A'Labyrinthing We Will Go

North Bay
March 2004

I got this idea to visit labyrinths in the area. I chose a day and announced to friends that I was going to hunt out labyrinths in the North Bay and did anyone want to come along. Seven people ended up joining me. I sent out emails to contacts from the Grace Catherdral Labyrinth Locator and this webpage about labyrinths in Sonoma County. There were about 15 labyrinths as possibilities, we were able to see 7. A very large number for one day.

Our first stop at 10am was a wonderfully cute, small labyrinth in Mill Valley. I had contacted Kathleen Piraino at the Church of Our Savior and she was very welcoming and gracious. The labyrinth is a 9-circuit classical based on the one in Bayeux, France (similar to the one in Sonoma off the Square). It is inlayed brick in a beautiful courtyard with a decorative drain in the middle. When we walked it, we would face each other as we passed. It felt like we were orbiting each other.

Church of Our Savior Labyrinth (1st for the day)

The next stop was the San Francisco Theological Seminary and the First Presbyterian Church of San Anselmo and their three labyrinths. Will McGarvey offered to give us a tour. He was instrumental in placing the three labyrinths located here. He is currently an intern at the Church and a senior at the Seminary due to graduate. He showed us the Spirit Walk Labyrinth (7-circuit Cretan), the Duncan Hall Labyrinth (11-circuit Chartres) and the Geneva Terrace Labyrinth (7-circuit modified Chartres) and was full of wonderful information. He really added to the wonderfulness of these three labyrinths.

SF Theological Seminary Labyrinths (2nd-4th)

We then went to the San Andreas High School for the fifth labyrinth of the day. There were a number of skate punks that ceded us the area of the labyrinth. This was an 11-circuit that I hadn't seen before. We were getting pretty labyrinth happy by this time so we decided to do a conga line out from the center. The skate punks joined our yells with each kick.

San Andreas High School Labyrinth (5th)

Some of our party had to take off, the rest of us decided that the trip to Santa Rose would be worth the final two labyrinths of the day. Our next stop: The Snoopy Labyrinth at the Charles M. Schulz Museum. This is contemporary two part labryinthin the shape of Snoopy's head. The first part is a switchback meander style and the second part is a 2-circuit classical style. We had fun walking the dog.

Snoopy Labyrinth (6th)

Our final labyrinth was the Meander Wand Labyrinth at the Luther Burbank Performing Arts Center Meander at sunset. Alex Champion of Earthsymbols makes labyrinths with paths between mounded earth. It is more three dimensional that the other labyrinths we walked. This one had some interesting art work as part of it. We decided that something wonderful would happen, a gateway to someplace might open up if we could just figure out what to touch and say. That is what we are trying to do in the final pictures.

Luther Burbank Center Labyrinth (7th and final)

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