Reverend Lauren Artress

Lauren Artress is a reverend in the Episcopal church, who is also a trained psychotherapist. At a time in her life when she found that the demands of her job were draining her personal energy, she had the opportunity to walk her first labyrinth. Reverend Lauren Artress is instrumental in bringing the labyrinth as a spiritual tool into the 21st century. She was awarded grant from the Fund For the Enhancement of the Human Spirit to develop new programs at Grace Cathedral that addressed the needs of the disenfranchised.

The passages and questions below are offered as a starting point for discussion, and are simply listed in sequential order as they appear in the book.

• page 75 [Wolff] What do you think the spiritual hunger in America is all about? "I think people want to live with meaning and purpose, to be effective, creative, glowing and flowing human beings. We want to connect with our right brain, our more creative nature, the symbolic world, the imaginative parts of ourselves that have been screened out through academia and the cultivation of the linear, logical left brain. In the last four hundred years, the pendulum swung toward scientific rationalism: if you can't see it, count it or prove it, it doesn't exist. ... We've got to stop hanging out there in the wind, living without meaning - or being unaware that it's meaning and aliveness that we're searching for. As I said in my book, we need to change our seeking into discovery and our drifting into pilgrimage."
  • Our connection with the logical, linear, left brain serves us in our everyday lives. How can we integrate connection with our right brain into our work, our family, our spirituality and our day-to-day lives?
  • Pilgrimage is a somewhat antiquated word that is attributed to the extremely devout, but she uses it in a different way – as a dedicated, purposeful quest which is available to anyone. Which pair of words best describes where you are on your personal spiritual journey: seeking/drifting or discovery/pilgrimage? Are there things you could do to enhance discovery/pilgrimage.
• page 77 [Wolff] This reminds me of something you said in your book, that 'when we allow ourselves to be whole, we allow new visions to emerge in us and in our culture.' ... I was particularly struck by your use of the word 'allow'. The labyrinth seems to provide a safe place where people are more willing or open to letting these kinds of experiences occur. "Yes, creating an experience of wholeness is about flow versus force, about moving with the experiences of your life and not judging them or condemning yourself. We each need to get out of the way of our own growth. Saint Brendan said, 'You are the veil that hides the paradise you seek.' Each of us has our own veil that keeps the immanent God, the greening power of God, the God who wants to birth Herself in us, hidden."
  • Throughout her interview, Lauren Artress draws similarities between psychotherapy and spirituality – that they both help us to become whole. Do you agree or disagree? Why?
  • Do you have a personal experience of choosing or allowing flow instead of force? Please share. How was the outcome different than it otherwise could have been?
• page 78 [Wolff] How would you define faith? "One definition I like is 'the ability to sustain ambiguity.' A lot of people think that if they have faith, they aren't supposed to have doubt or insecurity - and if they do, it means they're weak in faith. I don't feel this is the case. Faith is knowing Something Bigger than you is attempting to live Itself out through you. It evolves through each of us over time as an evolutionary process that moves the human race toward greater compassion and it's a personal, individual experience in the present moment. Faith is trusting the Great Grandmother's Thread, knowing that it's there, knowing that even if it leads you around a circuitous path, you will eventually find your center and be of service to the world."
  • Each interviewee has offered her definition of faith. Please share your reaction to Lauren Artress' definition.
• Was there a particular passage that made you stop and either consider or appreciate?