The labyrinth is very old and was well-known in many cultures.
Labyrinths paths may seem confusing, but there are no wrong turns nor dead ends. The labyrinth is a single path. It is a symbol of life. It teaches people to have trust.
Trace the labyrinth path with your finger, at the beginning it will get very close to the middle? And at the next turn it was suddenly further outside. Imagine this route is your path through life. Lets say the first segment of the labyrinth's path is the time before you started school. By the end of preschool you were one of the bigger kids and already more clever than the little ones. Maybe you were even allowed to play while the little ones still had to take a nap. And then came summer holidays - like a curve on the labyrinth's path - and then school. How did it feel to suddenly be one of the little ones again at the very beginning? On the labyrinth you have now arrived at a new segment: primary school. The path seems to go backwards: in preschool you were one of the big kids, but in school you start again with the little ones. Yet if you keep going, making your way through many curves, you finally reach your goal. Along the way you can look to the left and right and be happy about all the things you have experienced and already mastered.
Large labyrinths were built in parks or churches so that people could stroll through them. People who were troubled or hopeless were supposed to be able to find faith in life again.
When we contact the Light within, we can become entangled in darkness because our shadow emerges and we are unprepared for its impact. Curiously, for most people who have a profound experience in the labyrinth that involves confrontation, it happens in the most loving way. The person is able over time to integrate it without much conflict. Such is the grace of the labyrinth.
Reverend Dr. Lauren Artress 'ritual of moving through labyrinths as transformative spiritual experiences'
Unlike mazes, which consist of a series of forking paths and dead ends, a labyrinth is a unicursal winding path that leads to the centre of the circle—a centre that sometimes represented heaven or Jerusalem as the final destination in the Middle Ages. The development, popularity, and complexity of the symbol in the Middle Ages seems to show the labyrinth’s ability to represent medieval ideas about redemption, devotion, and faith. Very little evidence or documentation exists to demonstrate the overall purpose of medieval labyrinths on church walls, manuscript leaves, and paves stones, though they may have had multiple uses as a symbol of redemption, place of spiritual reflection, space for prayer, or a site for learning matters of the soul.3 Many medieval labyrinths, such as those found at Chartres, Amiens and Reims, were designed as paths for personal meditation. The labyrinths marked in manuscripts and pavement stones may reflect a bounded space in which to contemplate the path of the soul through life.
This labyrinth depicts a typical eleven-ringed circuit path around the circle—a striking characteristic of medieval labyrinths, though some paths can range from six to fifteen circuits. The four-fold symmetry and oscillation along the path as you move form each area of the circle shares this construction with some older, simpler Roman labyrinths as well. In the ninth century a monk named Otfrid took the classical seven-circuit labyrinth pattern and added four extra circuits, creating the more complex eleven-circuit labyrinth design known as the “medieval labyrinth.”2 His drawing in the end leaf of his Book of Gospelsbecame a base for the development of a number of later thirteenth and fourteenth century labyrinths found in cathedrals and churches across Europe. The spread of the eleven-circuit design in France and its construction on the pavement floor of Chartres Cathedral in 1201 attests to its significance as a religious symbol in the Middle Ages. In fact, the “Chartres Labyrinth” is one of the most walked labyrinths in the world, and the labyrinth found in the manuscript is almost identical.
http://sprightlyinnovations.com/leafandleisure/2013/05/10/meditations-on-a-medieval-labyrinth/
Artess, Lauren. Walking a Sacred Path: Rediscovering the Labyrinth as a Spiritual Tool. New York: The Berkeley Publishing Group, 1995.
Bandiera, Nancy Ann. “The Medieval Labyrinth Ritual and Performance: A Grounded Theory Study of Liminality and Spiritual Experience.” Unpd dissertation. University of Texas at Austin, 2006. PDF.
ABOVE: The chartres labyrinth was converted from circular to square using a maze maker . Click the following link to view the maze maker in fullscreen
http://artworkprocess.com/projects/mazemaker/
ABOVE: The chartres labyrinth was converted from circular to square using a maze maker . Click the following link to view the maze maker in fullscreen
http://artworkprocess.com/projects/mazemaker/
Cultural meanings
Many Roman and Christian labyrinths appear at the entrances of buildings, suggesting that they may have served a similar apotropaic purpose. In their cross-cultural study of signs and symbols, Patterns that Connect, Carl Schuster and Edmund Carpenter present various forms of the labyrinth and suggest various possible meanings, including not only a sacred path to the home of a sacred ancestor, but also, perhaps, a representation of the ancestor him/herself: ."..many Indians who make the labyrinth regard it as a sacred symbol, a beneficial ancestor, a deity. In this they may be preserving its original meaning: the ultimate ancestor, here evoked by two continuous lines joining its twelve primary joints."Schuster also observes the common theme of the labyrinth being a refuge for a trickster; in India, the demon Ravana has dominion over labyrinths, the trickster Djonaha lives in a labyrinth according to Sumatran Bataks, and Europeans say it is the home of a rogue.
One can think of labyrinths as symbolic of pilgrimage; people can walk the path, ascending toward salvation or enlightenment. Author Ben Radford conducted an investigation into some of the claims of spiritual and healing effects of labyrinths, reporting on his findings in his book Mysterious New Mexico.
Many labyrinths have been constructed recently in churches, hospitals, and parks. These are often used for contemplation; walking among the turnings, one loses track of direction and of the outside world, and thus quiets the mind. The Labyrinth Society provides a locator for modern labyrinths all over the world.
In addition, the labyrinth can serve as a metaphor for situations that are difficult to be extricated from, as an image that suggests getting lost in a subterranean dungeon-like world. Octavio Paz titled his book on Mexican identity The Labyrinth of Solitude, describing the Mexican condition as orphaned and lost.
Christian use
Walking the labyrinth at Chartres Cathedral
Labyrinths have on various occasions been used in Christian tradition as a part of worship. The earliest known example is from a fourth-century pavement at the Basilica of St Reparatus, at Orleansville, Algeria, with the words "Sancta Eclesia" [sic] , (meaning 'holy church', i.e. the people, not the building) at the center, though it is unclear how it might have been used in worship.
In medieval times, labyrinths began to appear on church walls and floors around 1000 C.E.. The most famous medieval labyrinth, with great influence on later practice, was created in Chartres Cathedral.The purpose of the labyrinths is not clear, though there are surviving descriptions of French clerics performing a ritual Easter dance along the path on Easter Sunday. Some books (guidebooks in particular) suggest that mazes on cathedral floors originated in the medieval period as alternatives to pilgrimage to the Holy Land, but the earliest attested use of the phrase "chemin de Jerusalem" (path to Jerusalem) dates to the late 18th century when it was used to describe mazes at Reims and Saint-Omer. The accompanying ritual, depicted in Romantic illustrations as involving pilgrims following the maze on their knees while praying, may have been practiced at Chartres during the 17th century.
The use of labyrinths has recently been revived in some contexts of Christian worship. Many churches in Europe and North America have constructed permanent, typically unicursal, labyrinths, or employ temporary ones (e.g., painted on canvas or outlined with candles). For example, a labyrinth was set up on the floor of St Paul's Cathedral for a week in March 2000
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