labyrinth

labyrinth is generally synonymous with maze, but many contemporary scholars observe a distinction between the two: maze refers to a complex branching (multicursal) puzzle with choices of path and direction; while a single-path (unicursal) labyrinth has only a single, non-branching path, which leads to the center. A labyrinth in this sense has an unambiguous route to the center and back and is not designed to be difficult to navigate. ---------------------------- One of the people who has done the most work in reviving the labyrinth is Rev. Lauren Artress. In 1992 Rev. Artress brought the form to the Grace Cathedral of San Francisco, CA. Since then, over one million people have walked the labyrinth on it's grounds, with several hundred other labyrinths springing up around the US. Why the sudden interest in this ancient form? Rev. Artress attributes it to the lack of spiritual awareness in modern culture. "We lost our sense of connection to ourselves and to the vast mystery of creation," writes the Reverend Dr. Lauren Artress, Canon of Grace Cathedral, in her book about the labyrinth, Walking a Sacred Path: "The web of creation has been thrown out of balance."