“The space between two branches may become more promising than the branches themselves” 

~ Barbara Brown Taylor

“The music is not in the notes, but in the silence between”

~ Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Embarking on a journey of discovering thresholds in our lives is what we do in walking a labyrinth. Leaving the familiar world behind to be filled with moments of transition is like life itself. We exist within liminal spaces and move through ever-changing cycles of time. We depart, cross over, step through, arrive, and return using several thresholds in the experience of liminality.

Together, let us delve into myth, ritual, the arts, journaling, and the immersive experience of sound therapy. Be open to discovering new pathways to our innermost selves, new portals to mystery, and the lingering tones of singing bowls as they drift toward the edges of our consciousness.

Sound and silence can be thresholds of one another. Jonathan Goldman says, “Silence is the yin to the yang of sound. It is often in the silence that the greatest transformation and shift in change can occur.” Utilizing singing bowls, chimes, shruti box, and more, we will explore how sound and silence serve not only to accompany but to assist in navigating thresholds and experiences of liminality in our labyrinth work.

Folklore gives us a myriad of threshold-themed stories. In Celtic tradition, the Swan is seen as the Gatekeeper to the Otherworld, while the river serves as a moving boundary between solid lands. The Celtic goddess Bridgit was born right on a threshold, her parentage both mortal and immortal, allowing her to exist in two worlds at once. The ancient Tuatha De Dannan people, facing threats from hostile tribes, were largely forgotten over time. To endure, they slipped between realms— “turned sideways and disappeared,” as David Whyte describes—and now, they live as faeries beneath the trees by water, where the edges of the worlds are the thinnest.

Enhancing the frame of threshold definitions, let us explore the significance of the number three – a sacred symbol often found in fairytales and religious writings, embodying duality with a central point—past, present, and future. Together, we will examine various three-circuit labyrinth patterns and the “three R’s” of labyrinth walk vocabulary, as well as any interpretations you would like to share.

What defines threshold in your life? What images do you see when you reflect on these in-between places? How can we embody uncertainty, express anticipation, and facilitate our transitions from past circumstances to those yet to emerge?

Join Barrie Carter Gibby and Rob Meyer-Kuken to discover the many realms of threshold places that ignite to the creative imagination. Engage as a collective group with the many wonders of the in-between world, liminal time and the distinctive features they offer.

This is a Veriditas Qualifying Workshop for those who wish to take the Facilitator Training.

Barrie Carter Gibby:

Barrie Carter Gibby works on that creative edge between the branches of words and movement expression. A long-time educator, community builder, avid traveler and labyrinth facilitator, Barrie entwines her background in design, music, theater production and ritual-making to facilitate workshops and pilgrimages across the nation on a variety of themes. She is especially fascinated by the parallels of Celtic and Native American cultures and their loving embrace of nature centered whole life. Her annual pilgrimage to the 13th c. Chartres Cathedral labyrinth, in Chartres, France, provokes inspired passion for her ongoing labyrinth work. As a Veriditas Advanced Certified Labyrinth facilitator, Barrie finds sacred spaces everywhere.

Rob Meyer-Kukan:

Rob is the owner of 7 Notes Natural Health, a holistic health practice incorporating naturopathy, massage, reiki, sound therapy, mindfulness and other modalities, based in Lewisburg, West Virginia. He previously worked for more than two decades as a church and school Music Director. Rob recently completed a doctorate in Naturopathy at Kingdom College of Natural Health. He is a Licensed Massage Therapist, a Sound Therapist, Reflexologist, Reiki practitioner and teacher, a Veriditas-Certified Advanced Labyrinth Facilitator, and he sits on the Veriditas Council. He holds additional certificates in aromatherapy, color therapy, craniosacral therapy, therapeutic cupping, and cacao ceremony facilitation.

Rob’s love of the labyrinth was born out of his personal opportunities to walk in the “times when I needed it the most.” Following those times, a daily labyrinth practice became the center of Rob’s personal meditation and devotional life. He is passionate about incorporating sound into the labyrinth experience for self and others and often incorporates singing bowls, chimes, gongs, and more into the labyrinth experiences he leads. Rob’s walks engage a curious mind and open heart wrapped into an inclusive and welcoming atmosphere, as DEI is, for Rob, a passion and focus.

What if healing from trauma is not about “getting over it,” but about walking a new path through it?

Join Peter Winfield—Army veteran, artist, writer, and author of Cartography of the Soul— in conversation with Lauren Artress for an exploration of the labyrinth as a path for healing trauma and PTSD. After multiple overseas deployments as an army officer and counter-terrorism manager, Peter was diagnosed with PTSD and depression. His search for healing led him to mindfulness, art, and writing—and back to the creative self he had left behind. First introduced to the labyrinth through Walking a Sacred Path and later encountering it in a veterans’ treatment program, Peter discovered in the labyrinth a profound metaphor for the inner journey of recovery and transformation.

Together, Peter and Lauren will explore how the labyrinth offers a trauma-informed, embodied practice that supports integration, storytelling, and Post-Traumatic Growth. Grounded in lived experience and spiritual depth, this conversation speaks to veterans, survivors, caregivers, and healing professionals alike—offering the labyrinth as a sacred container where meaning can be reclaimed, identity reshaped, and a new path forward gently revealed.

Register to join us live on Zoom on Monday, February 23rd at 12pm noon Pacific, or receive a recording link to watch at your convenience. VIA Members can enroll for free and will also receive exclusive access to a special half-hour Q&A with the guests following the one hour conversation.

FOR CERTIFIED FACILITATORS ONLY.

2:00 pm to 5:30 pm each day Pacific time – 5 sessions of 3.5 hours each. Must be present for all sessions. Held on Zoom platform.

Our Advanced Facilitator Training is a leadership and skill-building workshop for Veriditas Facilitators with at least two years of experience facilitating labyrinth activities. Open only to those Veriditas trained facilitators who have been certified (or have turned in an application to be certified). You will receive the latest Facilitator Training Manual.  After training, you will be eligible to apply for accreditation to hold Veriditas qualifying workshops. 

This is a 15 hour intensive virtual training that covers:

The Reverend Dr. Lauren Artress

Lauren is author of Walking a Sacred Path: Rediscovering the Labyrinth as a Spiritual Practice, The Sand Labyrinth Kit and The Sacred Path Companion: A Guide to Walking the Labyrinth to Heal and Transform (Putnam/Riverhead Books, New York). She is the Founder of Veriditas and an Honorary Canon of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco.  She travels worldwide offering workshops and lectures on the labyrinth including a twice a year program in Chartres, France. In addition to being an Episcopal priest, she is a spiritual director and licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in the State of California.

Assisted by Dr. Dawn Matheny

Executive Director of Veriditas

Dawn became Veriditas’ Executive Director in 2007.  She has her PhD in East West Psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies, 23 years of experience in a public sector Human Resource Department, and many years of experience working in a non-profit organization.  She has taught on the graduate level and amassed many years of designing and assisting with Veriditas programs around the world.  

Join Lars Howlett of Veriditas and Carmel Stabley of TLS to get ideas and inspiration for World Labyrinth Day (WLD) on May 2nd, 2026. Learn how to create a temporary labyrinth and host a walk in your area. Receive new planning materials including videos on facilitating for the sight-impaired, an event planning timeline, a land acknowledgement and more. Consider how to work with volunteers, themes, and music or art to deepen the experience and broaden your audience. Discover how other organizations and groups are supporting WLD. See how to partner with others to create accessible, meaningful events for people from all walks of life and celebrate World Labyrinth Day— a moment in time set aside for peaceful intention and planetary healing. 

Free to the public with two convenient times to choose from: 12 noon & 6 p.m. ET.

Pre- WLD Workshop Session 1
"Crafting and Facilitating Walks for World Labyrinth Day"

You are invited to a Zoom meeting. 
When: Mar 7, 2026 12:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada) 

Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/CMjsiK5uTQeCGf0FauCLtA

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Pre- WLD Workshop Session 2 
"Crafting and Facilitating Walks for World Labyrinth Day"

You are invited to a Zoom meeting. 
When: Mar 7, 2026 06:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada) 

Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/ogmuGm99TEGOOu_39bCpIA

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

The Veriditas Council invites you to join us for the 2026 Virtual Facilitator Renewal Day - a transformative workshop titled The Illuminated Path: Facilitating with Heart and Clarity. Our day together will be centered around the themes of coherence, intention, and different ways of knowing. This event, created for Veriditas trained Labyrinth Facilitators and open to the wider community, offers a sacred day of restoration and deepening as we explore the intersection of heart-centered coherence and the four intuitive pathways that enhance our personal practice and our work as labyrinth guides.

We will begin our time together by cultivating heart coherence through HeartMath techniques, learning to access and sustain the optimal state where heart, mind, and spirit align. This foundation supports both our personal well-being and our capacity to hold space for others walking the labyrinth. Participants will then be introduced to different ways of knowing through the exploration of the four Clairs: Clairvoyance, Claircognizance. Clairaudience and Clairsentience. A guided practice of creative reflection will offer a portal for listening to the gentle nudge of personal intuition. The intuitive knowledge gained through creative, guided, and reflective practices offers fresh awareness, integrating heart coherence with natural intuitive strengths. Experience how these ways of knowing enhance your presence as a facilitator and deepen the sacred container you hold for yourself and others. The event will begin with a special visit from our founder, Lauren Artress, who will facilitate our online handheld finger labyrinth walk.

Join us for a day dedicated to refreshing our intuition, nourishing our labyrinth work, and replenishing our souls on The Illuminated Path. Registration is required for this enriching experience. Please register early. A portion of the registration proceeds will support the Scholarship Fund for Veriditas' ongoing outreach.

Please click here to read the Council Biographical Sketches

“Listening to the divine voice within you"

What nurturing does your soul need? This workshop is an invitation to take intentional time out of the routine of your daily life, a sacred pause, for rest and renewal with time for listening with an open heart to the inner wisdom of your soul’s yearnings.

Together, we will engage in the intuitive spiritual practices of the Labyrinth and Soul Collage® with time for reflection both individually, in small groups and collectively.

The workshop includes:

• A handheld labyrinth meditation

• Time for reflection

• Labyrinth writing exercise

• Collage and creativity

Serves as a qualifying workshop for those going on to take Facilitator Training.

Sharry Nyberg:  is Co-Founder of Glide into Grace Retreats. She is passionate about sharing the labyrinth with others, training with the Reverend Dr. Lauren Artress in San Francisco in 2002 and becoming a Veriditas certified Advanced Labyrinth Facilitator in 2019.  She is a trained SoulCollage® Facilitator and a creator of art. She retired after serving the United Church of Christ for over 21 years and continues to lead retreats, workshops and creative opportunities, as a spiritual companion on the journey, holding sacred space for others to experience and engage in rituals and practices noticing moments of sacred-nicity.

The Virtual Facilitator Training, led by the Reverend Dr. Lauren Artress, will be held online Monday through Friday each afternoon from 2:00 pm - 5:30 pm pacific time. We will mail you the Facilitator Training manual so you will have it to follow along with in the class. There will be plenty of time for questions along with the didactic material. Programs will be held on Zoom and you will be sent the link to join once you register.

The goal of Veriditas Labyrinth Facilitator Training is to prepare people to introduce others to the labyrinth in an articulate, professional and effective way.The training addresses meditative walking in a variety of settings, with a variety of different populations. It is focused primarily on the Eleven Circuit Medieval Labyrinth but is inclusive of all forms.

Walking the labyrinth is being embraced as a spiritual practice throughout the Western world mostly because of Veriditas trained facilitators. The Veriditas Facilitator Training -- which began in 1997 -- remains the most rigorous and comprehensive training offered. 

How to know if Facilitator Training is right for you?

• Want to deepen your own labyrinth practice?
• Want the tools and guidance that will enable you to bring the labyrinth to your community?
• Want to connect with a supportive community of Labyrinth Facilitators around the world?
• Find yourself heading up a labyrinth program at your church, school, hospital, college etc. and need broad training and/or specific answers?
• Considering offering labyrinth walking as part of your healing, counseling, yoga or  coaching business and are curious about the business considerations involved?
• Love the labyrinth and want to offer workshops of your own? Consider completing Facilitator Training on the path to becoming Certified, Advance Trained and Accredited. Our Veriditas Accredited Presenters are now offering some of our qualifying workshops.

We encourage you to join us! 

Please note: prior attendance at a Veriditas qualifying workshop is required. The online workshop prior to this training considered a qualifying workshop.

Learn more about becoming a Veriditas Trained Facilitator.

Payment plans are available - please select that option when you register.

The Reverend Dr. Lauren Artress

Join us for an enriching experience of presence using the mindfulness practices of labyrinth meditation and nature therapy amidst the stunning fall landscape at St. Francis Springs Prayer Center in Stoneville, North Carolina. This one day workshop extends a warm invitation to all to slow down and unplug in order to re-connect. Learn about the labyrinth while also exploring the impact of being in right relationship with nature through the principle of reciprocity through the practice of giving back to nature in gratitude for what it provides.

This experience is open to all, whether you are brand new to the labyrinth or have walked many times. Come as you are. The path is waiting.

This in-person event is a Veriditas Approved Qualifying Workshop for attending a Veriditas Labyrinth Facilitator Training.

Registration Workshop fee $75
To register please complete this form, or call Christine at 802-782-4494.

Sunday night lodging for Qualifying Workshop

Christine Wiles

Christine Wiles brings a wealth of experience and a passion for holistic well-being to her role as a Veriditas board member and accredited workshop presenter. With a successful 25+ year career in Human Resources spanning diverse industries, Christine has seamlessly transitioned her leadership skills into the healing arts. She is a licensed Reflexologist and the Co-owner of InnateCreations, a family business that highlights the creative synergy of Christine and her husband, Nathan, through labyrinth building, workshops, nature crafting and wellness programs.

Christine’s journey in labyrinth work has been deeply transformative since walking her first labyrinth in 2014. Trained under the esteemed Dr. Lauren Artress and other Veriditas luminaries, she is an Advanced Accredited Labyrinth Facilitator and workshop leader. Her expertise extends beyond labyrinth facilitation, including certifications as a Reflexologist, SoulCollage® Facilitator, and Nature Therapy Guide accredited by the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy (ANFT).

With a curious and creative spirit guiding her, Christine finds fulfillment in leading wellness workshops, engaging in non-profit initiatives, and connecting with others on a journey toward holistic well-being. She embraces life’s adventures with enthusiasm and is eager to share her gifts in ways that inspire and empower others.

The goal of Veriditas Labyrinth Facilitator Training is to prepare people to introduce others to the labyrinth in an articulate, professional and effective way.The training addresses meditative walking in a variety of settings, with a variety of different populations. It is focused primarily on the Eleven Circuit Medieval Labyrinth but is inclusive of all forms.

Walking the labyrinth is being embraced as a spiritual practice throughout the Western world mostly because of Veriditas trained facilitators. The Veriditas Facilitator Training -- which began in 1997 -- remains the most rigorous and comprehensive training offered. 

How to know if Facilitator Training is right for you?

• Want to deepen your own labyrinth practice?
• Want the tools and guidance that will enable you to bring the labyrinth to your community?
• Want to connect with a supportive community of Labyrinth Facilitators around the world?
• Find yourself heading up a labyrinth program at your church, school, hospital, college etc. and need broad training and/or specific answers?
• Considering offering labyrinth walking as part of your healing, counseling, yoga or  coaching business and are curious about the business considerations involved?
• Love the labyrinth and want to offer workshops of your own? Consider completing Facilitator Training on the path to becoming Certified, Advance Trained and Accredited. Our Veriditas Accredited Presenters are now offering some of our qualifying workshops.

We encourage you to join us! 

Housing for Qualifying Workshop and Facilitator Training

Learn more about becoming a Veriditas Trained Facilitator.   

Nathan Wiles, Faculty

Nathan Wiles is a professional in the field of labyrinth education, building, and design. With a background as an Interior Designer and Project Manager, Nathan draws upon his extensive skills and experience to create labyrinth builds and facilitate workshops.

With a career spanning over 30 years in building and designing, Nathan has honed his expertise specifically in labyrinth design and construction for over 15 years. Through his understanding of the labyrinth, he possesses the ability to tap into the collective consciousness of individuals and groups, bringing their visions to life.

Nathan's passion lies in unraveling the mysteries that surround us in today's diverse world, while maintaining both a secular and non-secular approach. He aims to expand the labyrinth community by collaborating with public schools, corporations, churches, and wellness facilities to foster education and raise awareness about the labyrinth's benefits.

Christine Wiles, Board Member and 

Workshop Presenter

Christine Wiles brings a wealth of experience and a passion for holistic well-being to her role as a Veriditas board member. With a successful 25+ year career in Human Resources spanning diverse industries, Christine has seamlessly transitioned her leadership skills into the healing arts. She is a licensed Reflexologist and the Co-owner of InnateCreations, a family business that highlights the creative synergy of Christine and her husband, Nathan, through labyrinth building, workshops, nature crafting and wellness programs.

Christine’s journey in labyrinth work has been deeply transformative since walking her first labyrinth in 2014. Trained under the esteemed Dr. Lauren Artress and other Veriditas luminaries, she is an Advanced Accredited Labyrinth Facilitator and workshop leader. Her expertise extends beyond labyrinth facilitation, including certifications as a Reflexologist, SoulCollage® Facilitator, and Nature Therapy Guide accredited by the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy (ANFT).

Her commitment to fostering wellness and community is reflected in her service on the board of WindHorse Healing Arts Center based in Wytheville, Virginia. and as a member of the nominating committee for The Labyrinth Society. Joining the Veriditas board is a profound honor for Christine, as it allows her to further her dedication to global labyrinth education and outreach.

With a curious and creative spirit guiding her, Christine finds fulfillment in leading wellness workshops, engaging in non-profit initiatives, and connecting with others on a journey toward holistic well-being. She embraces life’s adventures with enthusiasm and is eager to share her gifts in ways that inspire and empower others.

This retreat invites you into a spacious, creative, and embodied exploration of the labyrinth and the SoulCollage® process—two powerful pathways for navigating the sacred journey of your life. In a time that calls for deep soul-searching, clarity of purpose, and conscious participation in the world, we gather to ask: What is mine to do? Who am I becoming? How might I truly be the change I long to see in the world?

Drawing inspiration from Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme, we approach these practices with the understanding that each of us plays a unique role in the unfolding story of the universe. As Berry reminds us, the “Great Work” of our time is to discover how our personal gifts can contribute to the healing and flourishing of the Earth community. Swimme teaches that the universe evolves through the creative impulses of each being—and that when we listen deeply, we tap into the very creativity that shaped stars, oceans, and life itself.

Both SoulCollage® and the labyrinth serve as timeless languages of the soul—symbolic pathways that allow us to listen beneath the surface of daily life. Each offers a way to access inner resources, intuition, and imaginal insight, and when experienced together they amplify one another, inviting a deeper level of understanding and presence. These practices help us create coherence amid life’s constant movement, widen our perspective, and attune to a higher awareness. In this space of clarity and connection, we begin to sense what Maria Montessori called our cosmic task—the unique contribution each of us is here to make within a complex, ever-changing world.

During our time together, you will be guided through an embodied experience of walking the labyrinth and then invited to integrate your insights by making your own SoulCollage® cards. Through image, symbolism, movement, and reflection, we explore how our personal callings participate in the wider evolutionary creativity of the cosmos—how our choices ripple outward, shaping the world in ways both subtle and profound.

This is a qualifying workshop for anyone wanting to attend Veriditas Labyrinth Facilitator Training.

More information and registration here

Catherine Anderson, Faculty

[email protected]

The labyrinth Catherine constructed in her backyard in 2007 has been an important element in her mindfulness and creativity practices and Catherine loves showing others how the labyrinth can support us in quietening our mind and uncover our creativity. She is the author of Journaling the Labyrinth Path, a book of finger labyrinths, quotes and journal prompts inspiring you to find your unique work in the world, and Meeting Your Soul on the Labyrinth: SoulCollage® and the Labyrinth as Pathways for Transformation.

Catherine uses the labyrinth, SoulCollage®, expressive arts, poetry and mindfulness as pathways for self-discovery and as ways of uncovering meaning and purpose in life. Her personal journey of self-discovery has taken her from a career as an attorney to photography-franchise owner, to creativity-workshop facilitator.

Photography is another creative passion for Catherine and her book The Creative Photographer won a Silver Nautilus Award in the Creative Process Category in 2012.  As a SoulCollage® Facilitator Trainer, Catherine loves teaching others how to facilitate workshops using the SoulCollage® process which uses images as a form of “soul language” to access our inner wisdom.

As a life-long learner, Catherine has been fortunate to train with Jean Houston, Seena Frost, Lauren Artress, Jan Phillips and many other wise teachers. In addition to her work in the US, Catherine leads creative pilgrimage retreats in South Africa, France, Italy, Mexico and Portugal.

www.CreativePilgrimage.com

Journey on, Heroine!

Over the course of many years, Judith and Ruth have collaborated on chants that express the arc of the spiritual life from pilgrimage to meditation to encouragement to be the hero/heroine of our life's story.

We will learn these chants together and unpack their messages during handheld labyrinth walks, writing practice and circle sharing. 

Join us to see what awaits us as we breathe and chant our way into the depths of our experience.

Judith Tripp, MA, MFT has created a body of work, which she calls Circleway which encompasses her passions for individual healing work through psychotherapy and spiritual counseling, the Women’s Dream Quest, Pilgrimages to Avalon, retreats and workshops all over the world as well as flute and vocal recordings.  Her book, Circleway, The Story of the Women’s Dream Quest, chronicles 25 years of her work with the Dream Quest. Trained in Transpersonal Psychology, Judith is a licensed  Marriage and Family Therapist. She began her work with the Women’s Dream Quest in 1987 at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. Today she leads Dream Quests all over the world.  She has been involved with Veriditas since its inception and trained as a labyrinth facilitator in 1996. She began her work at Chartres and her Avalon pilgrimages in 2000. Judith's produced musical offerings Homage, Return Again, and To Bless the Walk. Integrating a healthy psychology with a robust spiritual practice is a mainstay of Judith’s life and work. Well versed and practiced in diverse spiritual traditions, Judith is equally at home in a Cathedral, a Yoga Ashram, a Buddhist Meditation retreat, and the temple of Nature. She loves to chant and dance, meditate and pray.

Click here for Judith's Speaker's Packet
http://www.circleway.com/

Ruth Cunningham is a founding member Anonymous 4 and a sound healing practitioner. She specializes in early music performance as well as improvisational sacred music from varied spiritual traditions in both liturgical and concert settings. She works with individuals and groups on using the voice and music as tools for healing.  With Anonymous 4, Ruth performed in concerts and festivals throughout the United States, Europe and the Far East and made thirteen recordings.  Ruth’s own CD releases are Light and Shadow: Chants, Prayers and Improvisations and Harpmodes: Journey for Voice and Harp. She has released two CDs of multi faith chants with colleague Ana Hernandez: Blessed by Light and  HARC: Inside Chants. She was the musician for a number of summer courses for Ubiquity University in Chartres France. She has also performed and recorded renaissance music with Pomerium and has worked in a number of professional church choirs in New York City. 

www.ruthcunningham.com 
http://www.youtube.com/ruthreid

Every year on the first Saturday in May thousands of people around the globe participate in World Labyrinth Day as a moving meditation for world peace and celebration of the labyrinth experience. Many “Walk as One at 1” local time to create a rolling wave of peaceful energy passing from one time zone to the next. Join Veriditas Faculty Laura Esculcas for a free Handheld Finger Labyrinth Walk in celebration of World Labyrinth Day. 

Every year on the first Saturday in May thousands of people around the globe participate in World Labyrinth Day as a moving meditation for world peace and celebration of the labyrinth experience. Many “Walk as One at 1” local time to create a rolling wave of peaceful energy passing from one time zone to the next. Join Veriditas Faculty Judith Tripp for a free Handheld Finger Labyrinth Walk in celebration of World Labyrinth Day. 

“Awakening the universe that dreams through us”

The universe is a dance of creativity, and each of us moves as a vital part of its rhythm. In this time of unraveling and renewal, imagination becomes sacred ground — the meeting place of soul and cosmos.

Join us for a journey into the living conversation between creativity and spirit, where uncertainty itself becomes the threshold to transformation.

Inspired by Brian Swimme’s vision of a universe alive with allurement, creativity, and communion, and by Diarmuid O’Murchu’s vision of a living cosmos ever birthing itself into being, we will explore imagination as the deep pulse of our becoming — a wellspring of resilience, wonder, and hope.  

Through shared dialogue, small-group reflection, daily SoulCollage® practice, and a private labyrinth walk in the luminous space of Chartres Cathedral - a place where human creativity and cosmic radiance meet - we will explore creativity as the universe expressing itself through us. Surrounded by centuries of devotion and light, we remember our original vocation: to say yes to the Great Work of co-creation — shaping a more conscious, compassionate, and vibrant world.

SoulCollage® is an intuitive collage process which connects you to your inner wisdom and a deeper understanding of your place in the cosmos. You do not need any prior experience in making SoulCollage® cards. All supplies and a generous supply of evocative images will be provided. Each participant will also receive their own book filled with images created specially for this retreat.

This is an invitation to honor the sacred impulses that seek expression through you, to follow their threads of allurement, and to live as a co-creator in the ever-evolving story of creation. 

Come. Join us in an ancient place of refuge and renewal.

The Chartres Experience

From June 8-12, 2026, the Veriditas pilgrimage to Chartres, France, offers a blend of spiritual practice, historical exploration, and personal reflection. Program registration begins at the Hotelliere St. Yves in Chartres, France at 4:00 pm on Monday, followed by an orientation and opening reception. Each day begins with a seminar followed by a large group conversation, and leader led small group discussions. Participants will experience the sacred space of Chartres through a tour of the cathedral, as well as an unforgettable private candlelit labyrinth walk with medieval music. Participants will also have an opportunity to walk with the public, allowing time for reflection, connection, and community. The program concludes with a celebratory dinner on Friday evening that ends by 10 pm. You may want to plan to arrive a day prior to the start of the program to give yourself time to recover from jet lag, and we recommend planning to depart on the Saturday after the program concludes.

Catherine Anderson

The labyrinth Catherine constructed in her backyard in 2007 has been an important element in her mindfulness and creativity practices and Catherine loves showing others how the labyrinth can support us in quietening our mind and uncovering our creativity. She is the author of Journaling the Labyrinth Path, a book of finger labyrinths, quotes and journal prompts inspiring you to find your unique work in the world, Meeting Your Soul on the Labyrinth: SoulCollage® and the Labyrinth as Pathways for Transformation, and Tracing the Labyrinth Path, a book of finger labyrinths to use as a daily practice.

Catherine uses the labyrinth, SoulCollage®, expressive arts, poetry and mindfulness as pathways for self-discovery and as ways of uncovering meaning and purpose in life. Her personal journey of self-discovery has taken her from a career as an attorney to photography franchise owner, to creativity workshop facilitator.

Photography as contemplative practice is another creative passion for Catherine and her book The Creative Photographer won a Silver Nautilus Award in the Creative Process Category in 2012. Her book Contemplative Photography Retreat: Deepen Your Connection to the Elements of Earth, Air, Fire and Water is a self-guided retreat in nature with your camera.

As a SoulCollage® Facilitator Trainer, Catherine loves teaching others how to facilitate workshops using the SoulCollage® process which uses images as a form of “soul language” to access our inner wisdom.

As a life-long learner, Catherine has been fortunate to train with Jean Houston, Seena Frost, Lauren Artress, Jan Phillips and many other wise teachers. In addition to her work in the US, Catherine leads creative pilgrimages to South Africa, France, Italy, Mexico, Portugal and Scotland.

www.CreativePilgrimage.com

The Reverend Dr. Lauren Artress

The Rev. Dr. Lauren Artress is Canon Emerita of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco and author of Walking a Sacred Path: Rediscovering the Labyrinth as a Spiritual Practice; The Sacred Path Companion: How to Use the Labyrinth to Heal and Transform; and The Path of the Holy Fool: How the Labyrinth Ignites our Visionary Powers. Her first book Walking a Sacred Path was instrumental in launching what the New York Times named The Labyrinth Movement in May, 1998. She founded the non-profit, Veriditas, the World-Wide Labyrinth Project, in 1996 to “pepper the planet with labyrinths.” With over 6,000 labyrinth sites in the U.S. alone, her nonprofit work embraces the vision to activate and transform the human spirit through the labyrinth experience. Lauren received the Gandhi, King, and Ikeda Peace Award for her work in bringing people together in creative, peace-giving ways. In 2021 she received the Extraordinary Visionary Leader award from Women Creating our Futures. She is on the Editorial Board of Presence Magazine, a publication of Spiritual Directors International. Lauren is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in the State of California.

Logistical Information

Travel to and from Chartres: We look forward to welcoming you in Chartres!  Participants are responsible for making their own travel arrangements to and from Chartres. Most airline flights will arrive at Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris, France.  You have a variety of options on getting to Chartres from CDG Airport.

• • Consider taking an UBER to Chartres. It has proven to be a convenient and cost effective option.
  • The most economical way is to take a taxi to the Montparnasse Train Station and take a train to Chartres.  Chartres is about an hour outside of Paris by train.  For train information, please see the SNCF website.
  • You can make a reservation online for a car or small van to meet you at the airport and drive you to Chartres. 
• • You can also consider the option of taking a taxi all the way to Chartres, though the cost will be in the range of 150 – 200 Euro or more.  If several participants arrive at the same time, sharing a taxi will bring the price down.

We will be creating an online Circle group for participants to be able to connect with each other prior to the start of the Pilgrimage in case you want to plan to share accommodations or transportation to Chartres. An invitation to join the group will be included in your confirmation email when you register.

Accommodation: Veriditas has a very small block of rooms reserved at the Hotellerie St. Yves for each week that we will be in Chartres in 2025. You will receive a link to book your room after you register for a Pilgrimage.  Most participants find the rooms comfortable and convenient. Each has a small bathroom with a shower. Bedding and towels are provided, but you will need to bring a hairdryer. You may also choose to use booking.com to locate accommodation near to the Hotellerie St. Yves where the program is held.

Meals: Chartres is a charming, medieval village with many options for eating out from casual fare such as omelettes and soup to fancier formal restaurants. There is also a grocery store in walking distance that sells sandwiches and snacks. Breakfast is included in the cost of your accommodation if you book through our block of rooms at the Hotellerie St. Yves. You are responsible for your own lunches and dinners throughout the week.

Spouse packages (partner/family/friends) are available if they want to come but not participate in the full program. Includes opening reception, closing dinner and cathedral tour. Simply select spouse package when you register.

Cancellation Policy: We understand that life happens! When things don’t go as you planned, Veriditas has policies in place so that you always know what to expect should you have to cancel an event. Please read our updated cancellation policy here.

Travel Insurance: Veriditas strongly recommends purchasing travel insurance to cover your expenses in the event of an unforeseen circumstance that may hinder your ability to attend the program. . Click here for a link to Travel Guard, specializing in insurance for our Chartres programs. 

For additional information on our Walking a Sacred Path Pilgrimages, please click here.

The goal of Veriditas Labyrinth Facilitator Training is to prepare people to introduce others to the labyrinth in an articulate, professional and effective way.The training addresses meditative walking in a variety of settings, with a variety of different populations. It is focused primarily on the Eleven Circuit Medieval Labyrinth but is inclusive of all forms.

Walking the labyrinth is being embraced as a spiritual practice throughout the Western world mostly because of Veriditas trained facilitators. The Veriditas Facilitator Training -- which began in 1997 -- remains the most rigorous and comprehensive training offered. 

How to know if Facilitator Training is right for you?

• Want to deepen your own labyrinth practice?
• Want the tools and guidance that will enable you to bring the labyrinth to your community?
• Want to connect with a supportive community of Labyrinth Facilitators around the world?
• Find yourself heading up a labyrinth program at your church, school, hospital, college etc. and need broad training and/or specific answers?
• Considering offering labyrinth walking as part of your healing, counseling, yoga or  coaching business and are curious about the business considerations involved?
• Love the labyrinth and want to offer workshops of your own? Consider completing Facilitator Training on the path to becoming Certified, Advance Trained and Accredited. Our Veriditas Accredited Presenters are now offering some of our qualifying workshops.

We encourage you to join us! 

Please note: prior attendance at a Veriditas qualifying workshop is required. The Pilgrimage prior to this training in Chartres is considered a qualifying workshop.

Learn more about becoming a Veriditas Trained Facilitator.

It is an astonishing time to be alive — an age of tremendous peril and magnificent callings. It is hard to take in the generative possibilities of our time, and rise to our highest humanity, amidst the overwhelm of rupture. Yet the news that is, as we say, “breaking” is never seeing things whole. In this week, Krista Tippett will offer wisdom for tending the distress inside ourselves and those around — while embodying the world we want to inhabit as we go. Drawing on her quarter century of conversation with wise and graceful lives, she will offer ways of seeing and arts of living towards tangibly shifting our presence in the everyday and being of service to our larger crises and callings.

How to make sense of the gravity of being alive now?
How not to give in to overwhelm, and stay present to this world’s tenderness and its pain? How to muster a reasonable hope? How to anchor in what we love, and orient towards healing? How to walk forward if not together at least towards a shared future? How to discern what is my work to do?

We can train our imaginations and our lives towards what, amidst all that is breaking, wants to be born.

Come. Join us in an ancient place of refuge and renewal.

The Chartres Experience

From June 15-19, 2026, the Veriditas pilgrimage to Chartres, France, offers a blend of spiritual practice, historical exploration, and personal reflection. Program registration begins at the Hotelliere St. Yves in Chartres, France at 4:00 pm on Monday, followed by an orientation and opening reception. Each day begins with a seminar led by Krista Tippett, followed by a large group conversation with Krista and Lauren Artress, and leader led small group discussions. Participants will experience the sacred space of Chartres through a tour of the cathedral, as well as an unforgettable private candlelit labyrinth walk with medieval music. Participants will also have an opportunity to walk with the public, allowing time for reflection, connection, and community. The program concludes with a celebratory dinner on Friday evening that ends by 10 pm. You may want to plan to arrive a day prior to the start of the program to give yourself time to recover from jet lag, and we recommend planning to depart on the Saturday after the program concludes.

Krista Tippett

Krista Tippett is a Peabody-award winning broadcaster, National Humanities Medalist, and New York Times bestselling author. She created the groundbreaking public radio show and podcast On Being, which pursues deep thinking, moral imagination, social creativity, and joy towards the renewal of inner life, outer life, and life together. It has won the highest honors in broadcast, Internet and podcasting, and been downloaded over 450 million times. The On Being Project, which Krista founded in 2013, also engages “quiet conversations” to accompany the generative people and possibilities within this tender, tumultuous time to be alive. She received the National Humanities Medal at the White House in 2014 for "thoughtfully delving into the mysteries of human existence. On air andin print, Ms. Tippettavoids easy answers, embracing complexity and inviting people of every background to join her conversation about faith, ethics, and moral wisdom."

Krista grew up in a small town in Oklahoma, attended Brown University, worked as a young journalist and diplomat in Cold War Berlin, and later received a Master of Divinity from Yale. She is the author of three books, most recently Becoming Wise: An Inquiry into the Mystery and Art of Living. 

The Reverend Dr. Lauren Artress

The Rev. Dr. Lauren Artress is Canon Emerita of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco and author of Walking a Sacred Path: Rediscovering the Labyrinth as a Spiritual Practice; The Sacred Path Companion: How to Use the Labyrinth to Heal and Transform; and The Path of the Holy Fool: How the Labyrinth Ignites our Visionary Powers. Her first book Walking a Sacred Path was instrumental in launching what the New York Times named The Labyrinth Movement in May, 1998. She founded the non-profit, Veriditas, the World-Wide Labyrinth Project, in 1996 to “pepper the planet with labyrinths.” With over 6,000 labyrinth sites in the U.S. alone, her nonprofit work embraces the vision to activate and transform the human spirit through the labyrinth experience. Lauren received the Gandhi, King, and Ikeda Peace Award for her work in bringing people together in creative, peace-giving ways. In 2021 she received the Extraordinary Visionary Leader award from Women Creating our Futures. She is on the Editorial Board of Presence Magazine, a publication of Spiritual Directors International. Lauren is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in the State of California.

Logistical Information

Travel to and from Chartres: We look forward to welcoming you in Chartres!  Participants are responsible for making their own travel arrangements to and from Chartres. Most airline flights will arrive at Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris, France.  You have a variety of options on getting to Chartres from CDG Airport.

• • Consider taking an UBER to Chartres. It has proven to be a convenient and cost effective option.
  • The most economical way is to take a taxi to the Montparnasse Train Station and take a train to Chartres.  Chartres is about an hour outside of Paris by train.  For train information, please see the SNCF website.
  • You can make a reservation online for a car or small van to meet you at the airport and drive you to Chartres. 
• • You can also consider the option of taking a taxi all the way to Chartres, though the cost will be in the range of 150 – 200 Euro or more.  If several participants arrive at the same time, sharing a taxi will bring the price down.

We will be creating an online Circle group for participants to be able to connect with each other prior to the start of the Pilgrimage in case you want to plan to share accommodations or transportation to Chartres. An invitation to join the group will be included in your confirmation email when you register.

Accommodation: Veriditas has a very small block of rooms reserved at the Hotellerie St. Yves for each week that we will be in Chartres in 2025. You will receive a link to book your room after you register for a Pilgrimage.  Most participants find the rooms comfortable and convenient. Each has a small bathroom with a shower. Bedding and towels are provided, but you will need to bring a hairdryer. You may also choose to use booking.com to locate accommodation near to the Hotellerie St. Yves where the program is held.

Meals: Chartres is a charming, medieval village with many options for eating out from casual fare such as omelettes and soup to fancier formal restaurants. There is also a grocery store in walking distance that sells sandwiches and snacks. Breakfast is included in the cost of your accommodation if you book through our block of rooms at the Hotellerie St. Yves. You are responsible for your own lunches and dinners throughout the week.

Spouse packages (partner/family/friends) are available if they want to come but not participate in the full program. Includes opening reception, closing dinner and cathedral tour. Simply select spouse package when you register.

Cancellation Policy: We understand that life happens! When things don’t go as you planned, Veriditas has policies in place so that you always know what to expect should you have to cancel an event. Please read our updated cancellation policy here.

Travel Insurance: Veriditas strongly recommends purchasing travel insurance to cover your expenses in the event of an unforeseen circumstance that may hinder your ability to attend the program. . Click here for a link to Travel Guard, specializing in insurance for our Chartres programs. 

For additional information on our Walking a Sacred Path Pilgrimages, please click here.

Monday 7/27: Arrival

Tuesday 7/28: Sacred Space: Drawing Cosmological Mandalas with Lars

Wednesday 7/29: Sacred Time: Stitching Classical Labyrinths with Lars & Brighid

Thursday 7/30: Sacred Journey: Creating Medieval Labyrinths with Lars

Friday 7/31: Labyrinth as Refuge: Qualifying Workshop with Brighid FitzGibbon

Saturday/Sunday 8/1-8/2: A Spiritual Path: Facilitator Training with Lars Howlett
Monday 8/3 : Departure 

Led by Judith Tripp, MA, MFT, a member of the Veriditas Faculty, a transpersonal psychotherapist, leader of Women's Dream Quest, and teacher.  She leads pilgrimages and retreats in the US, Europe and Australia.  She is also an author, a musician and singer.

Anyone who comes to Chartres whether it be to visit the labyrinth, to explore the magnificent medieval architecture or to meditate in the glory of this always sacred site, soon realizes that this holy place is an homage to Mary. The Sacred Feminine is alive and well in Chartres and has been throughout history.

We will create a sacred circle to explore how Mary has been honored in Chartres throughout history. We will meet her spirit through lecture, meditation, art, music and ritual. We will share insights, creations and stories. Includes one special evening labyrinth walk in Chartres Cathedral. 

This can be a stand-alone workshop or a perfect pairing with to Cycle One of Walking A Sacred Path.  

In the hush of Chartres, where stone and starlight speak across centuries, we enter the cosmological imagination — the deep, evolutionary field where the universe becomes aware of itself through our human journey. Here, the cosmos is not a distant expanse but a living, self-creating process, rising from within at every moment. Our dreams, intuitions, and inner symbols emerge from the same generative ground that births galaxies. To walk into this dimension is to feel the universe’s longing moving through our own lives, calling us into greater creativity, responsibility, and awe. These seminars invite us to recognize ourselves as co-creators in an ever-unfolding cosmos, tuning our hearts to the sacred reciprocity at the center of cosmogenesis."

Come. Join us in an ancient place of refuge and renewal.

The Chartres Experience

The Veriditas pilgrimage to Chartres, France, offers a blend of spiritual practice, historical exploration, and personal reflection. Program registration begins at the Hotelliere St. Yves in Chartres, France at 4:00 pm on Monday, followed by an orientation and opening reception. Each day begins with a seminar followed by a large group conversation, and leader led small group discussions. Participants will experience the sacred space of Chartres through a tour of the cathedral, as well as an unforgettable private candlelit labyrinth walk with medieval music. Participants will also have an opportunity to walk with the public, allowing time for reflection, connection, and community. The program concludes with a celebratory dinner on Friday evening that ends by 10 pm. You may want to plan to arrive a day prior to the start of the program to give yourself time to recover from jet lag, and we recommend planning to depart on the Saturday after the program concludes.

Recommended Reading:

By Brian Thomas Swimme:

Cosmogenesis: Unveiling an Expanding Universe

The Story of the Noosphere

By Lauren Artress:

Walking a Sacred Path: Rediscovering the Labyrinth as a Spiritual Practice

On Chartres Cathedral:

Malcolm Miller’s Chartres Cathedral

Jill Geffrion’s Visions of Mary: Art, Devotion, and Beauty at Chartres Cathedral (Mount Tabor Books)

Dr. Brian Thomas Swimme

Brian Thomas Swimme is the Director of the Center for the Story of the Universe and a professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. He received his Ph.D. from the Department of Mathematics at the University of Oregon in 1978 for work in gravitational dynamics. He brings the context of story to our understanding of the 13.7 billion year trajectory of the universe. Such a story, he feels, will assist in the emergence of a flourishing Earth community.

Swimme is the author of The Hidden Heart of the Cosmos and The Universe is a Green Dragon. He is co-author of The Universe Story, which is the result of a ten-year collaboration with cultural historian, Thomas Berry. Swimme is also the creator of three educational video series: Canticle to the Cosmos, The Earth’s Imagination, and The Powers of the Universe. Most recently he co-wrote and hosted the 60-minute film Journey of the Universe, broadcast on PBS television stations nationwide.

The Reverend Dr. Lauren Artress

The Rev. Dr. Lauren Artress is Canon Emerita of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco and author of Walking a Sacred Path: Rediscovering the Labyrinth as a Spiritual Practice; The Sacred Path Companion: How to Use the Labyrinth to Heal and Transform; and The Path of the Holy Fool: How the Labyrinth Ignites our Visionary Powers. Her first book Walking a Sacred Path was instrumental in launching what the New York Times named The Labyrinth Movement in May, 1998. She founded the non-profit, Veriditas, the World-Wide Labyrinth Project, in 1996 to “pepper the planet with labyrinths.” With over 6,000 labyrinth sites in the U.S. alone, her nonprofit work embraces the vision to activate and transform the human spirit through the labyrinth experience. Lauren received the Gandhi, King, and Ikeda Peace Award for her work in bringing people together in creative, peace-giving ways. In 2021 she received the Extraordinary Visionary Leader award from Women Creating our Futures. She is on the Editorial Board of Presence Magazine, a publication of Spiritual Directors International. Lauren is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in the State of California.

Logistical Information

Travel to and from Chartres: We look forward to welcoming you in Chartres!  Participants are responsible for making their own travel arrangements to and from Chartres. Most airline flights will arrive at Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris, France.  You have a variety of options on getting to Chartres from CDG Airport.

• • Consider taking an UBER to Chartres. It has proven to be a convenient and cost effective option.
  • The most economical way is to take a taxi to the Montparnasse Train Station and take a train to Chartres.  Chartres is about an hour outside of Paris by train.  For train information, please see the SNCF website.
  • You can make a reservation online for a car or small van to meet you at the airport and drive you to Chartres. 
• • You can also consider the option of taking a taxi all the way to Chartres, though the cost will be in the range of 150 – 200 Euro or more.  If several participants arrive at the same time, sharing a taxi will bring the price down.

We will be creating an online Circle group for participants to be able to connect with each other prior to the start of the Pilgrimage in case you want to plan to share accommodations or transportation to Chartres. An invitation to join the group will be included in your confirmation email when you register.

Accommodation: Veriditas has a very small block of rooms reserved at the Hotellerie St. Yves for each week that we will be in Chartres in 2025. You will receive a link to book your room after you register for a Pilgrimage.  Most participants find the rooms comfortable and convenient. Each has a small bathroom with a shower. Bedding and towels are provided, but you will need to bring a hairdryer. You may also choose to use booking.com to locate accommodation near to the Hotellerie St. Yves where the program is held.

Meals: Chartres is a charming, medieval village with many options for eating out from casual fare such as omelettes and soup to fancier formal restaurants. There is also a grocery store in walking distance that sells sandwiches and snacks. Breakfast is included in the cost of your accommodation if you book through our block of rooms at the Hotellerie St. Yves. You are responsible for your own lunches and dinners throughout the week.

Spouse packages (partner/family/friends) are available if they want to come but not participate in the full program. Includes opening reception, closing dinner and cathedral tour. Simply select spouse package when you register.

Cancellation Policy: We understand that life happens! When things don’t go as you planned, Veriditas has policies in place so that you always know what to expect should you have to cancel an event. Please read our updated cancellation policy here.

Travel Insurance: Veriditas strongly recommends purchasing travel insurance to cover your expenses in the event of an unforeseen circumstance that may hinder your ability to attend the program. . Click here for a link to Travel Guard, specializing in insurance for our Chartres programs. 

For additional information on our Walking a Sacred Path Pilgrimages, please click here.

The goal of Veriditas Labyrinth Facilitator Training is to prepare people to introduce others to the labyrinth in an articulate, professional and effective way.The training addresses meditative walking in a variety of settings, with a variety of different populations. It is focused primarily on the Eleven Circuit Medieval Labyrinth but is inclusive of all forms.

Walking the labyrinth is being embraced as a spiritual practice throughout the Western world mostly because of Veriditas trained facilitators. The Veriditas Facilitator Training -- which began in 1997 -- remains the most rigorous and comprehensive training offered. 

How to know if Facilitator Training is right for you?

• Want to deepen your own labyrinth practice?
• Want the tools and guidance that will enable you to bring the labyrinth to your community?
• Want to connect with a supportive community of Labyrinth Facilitators around the world?
• Find yourself heading up a labyrinth program at your church, school, hospital, college etc. and need broad training and/or specific answers?
• Considering offering labyrinth walking as part of your healing, counseling, yoga or  coaching business and are curious about the business considerations involved?
• Love the labyrinth and want to offer workshops of your own? Consider completing Facilitator Training on the path to becoming Certified, Advance Trained and Accredited. Our Veriditas Accredited Presenters are now offering some of our qualifying workshops.

We encourage you to join us! 

Please note: prior attendance at a Veriditas qualifying workshop is required. The Pilgrimage prior to this training in Chartres is considered a qualifying workshop.

Learn more about becoming a Veriditas Trained Facilitator.

The upheavals of our time — ecological collapse, climate disruption, and the fracturing of human community — reveal a deeper truth: we are living through a spiritual crisis of belonging. For generations, humanity has imagined itself apart from Nature, claiming dominion and extracting from the Earth without limit. Our institutions, including the church, have often reinforced this separation.

Yet a new spiritual horizon is dawning. Ecological Spirituality invites us to remember what ancient peoples never forgot: that we live inside a holy universe, alive with intelligence, beauty, and relationality. This emerging spirituality is participatory, embodied, inclusive — calling us back into the vast communion of life.

When we attune to nature’s astonishing, life-giving rhythms, something in us awakens. A shift in consciousness begins. We recognize ourselves as Earthlings — kin to water, wind, stone, and star. From this remembering emerges a deeper spiritual maturity, one equal to the challenges of our age.

What is our role in this emerging New Paradigm?

How do we cultivate communion with Creation in our ordinary days?

What wisdom is seeking to be born through us now?

Together, through shared presence, discussion, small group process and a private evening walking the labyrinth in Chartres Cathedral we will listen for the subtle movements of spirit within and around us.

We will seek the pathways — ancient and newly unfolding — that lead toward communion with Creation and a renewed sense of the sacred in our evolving world.

Come. Join us in an ancient place of refuge and renewal.

The Chartres Experience

From June 8-12, 2026, the Veriditas pilgrimage to Chartres, France, offers a blend of spiritual practice, historical exploration, and personal reflection. Program registration begins at the Hotelliere St. Yves in Chartres, France at 4:00 pm on Monday, followed by an orientation and opening reception. Each day begins with a seminar followed by a large group conversation, and leader led small group discussions. Participants will experience the sacred space of Chartres through a tour of the cathedral, as well as an unforgettable private candlelit labyrinth walk with medieval music. Participants will also have an opportunity to walk with the public, allowing time for reflection, connection, and community. The program concludes with a celebratory dinner on Friday evening that ends by 10 pm. You may want to plan to arrive a day prior to the start of the program to give yourself time to recover from jet lag, and we recommend planning to depart on the Saturday after the program concludes.

Recommended Reading for Diarmuid O’Murchu

Adult Faith: Growing in Wisdom and Understanding

Evolutionary Faith: Rediscovering God in Our Great Story

Ecological Spirituality (all by Orbis Press)

Recommended Reading for Lauren Artress

Walking a Sacred Path: Rediscovering the Labyrinth as a Spiritual Practice

The Path of the Holy Fool: How the Labyrinth Ignites our Visionary Powers

Diarmuid O'Murchu

Diarmuid O'Murchu, a member of the Sacred Heart Missionary Order, and a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin Ireland, is a social psychologist whose early working life had been in social ministry, predominantly in London, UK. In more recent years he has worked as a workshop leader and group facilitator, conducting pioneering programmes on Adult Faith Development across several countries. He is a widely read author, with many of his books listed on this webpage. Now as a retired missionary, he lives in Dublin, Ireland.

The Reverend Dr. Lauren Artress

The Rev. Dr. Lauren Artress is Canon Emerita of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, internationally recognized teacher on the Spirituality of the Labyrinth, and author of Walking a Sacred Path: Rediscovering the Labyrinth as a Spiritual Practice; The Sacred Path Companion: How to Use the Labyrinth to Heal and Transform; and The Path of the Holy Fool: How the Labyrinth Ignites our Visionary Powers. Her first book Walking a Sacred Path was instrumental in launching what the New York Times named The Labyrinth Movement in May, 1998. She founded the non-profit, Veriditas, the World-Wide Labyrinth Project, in 1996 to “pepper the planet with labyrinths.” With over 6,000 labyrinth sites in the U.S. alone, her nonprofit work embraces the vision to activate and transform the human spirit through the labyrinth experience. Lauren received the Gandhi, King, and Ikeda Peace Award for her work in bringing people together in creative, peace-giving ways. In 2021 she received the Extraordinary Visionary Leader award from Women Creating our Futures. She is on the Editorial Board of Presence Magazine, a publication of Spiritual Directors International. Lauren is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in the State of California.

Logistical Information

Travel to and from Chartres: We look forward to welcoming you in Chartres!  Participants are responsible for making their own travel arrangements to and from Chartres. Most airline flights will arrive at Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris, France.  You have a variety of options on getting to Chartres from CDG Airport.

• • Consider taking an UBER to Chartres. It has proven to be a convenient and cost effective option.
  • The most economical way is to take a taxi to the Montparnasse Train Station and take a train to Chartres.  Chartres is about an hour outside of Paris by train.  For train information, please see the SNCF website.
  • You can make a reservation online for a car or small van to meet you at the airport and drive you to Chartres. 
• • You can also consider the option of taking a taxi all the way to Chartres, though the cost will be in the range of 150 – 200 Euro or more.  If several participants arrive at the same time, sharing a taxi will bring the price down.

We will be creating an online Circle group for participants to be able to connect with each other prior to the start of the Pilgrimage in case you want to plan to share accommodations or transportation to Chartres. An invitation to join the group will be included in your confirmation email when you register.

Accommodation: Veriditas has a very small block of rooms reserved at the Hotellerie St. Yves for each week that we will be in Chartres in 2025. You will receive a link to book your room after you register for a Pilgrimage.  Most participants find the rooms comfortable and convenient. Each has a small bathroom with a shower. Bedding and towels are provided, but you will need to bring a hairdryer. You may also choose to use booking.com to locate accommodation near to the Hotellerie St. Yves where the program is held.

Meals: Chartres is a charming, medieval village with many options for eating out from casual fare such as omelettes and soup to fancier formal restaurants. There is also a grocery store in walking distance that sells sandwiches and snacks. Breakfast is included in the cost of your accommodation if you book through our block of rooms at the Hotellerie St. Yves. You are responsible for your own lunches and dinners throughout the week.

Spouse packages (partner/family/friends) are available if they want to come but not participate in the full program. Includes opening reception, closing dinner and cathedral tour. Simply select spouse package when you register.

Cancellation Policy: We understand that life happens! When things don’t go as you planned, Veriditas has policies in place so that you always know what to expect should you have to cancel an event. Please read our updated cancellation policy here.

Travel Insurance: Veriditas strongly recommends purchasing travel insurance to cover your expenses in the event of an unforeseen circumstance that may hinder your ability to attend the program. . Click here for a link to Travel Guard, specializing in insurance for our Chartres programs. 

For additional information on our Walking a Sacred Path Pilgrimages, please click here.