My first labyrinth:
I was a mere 14 years old the first time I walked a labyrinth.
It was on a weekend retreat with my youth group at Camp Sumatanga, our North Alabama Methodist Conference Center. Each day started with “morning watch”, a brief time of devotion and then silent prayer, and each afternoon or evening there was a closing devotion. At the end of the weekend there was a special talk and then we were invited to walk the labyrinth and pray. I did not know then the depth of the meaning of that first prayer walk but years later it would resurface as a spiritual tool that would bless me beyond measure.
The Ancient Myth:
The labyrinth is an ages old symbol for the inward journey that we all must walk toward the depths of our soul and face the shadows of the self in order to emerge transformed. From ancient Greece we are given a “shard” of truth of the past in the myth known as “Theseus and the Minotaur”. As with any story handed down in the oral tradition, there are various interpretations but the general narrative as told by Zara Renander is:
“A terrible Minotaur- half bull, half man- lived in the island of Crete. This Minotaur was the product of a sexual union between Pasiphae, the queen, and a white bull that had been given to her husband,King Minos, by Poseidon. A curse was on their house forcing King Minos to search for a way to hide his shame and his wife’s sexual deviance. He commissioned Daedalus to build a labyrinth to house the Minotaur under the palace. Before being willing to enter, the Minotaur demanded that seven young me and seven young maidens be fed to him every year. The king acquiesced, but the Minotaur’s demand ravaged the island of Crete, to the great distress of its citizens.
After winning a war with the state of Athens the victorious Minoans exacted an annual tribute of seven young men and maidens. Theseus, the prince of Athens offered to go to Crete as one of the hostages with the intention of killing the Minotaur and putting an end to the gruesome practice. The day came for Theseus and his fellow youth to sail to Crete. When they landed in Knossos, the Minoans were celebrating the tributes’ arrival for the satiation of the Minotaur for yet another year. Minos’ daughter, Ariadne, was joining in the reveling when Theseus caught her eye. She fell instantly in love and became determined to do whatever it would take to save his life. She sought Daedalus for guidance and he gave her a ball of golden twine and told her to hold one end of the string and to give the other to Theseus. While she could not keep him for entering into the darkness of the Minotaur’s lair she could help him to emerge should he prove victorious. Ariadne, being a resourceful woman, not only gave Theseus the thread of gold but also a sword with which to kill the beast.
As Theseus descended into the darkness of the labyrinth all light faded. He felt his way along the walls to orient himself in the terrifying blackness. He listened for sounds of the Minotaur but the beast came roaring at him without warning. A terrible battle ensued at the center of the lair. Finally, Theseus wrangled the horns of the great and horrible Minotaur and stabbed him. With Ariadne’s string to guide him, Theseus dragged the remains of the beast out into the light of the city.
[ Labyrinths: Journeys of Healing and Stories of Grace pg 32-34]
Symbol and Meaning:
This ancient myth is a story told to explain the elements of pilgrimage. Which is the journey of the soul. Within it each aspect is a symbol pointing toward something larger than itself. The 7 young men and 7 young women being sacrificed were symbolic of youth/vitality/future being eroded away. The golden ball of string is symbolic of the power of love that can unite persons beyond barriers, giving them courage to face any task. When the myth first began to circulate, I dare say that no one imagined its far reaching impact upon the world’s largest group of faith oriented people.
For many early Christians there was an expectation that they would go, at least once in their life, to Jerusalem and walk the holy sites where Jesus walked and died and was raised back to life. The crusades in the middle ages made this journey far too risky and expensive for most people. Small, symbolic pilgrimages were created to give structure to this promise of traveling to Jerusalem. They were called “labyrinths”. The Roman church designated 7 churches. As Rev. Lauren Artress states in her book: Walking a Sacred Path: Rediscovering the Labyrinth as a Spiritual Practice, “These seven pilgrimage cathedrals became the ‘Jerusalem’ for pilgrims. The walk into the labyrinth in many of these cathedrals marked the ritual ending of the physical journey across the countryside. it served as a symbolic entry into the spiritual realms of the Celestial City.” [ p32 ]
Suddenly Theseus and his journey became a metaphor for Jesus, the son of the king, who traveled into the pit of hell and returned so that his love might be shown forth.
Putting feet to this story allowed Christians to imagine their own lives as a real and meaningful part of the meta-narrative of gospel.
Application:
L1: Find a labyrinth close to you and take a walk on it.
L2: Find a labyrinth close to you and take a friend with you to walk on it. Set your intentions before you walk [ ie. decide what it is you wish to focus on or pray about as you walk] then discuss your experience of the labyrinth in relationship to your intention with your friend.
L3: Make a Table Labyrinth and share your spiritual story with someone using it. For instructions on how to make a Table Labyrinth check out this post:
May the Road Rise Up to Meet Y’all,
Rev. Wren Clanton
RevWren 