Religion and Labyrinths - whats that all about then???

I was looking for ancient mouments in my area of the UK and stumbled upon something i find intriguing, well to me any way. It was a medeival labyrinth. I thought labyrinths were just mazes like in the ones some stately homes have but this was more of a symbol. I found it even more interesting to find the same symbol on the nearby church porch floor:

www.stone-circles.org.uk...
www.yorkshirepost.co.uk...

For Meditation???????
itotd.com...

So, with the yourkshire post saying it resembles that of french Cathedrals floor i look for some:

www.labyrinthos.net...
and more:

www.labyrinthos.net...

and more:
www.economicexpert.com...

Nazcar???
maps.pomocnik.com...

Does anyone know anything else about these, i'd not heard of them before i came across Julians Bower.





[edit on 30-12-2008 by MCoG1980]

No-one know anything?????????????

reply to post by MCoG1980


Hi,

From what I know they are for a walking meditation. You enter the maze with a certain something or other to contemplate and as you go through the maze with all it's twists and turns you'll get to the center. There you contemplate some more and then continue following the maze to the exit.

By the time you exit, it is possible that the clarity that was sought is had.

reply to post by L.I.B.


I dont get why there in churches though. The stained glass windows in that french church where zodiac themed as well as nativity, i find that odd too.

reply to post by MCoG1980


Contemplation is a type of prayer.

For my second line~~ that's why they are found in and at churches.

Oh, ha! I just noticed you mentioned that window. Didn't need to put in a second line!

As for the zodiac in the window, the earliest people of the way, Christians, employed the zodiac, as well as other seemingly occult practices. Even Jesus mentioned: signs of the times. The zodiac measures time as one of it's features.

reply to post by masqua


Nice!

Really like that interpretation.

reply to post by masqua


I like that synopsis of it representing life and it makes good logic.

I feel that the roots to these being in churhes may go back further than the churches themselves - from pagan roots as you say.

I was under the impression that constantine did away with pagan influence and attempted to write it out of Christianity (if not the case please correct me, am not as familiar with that subject as i'd like to be). If so than i wonder why so many of these still exist, these were built after constantine. If they felt so strongly about removing pagan influence then i wonder why these labyrinths have been preserved, and why still so many and in good condition - and STILL in churches still being used today.??



[edit on 31-12-2008 by MCoG1980]

The labyrinth is the world. The soul wanders blindly through it until at last remembering its lost first estate and seeking the way out.

The seven circles perhaps relates to the seven steps of the Mithraic ladder (or Gnostic hebdomad) back to God. But this is only a wild guess.

The news article also mentions meditation (of a sort):

There, pilgrims followed the circular route, sometimes on their knees, as an act of penitence, piety or meditation, the centre of the maze being known as Jerusalem.

[edit on 31-12-2008 by Eleleth]

That would make sense, and explain the christianity.

I found out a bit more on the one local to me. The Maze was added to the porch in the 19th Century when it was restored. The actual curch is Norman/Saxon. So the Norman influence could explain the french connection with other churches, the turf labryth being older :

The history of Alkborough extends to pre-Christian times and was settled far back into the Bronze-Age. The mound on which the church stands, one can conjecture to have been the centre of the village and of village life.



The centre of the village is marked by the church, a Saxon/Norman building with a history which extends way back into the mists of time. The church of St John The Baptist. This has a Saxon-Norman tower to the west and in 1887 the church was much restored by John Oldrid Scot who built the chancel in the Early English Style but unusually he left the Georgian ceilings intact. He also built the wooden south porch which has a pattern of a maze in the floor. The shaft of the churchyard cross which is very worn has for years been used as a sharpening stone.



On the Western side of the village is a medieval turf maze, this was first recorded in 1697 and is known locally as Julian’s Bower. This unicursal maze lies in a small basin-like depression on a small plateau near Alkborough. From about 1080 to 1220 AD a Benedictine monastery stood not far from the site and in the mid-nineteenth century the maze was still used for May-eve games.

source:

www.alkboroughandwalcot.co.uk...





Ironic isn't it that on a clear day you are able to see the towers of york Minster from Julians Bower (the turf labyrinth), no then again, i suppose it was probably meant too, that would have been when the benedictine monestary would have been around there and it was used by them so again that makes kind of sense. York Minster to those who dont know of it was, and still is to a certain extent an important place in Christian Religion.

www.visitbritain.com...

en.wikipedia.org...








[edit on 31-12-2008 by MCoG1980]

[edit on 31-12-2008 by MCoG1980]

Originally posted by MCoG1980
reply to post by L.I.B.

 

I dont get why there in churches though. The stained glass windows in that french church where zodiac themed as well as nativity, i find that odd too.

The English language today is a hodgepodge of a ton of others... do you not expect a persons spiritual symbols to be the same?

How is this odd?

[edit on 31-12-2008 by HunkaHunka]

reply to post by HunkaHunka


I already explained my thoughts earlier, because it seemed to conflict with paganism which, it did, but it makes me think that you should look further into the roots of stuff. If it had pagan symbols then maybe its worth paying more attention to those symbols. People laugh at Astrology but seeing it in pagan religion makes me not to sure, like were glossing over something - like were missing the point. As you say the English language is a hodgepodge of other languages - mainly latin - which is a hodge-podge itself. When you look into how words were derived then the word itself makes sense. Thats what I am indeed trying to do here in a way.

Something else i found out recently was about the Cross of Thoth or Celtic Cross, Aagaina pagan symbol still used in christianity today. The scottish astrologer/archeologer re-discovered that is is an ancient form of our GPS.


www.crichtonmiller.com...




[edit on 31-12-2008 by MCoG1980]

reply to post by L.I.B.


My daughter is a member of a group that walks the laberynth frequently.
You can do the same thing with a picture of it. I anyone is really interested in learning more about them there several books explaining more about them.

reply to post by criswyatt


Yes, I have a table top one in sand. It is two sided and each side has a different labyrinth. There's also a land labyrinth at a church near here that I and friends go to occasionally when the weather's nice.



edit to take out a superfluous word

[edit on 1-1-2009 by L.I.B.]

Originally posted by MCoG1980
I was looking for ancient mouments in my area of the UK and stumbled upon something i find intriguing, well to me any way. It was a medeival labyrinth. I thought labyrinths were just mazes like in the ones some stately homes have but this was more of a symbol. I found it even more interesting to find the same symbol on the nearby church porch floor:

www.stone-circles.org.uk...
www.yorkshirepost.co.uk...

I also came across trhis pick of a cross grave stone at Alkborough, it has an inset of the labyrynth. Maybe it belonged to someone who looked after the labyryth, 3 identical labyriths in the same village
flickr.com...

after a little digging, it would appear that this would make sense as this person funded the community heavily.

www.northlincs.gov.uk...


[edit on 10-1-2009 by MCoG1980]

[edit on 10-1-2009 by MCoG1980]

more labyrinths links:

www.labyrinthireland.com...

www.knowth.com...





[edit on 25-1-2009 by MCoG1980]