All Turned Around

Like discovering the cookie has chocolate chips instead of raisins, two small adventures this summer proved to be better than expected, and they both involved labyrinths.  In August, Master Gardener connections brought me to Elise’s Massachusetts backyard, where the large seven circuit labyrinth she created with found stones and a charming wooden summerhouse in the center made my day.  September’s labyrinth, open to all passersby, I found by chance in a field in Wanakena, a tiny Adirondack Community on the northern edge of the Five Ponds Wilderness.  Both seemed appropriate metaphors for current times, when the twists and turns of our collective public health seem to led us closer to, then farther away from, some resolution of Pandemic situation.

Labyrinths are ancient, mysterious, often found outdoors, and not in the least electronic or digital, all reasons for my enthusiasm.  No one is certain when people drew the first one.  A rock carving of a labyrinth at Luzzanas, on the island of Sardinia, is thought to date from about 2,500 BC.  Others in southern India, northern Italy, and Egypt are all over 2,000 years old.  Cretan coins embossed with a labyrinth design might have carried the symbol around the world.  The Pima tribes in Arizona have woven baskets depicting a labyrinth pattern for centuries.  That so many diverse cultures created labyrinths over thousands of years only adds to the mystery.   

If you’re having trouble distinguishing a labyrinth from a maze, let me try to explain.  Picture a spiral, but instead of the path circling inward toward the center, a labyrinth’s one path loops back and forth, yet still ends near the middle of what is overall a circular creation.  While any size is possible, many of the ancient labyrinths had seven rings or circuits and are said to be “classical.”  A later design, from Medieval times, has the single path traveling around four quadrants arranged in a cruciform pattern, and is sometimes called a “Christian” labyrinth.  The oldest one of these is in the floor of Chartes Cathedral in France.

So what do labyrinths mean?  Some believe they symbolize the process of being born – literally snaking along the birth canal at the start - and life’s subsequent journey.  In Sweden, young people once performed virgin dances in labyrinths, where a boy had to run in, pick up a girl, and run out flawlessly in order to claim her.  Christians have walked labyrinths on their knees as penance, used them to symbolize a journey to the Holy land, or seen them as a metaphor for getting to know God – sometimes one might feel close, other times far away.  Others find that walking slowly through the encircling rings quiets the mind and leads to new perspectives. 

Many of the most beautiful labyrinths are made by cutting paths in a lawn, or arranging rocks in a patch of gravel, making a garden of simple, yet deep, spirituality.  There might even be one in your neighborhood:  check out the comprehensive on-line list created by The Labyrinth Society, which lists 224 in New York alone.