spirituality - lesson 20: spirals and labyrinths

cretan and hopi labyrinth labyrinths are not the same as mazes! a maze is multicursal, there are choices, and mistakes to be made. it is a left brain task that requires logical, sequential, analytical activity to find the correct path into the maze and out. in a maze you can get lost. a labyrinth is unicursal, one path winding back and forth, round and round to the centre (or exit). the journey may not be physically difficult to navigate but it it is not the physical that is important with labyrinths. allowing entry to its knowledge only in the correct way, and through initiation, once all our old ideas and preconceptions have been discarded. many people today simple try to shut off any contact with the world of the deeper psyche or soul, with the result that they are plagued by numerous anxieties and compulsions, phobias and irrationalities. perhaps the only thing more dangerous than dealing with this other dimension of our reality is not to deal with it. when garden and labyrinth are understood as the fertile grounds out of which consciousness emerges, expulsion or mergence from there, and what can be an ensuing sense of alienation, can drive a person into new territories, new experiences, and new responsibilities. a labyrinth is an archetype with which we can have a direct experience. we can walk it. the magician (or tutor or guru ...) directs our path through the labyrinth, and with each step and obstacle that we overcome the scales fall from our eyes and we see anew. for each new step we take is a reawakening to a greater knowledge and an understanding long hidden from our gaze.

the most significant feature of a labyrinth is that to exit one must retrace their route. this provides period in which we can reflect upon our journey and our achievements of goals. it mirrors the experiences we have in life and period afterward in which we can contemplate what has been, and perhaps why. a labyrinth is a right brain task. it involves intuition, creativity, and imagery. with a labyrinth there is only one choice to be made. the choice is to enter or not. a maybe more passive, but for sure receptive mindset is needed. the choice is whether or not to walk a spiritual path.

the ancient symbol of the labyrinth dates back to the late neolithic and early bronze age, in europe. there is much mystery surrounding the meaning of this universal form, which has been found in all corners of the earth, in practically every civilization. prehistoric examples of labyrinths are thought to have been used against bad spirits, trapping them within the winding walls. many are found as petrographs, drawings carved into rocks and cave walls. greek mythology one of the most famous stories of a labyrinth is the cretan myth of the minotaur. the half bull half man beast was trapped within a labyrinth constructed by daedalus for king minos of crete. the construction was made so artfully that daedalus himself found it difficult to get out as he made it. theseus then went into the labyrinth to kill the minotaur and only found his way out again with the help of ariadne, who had given him a thread to lead him back to the entrance. although this myth speaks for the beast's cage as a labyrinth it sound that is was more likely to have been a maze. up until the helenistic era, the form of labyrinths can be described as classical. the end point is as un-monumental as the path; simply stopping, without ceremony. pilgrimages were a strong aspiration during the middle ages. but since most people could not afford to travel to holy lands (jerusalem for example) then the only other option left open was to visit nearby cathedrals. around the 12th and 13th centuries the labyrinths was seeing a resurgence, as stone pathways in set in the floors of some of the major christian cathedrals in europe at the time. the medieval labyrinth is different in design its classical cousin, one of the most significant still left for us to see today is the one at chartres cathedral in france. once pilgrims had arrived at the cathedrals they would then walk the labyrinth to the centre and slowly retrace their steps, emerging in the outside world again. during these middle ages, people would often walk them on their kneesin a kind of meditative dance, tracing a path to death (and then resurrection?).

knossos coin, crete, ca. 350 - 200 BC

garden labyrinth in germany

another garden labyrinth, in UK

chartres cathedral, france

amiens cathedral labyrinth, france

rent-a-labyrinth (here featured the chartres labyrinth)

inspired by our highways? eastern labyrinths whilst some is known of the origin of the labyrinths in prehistory europe, there is little documentation of their beginnings in the middle east and india. they are found most commonly in hindu and buddhist contexts for example as the chakravyuha symbol (wheel battle formation) and abhyumani yantra (classical labyrinth). they have appeared in tantric drawings, charms, korowa tattoos, as offerings to lakshmi, the goddess of rice or as stone formations embedded in the ground, such as those in the regions of madras, orissa and tamil nau in southern india. there are also rare examples in islamic text, for example, an 11th century manuscript describes a labyrinth as a plan of the devil ravana's impenetrable fortress where sita (wife of rama) is abducted to. with the help of an arm of monkeys, rama attacks the fort and rescues sita. the illustration of a labyrinth was also found in the 13th century, to represent qustantiniyya (constantinople), a city with mythical dimensions. in the 18th and 19th centuries there has been evidence that labyrinths were carved into pillars in islamic mosques, as the base

so they could be studied during prayer. spirals like labyrinths, have been discovered all over the world dating back to the neolithic period. a spiral is the path of a point as it move around an axis, whilst receding or approaching. for many they denote a universal energy and constant spiralling of the human soul - through death, initiation and rebirth. the spiral process takes the initiate to the center of the self where the devine resides. a spiral can also be seen as a symbol of growth and progress. triskeles or triple spirals as they are more commonly known, are three spirals interlocked in the centre of the formation. they are part of ancient celtic symbology that can be found today in a number of irish neolithic sites and ancient religious art. much like the single spiral and labyrinth, the use of the triple spiral crosses the boundaries of many belief systems, however it's strongest association is with ancient celtic paganism. a triskele should be drawn as one continuous line, suggesting the continual movement of time and life. the celts believed that all life moved in eternal cycles and all important things came in three phases, for example: death, afterlife and reincarnation or land, sea and sky, or mind, body and spirit. the triskele is also thought to represent the sun, with particular reference to pregnancy and the three cycles that the sun goes through during nine months. celtic christians also used triskeles to refer to father, son and holy spirit. mandalas carl gustav jung, the founder of depth psychology, studied the archetypal spiral in mandalas, which he described as magic circles symbolic of the nuclear axiom of the human psyche whose essence we do not know. he used the mandala for two reasons: to attain a direct experience with the inner center without societal influence, and to restore a lost sense of balance. jung explains that the spherical mandala is the ultimate symbol of the completely balanced psyche, including the relationship between man and the whole of nature. see more quick info on mandalas the snake is often credited as inspiration for the first spiral pattern. the mysterious dynamism of the snake, its extraordinary vitality and its seeming immortality through the periodic rejuvenation of shedding the old and appearing new each year must have instilled a sense of awe and invoked a powerful response in our earliest ancestors. in jung's view, the snake, as a chthonic and at the same time spiritual being, symbolizes the unconscious. everywhere we find the snake, or its representation, the spiral, on primitive pottery. vases show forth gigantic snakes winding over the whole universe, or over the sun, moon and stars; elsewhere the snake appears below a growing plant or coils above the belly of a pregnant woman. the snake was the symbol of energy, spontaneous, creative energy, and of immortality. the serpent that eats its own tail, called ouroboros was seen by viking culture as a symbol for the natural forces of land, sea and sky. the symbolic connection to the returning cyclical nature encompasses many cultures. the seasons; the oscillations of the night sky; disintegration and re-integration; the androgyne; life and death. nature and science whilst spirals may have their religion based spirituality, it is nature and science

that perhaps the most discussion and debate has taken place. during the renaissance there was much interest in the finding of mathematics in nature. an italian mathematician called leonardo fibonacci developed a series of numbers that related to the concept of the golden mean which was popular at the time with artists. 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34 ... as you can see, when two preceding numbers are added together they equal the next number in the sequence. fibonacci discovered that a spiral in nature, say for example a seashell, could be dissected by the proportions of this series - a golden spiral. this spiral can be seen in so many natural things in the universe, that it begs the question of an underlying plan of form. the spiral exist in the human body. within the cochlea, brain, fingertips, and entire nervous system is a dinergetic double structure consisting of peripheral and central component systems united by the brain. even the smallest measure of life, molecular DNA, is a double helix spiral... as we've said before, the spiral is a symbol of growth and in nature this is plainly obvious. and not just in the human body, solid plants and animals, but in hurricane formations, falcon eagle dives, the water draining from the bath...

exercise
design a labyrinth