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by Melissa Gayle West
Broadway Books
ISBN: 0767903560
 It
has been over 3,500 years since the first known labyrinth
was built on the Greek Island of Crete. Far from remaining
arcane relics of the distant past, however, these circuitous
paths have become prominent features in a wide range of contemporary
settings. From churchyards to hospital courtyards, and from
the playgrounds of schools to the guarded grounds of prisons,
widely diverse groups of people may be found walking labyrinths.
The surprising contemporary popularity of
this ancient form of meditation is examined in considerable
depth by Melissa Gayle West in Exploring the Labyrinth.
Easily the most comprehensive and accessible work available
on the subject, this book is valuable and satisfying to the
reader on many levels. It is at once a celebration of the
spiritual and psychological aspects of its subject, a concise
chronicle of its history, a detailed how-to on labyrinth construction
and maintenance, and an excellent guidebook for further study
and access to resources.
Psychotherapist West has led labyrinth workshops
for many years as program director of the Harmony Hill retreat
center near Seattle. According to her, people are drawn to
the experience of walking a labyrinth for a variety of reasons.
Chief among them, she writes, are "deepening spirituality;
inwardness and connection; access to intuition and creativity;
simplicity; integration of body and spirit; and intimacy and
community."
The book is divided into three main sections.
The first section, "Meeting the Labyrinth," covers
the subject from both the historical and the archetypal points
of view. We learn, for example, that labyrinth walking was
practiced in prehistoric Sardinia, pre-Columbian Arizona,
and medieval France. West also effectively conveys a sense
of how this ties in with the use of mandala-like form by many
cultures throughout history:
"Reaching center in the labyrinth is
about reaching a focus of spiritual power and grace, the still
point in the center of a chaotic world. After the twists and
turns of the labyrinth's circuits, this still point mirrors
the calm center of gravity deep in our own soul unaffected
by the movement of our lives.
" . . . Mandalas function as maps inviting
the viewer to remember the journey into wholeness and unity
with the Sacred. Meditators traditionally enter the mandala
in their imagination, working their way from perimeter to
center, imaginal movement that mirrors the physical movement
of walking the labyrinth."
West also provides a fascinating account
of the discovery made by labyrinth builder Robert Ferre',
that these forms are consistently expressive of the esoteric
formulations of sacred geometry -- such as transcendental
numbers and the Golden Mean. She quotes his as saying "The
idea of sacred geometry was to discover the sacred building
blocks of creation itself. There's something very elemental
about the labyrinth that speaks to who we really are at our
deepest level, a much deeper level than the shallow one of
our society."
"Making the Labyrinth", the second
section, provides clear and precise instructions for the construction
and care of two types of labyrinth -- the Cretan and the Chartres.
Plans are given for permanent and temporary labyrinths, of
both the indoor and outdoor type, using a wide variety of
materials. The accompanying drawings and on-site photographs
are excellent representations of the text, and are free of
over-technical and confusing annotations. This section is
well supplemented by the appendix listing sources of labyrinth
kits and related products, many of them available on the Internet.
For all the attention to detail in this
section, like the rest of the book it always returns to the
underlying theme: the creation of sacred space. Building and
caring for a labyrinth, according to West, is a form of spiritual
discipline, a working meditation which holds the power to
transform a life and imbue it with a greater sense of meaning
and purpose.
In the final section, "Playing and
Healing with the Labyrinth." the author presents the
many ways that labyrinths may be used. These include meditation
and spiritual renewal, healing rituals and celebrations, rites
of initiation and passage, and the enhancement of creativity.
Throughout the book, the labyrinth experience
is presented through the eyes of those who build and walk
them. Stories of her West’s own experiences, and those
of others, give witness to the spiritual and psychological
power of walking the labyrinth. Accounts of physical healing,
while the most dramatic of these testimonials, are not treated
as being any more miraculous that the pervasive sense of inner
calm and serenity that is most often attributed to the labyrinth
experience.
Anyone with a serious interest in labyrinths
is sure to learn much from Exploring the Labyrinth.
Even those with years of experience will likely find it to
be a catalyst for new insights and new ideas on how to employ
this powerful transfomational tool. All in all, this book
is so well executed that it could serve as a model for how
to write a spiritually-oriented how-to book — and I give
it my highest recommendation.
Review by BOZ MARTYN
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