Walk the NEW Labyrinth at A.R.E.		VISIT A.R.E.
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Open year-round and celebrating 75 years of Edgar Cayce’s A.R.E. is a new labyrinth out front of the original Edgar Cayce hospital. Free and open to the public, the new labyrinth brings a welcome retreat for walking meditation, lunch, taking a break during a visit, a conference, a class, a day at the beach, or just a place to enjoy the view of the ocean. The new patio includes a reflexology walk, picnic areas, a fountain, colorful plants, and a beautiful Dolphin sculpture, designed and painted by world-renowned artist, Richard Biffle and a walkway of personalized bricks from members and friends all over the world. For more information on how to have your own brick in the labyrinth, visit our special labyrinth page.

Learn more about the new labyrinth's construction and dedication - click here.

Originally, the A.R.E. labyrinth, based on the Chartres Cathedral pattern in France, was painted on the concrete patio. A group of volunteers with paint buckets, led by artist Meryl Ann Butler, tinted the patio stones to form the labyrinth design. The new labyrinth keeps the well-known design with hand-placed pavers and a beautiful landscape surround. The remodeled patio combines the history and tradition of the earlier labyrinth while giving new life to the entire experience.

The labyrinth symbol relates to wholeness. It combines the imagery of the circle and the spiral into a meandering but purposeful path. The Labyrinth represents a journey to our own center and back again out into the world. Labyrinths have long been used as meditation and prayer tools.

A reflexology walk has been added, where you can walk barefoot along a short path of various stones that massage and activate the pressure points in your feet. A.R.E.’s reflexology walk was specially design by KCL Landscaping and generally represents the Bimini Road, a recently confirmed ancient breakwater located off the waters of the Bahamian Island of Bimini. The walk incorporates stones from the old labyrinth as a tribute to the history of the patio.

Covered picnic areas surrounded by a beautiful garden are the perfect place to eat lunch, meditate, take a quiet break before or after a spa treatment, study between classes at the massage school, or relax from your busy day. Water in the fountain flows over Mexican Beach Boulders from the Pacific Ocean to provide a soothing sound.

Put up as part of a community project, A.R.E.’s Dolphin’s Promise statue looks over the area. AVirginia Beach resident, Cindy Graf, created the Dolphin’s Promise Program in honor of her mother and to support the Lance Armstrong Cancer Research Foundation and the Virginia Aquarium StrandingResponse Program. Dolphins with unique designs are sponsored throughout the city of Virginia Beach. The A.R.E. Dolphin was designed and painted by Richard Biffle, best known for illustrating concert posters for Santana and the Grateful Dead. Richard’s design for the A.R.E. dolphin incorporates many spiritual symbols including a pyramid, the chakras, a lotus blossom, waves of the ocean and our trademark doves. We are proud to be a supporter of the Dolphin’s Promise project and are grateful to Richard Biffle for his time, amazing design, and incredible artwork.

The labyrinth patterns have been around for centuries. The Chartres Cathedral in France had a labyrinth 42 feet in diameter inlaid in the stone floor of the nave, in the year 1200. That's nearly 300 years before Columbus discovered America. In fact, labyrinth designs are found on coins, pottery, or rocks date to 3000 B.C.

The object of the labyrinth is to walk the circular pathway that leads into the center and back out again. “You may wish to focus on an affirmation or mantra, a question, a prayer or a thought or intent to hold in your consciousness," says Meryl Ann Butler. When you walk the labyrinth, the mind quiets, and you are able to hear that still voice inside giving guidance and encouragement on that which you are focusing. Whether you focus on an affirmation or walk the path in mindful meditation, you will feel relaxed and renewed and have a better sense of the energy that you are and that surrounds you.

Hundreds of labyrinths have been created in America, at churches and hospitals, in yards and fields, and at retreat centers such as A.R.E. The beneficial effects include focusing the mind, slowing the breathing, inducing a state of peace, reducing stress, and healing diseases. It is a moving meditation. As one woman said, "For me, reaching relaxation and a meditative state means moving. I find it very healing." Walking the labyrinth is attracting church-goers and church-quitters alike, nurses as well as patients including some with life-threatening diseases who are said to have experienced remissions after walking the labyrinth over a period of time and everyday people with everyday cares.