Spiders are weavers... their webs can become quite large and intricate. And so very beautiful, especially when they capture the morning dew. “Spider weaves the web of fate for those who get caught in her web... this is similar to humans who get caught in the web of the illusion in the physical world, and never see beyond the horizon into the other dimensions,” says Jamie Sams in Animal Medicine.

The human part of us sometimes has difficulty quieting the chatter in our mind long enough to hear what our soul is trying to tell us. Meditation is the art of paying attention, of listening to your heart and learning to be present in the moment. Sometimes without being fully conscious of it, we withdraw from the present and live in the past or the future.

We stay in the past by holding on to learned negative behaviors and patterns that no longer serve us. Perhaps we are angry or unhappy about our current circumstances, not realizing that we can untangle ourselves from this web of our own making. Our soul continually creates circumstances so we can learn life lessons, whatever they may be. Until we learn these lessons, we stay caught in the web with only the circumstances changing... more than likely looming larger as the need to learn the lessons grows. Meditation brings us into the present and teaches us to accept the past and let go of these old behaviors.

Some of us are fearful of the future. The human part of us doubts whether we are capable of making correct decisions on our life path. By releasing this tangled web we learn to be in the “now,” transforming these fears and learning to trust our intuition or soul voice. Faith is born of this trust and our lives become more simplified. Meditation can help us live more fully, more effectively, and more peacefully.

The labyrinth, in its varied forms, can help us with meditation practices and self healing. “The labyrinth symbol occurs around the world in different cultures, at different points in time, in places as diverse as Peru, Arizona, Iceland, Crete, Egypt, India and Sumatra. This symbol and its family of derivatives has been traced back over 4,000 years; its origins are still mysterious.

“At each of these incidents in time, the labyrinth symbol and the mythology that surrounds it have surfaced in a culture that has incorporated them into their lives for various purposes. Sometimes these episodes in labyrinth-time were short-lived, other times they flourished for hundreds of years and spread the concept far and wide. The media employed for its use have been many and varied: a simple symbol in a mythology, carved on a rockface, woven into the design on a basket, laid out on the ground with water-worn stones on shore lines, in colored stone or tiles on the floors of churches and cathedrals or cut into the living turf – to name a few,” notes Sig Lonegren, author of Labyrinths: Ancient Myths and Modern Uses.

We hope you enjoy your online meditation and invite you to experience a labyrinth near you... please visit the World Wide Labyrinth Locator for a list of labyrinth locations.

The Guest House
by Rumi
Poet of the Heart

"This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness
comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture, still treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes, because
each has been sent as a guide from beyond.”

Please visit the By Region Network online version of the
above Rumi text... wonderful original artwork and
soothing music to calm the spirit.