Crescent Magazine V3I1 "Dark Goddess" Excerpt
from "From Cretes to Chartres: The Labyrinth"
by Khristine Annwn Page

The journey through life is portrayed within our society as being in conflict with the journey of death. On November 1st, Pagans celebrate Samhain, a time when we witness the year winding down. It is when the veil between the worlds, the links between life and death, the separation of the conscious and the unconscious, is thin. Similarly representational of these states of being, the labyrinth winds through space and time representing the entire journey.

The labyrinth is an ancient symbol which has been used in many different cultures over the centuries. Similar patterns and variations may be found in many different forms of art: for example, Celtic spirals, mazes and meanders have long decorated manuscripts, jewelry and weapons. The circular-spiral, unicursal labyrinth, based on the equal-armed cross, in particular has its origins in Crete. There is a strong connection of the labyrinth to the sacred spiral. The construction of the labyrinth as a single path which leads into the center and back out again along the very same path, is in essence, a complicated spiral. These images of concentric-based circles represent unity and cyclic mystery.

Located within the temple at the Palace of Knossos of Minoan Crete is an engraved version of the labyrinth, in the concentric-based style, upon the floor. A labyrinth of the circular Cretan style was painted on the parchment of a twelfth century manuscript from Saint Emmeran, Regensburg, Germany. The circular-style labyrinth can also be found in the east wing of the Roman thermal baths of Verdes. "In the most ancient form, designated by Hermann Kern as the Cretan type, the single unmistakable path leads in seven convolutions to the center, the sole dead end. By contrast, in medieval form there are eleven convolutions." In this we see the labyrinth in comparison to the many spirals, meanders and concentric circles used throughout ancient civilizations.

You can continue to read "From Cretes to Chartres" in Crescent Magazine's Dark Goddess issue, V3I1.
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