What are Labyrinths?
Over 4000 years old and found worldwide, labyrinths symbolize life’s journey. Unlike mazes, they have only one path to the center and back, so you cannot get lost. Many find the winding path slows the breathing, focuses the mind, and brings a peaceful state. Of mysterious origins, the first labyrinth, according to labyrinth expert Hermann Kern* may have been a dance whose steps were later recorded. The oldest ones are found on Syrian pottery fragments and on clay tablets from Pylos, Greece around 1200 B.C. A labyrinth, in a tomb in Luzzana, Italy is thought to be 2300 BC. Labyrinths find their way into almost every country in the world: Greece, Egypt, India, Peru, Iceland, Europe, and the American Southwest, to name a few. A Tohono O’odham basket from southern Arizona has a Man in the Maze design. The Hopi Indians have two forms: a spiral sun father, and a square mother earth with unborn child. Three major patterns are the Classic 7-circuit, believed to be the oldest; the Concentric, f
