For years we have chronicled the promotion of paganism by some on the Episcopal left. Among the more notable episodes were the Michigan seminar featuring transgendered pagan priest Raven Kaldera; the ongoing saga of Pennsylavanian Druid/Episcopal priest Bill Melnyk; the selling of a book of “love spells” in the Episcopal Church’s flagship bookstore; and the revelation that Maury Johnston, a prominent Episcopal gay activist and author, led a double life as “Shadwynn” the Wiccan priest.
For years we have also watched the progress of the “labyrinth movement” with no small degree of skepticism, and we also keep a wary eye on “interfaith seminars,” anything having to do with the “divine feminine,” most any event hosted by Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, and anything where one might expect to see sufis, shamans or anyone whose official title includes the word “facilitator.”
In this article in the London Free Press, subtitled “Labyrinths, a form of walking meditation, hold almost magical powers,” we read about The Rev. Lauren Artress, described as an “Episcopal priest and psychotherapist.”
Since the early 1990’s, Artress has championed the labyrinth’s “powers,” and the use of the word “magical” to describe them is perhaps, as we’ll see, not a coincidence.
Artress is Canon for Special Ministries at San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral. Grace Cathedral is the cathedral church of the diocese of California, currently presided over by Bishop Marc Andrus, and formerly presided over by Bishop William Swing. Andrus’ exploits are well-known to Stand Firm readers - he recently rode in the infamous San Francisco gay pride parade, which featured generous amounts of nudity and displays of gay sexual depravity. Andrus, you may recall, berated Archbishop Rowan Williams to his face at the House of Bishops meeting in New Orleans. That’s Bishop Andrus in the nearby photo, taken from the article at Oasis’ web site. Andrus is standing in front of Artress’s labyrinth.
Bishop Swing, in addition to being a vocal supporter of homosexuality in the Episcopal Church, is also the founder of something called the United Religions Initiative. It’s a clever name, because for most westerners - and for almost all Americans - the sound of the word “united” as part of an organization’s name has become so commonplace as to act as a type of salve for an organization’s goals; it’s assumed that it’s there to describe an alliance, or some type of unity, but whatever the details, the western ear hears the word “united” mainly as “good.”
In fact, the United Religions Initiative has as its purpose something that can be described as questionable at best, and decidedly non-Christian at worst. This description of the organization is from the site “Anglicans All”:
The United Religions Initiative (URI), launched in San Francisco in 1995 by former California Bishop William Swing (who retired in 2006), has put down roots in the Global South and many other places around the world, doubling its membership in the last five years.
In its charter, the URI describes itself as “a growing global community dedicated to promoting enduring, daily interfaith cooperation, ending religiously motivated violence and creating cultures of peace, justice and healing for the Earth and all living beings - The URI, in time, aspires to have the visibility and stature of the United Nations.”
The URI hopes to bring together on a regular basis representatives of the major and minor faith systems, including those of the New Age/pagan/occult genre, to help resolve conflicts in the world. However, some of its critics believe the interfaith initiative envisions or could lead to a one-world religion hostile to orthodox Christianity.
In his 1998 book The Coming United Religions, for example, Bishop Swing said that if the First Commandment - “Thou shalt have no other gods but me” - leads billions of adherents of “exclusive religions” (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) to “oppose the godly claims of other exclusive religions, what hope is there for peace among religions?” Swing concluded that “In order for a United Religions to come about and for religions to pursue peace among each other, there will have to be a godly cease-fire, a temporary truce where the absolute exclusive claims of each will be honored but an agreed-upon neutrality will be exercised in terms of proselytizing, condemning, murdering, or dominating. These will not be tolerated in the United Religions zone”
What does a retired bishop’s attempts to undo the divine uniqueness of Christ and create a global alliance with pagans have to do with Lauren Artress and labyrinths?
The Christian Challenge answers this question:
The labyrinth movement has long been intertwined with the URI. Barbara Hartford, a URI staff member in San Francisco, accompanied Artress on her first visit to the Chartres labyrinth in the early 1990s. Artress also acknowledges Sally Ackerly, who has been a URI staffer, as one of those who provided “help in launching the labyrinth.”
Since 1995, labyrinth walks have been common at URI events, including the most recent URI Global Assembly, held in Rio de Janeiro in the summer of 2002 (and attended by, among others, Canada"s Bishop of New Westminster, Michael Ingham, who recently oversaw the first same-sex blessing rite in his diocese).
As promoted by Artress, the labyrinth movement is New Age in form and content. In Walking A Sacred Path, her foundational book on the movement, Artress says, “The labyrinth introduces us to the idea of a wide and gracious path. It redefines the journey to God: from a vertical perspective that goes from earth up to heaven to a horizontal perspective in which we are all walking the path together.”
Artress’ labyrinth project goes hand in glove with the Eastern and pagan religious syncretism promoted by Bishop Swing, Grace Cathedral, and the URI:
Bishop Swing’s Grace Cathedral is the center of the modern-day Labyrinth-walking fad that has spread through New Age workshops, mainline Protestant churches, and Roman Catholic retreat centers and convents. The leader of this movement is Lauren Artress, an Episcopal priest who runs Veriditas - also known as the Labyrinth Project. Artress, Canon for Special Ministries at Grace Cathedral, says that she first encountered the Labyrinth in January 1991, when she decided to “return to a Mystery School seminar with Dr. Jean Houston, an internationally known psychologist, author, and scholar whom I studied with in 1985.” (In the 1990s, Houston was best known to the public as the guru who helped Hillary Clinton contact the spirit of Eleanor Roosevelt.)
On Houston’s own web site, she describes her “Mystery School” as:
...a school of human development, a program of cross-cultural, mythic and spiritual studies, dedicated to teaching history, philosophy, the New Physics, psychology, anthropology, myth and the many dimensions of human potential.
Artess’ association with anti-Christian initiatives doesn’t end there. She is a leader in an organization called “White Fire,” which describes itself as “a holy sisterhood that reveals the other face of God, the feminine divine in living, breathing form.” One of Artress’ peers there is a woman who calls herself “Starhawk.” Starhawk offers this bit of wisdom at White Fire:
“Women can be spiritual leaders and religion can be built around female images of beauty. In the pagan world, women rested against rocks and let the sun warm and celebrate their vulvas. We’re the radical edge.”
(Starhawk made a previous appearance at SF in 2006).
Artress and labyrinths are a big hit with Wiccans and other pagans. In the archives of Spelcastor, a Wiccan web site, one commenter writes this:
This past weekend I was at a labyrinth retreat and training led by the Rev Lauren Artress. As a model, she uses the labyrinth laid down in Notre-Dame de Chartres Cathedral in France. We were meeting in Delray Beach.
She explains how walking the labyrinth is a metaphor for life. You spiral in while letting go, ground at the center, and reclaim as you walk out. Lauren is very accepting of all traditions. She is an Episcopal priest at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco.
Her goal is to bring the labyrinth into wider acceptance in main stream America. She is not targeting the folks that get labeled “New Age.” Labyrinths are typically found on church property, schools, parks, and such. When visiting, be respectful of the path of who maintains that labyrinth and do not wear your largest pentacle. We get more tolerance when we offer tolerance.
Artress claims that she takes her inspiration from the labyrinth inlaid centuries ago in the floor of Chartres Cathedral in France, but today the labyrinth is widely used by pagans, especially Wiccans, as a “path to the feminine divine,” among other things. Here are several labyrinths - including a reproduction of the one at Chartres - for sale at “Mystical Convergence,” which specializes in “Wiccan, New Age, Mystical, and Spiritual Items for All Paths.” Wherever Artress’ book Walking a Sacred Path: Rediscovering the Labyrinth as a Spiritual Practice is found, so are stacks of other overtly pagan and Wiccan books.
Modern proponents today often promote the labyrinth as a mix of New-Age spiritualism and vaguely Buddhist meditative practices. Any role it serves in bringing one closer to Christ is considered a side-effect, and not essential either to the experience or the intent. Indeed, Artress’ views on prayer, as described in this Washington Post editorial, don’t involve Christ at all, and while they refer to Something Bigger, it’s unclear whether she means God as revealed in Holy Scripture:
The question about prayer however, is most daunting. Perhaps I know more about what prayer is not. Prayer is not prayer if it is directed against someone else different than you. It is not prayer if you use it to support your opinion that you are better than someone else. It is not prayer if you condemn a nation, or a people because they worship differently than you do. It is not prayer if you think the god you pray to cares about whether you win a football game. Prayer is not to help your local small self seek revenge, have a cushy life or wish people sharing this planet did not exist.
Prayer is a way to open your heart to Something Greater Than Yourself. It is an effort to quiet the mind, and allow yourself to be nourished by the flow of your breath meeting the Breath that supports the world.
About exactly what effect walking a labyrinth has on a person, Artress has this to say:
I cannot name all that is happening with the labyrinth. However, I know that it is having a profound, yet invisible effect on the transformation of human consciousness both in the individual and the groups of people walking it together. The labyrinth—and Rupert Sheldrake agrees with me on this—is a stabilized morphic field. Some one may enter in grief, and find solace. Another may walk in with a question and find guidance. There is something sacred about the eleven-circuit labyrinth that heals and helps people realize their deepest longing and clearest intentions.
Who is Ruper Sheldrake, whose agreement with Artress pleases her so? Sheldrake is best known for his theory of “morphic resonance,” which, as best I can tell, tries to weave together pseudo-scientific speculation about telepathy and other psychic-type “phenomena” into a way of explaining… uhh… well, read it for yourself. If you can figure it out, drop your explanation into the comments below.
At her own web site, Artress leads off with a quote from Andrew Harvey:
Much of the future of the West depends on whether Christianity can rediscover its mystical core. In this rediscovery, Lauren Artress’s pioneering work using the labyrinth as a tool for self-alignment will be crucial.
And who is Andrew Harvey? He’s a ‘mystic,’ known in those circles as a promoter of the ‘divine feminine,’ as attested to by numerous testimonials on his web site.
Harvey’s mystical wisdom can be yours, but there is a cost and there are some conditions:
Andrew is booking appointments for spiritual direction - via the phone only in 50 minute sessions.
“For me as a believer in the direct connection to the divine, spiritual counseling is about helping people to empower themselves and claim their own truth and divine identity. I am not a guru. I share what I know as a fellow seeker and spiritual friend. Ideally people would sign up for not less than 3 sessions, and no more than 10.”
After booking a session, we need to receive payment prior to the phone call. You will need to call Andrew, we will give you the number once we confirm the appointment. We require 24 hours notice of any cancellation to receive a refund.
Artress offers identical services, also via telephone, also for a fee, and also promoted on her web site. An interesting research exercise would be to get a tally of how many ordained Episcopal priests offer spiritual advice in exchange for cash, and hawk their services on a web site.
And on and on and on it goes. There appears to be virtually no limit to the number of such dots that can be connected among Artress, labyrinths, and new-age “spirituality,” and all it takes it a few minutes on the web to see how deeply intertwined the labyrinth “movement” is with Wiccan and neo-pagan belief and practice. Yet it’s not exactly uncommon to find congregations that generally consider themselves orthodox hosting labyrinths in their parish halls and courtyards. My hope is that this article will prompt people to scrutinize the labyrinth and its origins more closely, to ask the difficult questions about how it contributes to Christian worship, and to consider more carefully whether it has a place in your church.
If we’ve learned anything these last few years, it’s that heresy precedes apostasy, and carelessness and inattention are the doors through which heresy enters. Lift up just one corner of Artress’s labyrinth, and you’ll find all the signs you would ever need to know that this is something which demands your attention, and your vigilance. It will often mean confronting those who have the best intentions but are simply ignorant of what they are promoting. It will sometimes mean confronting those who know exactly what they’re promoting. But these are precisely the kinds of little stone bridges we must defend and, in some cases, take back.
96 Comments •
Greg - thanks for taking the time to do this research. Re: “It will often mean confronting those who have the best intentions but are simply ignorant of what they are promoting. ” It is sad that the devil so often takes things that may be good or neutral and corrupts them. In history and perhaps even today, labyrinths may have been used as a tool for a genuine God-centered spiritual discipline.
This is so sad. Trying to redefine away our need to be rightly related to God.
Isaiah 40:25-28