More on the Labyrinth

A true labyrinth is a single path that reaches a central point, then continues to retrace its way back to the beginning. A labyrinth is often mistaken for a maze, which has many "false" paths, and the two structures have very different origins and purposes. The labyrinth's purpose is to resolve conflict while the maze is designed to confuse.

There are two basic types of labyrinths. The classic form, also called the Cretan labyrinth, has seven connected paths. It is connected to the following legend which also describes the creation of a classic maze:

Ariadne was the daughter of King Minos of Crete. Minos had Daedalus build a Labyrinth, a house of winding passages, to house the bull-man, the Minotaur, the beast that his wife Pasiphae bore. (Minos had refused to sacrifice a bull to Poseidon, as the king promised, so the god took revenge by causing his wife to desire the bull--but that's another story.) Minos required tribute from Athens in the form of young men and women to be sacrificed to the Minotaur.

Theseus, an Athenian, volunteered to accompany one of these groups of victims to deliver his country from the tribute to Minos. Ariadne fell in love with Theseus and gave him a thread which he let unwind through the Labyrinth so that he was able to kill the Minotaur and find his way back out again.

Ovid says that Daedalus built a house in which he confused the usual passages and deceived the eye with a conflicting maze of various wandering paths.

"so Daedalus made the innumerable paths of deception, and he was barely able to return to the entrance: so deceptive was the house.

The second type of "cathedral labyrinth" can be seen in old churches. In 1200, as the Cathedral of Chartres was being built, a large labyrinth was set with in the floor with dark blue and white stones. Similar labyrinths were placed in other French Gothic cathedrals, such as Amiens, Saint-Quentin, Rheims, Sens, Arras and Auxerre. By the 18th century, all of these labyrinths, except the ones at Chartres and Saint-Quentin, were suppressed. The labyrinth at Amiens was later restored in 1894.

These cathedral labyrinths were all laid out in the same pattern. They were formed by 11 concentric circles that contained a single path which slowly leads to a center rosette. The path makes 28 loops, seven on the left side toward the center, then seven on the right side toward the center, followed by seven on the left side toward the outside, and finally seven on the right side toward the outside, ending in a short straight path to the rosette.

During the Middle Ages, people made pilgrimages to these great churches instead of going to Jerusalem. It became the custom to walk the labyrinth to the center and then retrace the path out of the labyrinth. This "walking the labyrinth" was seen as a spiritual event. By walking the labyrinth, the faithful traced the path of a long and difficult life on earth, beginning with birth, at the entrance, and ending with death, at the center. The way out symbolized the fact or hope that a well lived life continued in either heaven or purgatory.

In the classic labyrinth there is left-right and right-left movement combined with boredom, future planning, goal attainment and repetition. Each element forces the two brains to cooperate on a mental as well as physical level. If some problem is contemplated while performing the labyrinth, it is possible that logic and emotional compromises will likewise be mediated.

According to one Labyrinth society, tracing the path of the labyrinth achieves spiritual and emotional calmness in three stages:

The first so called "Purgation" where one is supposed to release the details of life and shed thoughts of distractions. This, according to the two-brain theory, would relax control from the left brain.

The second stage is called "illumination" which is reached when the center of the labyrinth is achieved. This is said to relax the right brain which is normally anxious to imagine and reach the goal.

The last stage is called "union" where the labyrinth path is re-traced to the beginning, allowing both brains to cooperate in a relaxed state.

Taken from 'A Walk On The Wild Side'