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Since the last decades of the 20th Century, an ancient mystery has been reappearing in our midst. The strange and sinuously beautiful labyrinthborn some time in the Bronze Age and still going stronghas been emerging once again across the landscape of the industrialized world, reasserting itself as one of the preeminent symbols and playthings of the human imagination. Across Europe and the Americas, Australia and New Zealand, it has been appearing, in new and creative forms, in public squares, parks and churches, prisons, hospitals, retreat centers and wilderness areas, in private gardens, schools and even alongside freeways.
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In the U.S. alone there are now thousands of labyrinths, as well as many puzzle mazes and the numbers are growing. The last time the world saw such a passion for these devices was during the Middle Ages, an era not unlike our own, in many ways.
At first glance, the labyrinth strikes us as one of the stranger products of human imagininga winding path leading through a series of seemingly endless twists and turns, into a center and out again. What is its purpose? Today, it is walked mainly for meditation and a sense of inner peace, although it has many other applications, too, as you will see. A labyrinth is different from a maze. They are related of coursecousins you might say, although labyrinths came first. Mazes have many paths and dead ends; they are about multiplicity, choice, strategy. Labyrinths have just one path. They are about guidance, trust, reflection. This book is primarily concerned with labyrinths because, while mazes are making a comeback, too, it is the labyrinth's spiritual connotations which are absorbing much of our attention in the West today.
Why are we in love with this ancient pathway again? It might be wise for us to seek an answer to that question for very obviously a movement of this size represents more than a passing fad and the passion aroused by labyrinths in some communities hints at important underlying needs. Significantly, it is being seen mainly as a tool for peace and guidance in a world which appears to have little to offer in these departments. Its allure may be simply that its one-track path implies that there is a way through the wilderness of our stress-filled lives. It offers us the hope of order in a disordered world, perhaps.
No one can say where it comes from. The labyrinth began as a mystery and remains one, a divine mystery some would say, one that originates in the stars, I have been told, and maybe beyond. ..
This book is intended to be a guide for the aficionado and the novice alike, for lovers of art, indeed, anyone intrigued by a good mystery. In it, I have included a "Pilgrim's Progress", a guide to some of the world's most beautiful pathways so you can experience their magic for yourself.
The labyrinth's re-emergence poses many interesting questions about who we are and where we are going. History shows that it crops up in times of change and breakdown in traditional social and religious structures. Over and over again, it appears as a device for protection and guidance in times of difficulty and struggle. Today, in awakening us to our deeper humanity, our "hearts", it has the possibilityso some people think anywayof becoming a tool for peace which can encourage tolerance and understanding, important functions in a crowded, busy world.
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