Would you like to introduce the labyrinth to others, facilitate group walks and lead transformative workshops? Join Veriditas Faculty Members Laura Esculcas and Lars Howlett (see bios below) for our next Virtual Labyrinth Facilitator Training. Go deeper with your personal practice in the labyrinth, meet others on a similar path, and receive a hard copy of our updated 160-page facilitator's manual with a wealth of labyrinth resources! Past participants can also enroll in the course again for half-price as a refresher.

Take the training from the comfort of your home in five consecutive 4 hour Zoom sessions (with breaks totaling one hour). Laura and Lars will share their insights, experiences, and inspiration from their personal and professional work with the labyrinth. Attendance in a Qualifying Workshop within the past two years is required for participants to experience a shared labyrinth journey led by a Veriditas Advanced Labyrinth Facilitator. (Check our calendar for in-person or online qualifying workshops).  To become trained, you must actively participate in the entire 16-hour training. For more information about scholarship opportunities and the program see: Veriditas.org/ft  

So, what is a labyrinth facilitator? First, it's someone who understands what a labyrinth is and can speak about it to a variety of audiences. This is actually a bit tricky, since the definition is quite slippery, and the origins are mysterious. Also, the terminology and applications of labyrinths vary a lot depending on if you’re talking to a group of high school students, a church congregation, patients at a cancer treatment center, or employees in a corporate office. Likewise, there are an infinite number of applications for the labyrinth. You could walk for prayer, healing, transformation, creativity, problem solving, community building, or stress reduction, among other things. 
 The second main aspect is organizing events and optimizing the labyrinth experience. There are many aspects to leading a group walk from framing the labyrinth with music, light, and thematic elements to incorporating a ritual or interactive element. There's also the pace and flow of the walk-- conducting the symphony of different people entering and exiting into sacred time and space. Lastly, there is the practice of holding space for a variety of experiences and providing opportunities for processing the walk through small group sharing, journaling, or other creative reflective exercises. Finally, becoming a labyrinth facilitator creates a pathway to working professionally in the realm of labyrinths. 

This training runs from Monday, August 25th through Friday August 29th, from 9 AM to 12:30 PM Pacific time each day with moderate breaks.

Laura Esculcas, Faculty

http://www.mysticalportugal.com

With passion for myth and metaphor, Laura curates wisdom journeys and immersion experiences in Portugal’s mystical landscape. Laura is co-founder of EarthShamans, a SoulCollage® facilitator, and teaches Energetics of Art with Ubiquity University Wisdom School. She is trained in Sacred Landscapes, 

Intuitive Feng Shui, and the Personessence™ System of Understanding People. Laura holds both an M.A. in Wisdom Studies and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering. 

Originally from the US and having worked in Silicon Valley for over ten years in high tech operations and management, Laura moved to Portugal to pursue her dream of an integrated life lived as a sacred journey shared with others. Now informed by more than ten years of immersion in the Portugal ecofield, Laura uniquely blends depth of experience, keen curiosity, and genuine open-heartedness as she facilitates wisdom journeys and pilgrimage experiences into Portugal's place-based myths.

Laura first met the labyrinth in 2001, on an Advent Quiet Day in Santa Cruz, California. Since that day, Laura has been a Labyrinth Enthusiast. She has served with Veriditas as a small group facilitator in Chartres, and teaches qualifying workshops and Labyrinth Facilitator Training in Europe.

Laura speaks English and Portuguese and lives near Lisbon with her husband and son, and their two dogs.

Lars Howlett, Faculty

www.DiscoverLabyrinths.com

Lars Howlett is a leading expert in the design and creation of sacred space for walking meditation, centering prayer, personal healing, conflict resolution and community building. Lars is a practitioner of mindfulness and student of sacred geometry since 2003, experimenting with a wide variety of designs, materials, intentions and settings in his personal and professional projects. Universities, churches, health centers, retirement communities, mental health centers, retreats, and individuals find Lars for inspiration and insight in creating exact replicas of historical patterns or one-of-a-kind artistic installations. 

Lars was a three year apprentice to Robert Ferré, inheriting the tools, techniques, and teaching curriculum of a master builder. Lars is a Veriditas Faculty Member and Certified Advanced Labyrinth Facilitator trained by the Reverend Dr. Lauren Artress at Grace and Chartres Cathedrals. He was the Chairperson of World Labyrinth Day from 2013-18.

Lars is an inspiring teacher and passionate speaker on the history, spirituality, and practice of walking labyrinths, leading workshops to cultivate inner wisdom for personal transformation with slideshows of personal projects and visits to sacred sites on four continents. 

Come join us for a nurturing and creative weekend retreat in the beautiful English countryside. Together we will have time making and creating, in movement and reflection, time on an outdoor labyrinth and time exploring SoulCollage®, a creative and simple way of connecting with your deep wisdom voices. 

We will be weaving BodySoul Rhythms®, time in nature out in the woods, storytelling around the fire and time together in the circle. We will have a rich and creative time together, held by the labyrinth and the gorgeous Somerset landscape.

Our gathering will be at The Ammerdown Retreat Centre in Radstock. Lovely food and ensuite single rooms, all set within glorious grounds.

The weekend cost of £545 includes full board, beginning with a delicious afternoon tea on arrival, accommodation in a single ensuite room, all art materials and tuition. 

Places are limited.

For more information, please email: jay@jayedge.com.
To register, please click here

Please bring your cup of tea or coffee to the Zoom screen and MeetUp! with others interested in sharing labyrinth facilitation ideas and experiences. The Veriditas Council invites you to connect, chat informally and to learn from one another.

Explore with colleagues across the globe as Council members Rob Hodges, and Julia Van Fleet host our next MeetUp! on Saturday August 30th beginning at 1 pm PDT.

We look forward to seeing you. The MeetUP! is free but remember to register. 

This will be the second of three meetups in 2025. More information is coming soon.

The Veriditas Labyrinths in Higher Education Initiative invites you to a Meet & Greet to discuss the use of labyrinths on campus. Join us for a free one-hour informal online gathering to connect with fellow labyrinth enthusiasts in Higher Education. Whether you are a maker, facilitator, keeper, student, alumni, faculty, dean, chaplain, staff, or simply interested in working with labyrinths in an educational setting, we are here to support your work. 

Register to join for free and a zoom link will be emailed to you with the confirmation. Please also complete our short survey so that Veriditas can better support you: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/VBF6MZ8

To learn more about the Veriditas Labyrinths in Higher Education Initiative along with free recordings from previous webinars and resources see: https://veriditas.org/higher-ed-initiative

Join Veriditas Faculty Lars Howlett and Accredited Presenter Mary Ann Wamhoff to learn about labyrinths, experience a group walk, and explore how cosmology is meaningful in our lives today. Lars and Mary Ann will share applications and approaches for the labyrinth journey including their stories and provide opportunities for reflection and optional sharing. Lars will discuss how labyrinth designs reflect a personal cosmology and help us discover our role in the unfolding universe (no small feat!). Mary Ann will share the four-fold path of Creation Spirituality and The Work That Reconnects by Joanna Macy. Discover how we can align ourselves with universal principles as earthlings. This also serves as a Qualifying Workshop for the Labyrinth Facilitator Training that takes places over the weekend.

Arrive as early as noon for a BYO picnic before we start. A vegetarian chili is included at the end of the workshop. That evening a free, public Cosmic Walk will be offered under the full moon from 7-8:30pm.

For onsite accommodations visit the Mountain Light Retreat website.
and email: info@mountainlightretreatva.com

“We must feel that we are supported by that same process that brought the Earth into being, that power that spun the galaxies into space, that lit the sun and brought the moon into its orbit. […] Those same forces are still present; indeed, we might feel their impact at this time and understand that we are not isolated in the chill of space with the burden of the future upon us and without the aid of any other power.” 

-- Thomas Berry, “The Dynamics of the Future,” in The Great Work, 174

Lars Howlett

Lars Howlett is a leading expert in the design and creation of sacred space for walking meditation, centering prayer, personal healing, conflict resolution and community building. Lars is a practitioner of mindfulness and student of sacred geometry since 2003, experimenting with a wide variety of designs, materials, intentions and settings in his personal and professional projects. Universities, churches, health centers, retirement communities, mental health centers, retreats, and individuals find Lars for inspiration and insight in creating exact replicas of historical patterns or one-of-a-kind artistic installations. 

Lars was a three year apprentice to Robert Ferré, inheriting the tools, techniques, and teaching curriculum of a master builder. Lars is a Veriditas Faculty Member and Certified Advanced Labyrinth Facilitator trained by the Reverend Dr. Lauren Artress at Grace and Chartres Cathedrals. He was the Chairperson of World Labyrinth Day from 2013-18.

Lars is an inspiring teacher and passionate speaker on the history, spirituality, and practice of walking labyrinths, leading workshops to cultivate inner wisdom for personal transformation with slideshows of personal projects and visits to sacred sites on four continents. www.DiscoverLabyrinths.com

Mary Ann Wamhoff

After training with Lauren Artress in Chartres, Mary Ann became a Veriditas Advanced Accredited Labyrinth Facilitator. She has walked labyrinths since at least 1995, has studied with Caroline Myss, Andrew Harvey, Mirabai Starr, and Matt Fox among others, and is a Reiki Master. She regularly facilitated public walks sponsored by the Labyrinth Resource Group of Santa Fe, and spearheaded and helped build a 48-foot Chartres-style labyrinth. She is presently introducing her new Virginian community to the joys of labyrinth walking! As a Veriditas Council member, she supports facilitators in listening to what people need and is excited about being part of the Veriditas Inclusion Initiative. Coming from a tradition that believes in the unseen, she has both felt and seen the labyrinth's amazing power! 

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 online or in-person is required. The 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.

Lars Howlett is a leading expert in the design and creation of sacred space for walking meditation, centering prayer, personal healing, conflict resolution and community building. Lars is a practitioner of mindfulness and student of sacred geometry since 2003, experimenting with a wide variety of designs, materials, intentions and settings in his personal and professional projects. Lars was a three year apprentice to Robert Ferré, inheriting the tools, techniques, and teaching curriculum of a master builder. Lars is a Veriditas Faculty Member and Certified Advanced Facilitator trained by the Reverend Dr. Lauren Artress at Grace and Chartres Cathedrals. Visit http://www.DiscoverLabyrinths.com

We are an evolutionary species with an unfolding story of some seven million years. World religions, including Christianity, are only beginning to come to terms with our long sacred story, in which the Holy One has been co-creating over these several eons. As Earthlings, who belong deeply to the natural world, we have developed capacities for wisdom and faith from our long evolutionary experience that witness powerfully to the divine at work within and around us.

The implications of this enlarged horizon are substantial. They challenge the inherited understandings of God, Jesus, creation, human meaning, and open new evolutionary thresholds for a more dynamic, creative, and peaceful way of relating to our world. These new understandings support evolutionary growth to the benefit of all the creative beings with whom we share the web of life. 

"The popular author and speaker offers a new way to seek spiritual meaning in a world where inherited doctrines and dogmas are falling away.
What if our true human story began with original blessing rather than original sin? What if our true nature is one that thrives in healthy relationships with one another and all of creation? Drawing on groundbreaking insights from paleontology and paleoanthropology, Diarmuid O’Murchu argues for a new understanding of the human story, one that shows that we are creative earthlings, beloved by the God who has made all things."

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

The Chartres Experience

Program registration for this Walking a Sacred Path Pilgrimage 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 Diarmuid O'Murchu, followed by a large group conversation with Diarmuid and Lauren Artress, and leader led small group discussions. 

Creative Integration Sessions featuring SoulCollage® led by Catherine Anderson will be offered on Tuesday and Thursday, providing a hands-on opportunity to engage both hemispheres of the brain, and inviting you into a deeper dance with the morning teachings from Diarmuid O’Murchu and Lauren Artress. The SoulCollage®process is an intuitive, image-based process that taps into the unconscious, inviting insights to surface through creativity, imagination, and inner listening. These sessions will be guided by experienced SoulCollage® Facilitators who have long used this practice to access personal wisdom and spiritual depth. As we awaken to our role as co-creators in an evolving cosmos, SoulCollage® becomes a powerful mirror—reflecting the mystery, meaning, and divine radiance that seek expression through your unique life path. All materials will be supplied for these sessions.

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.

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 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 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.

Catherine Anderson, Faculty

cathy@catherineandersonstudio.com

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

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 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.

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.

Accommodation:

You will receive a link to book your accommodation at the Hotellerie St. Yves once your registration has been completed.

The creative energy of the universe has, over fourteen billion years, brought forth a Milky Way galaxy filled with stars, an Earth throbbing with life, and a restless human species in search of its soul, its mission in our universe. Our destiny is to create harmony. We have been born into this evolutionary process to participate in the cosmic act of bringing a fragmented humanity into a vibrant Earth community. Us-and-them categories are no longer viable; contemporary biology has discovered that genetically we are all relatives. Suffused with the energy that constructed two trillion galaxies, we are ready to imagine ourselves as planetary humans. In Chartres cathedral, one of the great spiritual centers of human history, we will feel the reverberations that always accompany the emergence of a new era. In lectures from cosmic storyteller Brian Thomas Swimme, in walking the Labyrinth together, in creative exercises, in dialogue with all, in star gazing within the Milky Way galaxy, in contemplative music, and in imagery the size of a cathedral, we will enter a heart-centered pathway into the next era of humanity's journey.

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

The Chartres Experience

Program registration for this Walking a Sacred Path Pilgrimage 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 Dr. Brian Thomas Swimme, followed by a large group conversation with Brian 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.

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.

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 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.

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.

Join us virtually from Chartres on Pilgrimage with Brian Swimme— Embracing the Unfolding Universe, hosted by Lauren Artress. Sign up to receive video recordings from four days of morning meditations with Lauren Artress and Rob Hodges on cello, talks by Brian Thomas Swimme, discussions between Brian and Lauren, and video vignettes around Chartres village with Lars Howlett including, for the first time, the Fall Harvest Festival! Watch the journey unfold Sept 30th to Oct 4th or at your own time and pace. (Recordings are not live, but emailed in daily digests with links that will NOT expire.) Questions? Email Lars@Veriditas.org  

As the proxy pilgrim, Lars will also light a candle in Chartres Cathedral in your honor and include the spoken names of up to two other people by request.

The full Chartres Pilgrimage program description is available at the link below!

Embracing the Unfolding Universe: An Exploration of Humanity's Cosmic Role with Dr. Brian Thomas Swimme hosted by the Reverend Dr. Lauren Artress

The creative energy of the universe has, over fourteen billion years, brought forth a Milky Way galaxy filled with stars, an Earth throbbing with life, and a restless human species in search of its soul, its mission in our universe. Our destiny is to create harmony. We have been born into this evolutionary process to participate in the cosmic act of bringing a fragmented humanity into a vibrant Earth community. Us-and-them categories are no longer viable; contemporary biology has discovered that genetically we are all relatives. Suffused with the energy that constructed two trillion galaxies, we are ready to imagine ourselves as planetary humans. In Chartres cathedral, one of the great spiritual centers of human history, we will feel the reverberations that always accompany the emergence of a new era. In lectures from cosmic storyteller Brian Thomas Swimme, in walking the Labyrinth together, in creative exercises, in dialogue with all, in star gazing within the Milky Way galaxy, in contemplative music, and in imagery the size of a cathedral, we will enter a heart-centered pathway into the next era of humanity's journey.

*Will be taught in Cantonese*
By invitation only.

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. 

Educational Objectives:

Upon completion of this session, attendees will be able to enhance knowledge about labyrinth in general and specifically, design the labyrinth events, present the labyrinth to and hold labyrinth walks for the attendee’s community.

Dates and Locations:

Day 1   4-Oct-2025 (Saturday)
Time 9:30 to 17:30
Venue Saint-Jacques meeting room, Hôtellerie Saint-Yves, 3 rue des Acacias 28000 Chartres, France

Day 2   5-Oct-2025 (Sunday)
Time    9:30 to 18:00
Venue  Saint-Jacques meeting room, Hôtellerie Saint-Yves, 3 rue des Acacias 28000 Chartres, France

Enrolment: By invitation (Prior attendance of a Veriditas Qualifying Workshop is a pre-request)

Facilitator Trainer: Dr LAM, Chi-Shan

Number of participants: 10

Enrolment: By invitation (Prior attendance of a Veriditas Qualifying Workshop is a pre-request)

Workshop Fee: HK$3,300 (Please contact the Hong Kong Labyrinth Society for payment method)

Teaching language: Cantonese (Supplement with English training manual)

Enquiry: Hong Kong Labyrinth Society

Mobile: (852)59897374

Email contact: info@hongkonglabyrinthsociety.org

Remark: Administrative and application process will be handled by the Hong Kong Labyrinth Society. Personal information and course evaluation will be shared with the Veriditas after the workshop.

Facilitator Trainer: Dr LAM, Chi-Shan

Dr. Chi-Shan Lam is a specialist Anaesthesiologist serving in public hospital in Hong Kong SAR, China. He is a graduate of the Professional Doctorate in Practical Theology. His thesis “Theologically-orientated action research on Labyrinth, Spirituality and Pain Medicine” (https://doi.org/10.25411/aru.27951762.v1) is based on his research “A quantitative and qualitative evaluation of labyrinth walking on chronic pain patient” which is kindly supported by the Hong Kong Pain Society research grant (2015).

Dr. Lam is a Veriditas facilitator trainer/faculty who has been offering qualifying workshop for the local communities since 2019, and facilitator training workshop since 2021. He is one of the founders and currently the chairperson of the Hong Kong Labyrinth Society.

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

From geologian Thomas Berry:

“My generation is an autistic generation, unable to relate to the sacred community of life.”

Berry thought we had lost our connection to our cosmology, the narrative that orients and gives us meaning and direction. He went on:

“It is all a question of story. We are in trouble right now because we do not have a good story. We are in between stories. The Old Story—the account of how the world came to be and how we fit into it—is not functioning properly and we have not learned the New Story.”

Join Mary Ann Wamhoff, Veriditas Faculty Member, in Santa Fe, NM for a Qualifying Workshop exploring the labyrinth as an archetypal practice to integrate our common human origin story.

Some of the questions we’ll consider during our time together include:

• What is the New Story? Is it really new?
• How might the labyrinth reflect it? What part might the labyrinth play in it?
• What is an archetype?
• What is sacred geometry and how does it affect a labyrinth?
• If cosmology is a worldview, and everyone has a cosmology, what is the cosmology of a labyrinth?
• How can we incorporate Creation Spirituality and/or The Work that Reconnects with a labyrinth walk? Why would we want to?
• How can we walk a labyrinth using cosmic principles? Why might we want to do this—especially at this time?

We’ll begin by viewing an artistic expression. During that time, we’ll consider our personal spirals as well as those that show up in nature.

We’ll have the opportunity to create a mandala using materials from nature.

You’ll be given a folder, notebook, some art materials, and lunch.

This workshop is for novices as well as those who are well acquainted with the labyrinth. We’ll see the intersection of sacred geometry with Creation Spirituality, cosmology, biology, and The Work that Reconnects and how the labyrinth is the perfect practice to integrate these within our lives.

Please bring curiosity, an open mind and heart, and the desire to learn more about this ancient practice of moving meditation!

Lunch is included. Earlybird registration is $135 available until October 1. Regular price is $150.

For more information and registration, please email Mary Ann at cslabyrinth@outlook.com

The waves of the ocean breathe with their natural rhythms of ebb and flow, of flowing forward, letting go and returning to source . How can we honor our own unique natural rhythm? How can we find a balance between inner and outer nourishment?

In this retreat we will explore these questions, using SoulCollage® and the Labyrinth to deepen our understanding of the natural rhythms around us, and to explore ways to create flow and ease in our daily lives as we consider living in a more cyclical way.

Our activities will include:

• Creating a Moon Mandala to better understand the phases of the moon
• Creating SoulCollage® cards to express the messages in each moon phases
• Connecting to our inner wisdom and intuition by dialoguing with our SoulCollage® cards
• Labyrinth walks to integrate and deepen the messages of our SoulCollage® cards.

Catherine Anderson, Faculty

cathy@catherineandersonstudio.com

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