According to the international Labyrinth Society it is "a single path or unicursal tool for personal, psychological and spiritual transformation. Labyrinths are thought to enhance right brain activity."

In Christian tradition, labyrinths were walked by pilgrims and penitents. Pilgrims would walk a labyrinth at the end of a journey to contemplate their experiences and reach a spiritual state of closure, while penitents would shuffle on their knees through a labyrinth while praying.

Christian labyrinths tend to be laid out in four quadrants, suggestive of the shape of the cross. Several famous churches including Chartres Cathedral have labyrinths in their flooring.

Other religions also incorporate labyrinths into their spirituality. Buddhists walk labyrinths in silent meditation, and labyrinths are frequently laid out in sacred shapes which encourage contemplation and thoughtfulness. Spirals and meanders are two common shapes used in spiritual labyrinths, because these shapes are thought to hold immense spiritual power. These labyrinths are usually outdoors, and can appear in a variety of forms, including raked gravel labyrinths, or a series of complex canals.

Ms. Amira Bet-Shmoel, sister of Martyr Yousip Toma Hormoz the founder of Democratic Movement of the Assyrians, explains her mourning in a very emotional poem when she sees her brother's body destroyed by Saddam Houssain and his brutal Baath Party.

Amria will stay for the Assyrian national movement as a point of no return.


More about Amira:
Amira has worked tirelessly for the Assyrian nation since the early 1990's. Her print, radio, and television work have taken her around the world to speaking engagements in Canada, Europe and the United States of America. She is a powerful, highly respected speaker on nationalistic issues who has been invited repeatedly to many Assyrian conventions, television programs and events featuring high profile, key-note speakers and international politicians.

Amira Bet-Shmoel was the founder and editor-in-chief for the Eamama [Assyrian] newspaper. She is the celebrated author of several piercing commentaries and her Arabic columns are always eagerly anticipated. Amira is a winning author, columnist, editor and speaker well-known for her commentary on cultural and socio-political Assyrian issues.

Amira Bet-Shmoel can be reached at amirabetshmoel@nohra.ca

The Story of the Little Chick, also known as 'Haghyate d' Joojoo Soorta' is an Assyrian Radio/Audio story. The story is dedicated to sweet little Assyrian kids. Indeed, it is a sample of various valuable projects all of which have been accomplished by “The Assyrian National and Cultural Youth Center of Tehran-Iran (ANCYCT/Kanoon/Ghondron) / کانون ملی و فرهنگی جوانان آشوری تهران”. ANCYCT was one of the best Assyrian Youth organizations. It was established by a prominent Assyrian Dr. Wilson Bet-Mansour in 1981. An advanced organization with its own constitution, financial system, board of officers, and a pyramid structure. It served the Assyrians of Iran for 16 years. ANCYCT was a sacred place for Assyrian Youth of Tehran, and it will definitely stay sacred in their hearts throughout their lives.

Today, the Assyrian nation largely lives in diaspora, split into rivaling churches and political factions. The fortunes of the people that constitute it have gone different ways over the millennia, and their identities have changed accordingly. The Syriacs in the west have absorbed many influences from the Greeks, while the Assyrians in the east have since ancient times been under Iranian cultural influence. Ironically, as members of the Chaldean Catholic Church (established in 1553 but effectively only in 1830), many modern Assyrians originating from central Assyria now identify with "Chaldeans", a term associated with the Syriac language in the 16th century but ultimately derived from the name of the dynasty that destroyed Nineveh and the Assyrian Empire!

Disunited, dispersed in exile, and as dwindling minorities without full civil rights in their homelands, the Assyrians of today are in grave danger of total assimilation and extinction (Aprim 2003). In order to survive as a nation, they must now unite under the Assyrian identity of their ancestors. It is the only identity that can help them to transcend the differences between them, speak with one voice again, catch the attention of the world, and regain their place among the nations.

William D. S. Daniel was born in 1903 in Urmi, Iran. He lost his mother when he was only three years old. His father, a prominent physician, died from an infectious disease while caring for thousands of his compatriots suffering from typhus, typhoid and cholera under the worst health conditions of overcrowded Assyrian refugee camps during WWI. His three sisters disappeared along with thousands of other young Assyrian women who were either lost in the stampede, perished on the way or forced into conversion. He himself was only fifteen years old when the massive Assyrian flight and march out of their homeland into the unknown began.

He traveled to Europe and received a decent education in classical music after which he returned to Iran to work for the artistic and cultural advancement of his people and put his musical talents at their service. In early 1940s, he founded the first Assyrian musical and dance group which performed some of the musical compositions and songs that he had created. He was first introduced to the folk tales of Qateeni in 1946 and was profoundly impressed by them. It was then that he contemplated the initiation of a massive poetic work to be later known as the Epic of Qateeni Gabbara. The work is in three volumes containing some 6000 verses. The three volumes were published several years apart.

The Epic of Qateeni Gabbara as created by William Daniel contains some of the most beautiful poetry in the contemporary Assyrian language. The native epic is a chain of folk tales recited by the Assyrian storytellers in the mountains of Hakkari and the villages in the plain of Nineveh [Mosul] for as long as any one can remember. Daniel has taken the core of those tales, embellished them with stylistic and poetic ingenuity, and artistically transformed the tales into a complete epic that is in and of itself an exquisite piece of artistic creation. Perhaps, being a gifted poet and a refined musician had much to do with this enhancement of the tales into an epic.

Source: Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies

Please click on the above link.

Please click on the above link.

Please click on the above link.

Please click on the above link.