Walking A Labyrinth

The Cretan or Classical labyrinth is a seven circuit form, and can be circular or square. The seven pathways and eight walls form a mirror image when viewed from above and is the most commonly found shape. The design is often laid out over an area approximately forty to forty-five feet in diameter, allowing paths wide enough for those entering and exiting to pass one another. With a labyrinth, there is only one pathway to walk, whereas with a maze, switchbacks and dead-ends work to obscure the true pathway to the center.

The Romans adapted labyrinth designs and incorporated them into floor decorations, making the designs fourfold. They also incorporated more complex shapes, producing labyrinths that spiraled or meandered. Sometime around the ninth or tenth centuries, the concepts of the Classical and Roman labyrinths began to fuse, making a shape that worked better in a Christian context. At this time, partially to assist in the assimilation of pagan faiths, some European churches began to incorporate labyrinths in their floor designs. The Chartres Cathedral in France has a labyrinth c. 1205 and this well-known variation has been the basis for most modern church and cathedral designs ever since.

Traditionally, walking a labyrinth has three parts to it.

• Before you enter, center and ground yourself. As you enter the pathway, meditate and consider a question for which you would like an answer or assistance. Other practices feel the entering should be a time to let go of regular concerns and become present.

• Reaching the center is a time of illumination, of receiving an answer to your question, or a time to offer a prayer. Stay in the center until you feel it is an appropriate time to leave.

• When you leave you walk out via the same path you entered. Exiting the labyrinth is a time of integration, when you learn how to incorporate the information you received at the center, or a time to just feel at one with your spirit guides, gods or the Earth.

No one specific spiritual tradition is attached to this ritual, making it a useful tool for anyone regardless of faith or beliefs. One common belief of all cultures who utilized the labyrinth is that repeated walkings help strengthen and empower a person. It is believed that because of the mirroring that happens by walking in and out again, the right and left halves of the brain are balanced by this ritual.