The lemniscate in the labyrinth

At the same time that I was investigating the connection between the Basque solar symbol lauburu and the labyrinth, we were in the process of closing our centre for personal growth and well-being. As a result, the classical labyrinth we had worked with for 13 years, had to be dismantled and removed. Our garden was too small to house a 9 meter diameter labyrinth and I had to look for a new location. Even though I found a good new labyrinth keeper, dismantling the labyrinth and knowing I would not be using it again, hurt. All those memories and meetings, the fondness and friendships, all forged in this labyrinth, surely they are always in my heart, but still... Letting go of the labyrinth was painful. While I was preparing the dismantling in such a way that the labyrinth could fairly easily be installed at its new location, slowly an idea formed in my mind.

Heart stone, key stones

When you closely look at the classical labyrinth, you find that it consists of two lines that wind and twist around each other. There is one single point where these two lines cross. 

When we were building our labyrinth in autumn of 2012, we felt it to be important to highlight the ends of the lines and the crossing point (marked in red in the second drawing). The regular line parts were made out of bricks, but at the ends of the lines we placed larger stones. We did the same for the crossing point. We figured these could hold something extra when working with the labyrinth or giving workshops: flowers, candles, symbols for the directions, etc.

Looking for a name for these five points we came up with key stones and the heart stone. The key stones are of course connected to the seed pattern as the ancient key for drawing a classical labyrinth, and we felt the crossing point to like a heart of the labyrinth. Little did we know at that time what an amazing significance the heart stone carries! Tony Christie has shared about it during his workshops and written about it in his book "Labyrinth, your path to self discovery". The heart stone (I AM point or Spirit point, as Tony Christie calls it) has played a central role in many of my own workshops and sessions with the labyrinth.

My Heart-Key labyrinth

You have probably guessed what the idea was that slowly formed in my mind while I as dismantling the labyrinth. The bricks would travel to their next location, and I would keep the heart stone and the key stones. Keeping these important elements would help me to stay connected more strongly to the memories of all the work that has done in our labyrinth. And even better: those five stones would fit in my small townhouse garden! I would finally have my own little labyrinth in my back garden. I call it my Heart-Key labyrinth.

Some of you might think that five stones cannot make a labyrinth, but it is just a matter of knowing the path and walking the path (Neo #wink). A dear friend of mine only has one stone in her back garden that she uses as the centre or end of the labyrinth path. Just as I do, she knows how to walk the labyrinth without the lines, and after following the seven circuits in her mind's eye and heart's beat, simply ends up at her 'end of the path'- stone.

Walking the path

I know how to walk Ariadne's thread (= the path) of the classical labyrinth, in both left and right versions, without needing the walls or lines to walk between. But to weave the paths in between the heart stone and the key stones, that took a bit of practicing. Of course, 'north' of the stones all paths kind of blended into one path, as my garden simply does not offer room to walk each path seperately. Whilst walking, something felt off, something felt out of symmetry. I started drawing my path on paper to see what was happening. That's where I found a lemniscate kind of form in the labyrinth.

The lemniscate in the labyrinth

The feeling where the off-ness came from, is where the route of the sixth path takes me back in and around the upper left-hand key stone. It does look like a lemniscate-ish form, doesn't it? (The eternity symbol or lying figure 8). I was also reminded of the Far Eastern yin yang symbol for complimentary duality.

'New' symmetry and another Basque connection

Because of experiencing and drawing the labyrinth based on the five stones, I realised there is another symmetry in the labyrinth. The key stones hold two paths that circle around them:

Those pink lines around a central dot made me think of the Cantabrian labarum military standard (image on the right), that I found when I was looking into the Basque lauburu symbol and its connections to the labyrinth.

It is such good fun connecting dots and finding new layers to the labyrinth!

Next: the labyrinth and pyramid energy. But that will take some time to implement and experience. 

CW/summer25

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