Walking With Goblins

Eons of erosion have dissolved the dripping red siltstone, revealing hidden beings of smooth, orange-hued sandstone. Hoodoos, they call them, but I see bear, octopus, raven, coyote, gorilla, platypus, frog, and more. Like aliens in an otherworldly landscape, they emerge from the ground, looming all around. With bare feet, I tread the warm, red earth, walking the path of the “spirit animal” labyrinth. Round like a hoop, yet encompassing a central square, the spirit animal awaits emergence. I enter the tail, turn left, parallel the center, and wind through the hind- and fore-legs. I then pass through the neck and head whereupon I enter the right hemisphere of this being, make my way through the corresponding limbs, then meander into the center. Here, in the center, I am one with the spirit animal and the landscape. Like wise sentinels, the towering hoodoos preside, ready to celebrate the birth of a new being. My movement along the path has activated the spirit inherent in the labyrinth. Earth energy and the chi in me bring the spirit animal to life in quantum reality as I journey back through the labyrinth and exit the tail.

Last year, my partner and I first explored Goblin Valley State Park in Utah. The surreal landscape with goblin-like hoodoos was elemental and engaging. The unearthly qualities of this place beckoned me, inviting collaboration in the process of making a labyrinth. I vowed to return someday and fulfill this vision. When we recently returned, we set out to create a labyrinth in the Valley of the Goblins. Nearly 200 million years ago, this area was inundated with waters of an ancient sea. Through a slow process of geologic uplift, the land rose from the sea to become what is now a mile-high desert. Over the course of millennia, weathering by wind and rain sculpted the land in wild and delightful ways.

I designed the spirit animal labyrinth without preconception, creating a pattern of both curved and angular lines surrounding an inner square and bound by an outer circle. Each hemisphere mirrors the other in bilateral symmetry. Upon completing the design, I realized with delight an impression of a 4-legged being emerging—a spirit animal. Later, when considering what labyrinth to create in Goblin Valley, the spirit animal labyrinth was my first choice. Until our return to this place, I didn’t comprehend how very compatible the labyrinth was with the bizarre and beautiful landscape, populated as it is with sensuous sandstone beings of many shapes, sizes, and species.

With Spirit Animal as a guide, creating and walking the labyrinth was an initiation into the mysteries of Goblin Valley, opening up liminal possibilities and dissolving barriers to perception.

For all that is,