The Labyrinth as Metaphor

The labyrinth is one of humankind’s oldest visual metaphors. When most of us think of labyrinths and mazes, we visualize a pattern or a garden, but they are first ideas, a way of thinking. There are labyrinthine traditions in literary form, musical composition, metaphysical thought and, perhaps the ultimate example, quantum physics. For readers of Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose, the idea of a building designed to hide a library of ideas might come to mind. Because they began as ideas, labyrinths and mazes lend themselves to the reverse process of seeing ideas, metaphors, in them. Because the two forms have evolved differently, the metaphors are somewhat different.

The obvious metaphor is the journey. It may be representative of one’s life or a part of one’s life.

A labyrinth may be a metaphor for a special problem in one’s life, for a personal quest, search, or adventure. Walking the path to inspire a creative endeavor mimics the real process of bringing a concept to life. Native peoples of the American southwest see their labyrinth as a symbol of the process of birth. Some walk a labyrinth as a quest for healing, meditating in support of a course of treatment or to find answers to lifestyle changes that may promote healing. When one walks a labyrinth for deeper reasons than interest or amusement, one brings one’s own meaningfulness, curative focus, spirit to the labyrinth.

The labyrinth has also long been a metaphor for the city. It can be a mountain to be scaled, a depth to be plumbed, a trip to another country or to other worlds. It can be a journey into the past, present or future or just a metaphor for the long and winding road of life. It is a tool of the imagination and of the spirit. That a wide range of labyrinth designs exists is a testimony to the uniqueness of each human journey.