JUST WHAT IS A LABYRINTH?
Mazes as we know are meant to baffle and confuse, and the walker is never sure which way to go. They are little puzzles, games. On the other hand the Labyrinth is a single path and magickal tool. Magickal through the conscience use of the Labryinth, answers to question can come, as well as spiritual awareness can be enhanced. The path of the life ahead could become magickally clear through the turns.
It's your choice to enter, but once entered there is only one way to go, and thats forward till the goal is reached.
The Labyrinth if the oldest contemplative and transformational tools known to humankind dating back beyond 18000 B.C. (the meander pattern on a bird Goddess statue in the Ukrane.) In 1400 B.C. Daedalus builds a labrynth in 1200B.C. Pythos tablets, the oldest positive dated classical seven circuit Labyrinth, in King Nestors palace in Pylos. As well as the well known Glastonbery Tor in England and the Hopi - Native Americans from the South Eastern U.S.
Once you set foot on it's path, the Labyrinth gently leads you to the center of both the Labyrinth and yourself. As you walk a deep meditative and symbolic discipline of setting one foot in front of the other, of honoring the journey itself and what it has to teach. The mind can be stilled and attention paid to the body, and wisdom of the heart.
The Labryinths ancient power derives from the fact that it's an archetypal map of the heatling journey. It's only by keeping to the path, step by step, twist by turn, that one arrives at the physical center of the labyrinth of which signifies arriving at the center of our own lives and souls. t also represents reaching the center of not only our own hearts and spirits, but the goal we seek: spirit, release from emotional or physical pain, a soloution to a challengingproblem or creative task, or block, the unobstructed self.
Today there are two forms of Labyrinths that have become prominent. The creten form and the Chartres form. Both produce the same powerful results. Whichever one you decide on is based purely on preference, I prefer the creten and a friend prefers the Chartres. Individual connection to liturgical forms, or allegince to Earth based spiritualities.
The Creten Labryinth named after the Island of Crete, home of the mythical Labryinth of the Minotaur and takes the walker through seven or more (but seven is usually the norm) before reaching the center and is the oldest form dating back 3500 years. Almost all other are a variation of this one, except the Chartres Labyrinth, named after the permanent stone labryinth set into the floor of Chartres Cathedral in France, during the 13th century, and has eleven concentric paths that wind through four quadrants of a circle. It's a distinctly Christian pattern, an equal-armed cross visible in it's elegant layout set in the center is a rosette, a six petaled design representing a rose. A traditional symbol for the Virgin Mary.
Both design are very special I being partial to the Creten one find it very easy to make as if I've done it for a vey long time this summer I will have the opportunity to make a Chartres Labryinth. No matter which one you have access to walk these special paths they are both great tools to help us on our path.
Blessed Be; Lady Sylvar Moon |
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