Mazes and labyrinths by Yvonne Aburrow
Mazes have been a source of fascination, amusement, and spiritual symbolism all over the world for centuries. They are recorded in Egypt, Rome, Scandinavia, England, India, and the American Southwest. They are generally believed to symbolise the soul´s journey through life, or the journey of the dead to the underworld. They might also be used as a spirit trap to confuse malignant entities. Many mazes are cunningly designed so that, just when you think you´re near the middle, you are actually on the edge, and the path takes you to the centre in an unexpected way (just like life).
There are two types of maze: the unicursal (single path) maze and the puzzle maze. Both of these are referred to as both a labyrinth and a maze. However, in the myth of the Minotaur, the labyrinth in which the Minotaur dwells is clearly a puzzle maze (i.e. having dead ends), as Theseus needs a thread to find his way through to the centre. So I generally refer to a unicursal maze as a maze and a puzzle maze as a labyrinth, although the terms seem to be interchangeable. Apparently the legend of Theseus and the Minotaur refers to the maze-like palace at Knossos, which burned to the ground in the 15th century BCE.
The principle of the maze was probably discovered in the Neolithic. The earliest recorded mazes were in Crete, 4000 years ago. In Egypt, there was a huge palace complex on the shores of a lake seven days journey up the Nile from the pyramids in form of a labyrinth. This was built by pharaoh Amenemhet III in the 19th century BCE. It consisted of thousands of rooms and twelve large maze-like courtyards, which were probably intended to keep out unwelcome visitors. Amenemhet also created a maze inside his nearby pyramid to thwart tomb robbers. Most Roman labyrinths, on the other hand, were too small to have been walked, and are typically found on the floor near the entrances to houses and villas; many have small city walls (perhaps indicating the walls of Troy) drawn around them. This suggests they served a protective function, and were perhaps believed to have warded off evil influences or intruders — a common function of the labyrinth in many other cultures as well. The tomb of Lars Porsenna (an Etruscan king) at Chiusi in Italy was said to be surrounded by a labyrinth.
The turf mazes of Britain and Scandinavia may have served a similar purpose, but in the Middle Ages they acquired an additional association with May games; hence the name “Robin Hood´s Race’ or “Julian´s Bower’. The Celtic name for a maze was Caer Droia, the place of turning, and this was transliterated into English as Troy Town. It was widely believed that England was founded by Brutus fleeing Troy, and the mazes were believed to represent Troy. Mazes in Finland were often called Jericho, referring to the legend that it was destroyed by the Israelite army marching around it seven times. A maze called ‘the walls of Jericho´ also appears in a Hebrew manuscript.
The famous maze of Chartres (left) is a unicursal maze, but it differs from Classical mazes in that one does not walk each quadrant one at a time, but is led hither and thither. My theory is that the purpose of the Classical Pagan maze was to meditate on the elements, whereas the Christian maze symbolises being lost in the world before returning to the Godhead. Apparently it was often used as a substitute for a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
Designing and making mazes
The Classical Maze comes in four types, the Serpentine, Spiral, Simple Meander, and Complex Meander. The Roman ones were usually square, but these designs work as circular mazes too.
For the maze in our back garden, I sketched several circular designs, but finally settled on a serpentine design, as this was most likely to fit in the available space. We laid out the pebbles on the lawn using a string to measure the radius. Then came the really arduous part – actually embedding the pebbles in the lawn. We cut slots in the lawn with a spade, then worked the pebbles in using a trowel (breaking a trowel in the process). Finally we hammered the pebbles in using a rubber mallet and a doormat to cushion the blows. It took about a week. It was much easier when the lawn was softened by rain; it is almost impossible when the lawn was dry. Maintenance has proved difficult, as the grass tends to encroach over the pebbles. If you have enough space in your back garden, we would recommend using bricks (see Tom Baxter´s maze website).
Note how the two lines radiating out from the centre at each quarter are the key to constructing the path through the maze, as the lines joined to them create the walls of the maze, like interlocking menorah branches. Also notice that the entrance and exit path is beside the path to and from the centre, and that in this part of the maze there are three lines radiating from the centre.
We aligned our maze so that you could face a cardinal direction by standing in the middle of each quadrant. The maze is entered from the north-east, which is the summer solstice sunrise (and the most convenient position for the entrance). We created the maze in May 2001, then waited a whole month (until the summer solstice) before walking it for the first time. Since then we have had a lot of pleasure from it, and it makes a good ‘walking meditation´ prior to rituals.
Yvonne AburrowBibliography and further reading
Adrian Fisher's World Maze Database (http://www.maze-world.com/index.htm)
Jo Edkins' Maze Page (http://www.gwydir.demon.co.uk/jo/maze/index.htm)
Tom Baxter’s maze (http://www.tcinternet.net/users/tsbaxter/Maze.htm)
Amazeing Art (http://www.amazeingart.com/)
“Mazes Ancient & Modern” by Robert Field (Tarquin Publications, 1999)