Cretan Labyrinth
A book I read recently featured a labyrinth and I got to wondering about them. Here’s what I’ve learned. Although maze and labyrinth are often used interchangeably, there are distinctions for the purest. A labyrinth features a single, non-branching path leading to a center. Unlike a maze, the path of the labyrinth is not intended to be difficult or confusing. So no corn labyrinths for Halloween, please! Labyrinths have appeared in most cultures at some point or another across the globe. The designs have occurred on baskets, pottery, body art, caves, and churches. Their meaning is not fully understood, which made me think about crop circles. From Roman to Renaissance times, most labyrinths have traditionally been unicursal.
Labyrinths reached their most grand expression in the gothic cathedrals of northern France (Chartres, Reims, Amiens). These were magnificent pavement labyrinths set in the floor. Some believe pilgrims walked these paths in prayer or meditation although it was never an early Christian practice. Some guide books of the 18th Century refer to the practice of walking the labyrinth instead of making a costly journey to the Holy Land. No one really knows though if pilgrims did this. The grand medieval labyrinths probably did inspire the later turf mazes found in the UK.
Chartres Cathedral, France
Walking a labyrinth can be seen as a pilgrimage moving toward salvation or enlightenment. Lately there has been a resurgence of interest in the use of labyrinths as a spiritual tool. More and more are being built. If you go to the Labyrinth Society’s website (below), you can search for one near you. I was surprised to see how many are in and around Denver. Many of these are connected to churches or are in private hands, but there is certainly a chance for me to walk the labyrinth.
Edinburgh Labyrinth- photo by Di Williams
Locate a labyrinth near you: http://www.labyrinthlocator.com
Make your own finger labyrinth:
http://http://www.pattonhq.com/links/uccministry/labyrinth.html
This was wonderful..I actually tried searching for one near mumbai but doesn’t look like there is one nearby..walking the labrynth sounds like a meditative exercise..
It is. Hope you find a nice labyrinth!
I didn’t know labyrinths had only one pathway. Fascinating post, interesting blog.
Quite a nice one.
Thanks for visiting my blog. This post about labyrinths is very interesting. I love hedge mazes, mosaic labyrinths, and everything like that.
Thanks for dropping by my blog. And thanks for this lovely post. I had no idea there were so many public labyrinths. You explained a challenging subject well!
I have always thought of labyrinths and mazes being similar things and metaphors for navigating the twists and turns (and dead ends) in life we take. When I read another posters thoughts about the flesh eating monsters at the end I thought oh yeah and that’s death!
This has inspired me to think about landscaping the huge empty space in the back yard into a labyrinth.
Maybe life is like the maze- difficult to navigate & puzzling with its share of dead ends and uninformed choices. The labyrinth more like the spiritual path- not supposed to be arduous (but can be made so), goal and path oriented, leading to its ultimate and planned end. To be done in one’s own time.
Aha! Therein lies the difference between the two.
I’ve been a labyrinth walker for twenty years and I loved your sharing. I plan to build a labyrinth on my newly opened Mountain Valley Retreat in Ca. labyrinths have been a great tool for walking my path.
Labyrinths are some of my favorite things. I recently wrote about a hermitage retreat I took and how a metaphor of labyrinth served me well during my time apart: http://thelifemosaic.com/2013/02/06/my-two-nights-on-a-hermitage-retreat/
It’s a pleasure to discover you and your work Ellis. We are currently working on creating oracle cards and have just completed the Labyrinth card. When i have received a notification that you liked my blog post, the link that stood out was WALKING THE LABYRINTH. What a powerful synchronicity indeed!
Wonderful- hugs from the universe!! That’s how I see those synch connections.
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Since constructing our own labyrinth (see my blog post – Edge of a whim) it has become a centre of peace in the yard. For me, walking the labyrinth is taking an inner journey…it is very introspective. I would love to visit Chartres . The Labyrinth Society is having their annual gathering just across the strait from where I live this coming September. Hoping to attend!
http://labyrinthsociety.org/annual-gathering/3217-accommodations
thanks for the post…
I, too, have been fascinated by labyrinths ever since reading Roger Zelazny’s sci-fi “Amber” series when I was a teenager. I had the opportunity to walk a labyrinth in Santa Barbara, CA which was a peaceful (some would call it enlightneing) experience.
Interesting (but not surprising) that the books and experience have remained with you.
I briefly attended a school near Cleveland, Ohio and they were Catholic (I’m not) and they had a labyrinth. It was my favorite place on campus because nobody was ever there and it was like my very own labyrinth!
Lucky you!!
Fascinating Stuff! I had no idea a labyrinth was not intended to mislead people like a maze.
Great post! There was a beautiful labyrinth at the park I used to walk around in Santa Fe.
I never realized the distinction. But, I guess one of my favorite movies should have been called Maze instead of Labyrinth!
Someone needs to tell the people outside Paradise, California. They have what they call a labyrinth and it is like an amusement park. Every hour or so they replace the interior walls so it isn’t the same walk everytime. With your explanation it should be called a maze.
Sounds like fun.
I enjoyed your post and the comments. One of our local churches has an outdoor labyrinth and I walked in, experimentally. I felt some meditative effect, but not as strong as I would have liked. I suspect I hurried too much: goal driven rather than process driven. The difference between a labyrinth and a maze is that a maze is designed to be confusing or misleading, while the labyrinth leads to something at the center — but not directly. First you must go around and back and forth, but you will arrive if you persist. The labyrinth of Minos took its name from the labys, the ceremonial double-bladed ax. If it was the place of the ax, then it was also the place where slaying took place, whether physical or psychological.
Interesting!
I suppose there may be lots of labyrinths that don’t have the equivalent a minotaur at the centre, but it fascinates me to think that the ancient idea of the labyrinth with a monstrous flesh eating thing at the center sounds like its right out of Freud.
On another level, maybe it’s the equivalent of meeting yourself and being consumed. The final destruction of ego. Kind of the Buddhist take, maybe.
Thank you Ellis for this lovely and fascinating post, and the feedback it inspires. Just occurred to me … the unique whorl of our thumbprints, are the labyrinth. I might get a torch and take a look … or make a print and magnify it, to see. Certain veg when cut across – like a red cabbage – make brilliant mandalas. Labyrinth is a mandala to walk.
The thumbprint on a life is the eye of the angel. Words coming from somewhere. And synchrony.
What a wonderful connection. We wear our own labyrinths on our fingertips! Another labyrinth (which Russell pointed out) exists as our brain. Thanks for opening my eyes to it!
This is a nice post! We have a labyrinth at our home. The Mom Person and I walk it every evening. It’s a bonding time for us.
How’d you make it?
The Mom Person made it with rocks from our property. She laid the pattern out with string first. It looks like the one on your post.
Now all I need is a plot of land!
It does take that! Our labyrinth is 40 ft across. A nice size. But I’ve seen pictures of small ones in back yards.
I’ve recently read about a labyrinth (as opposed to a maze) in a spiritual sense – relating to our lives and that the paths we take do not lead to ‘dead ends’ as a maze does but are ‘correct ways’ for us on our journey through this life. So – thank you, very interesting and informative stuff! And thanks for stopping by my blog.
That’s really interesting. I also started to wonder about the difference or not between maze and labyrinth and wondered if there is a difference in other languages as well. My languages being Finnish and Swedish I looked up those translations and got pretty much the same results for both words. Both give the translation labyrint/labyrintti (+ sokkelo for both words in Finnish) for maze as well. The one difference I got for maze was that the Swedish dictionary entry mentions it being made with high hedges.
I’ve always wanted to walk in a big maze with high hedges. It just somehow sounds like such a fun adventure. I’ve walked through some small ones though.
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I’d not agree that all purists distinguish labyrinths and mazes by making one unicursal and the other multicursal: lots of classical labyrinths are both, and the surviving plans of historic British turf mazes can exhibit both. Better to use unicursal or multicursal and leave it up to choice which term is used.
I agree that, whatever you call them, they are fascinating (I always draw Cretan unicursal mazes on beaches for grandchildren, fun for them and fun for me!) but I am always sceptical about the claims for their supposed purposes in ancient and early modern times.
Thanks for ‘liking’ my post
I look forward to reading more of your blog.
There are a number of labyrinths on some Russian islands near the White Sea, which are dated between 2500-300 years BC. The MInotaur which Theseus killed and from which he rescued Ariadne, lived in a labyrinth at Knossos on Crete in Bronze Age times, and apparently labyrinths pop up in all sorts of ancient cultures around the world.. some sort of archtypal symbolism for mankind…., fascinating indeed….
Thanks, Valerie!
Very interesting. I never knew a labyrinth has only a single, none-branching path. Learn something new every day=)
okay i can’t help it i just love when things line up… like right after reading this i flipped on the tv and they were talking about labyrinths too… it is nice knowing the difference between labyrinths and mazes because i’ve always thought they were basically the same thing…
Those are synchronicities. The more they happen, the more you’re “in synch” with the universe.
I feel incredible right now…
I went through a time when I was really unnerved by them but now I see them as a hug by the universe.
http://hudleyflipside.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/001.jpg
Nice one!
Labyrinths are interesting… but, personally, one questions whether they have true spiritual significance. They likely are an extension of the craving (by so-called authorities) to further “guide” us down some pre-arranged path. The problem with that is… that real truth is a dynamic, living thing… and no dead, man-made path may be able to “lead to it.” Unfortunately, so many of us want to be lead. So many of us are lackadaisical and want someone else to figure it out “for us.” However, our real life (for each of us) is unique and dynamic… and each of us has to be the one (without being told or lead) to function (beyond mere blue-prints) properly. People have been lead (for eons up to now), and look at where the world is as a result of it! Those in power have always been very ambitious regarding getting us to follow their fabricated paths. And most of us are all too willing to be lead down them.
Intriguing. The people in the Edinburgh labyrinth intrigue me because they look like they could walk out, but they also look like they feel trapped.
What a nice post. I walked the labyrinth at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. A peaceful and mystical experience I won’t forget. I would love to travel around walking through some the of the others mentioned. I wonder if there are turf labyrinths (like the mazes). I’ll have to check the link!
Hmm! If that’s an accurate distinction, I suppose it sort of takes the meaning out of ‘labyrinthine’.
I know. I thought about that too!
There’s a nice labyrinth at Unity Village in Lees Summit, Missouri. It’s very relaxing and meditative to walk it.
Lucky you!
Great post!
Lovely post! Great idea to include the locate a labyrinth site. There are 8 listed within a 10-mile radius of my home. I have a friend who created a compost labyrinth!
I have had some truly profound meditative experiences with walking labyrinths. I’m hoping to read about yours.
I’ve been thinking how wonderful it would be to build your own and walk it as daily practice.
Hi Ellis,
I have walked the Chartres cathedral labyrinth. The Cathedral is a profound Nights Templar building packed with the kind of information that makes you sit up.
The labyrinth is a rendering of the brain. It moves from right through left hemispheres. On walking one should go as slowly as one can , if you are in the right frame of mind you will feel the powerful effect it has.
Just imaging a scrambled jigsaw puzzle of a mind running over a complete fully functioning schematic. Like a wiring digram.And a kind of Quantum exchange happening in ones consciousness.
When one reaches the centre one finds five leaves, representing mineral vegetable, animal, human and angelic. One will find oneself standing in one of them. It is an indication of the healing involved to the one who understands the labyrinth and can then advise.
When one follows the route of the Compostela de Santiago as so many pilgrims have a route so shrouded in mystery and pre-dated by the Greeks who thought of it as the End of the World .
Eventually one will come to the labyrinth carved on the rock in Galicia. Pontovedra Spain. 4500 years old.
Beautiful!
I was struck by the parallel to the brain.
What mysteries are being unveiled… Thanks, Russell!
Fascinating stuff.