Beginning to create the labyrinth

We've been creating the labyrinth for our next Red Egg gathering: Opening the Circle.

And there have been many hands and eyes on the work. There are so many ways to approach a labyrinth. So many ways to vision it.

They appear all over the world, often in strikingly similar forms. There is the classical, or Cretan, form—so named because of an association with the famous labyrinth that Daedalus designed and in which Theseus slew the Mintotaur.

But that form also has reappeared in Iceland, Scandinavia, and India

...and in the American southwest and elsewhere.

And then there is the more mathematically precise—and in some ways more esoteric—medieval and Christianized form at Chartres, which itself has begotten progeny,

...including at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, a hub of the labyrinth revival in our own age.

And there are myriad variations upon the themes as well.

And just as there are different forms and different ways of interpreting them, so too are there different ways to imagine, walk, meditate, and practice how these forms relate to the paths and journeys in our own lives.

"Opening the Circle"—Red Egg gathering, June 19, 2010

Please join us for our third Red Egg gathering. We'll be opening a labyrinth we're creating for the occasion—and you'll be able to make your own walking meditation, too.

Opening the Circle will also be a celebration of the summer solstice. Another lively and interesting company will gather—some friends you already know and others whom you'll meet.

June 19, 2010
Chris & Debi’s home
833 Hartford Ave  San Jose 95125
Come anytime after 5pm
6 pm—gathering and walking meditation
Bring a small dish or beverage to share

Go here for an invitation.

Play slideshow

Brian Taylor—The Art of Getting Lost

This work portrays certain walks Brian takes in search of peace in the West. Rather than portraying the most sweeping or spectacular views of a landscape, Brian reveals an authentic "essence" of place-often from a quiet vantage point. The images are produced using the  beautiful 19th century Gum Bichromate process. Each print is coated by hand with "non-silver" photographic emulsions directly onto watercolor paper in multiple exposures of different colors creating a very unique work of art.

View images

291 Geary Street, San Francisco, CA 94102   415.291.9001/T   415.291.9010/F

Here is Brian in his darkroom, working assiduously towards his upcoming show at Gallery 291 in San Francisco.

We're really eager to see Brian's new work—so we'll be staying in the City and attending the opening on May 14. The exhibition runs until June 30—so remember that when you're in the City, too.

In the meantime, here's a link to Brian's own website—a treat itself—where you can see more of his striking and innovative work.

Walking

I walk all the time, but even in this wild place I love so much, most of the walking that I do is along familiar paths that I follow nearly every day. It's true that I walk further afield, too, sometimes much further, where everything is new—new in a different way than these madrone blossoms and douglas irises and lupines are new. And yet I don't walk like this nearly enough—just heading out the door in favor of what comes up next.

Instead, how often we make some list of tasks fixed and determinant—just like that other list we carry with us, the one with all the expectations we imagine that others hold for us.

But when we walk just for the helluvait, we can become as fluid as the world is—as fluid in the world as we are meant to be. 

Below are two quick reading suggestions for helping you walk out the door...

The first, Edward Abbey's "Walking," is full of memorable one-line slogans to slap on your bumper, and typical of Abbey, is sarcastic as hell. 

Abbey on walking:"Whenever possible I avoid the practice myself. If God had meant us to walk, he would have kept us down on all fours, with well-padded paws...He surely would not have made mountains...read more 

The second, by Kurt Vonnegut, is no less funny...or poignant. You'll be reminded that it's as easy (or as hard) to get off your butt and ramble in a city as it is in the wild.

Vonnegut: "I work at home, and if I wanted to, I could have a computer right by my bed, and I'd never have to leave it...read more

The other day I met a guy from Tuscany wearing this t-shirt: "The internet is down...so I've come outside a while." (He's the guy on the far left—with his back to you.) We were all working side by side clearing brush along the Rocky Creek road—the one way a vehicle can get in and out of here. And we did some good work together, too. But tomorrow morning I'm heading out a different way.