The labyrinth is a path of connection, a means of discovering oneself, of spiralling into wholeness and unity, a road of expansion. Like the whirl of a dervish it connects our essence to Source, by emulating the movement of the cosmos we dance our bodies in synch with the harmony of life and all of creation. A maze is a mechanism of chaos threatening to disorient and confuse us at every turn, it jumbles our awareness, tempers with our clarity, pulls us off course and if we are not careful, we might lose ourselves forever.
The difference between our life as a labyrinth of expanding inner wealth, a deepening of our awareness and presence or a life in a maze - caught like a rat frantically trying to find our way out, bumping into walls, being misguided into cul-de-sacs - does not lie in our external circumstances. The difference lies in an ability to take life as it comes, to surf the waves, to abandon ourselves to a flow far more powerful than the limiting thoughts and structures within. It lies in our ability to clarify our very own Ariadne’s thread – our frequency, our truth, the light of our heart and soul. When we know who we are and we know our heart, no journey is too difficult to undertake. When we don’t, we can only rely on other people’s truths and external impulses to guide us, which will always take us on a path that is not our own.
Labyrinths are everywhere. A book can be a labyrinth, although it can also be a maze; the labyrinth is a metaphor of life – there is a definite beginning and a definite endpoint, with endless curves in between; a relationship is a labyrinth that is danced together and it can become a maze, sometimes it will shift back and forth, the trick is to know which one you’re in.
We have an ambiguous relationship with the labyrinth, we are fascinated by them but also afraid of the possibility of monsters lurking in the dark corners, the same attraction and fear we feel towards the depths of our own subconscious worlds. We violently resist the idea that we might be destined for a certain path, we resent not being able to revisit the past, we don’t like not being able to foresee the future and look beyond the bend. We are afraid to lose control while any semblance of control is just an illusion, we refuse to be guided while every fibre of our being longs to be held.
It is not because parts of our path are predestined that we are no longer free, in fact, we co-determined our destiny ourselves before incarnating. We made certain choses for the highest benefit of our soul and for the benefit of the collective. We do still have choices to make, we are weaving a reality in collaboration with the universe. The only option the labyrinth does not give us, is to stop moving. For even when we’re standing still, we are always moving, through the seasons, the wheel of life, time, the cosmos. And at every turn of the wheel, life will once again invite us to join the dance and move through the labyrinth a little bit more gracefully and skilfully.
Anaïs T.
