Hopscotch House

The Kentucky Foundation for Women operates a fantastic retreat for women called Hopscotch House, located in a remote rural area East of Louisville. And when I say remote, I mean remote. Getting there like is something of a challenge, like following the route to Snuffy Smith's cabin - going through a winding maze of roads that lead to a narrow path filled with potholes, rocks, and cow-catchers. And in the wintertime when the steep roads are covered in ice, it's nearly impossible. (I know all this because I have given rides out there to a friend who makes use of their facilities, and helped her haul all her stuff inside.)

The Hopscotch House is strictly for women, and even more specifically, if their own self description is to believed, it's really mostly about feminist women:

"Hopscotch House was purchased by the Kentucky Foundation for Women in 1987 and was first used by a group of women writers known as the Wolf Pen Writer’s Colony. In the early 1990’s Hopscotch House became available to other women artists and women’s groups. Over the years, Hopscotch House has served thousands of women including artists, activists, feminists, eco-feminists, art critique groups, drumming circles, quilting groups, social justice groups, girls’ empowerment groups, arts organizations, and social service organizations.

Hopscotch House retreats and residencies provide time and space for Kentucky women artists to create in an environment that inspires, nurtures, and rejuvenates. Stays there encourage self-exploration and personal growth through the land and house resources and the company of other women... Hopscotch House is also a place to engage with a community of feminist social change artists and activists who convene in a nurturing environment. Many people find the sharing of common interests and goals in their work to be a great source of support and inspiration."

But fear not, those of you out there in reader-land who are either cursed with, as Robert Louis Stevenson said, "the misfortune to be a man", or are among my female compatriots whose idea of feminism has more in common with Dita Von Teese and Poison Ivy Rorschach than, say, Susan Brownmiller or Trish Wilson. I'm here to take one for the team, and go behind the scenes with a pictorial tour to show you what few male eyes have ever seen.

Labyrinth Conference

The Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary is holding an event called Seeking the Symmetry of the Soul: Biennial Labyrinth Conference on October 26-30. Activities include:

The basics of sacred geometry and its application to labyrinths

Classical and medieval labyrinth design principles

Considerations for building permanent and temporary labyrinths

How to build a masking tape labyrinth in 15 minutes

Principles for making your own contemporary design

Tips on how to get a labyrinth for your... (church, school, hospital)

Networking time to discuss your labyrinth-making needs


Tuition for the Labyrinth Seminar: Oct. 26-28, 2009, is $50 per person if paid by Sept. 26, and $75 per person after
Sept. 26. $40 per person for groups of three or more from a single organization.

Tuition for “Building a Chartres Style Labyrinth”: Oct 29-30, 2009, is $50 per person if paid by Sept. 26, and $75 per
person after Sept. 26. $40 per person for groups of three or more from a single organization.

Tuition for both the Seminar and "Building a Labyrinth" events together is $75 per person if paid by Sept. 26, 2009. After Sept. 26, the tuition will be $75 for each event.

Meals are on your own. Breakfast and lunch will be available in the Louisville Seminary cafeteria for the seminar and at Sullivan University for the building event.

The Labyrinth of Sacred Oak Grove

For some whose frame of reference for the word "labyrinth" would be a muppet musical starring David Bowie, a couple of quick notes:

A true labyrinth is an elaborately winding path, either one that is rendered as an image or one that is a literal 3-D path one can follow on foot.

Some labyrinths are not just open paths, but completely closed-in corridors or tunnels, such as the one built to hold the Minotaur in Greek mythology, or the one in which the detective monks find themselves lost in Umberto Eco's classic The Name of the Rose. In both stories, the heroes find their way out of the labyrinth by winding a thread by which one's steps can be retraced. (Incidentally, this is precisely where we derive the modern term "clue" - from "clew", an ancient nautical term for cord, rope, twine or thread.) Technically, these were maze-type labyrinths, with multiple path options branching off.

What we're concerned with here is the open-air path style of labyrinth, an excellent example of which can be experienced at the Sacred Oak Grove, an alternative-spirituality retreat in Sorgho, KY, Daviess County. The Labyrinth of Sacred Oak Grove is based on the one in the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Chartres, France, built in 1201.

Sacred Oak Grove's mission statement is "to create, improvise and nuture a sacred transformational environment, in order to remember, validate and illuminate our divine connection". It's the project of Clarice O'Bryan, who describes herself on her website as "teacher, healer, dancer, intuitive masseuse".


There's also a smaller, but very interesting, open-path labyrinth at Hopscotch House, a women's retreat off Wolf Pen Branch in Prospect.