Tales from the Island of Serendip 4 4

[Flex Mentallo]

LABYRINTHS

 

 

Edited December 25, 2014 by Flex Mentallo

[Flex Mentallo]

"Then it seemed like falling into a labyrinth: we thought we were at the finish, but our way bent round and we found ourselves as it were back at the beginning, and just as far from that which we were seeking at first."

Socrates in Plato’s ‘Euthydemus

 

 

Edited December 25, 2014 by Flex Mentallo

[Flex Mentallo]

Coincidences seem fateful, instilled with meaning and significance as though created.

 

 

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We may view our fate as an accumulation of random decisions; whilst yet abides the underlying sense that through an unnamed faculty we have willed it.

 

 

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Depending on what life has shown us, we may wish like Alice simply to awaken from a “horrible dream.”

 

 

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If suffering has taught us wisdom, that process of awakening may lead us step by painful step along the way to reconciliation and acceptance.

 

 

Edited December 25, 2014 by Flex Mentallo

[Flex Mentallo]

It might be said that life’s journey begins in a maze and ends in a labyrinth. For a maze presents us with many forking paths in which to get lost, but a labyrinth has only one path to the centre. Looking forward, we see many dilemmas, many paths; looking back, we see clearly only the path we have taken, even though we may reflect from time to time on the countless roads we have not walked, whether with relief or regret, the shadows on the wall. We all have our ghosts.

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Labyrinths are symbolic of pilgrimage. In the medieval period mazes were created on cathedral floors as symbolic pilgrimages to the Holy Land. The labyrinth symbolized a hard path to God with a clearly defined center (God) and one entrance (birth). Pilgrims walk the path, ascending toward salvation or enlightenment.

 

 

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The most famous medieval labyrinth is in Chartres Cathedral. The circular path winds eleven times in four large quadrants before reaching the center, a six-petal rose or “rosette.”

 

 

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In Chartres, if the entrance wall were flattened onto the Labyrinth, its Rose Window would perfectly cover it. Its center, Mary, the Mystic Rose, would merge with the rosette…

 

 

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In John Bunyan’s A Pilgrim’s Progress the protagonist Christian journeys through a treacherous landscape to reach the Celestial City.

 

 

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He encounters many tests and tribulations, none more fearsome than the demon Apollyon, Lord of the City of Destruction.

 

 

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The earliest labyrinths to be found in Europe are at least 4000 years old.

 

 

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Prehistoric labyrinths are believed to have served as traps for malevolent spirits or as defined paths for ritual dances.

 

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In Budapest, there is a network of naturally formed caves created by hot water springs almost half a million years ago. Later the small caves were connected to each other to form a labyrinth stretching over 10 kilometers.

 

 

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When the Labyrinth of Buda Castle opened in 1983 the first and biggest Hungarian historical wax museum was set up here. More recently, exhibitions and installations referencing the deeper resonances of labyrinths became a tourist attraction.

 

 

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GODDESS OF THE LABYRINTH

‘The first person known to us by tradition as having established a navy is Minos. He made himself master of what is now called the Hellenic sea, and ruled over the Cyclades, into most of which he sent the first colonies… and thus did his best to put down piracy in those waters, a necessary step to secure the revenues for his own use.’ Thucydides

 

 

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The most iconic of all labyrinths is the one commissioned by King Minos as a home for his son, The Minotaur. Its designer, Daedalus – who later invented wings for his son Icarus – made the labyrinth so intricate that on its completion he barely found his own way out…

 

 

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‘Labyrinth’ is indeed a Minoan word, derived from the archaic Lydian word ‘labrys’, meaning a double headed axe, a symbol of Creation frequently associated with Gods – and in Minoan religion with the Goddess. In the deciphered linear B -script of Mycenae, her name is Da-pu-ri-to-jo,po-ti-ni-ja, literally, ‘Mistress of the Labyrinth’. (In this iteration, ‘labyrinth’ may have referred to the palace at Knossos, where there is a fresco depicting a dancing ground which was probably sacred to Her.)

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

In fact, the Minoan society was one of the last holdouts for the worship of an all encompassing universal life source envisioned in the form of the Goddess; one that had previously thrived throughout most of Europe and the Mediterranean.