Labyrinths are a metaphor for life. Their appearance belies their use. It is only when we look beyond appearances that the complexity of their meaning, use and purpose can be fullly realized.

Labyrinths are shaped either circular, like a flattened spiral, square or octagonal. They are most often found in natural vistas yet some are on objects and in or on church floors. The rational linear mind tends to pull us into believing that what we see is all there is. Or that what the eye sees must be analyzed by the mind to find the real meaning. Labyrinths, however, are created in such a way as to invite the viewer to be a participant in an experience that is visual and more.

The center or core of a labyrinth acts as a vortex of energy which to some represents the sacred, the inner self, the oneness, the soul, the infinite, the mystery, the unity of one with all, the eternal and wholeness.
The outer layers or circles to some represent the external world, the earth, the personality, the ego, or physical/mental/emotional aspects of the self.

As a tool for transformation, the labyrinth can help us to connect these parts of ourselves, unifying them into wholeness. The labyrinth can move us through the outer layers of ourselves into inner peace, a sacred space.

Labyrinths have a unicursal path, one entrance, no blocks to moving inward to a center and one exit. The form is as familiar as molecules, atoms, cells, the sun, moon and earth. The most frequent circular designs are either three-seven-or eleven rings. .. Research around the globe has sited labyrinths in open fields in Israel, and inside and outside churches in France and Italy.
The earliest wall labyrinth is believed to be at St. Lucca Cathedral in Italy dating from the ninth century.
A rock carving at Luzzanas in Sardinia, dating from 2500-2000 B.C.E. is the Cretan labyrinth or classical seven-circuit labyrinth. The 7-circuit labyrinth, in existence at least 4,000 years is a pattern found carved on stones and ancient coins in Northern Europe and Scandinavia and on basketry among the Native American Hopi, Tohono, Otam and Pima tribes.

The oldest known church labyrinth dates from 328 A.D. in an Algerian church, the Basilica of Reparatus in El-Asnam. The Middle Ages brought forth the Chartres pattern, with eleven circuits, 6 petals in the center and lunations, cusps and foils, around the perimeter, still visible in the Cathedral of Notre Dame built in 1201 in Chartres, France.

Labyrinths are made of many materials. Outdoors, some paths are outlined in stone, while others are carved into stone. Early Roman labyrinths were made of mosaic tile. There are Turf labyrinths found throughout England, Scandinavia and Germany made from mounds of earth covered with grass.

Walking the labyrinth is a journey outside linear time. The process of walking the connected rings involves the walker in an experience beyond the visual one to one beyond the five senses. Immersed outside linear time, the walker can feel the unity and wholeness of self, as if self can be felt in a single moment across time.

For a world becoming increasingly aware of the sacred and the spiritual, the invisible personal connection with the Divine, the labyrinth can be a spiritual tool for transformation. The energy of the form draws the walker into a place where we can let go of the thinking mind which tends to attach to the past, particularly its pains and unforgiveness, and release into the intuitive and imaginative.
Dr. Lauren Artress who has revived the labyrinth as a contemporary tool for transformation, believes it, it serves as an entry way to the unseen world where we can find, once again, the invisible connection with the great -grandmother.
The thread is that which connects the one with the whole, the spider with the web, the thinking rational linear mind with the larger intuitive invisible consiousness.

We believe our senses tell us all there is. Yet, beyond what we know of ourselves and our world, lies what we don't know. Through the labyrinth, we can connect to the shadow aspect of ourselves, parts we do not know that sometimes shapes and motivates us. In our willingness to go into the shadow and be aware of what is there, we bring this aspect to light. The labyrinth journey is a symbol for this inner exploration and transformation.

According to Artress, a pschotherapist and priest, the individually disowned shadow is the engine behind collective racial hatred, homophobia and religious wars. As we know the shadow self, we develop a knowing between the light and the shadow, the personal the universal. We see our fears clearly and begin to sense where we are being unloving of our ourselves and others. This awareness re-focuses our attention to the center of ourselves rather than misplacing it externally to other people or other things. The labyrinth as a metaphor connects the individual to the universal, the center to the whole. As we are able and willing to see this of ourselves we can then see this for the whole of life.

As we see ourselves walking with others on the path of the labyrinth we may realize we are all on the path together, the path of life, and know through the experience our joining instead of our separation so we may create a workable civilization for the 21st century.