Journey to the Heart of the Labyrinth

Journey to the Heart of the Labyrinth

"Spiralling towards the center,

We know that we have come

to the center of who

we are."

____ Philip Carr-Gomm, "The Druid Tradition"

The old Cornish midwives of the southwest tip of Britain used to have a flat stone into whose depths a spiral labyrinth was carved. Expectant mothers about to give birth would be encouraged to trace this spiral pathway in order to help the birth. By tracing it over and over with their fingers and reciting certain secret prayers, they could help the long gestation of the child draw to its close. It was believed that this practice would clear any obstacles standing in the way of an easy birth and bring the child forth from its long months in the dark.

The correlations between the birth process and our own spiral circuit with the labyrinth become clearest when we trace the route of our life to date. In order to begin our spiritual journey, we must first be born from the heart of the labyrinth: the mysterious womb. As children we know our origins; as adults we begin to forget, so we have to painfully take the path home in unknowing, coil by coil. For many of us, the heart of the labyrinth, the goal of the spiritual journey, is anticipated as a place of horror: a stalking place for Minotaurs and other beasts. But though we may expect to find all kinds of alien and external influences lurking there, we find, on arrival, nothing more than ourselves.

Only by treading the turning, spiraling coils of the labyrinth of our lives can we come to perfect understanding of what lies at the center. It is as familiar to us, as dear and memorable, as the road that leads homeward.

"Meditate upon the different phases of your life in roughly seven-year intervals. Write down the qualities, discoveries, and themes of each phase. Arrange each of these phases around the paths of a labyrinth, noticing which paths and themes come close to each other."

{From Caitlin Matthews' "The Celtic Spirit"}