"Spiralling towards the center,
We know that we have come to the center of who we are."
______ Philip Carr, The Druid Traditions
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 belived that this practice would clear any obstacles standing in the way of of an easy birth and bring the child forth from its long month 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 clear and memorable, as the road that leads homeward.
"Meditate upon the different phase 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: The Celtic Spirit by Caitlin Matthews]
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