite our lower chakras with our higher spiritual chakras. It is also representative of the bridge between the alchemical lesser work (the spiritualisation of the body) and the greater work (the embodiment of the spirit).
The lokas are sometimes describe a little differently, with variations on their names. Yet their essence and existence remains predominantly the same. Sri Swami Sivananda describes the seven lokas as like “different kinds of light in a room such as kerosene oil light, mustard oil light, petromax, candle light, electric light; the various lights interpenetrate in the room,” with each interpenetrating the matter of the plane next below it. The astral plane, or Bhuvar Loka, interpenetrates the earth plane and extends for some distance beyond it. And so on for each of the other planes. In the words of Sivananda, “In each plane the soul develops a new and higher sense of power” (Sivananda 1946).
He continues, “When you pass from one plane to another you do not move in space. You simply change your consciousness.” He also writes that you have different vehicles, or parts of your energy field, that correspond to and function on the different planes. So, “In the dreaming state, your astral body functions. In the deep sleep state, your causal body functions.” And as each plane is formed by matter in different degrees of density, using a subtler and different energy body you can function in any plane. And in the mental plane, you can get everything by “mere willing” (Sivananda 1946). Think of a person and he is in front of you; think of a place and you are there. There is no separation.
So, working to create depends on what level you are operating on. You can influence positive change on any level. And, your impact will be greater the more knowledge and awareness you have of the levels that you can create on. The higher a level you work from, the greater will be the effect that you have.
Working from Higher Dimensions
In the Magus of Strovolos we see Daskalos stress, “We must not confine energy into invisible matter or substance of the three-dimensional world. Because even invisible matter belongs to the three-dimensional world. We have also the fourth-dimensional, fifth-dimensional, the sixth and seventh-dimensional universes. The mystic is working with his superconsciousness” (Markides 1988).
He goes on to say that to affect gross matter you must “start working from the highest dimensions and descend through the lower levels until you reach the gross material plane. You must begin from the higher noetic world. The world of ideas, laws, causes, the world of noumena. From there you proceed to lower the vibrations. You pass through the lower noetic world, the world of images and forms. Then you reach the psychic plane and further down you arrive at solid matter.” The labyrinth is a wonderful tool for raising your vibration, and for bringing you to a higher state of existence. In using the labyrinth to raise your vibration, you can then create from a higher level. It does not mean that you always have to exist and operate in these higher dimensions. Initially, it can take time and effort to reach higher levels of vibration. With practise you will find that you can exist and operate in a higher level for longer and longer periods until that state becomes your normal state of existence. Then you look to move temporarily to an even higher level. Initially for short periods of time, then longer, and so on to higher and higher levels.
The Gayatri
Om Bhur Buvaha Svaha, Tat Savithur Varenyam. Bhargo Devasya Dheemahi. Dhiyo Yonaha Prachodayath.
The Gayatri is an ancient chant from the Rig Vedas, which was written in Sanskrit about 2500 to 3500 years ago. It is found in Chapter 36, Mantra (verse) 3 of the Yajur Veda, and is also known as the Savitri mantra. The mantra is probably much older and may have been chanted for many centuries before that. According to ancient Hindu scriptures, the sage Vishwamitra was given the Gayatri Mantra by the Supreme Being as a reward for his many years of deep penance and meditation. This was to be a gift for all humanity.
The Gayatri Mantra is known as Vedamata, or Mother of all Vedas. The language, sound, and rhythm of the Gayatri Mantra make it the most powerful mantra for spiritual practice and enlightenment. The words of the Gayatri Mantra were arranged in such a way that they not only convey meaning, but also create specific powers of “righteous wisdom” through being uttered. The syllables of the mantra are said to positively affect all the chakras or energy centres in the human body. Chanting the Gayatri Mantra removes all obstacles in your path to increased wisdom and spiritual growth and development.
It is said that chanting the Gayatri Mantra purifies the chanter, and listening to the Gayatri Mantra purifies the listener. By chanting this mantra, divine spiritual light and power is infused in each of your seven chakras and connects them to these seven great spiritual realms of existence (Chandra-Shekar). It is also said that this sacred prayer spirals through the entire universe from the heart of the chanter, appealing for peace and divine wisdom for all.
Translations of the Gayatri
There are many translations of the Gayatri. The following two convey a sense of the source of power that is being connected with.
1. “May the divine light of the Supreme Being illuminate our intellect, to lead us along a path of righteousness” (Quora 2016).
2. Radiant divine soul from which we all came Awaken the same brilliant divine Light in me So that inner radiance consumes all thought and emotion Teaching and guiding me to realizing reality (Mehta 2016).
Understanding the Gayatri
Because of the detail and attention that went into the creation of the Gayatri, proper pronunciation and enunciation are important. When learning or downloading the Gayatri, seek to get as pure a version as you can. Each word and syllable carries a meaning and invocation. When chanting the Gayatri it is important to chant with understanding, intention, and integrity.
The Gayatri begins with the cosmic sound “Om”—the sound of creation. This is the divine sound, and salutes the nameless, formless, absolute One. Next come the words Bhur Buvaha Svaha that describe the physical, astral, and celestial planes. “Bhur” means the earth, “Bhuvah” the planets, and “Swah” the galaxy.
‘Tat” again represents the supreme being. “Savithur” means the radiating source of life with the brightness of the sun. And “Varenyam” means the most adorable, most desirable.
“Bhargo” means splendor and lustre. “Devasya” means supreme or divine, and “Dheemahi” means “we meditate upon.” “Dhiyo” is our understanding of reality, our intellect, our intention. “Yo” means “he who” and “Naha” means “our.” “Prachodayath” means may he inspire, guide.
The Gayatri Mantra begins with the cosmic sound “Om.” This gave rise to the seven Vyahritis of Gayatri, which enable man, living on the material plane, to rise to the spiritual plane of consciousness. Light is associated with consciousness, and in the outer world, the sun does the same work as the soul does inside us. Both include the process of awakening, so that when the soul is awakened into the consciousness of Brahman, we can see the light of Brahman. Thus, light and consciousness are inseparable. Also, the reference to light does not refer to sunlight only, but to the inner light from where the seven vibrations have descended from the “Brahma-plane” down to earth and living beings.
The Labyrinth, Lokas, and Gayatri
The Gayatri informs us that what is contained in the macrocosm is also contained in the microcosm—as above, so below. The light vibrations descended as seven planes of consciousness into man. These seven planes are represented by the seven circuits of the labyrinth. The labyrinth is a model, or representation of man—of you. You are a seven-layered being corresponding to a structure like the universe. These seven layers, or lokas, are your seven chakras along your spinal column. The seven vibrations of the Sapta Vyahritis are contained within the universal sound “Om”—the Divine One. Chanting the Om is an act of uniting you with divinity. It is a recognition and invocation of all.
When walking the labyrinth as the planes of existence, you return to the point of oneness at the centre of the labyrinth. Chanting the Gayatri while walking the labyrinth enhances this experience and supports the walker in their intention. The names of the seven lokas are sometimes chanted before the Gayatri. In the following exercise, you will use a combination of the labyrinth, lokas, and Gayatri to consciously create for the benefit of humanity.
Exercise: Evolutionary Creativity
Labyrinth Walk
The key purpose of this exercise is to bring you as far back in time as you can experience and through all the planes of existence to rest at zero-point—the point before any material world existed, the point of infinite potential—and in the awareness of oneness in the centre of the labyrinth. Then, expanding from that point, to emerge from the labyrinth at the present moment of evolutionary creativity, ready to create what you want to create in your life and for humanity.
This walk is the accumulation of everything that is covered in this book. While it may not be always possible to be consciously aware of all the associations and connections, you will be carrying them subconsciously with you on the walk—a witness to the interconnectedness of all of existence.
This is a walk of conscious creation that takes you back as far as you can go in your awareness of your creation. From there, you expand to the being that you are today ready to play your part in the continuing expansion of conscious evolution. In your walk you will be going back to the point of creation and simultaneously moving up through the planes of existence to the highest spiritual plane.
The centre of the labyrinth is zero-point. Dwell in the centre of the labyrinth to be this point of infinite potential: live it; feel it; experience it until you are ready to manifest and create. If you are walking a Chartres labyrinth, you can further enhance your experience of this exercise by standing in each of the six petals and contemplating the realms they are associated with. By connecting with the realms of mineral, plant, animal, human, angelic, and divine you move through the ever-increasing vibrations of these realms and are ready to create from the highest possible level. When you stand in the centre of the labyrinth you are then at the point of nothing and of everything.
As you begin your return journey out of the labyrinth, you will draw on the latent capacities that are within you, accepting your individual and collective role and responsibility towards your future and the future of our human family. This is your purpose on this labyrinth walk: to consciously create your future and to participate in the creation of a new world view. In walking with others you are recalling the past exercises of being at one with yourself, with others, and with all of existence. Your walk out of the labyrinth coincides with the journey of the expansion of the universe. Indeed, this expansion of the universe marks your journey to this point, as you and the universe are one. Not only has the universe shaped the development of your physical being, it has also been involved in shaping your emotional, mental, and spiritual evolution, bringing you to where you are at this point in your existence. As you are an infinite being, your awareness of creation may extend beyond a mental understanding, and you may become vividly aware of the infiniteness of your existence.
The questions to consider on your journey from the point of creation are: What are you bringing out of yourself? What are you creating? What are you contributing to humanity/our human family?
To add power to this exercise, before entering the labyrinth you will consciously connect with the seven lokas by chanting their names. You are not only recognizing and honouring the planes of existence, you are also connecting to the energy of those planes to assist in your transformation and your creating. This is a multi-dimensional labyrinth walk, where you will be consciously or subconsciously connecting with all aspects of your creativity.
When engaged with a pure intention, you are also engaging these planes to assist in the transformation of humanity, raising the existence of all to a higher plane. Connecting with, engaging, and invoking the higher planes is done by chanting the names of the seven lokas. As Sanskrit is one of the most ancient languages, its sounds carry an energy and power. You will use their Sanskrit names when chanting, beginning with the gross physical world and moving through the spheres of existence with each world or sphere becoming more refined. Om bhur, om bhuvar, om svar, om mahar, om jana, om tapa, om satya.
By chanting the introduction, you’re telling the energy created by Gayatri to progressively work through from the grossest physical level of your being to the highest, most refined aspect of you, purifying all. You become purer, more refined, and more translucent—divine in all aspects. Chanting the seven lokas harmonizes you with all the spheres of existence and prepares you for chanting the Gayatri, which raises your vibration and the vibration of your forthcoming labyrinth walk.
When you are creating, your thoughts and feelings are all that are needed. You do not have to use words. You just need to feel it in your being. Determine what it is that you want to create, and as far as you can get into the feeling of that creation. Think it, feel it, see it in your mind’s eye. In the words of Abraham: “When you are consciously aware of your own thoughts and are deliberately offering them, then you are the deliberate creator of your own reality—and that is what you intended when you made the decision to come forth into this body” (Hicks 2007a).
To begin the walk, first consider what you intend to create for yourself and for humanity. Then, chant the names of the seven lokas. Chant the Gayatri seven times. When you are ready to walk the labyrinth, enter and walk through the circuits as representing you walking back to the point of creation. One way to assist you in this exercise is to see the first circuit as you going back through your current physical life. You can visualize, or work through, the next circuits as representing your previous lives where you incarnated, your existence between these lives, your existence in other energetic forms, your existence at the point of creation, your existence as a part of God.
When at the centre, chant the Om (the sound of creation) at least seven times. Start by making an “O” sound in your stomach, allowing it to rise through your chest finishing at the top of your head with the “M.” Feel your whole body resonate with the sound. Your body is the bridge between heaven and earth; it is the alchemist’s vessel, the cauldron of creation.
You are now merged with the divine creative force, and have begun your journey of creation. To be in the centre (the centre of the labyrinth and the centre of existence) is to simultaneously be at the beginning of time, and at your point of departure to something new.
When ready to bring your creation into being, begin your walk out of the labyrinth. Take as long as you need. You will be aware of how creation has evolved. Walking from the point of nothingness, see the cosmos being created; see the solar system being created; see the earth being created; see the rivers, lakes, oceans, mountains being created; see them still being created, as creation is a living thing. The earth is still creating. See the creatures of the earth, the fish of the sea, the animals being created; see the human family being created; see yourself being created in your current human body, and as you are brought up to the present day, see the new world being created. Visualize, think, and create the world in which you wish to live, the world you wish your children, grandchildren, and seven generations into the future living in. See how people will relate to each other, how they will relate to their environment, to all of existence. Allow your creative powers to create the best of all there is; the possibilities are limitless.
Pause just before exiting the labyrinth. As you exit, you are now at the edge of creation, about to re-enter your everyday world having created what you wish to be manifest. Then step out of the labyrinth into the new you in the new world.
Reflection
Seek a quiet space, and be in the awareness of what you have created and what you have experienced. Reflect on how you, as a divine immortal being, have created and are continuing to create in every moment, through big and little ways. Write down your thoughts, draw your images, and enjoy.
Take some time to bring your awareness back to your everyday life. Fully ground yourself. One great way to ground yourself is to use the first three stages of the Melchizedek labyrinth meditation. First, focus on your solar plexus. Bring your attention from there down to your second chakra and then into your root chakra, concentrating on the energy glowing from your lower three chakras deep into the earth.