Through the Labyrinth: Symbol and Spiritual Journey.
From Paleolithic caves to Cathedrals constructed in the 12th and 13th centuries, to present day believers, the labyrinth has held a mysterious and spiritual significance in the human experience. In symbol, myth and place, the importance of the labyrinth cannot be underestimated, as it has crossed cultures and continents for more than 30,000 years.
The first known symbolic mark is the zig-zag, dating back to 40,000 B. C. and found on fragments of bone attributed to the Neanderthal. From the zig-zag evolved serpentine forms rectilinear in shape or rounded as a spiral. All of these marks represented water, as Paleolithic people made a connection to water as an essential life-sustaining element. A child is born after water flows from the womb. The water and new life arrive from an unseen dimension, through the vulva and into the world. Water falls from the sky, nourishing the ground and bringing forth fruit and plants that provide sustanence. Paleolithic and Neolithic tribes experienced life and death as a continuum. Seasons changed, death occurred and the moon disappeared from the night sky, but there was always another spring, a new life and the moon returning to its rightful place. In every age and culture, people developed beliefs as to how and why change happened in their world.
The rectilinear serpentine form, known as the meander, was a symbol of water, energy and regeneration. In time, all symbols represented aspects of a central deity, the Goddess. In her introduction to The Language of the Goddess, Marija Gimbutas states that: .
" The main theme of Goddess symbolism is the mystery of birth and death and the renewal of life, not only human but all life on earth and indeed in the whole cosmos. Symbols and images cluster around the parthengenic (self-generating) Goddess and her basic functions as Giver of Life, Wielder of Death, and, not less importantly, as Regeneratrix, and around the Earth She was the single source of all life who took her energy from the springs and wells, from the sun, moon, and moist earth" (1).
