Labyrinth

• Forum - Labyrinth
• Boticelli's Labyrinth
• Chartres' Labyrinth
• Cretan Labyrinth I
• Cretan Labyrinth II
• Egyptian Labyrinth
• Hopi Labyrinth (round)
• Hopi Labyrinth (square)
• Lucca Cathedral - Italy
• Man in the Maze
• Rheims Labyrinth

• Constructing a Labyrinth [Dromenon]
• Telluric Emanations

Boticelli's Labyrinth

In his commentary included in the book The Gospel of the Holy Twelve  [transcription in process]; by G.J. Ouseley; Edson Printers, London, 1923. E. F. Udny tells us that Botticelli represented the ancient Egyptian labyrinth in one of his engravings. He further states "We have reproduced this labyrinth and adapted it for Christian rites".

Utney goes on to say, "There appears to have been a similar labyrinth in Jerusalem before the demolition ordered by Hadrian. This may well have been used by the early Christians in receiving candidates for admission into the Church."

Chartres Labyrinth

"Chartres is a place of spiritual action. It is said to possess the power to transform people, to transmute them into a higher spiritual state, just as the alchemists would transmute base metal into gold. Pilgrims arriving at the Great West Door, the threshold of the cathedral, found they stood more upright with their heads upraised. For the interior design of the cathedral seems to create a definite uplifting effect on the body, as if to prepare it for the telluric emanations from below and divine inspiration from above. As Louis Charpentier, the French investigator of Chartres' mysteries, states:"

"...physiologically, telluric and other currents can only enter human beings via a vertebral column that is straight and vertical. A person can only move to a higher state of consciousness by standing upright."

The pilgrim would progress shoeless up the nave to the labyrinth, a maze 13m (42.5 ft.) across and set out in the flagstones of the floor. Dancing around and around until reaching the center, a ritual commonly seen at each of the four annual Virgin fairs, the pilgrim became more and more sensitive to the power accumulated in the vast cathedral chamber.

Moving to the middle point where the transepts cross the nave, the pilgrim was supposed to receive the full alchemical force from the luminous light emanating from the three stained glass rose windows. If the pilgrim experienced the entire sensuousness of the cathedral, it would be because the body's senses had apprehended all the musical and geometrical proportions, and all the numbers and lines expressed in the building's interior. For the pilgrim came not to worship Our Lady the Virgin, nor to kneel in obedience, but rather to find awareness through her, to replenish spiritual energy and refresh the soul."

Rheims Labyrinth

"The early Christian Easter ritual celebrated the rebirth of the Saviour-Sun with dancing and music:

'Beg and pray to Christ, that thy life may be lived in Christ.
That by the Easter festival thou mayst be awakened
and come out of the labyrinth"

[ from a stone of a labyrinth, preserved in Lyons museum ]

Telluric Forces

Telluric - [L tellur -, s. of tellus earth +- IC] adj.
1. pertaining or belonging to the earth; terrestrial
2. of or proceeding from the earth or soil [1830-1840]
3. of or containing tellurium, esp. in the hexavalent state.
4. containing tellurium in a higher valence state than the corresponding tellurous compound [1790-1800] [from The American Heritage Dictionary]

Louis Charpentier, the French expert on Chartres, in his book The Mysteries of Chartres Cathedral; Thorsons Publishers Limited, Wellingborough; 1983. talks about the "telluric forces" and the theory that the builders of the major European cathedrals, including Chartres, consulted and incorporated these forces in choosing the cathedrals' location as well as planning their orientation.

Paul Devereux, in his Shamanism and the Mystery Lines; Llewellyn Publications, MN; 1993. talks about the mysterious lines used by the ancients, including the builders of Chartres.

It has been reported to me, and I myself have experienced, that occasionally during a particularly mindful and deliberate walk, a journey through the labyrinth undertaken with the very clearest of mind, one seems to experience a connectedness to some intangible force which appears to shift as one navigates the winding turns. One seems to loose the separateness and unites with the larger scheme of things.

In composing these pages, and searching for the meaning and a correlative experience of "telluric", I thought it must, as a matter of course, be possible for any one of us, by setting intention, to bring to awareness our own electro-chemical processes?

I speculate that, if each element's atoms carries with it a "valence"--i.e. to how many other atoms it can connect--, it is likely that any available atomic spaces offer a force of attraction inviting connectedness to such other atoms. We humans, being a collection of atoms, possibly have a cumulative atomic valence which calls/connects us to our terrestrial [earth being our source of elements] compliment(s).

If such were the case, would it not be likely that in walking the labyrinth, one engages a process of moving into one's depth where personal telluric forces become apparent, as does the interaction between the personal forces and those of the universal field. [The ancient Egyptians utilized a language in which "land" could mean both earth, and corporal being. Egypt could refer to a geographical location, as well as ones corporeal being. "Return to the land of Egypt" could mean, return to an awakened state about your corporeal being.]

Might the rekindling of our awareness/consciousness to our electro-chemical forces and their relationship with those of the larger fields not be the gateway into the unity? into awareness of God, as well as ones' participation in God's creative drive? Did the ancients utilize the labyrinth for just such a purpose, to set aflame their consciousness?

Mother Earth Symbol

The Symbol of the Emergence

"The whole myth and meaning of the Emergence is expressed by one symbol known to the Hopis as the Mother Earth symbol. There are two forms, the square [yellow above] and the circular [red above].

Examples of these Labyrinth are carved on a rock south of Oraibi, and south of Shipaulovi. A combination of the two forms is also carved on a wooden stick which is planted in front of the One Horn altar in the Kwani kiva at Walpi during the Wúwuchim ceremony.

The symbol is commonly known as Tápu'at [Mother and Child]. This type represents spiritual rebirth from one world to the succeeding one, as symbolized by the Emergence itself."

[taken from:The Book of the Hopi by Frank Waters; Penguin Books, 1985; p 23]

'To each and all it is given to dance...
He who joins not in the dance mistakes the event...
Thou shouldst understand and understanding say:
Glory to Thee, Father! Amen."

[ Sacred Dance by Maria-Gabriele Worsien pp104 ]