Enter the Labyrinth, 1

by Let Us Reason

Walking the labyrinth has become a popular spiritual exercise across the country and around the world. I first read of it in Leadership Magazine, a Christian publication, and became a bit concerned. Since looking into it further I'm definitely concerned.

Labyrinths are said to have been used for over 3000-3500 years (depending on who you ask), accurate dating has been difficult. We are told by those who promote their use that Labyrinths are ancient and have been a part of the sacred landscape throughout human history.

Those who use the labyrinth describe them as a pattern with power and a purpose. They are called "divine imprints," that symbolize an archetype of wholeness. The Labyrinth is said to encourage healing, clarity, and peacefulness. There are claims of profound experiences as they affect the people who use them by connecting them with the deepest part of themselves. Labyrinths can often have a particular "specialty" in healing, improving ones health, or alleviating symptoms of certain diseases.

From the Catholic Encyclopedia -- Labyrinth is a complicated arrangement of paths and passages; or a place, usually subterranean, full of windings, corridors, rooms, etc., so intricately arranged as to render the getting out of it a very difficult matter.

The Romans adopted the symbols as a floor pattern. In modern times the labyrinth can be traced to Catholic cathedrals of the Middle Ages. In the European cathedrals they were used traditionally as a site of pilgrimage. A promoter and authority on the modern Labyrinth, Rev. Artress, states in her research there were actually 22 Labyrinths in the 80 Gothic cathedrals that went up during the Middle Ages throughout Europe. Some of them were pilgrimage cathedrals.

Chartres was one of the major pilgrimage cathedrals. Early Christians took a vow to visit the Holy City of Jerusalem at some point in their lives. During the middle ages, the Crusades made travel to Palestine unsafe so they used other means to honor their commitment. Labyrinths were used as a substitute pilgrimage experience for the holy land.

Adopted by the Roman Catholic Church, Labyrinths were offered to the congregation as a way of fulfilling their vow to visit the holy land and nicknamed it "New Jerusalem." Christians using it as a symbol instead made their pilgrimages to the cathedral cities of Chartres, Rheims, or Amiens.

Geometrical designs were composed from various pieces of coloured marbles set in the floor of the European Cathedrals. In Chartres Cathedral in France there is an intricate 40 foot diameter labyrinth of tile embedded in the floor of the central area of the church.

"With an emphasis on rationalism in the 16th and 17th centuries, however, labyrinths fell out of favor and were looked upon as child's play or distractions. As a result, many were torn out of the cathedrals. Chartres survived, but for a time was covered with chairs so that it could not be walked on. Indeed, until recently, the cathedral was better known for its stained-glass windows than for the labyrinth on its floor" (Scripps Howard News Service).

However its use is not just found in middle age cathedrals, we find that the origin of Labyrinths are from pre-Christian days. This is what we need to pay attention to, what were they used for before the Roman Catholic Church adopted it for their contemplation and pilgrimage substitute to the Holy land.

Labyrinths predate Christianity by over 1,000 years according to an article posted on the website of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, "Pathfinders:Walking Medieval Labyrinths in a Modern World." And the purpose of this article is to make Christians aware that Labyrinths are not in any shape or form a Christian practice.

Because they are ancient, various interpretations of the Labyrinths of today may not agree with the same concept of the labyrinths in ancient times. We can assume they did not mean the same to all the cultures and religions that built them, since there are various different concepts of life and religion within these cultures.

Yet many feel there is a common origin of the Labyrinth because they are found in many countries and the religious traditions in the world: India, France, Egypt, Scandinavia, Crete, Sumeria, America, the British Isles, and Italy.

There is evidence of the existence of labyrinths that can be traced back as far as 3500 years.

The labyrinth as a symbol has been found in Europe and around the Mediterranean. Many labyrinth carvings are found on boulders, tombs, religious buildings (in cathedral pavements). Many clay tablets, mosaics, manuscripts, stone patterns, hedges, patterns woven into baskets and fabrics and pottery fragments throughout Europe seem to bear the same motif.

They are also found carved in rock from the mountains in Arizona to caves in Spain. A Labyrinth-inscribed clay tablet from Pylos, Greece, could possibly be one of the earliest examples (approx. 3200 years old). Some equate the Mayan pyramids and Celtic, and Stonehenge as magical geometric forms that define sacred space.

Prehistoric labyrinths have also been found carved on rock faces at Pontevedra, Spain, and at Val Camonica in northern Italy, these latter ones are attributed to the late Bronze Age. The Rocky Valley labyrinths in Cornwall, England, are supposed to be from the Bronze Age. The labyrinth is found etched into the sands of the Nazca Plain in Peru, in use among the Caduveo people of Brazil and scratched on boulders and rockfaces in Northern Mexico, New Mexico, and Arizona.

Because the labyrinth's have been built by various cultures around the earth some claim they represent a universal pattern in human consciousness. Native Americans had them, and continue to be used in the sacred ceremonies of the Hopi. The Hopi Indians called the labyrinth the symbol for "mother earth" and equated it with the Kiva (called it Tapu'at, or Mother-child).

The Labyrinth as an architectural term derives its name from the famous ancient or mythical labyrinths to Crete and Egypt. The most famous Labyrinth from ancient times was the Cretan one, associated with the legend of the Minotaur, the monster half-man half-bull which dwelt in the heart of a labyrinth on the island of Crete. It was at the centre of the Labyrinth that the Minotaur devoured unsuspecting humans. Theseus was able to get to the centre of the Labyrinth, slay the Minotaur with the aid of Ariadne and the spool of thread, and found his way out again by following the thread he had trailed behind him on the way in.

Some say this story has caused confusion because clearly the Minotaur's lair was a maze that you could get lost in. Whereas a Labyrinth has only one twisting path that weaves its way to the centre and back out again. There is only one entrance and exit, no dead ends, and no crossing of paths with a choice of which way to turn.

Turf labyrinths still exist in England, Germany, and Scandinavia; these are thought to be linked with local feminine deities and fertility rituals.

"The labyrinth has its origins in ancient pagan rituals, most famously at Knossos in ancient Crete, where one was located in the basement of a palace where the mythic man-eating Minotaur was said to roam. According to ancient lore, the hero Theseus journeyed through the labyrinth to slay the evil Minotaur. Theseus' double-headed ax was called a 'labrys,' from which the word labyrinth was derived. Ceremonies re-enacting this myth as a ritual labyrinth walk are still performed today. Other labyrinths have been tied to fertility rites and goddess worship (M. Tooley, September 2000). Modern disciples of the labyrinth propose that ancient Christians used the labyrinth as a means of spiritual meditation. Scholars insist there is absolutely no evidence of labyrinth walking by Christians (M. Tooley, September 2000, Maze Craze).

So if these were practiced by other religions and cultures that are of a non Christian origin, what kind of value would they have to offer a Christian who is supposed to have all that he needs in Jesus Christ according to the Scripture?