Exploring the Labyrinth_ A Guide for Healing and Spiritual Growth - Melissa Gayle West [28]
Instructions are given for three different ways to make the labyrinth:
A temporary indoor Cretan labyrinth made from masking or electrical tape. You can adapt these instructions to create a permanent stone labyrinth outside.
A rope Cretan labyrinth. Instructions are given for outside construction. Once you’ve made the labyrinth, you can dismantle the materials and store them in a duffel bag, to take with you to make a labyrinth wherever you’d like outdoors, space permitting.
A temporary Chartres labyrinth made from masking tape.
Before you site the labyrinth, determine the amount of space you’ll need. The paths can be anywhere from eighteen inches wide, the minimum for a comfortable walk, to as wide as you’d like. The width you choose can be based on function—Robert Ferré likes three-foot-wide paths in order to accommodate wheelchairs. Toby Evans makes the mown-grass paths on her Prairie Labyrinth four feet wide since her rider mower cuts a four-foot swath.
A 104-foot masking tape labyrinth in St. Louis, Missouri.
A classical seven-circuit Cretan labyrinth is actually fifteen circuits wide by fourteen circuits deep; since you’ll be creating labyrinths that have an extra-wide center, your labyrinths will be sixteen circuits wide rather than fifteen. That translates to a minimum of a square 25 feet by 25 feet if you use 18-inch-wide paths.
If you’re building the labyrinth in a room, remember to allow at least one foot or so around the perimeter of the labyrinth so people aren’t bumping against walls!
MAKING A CRETAN LABYRINTH WITH TAPE
This method of constructing a tape labyrinth with a larger center comes directly from Robert Ferré, labyrinth maker and director of the St. Louis Labyrinth Project, to whom I owe many thanks for these instructions. This method will create a seven-circuit labyrinth with an expanded center (see Figure 6.1), which will accommodate more people in the center than the traditional seven-circuit labyrinth. For easy reference, photocopy all the figures used to construct the tape labyrinth. This way you can make notes on the copies to help you when constructing other labyrinths.
FIGURE 6.1 CRETAN LABYRINTH WITH EXPANDED CENTER
Materials
• One-inch-wide masking or electrical tape (approximately 450 feet for two-foot-wide paths). Buy extra tape, for a total of 500 feet. You can always return it, but it is better to have extra on hand than to have to run to the store. Electrical tape, unlike adhesive tape, can be stretched easily to create curves; it is more durable; it doesn’t leave marks on a wooden floor; and it is easier to pull up when you are ready to disassemble the labyrinth. If the floor is concrete or carpet, however, adhesive tape is stickier and will do a better job than electrical tape.
FIGURE 6.2: FINISHED TAPE LABYRINTH
• Measuring rope or string the length of which is the width of eight paths plus two feet. If you are making a labyrinth with two-foot-wide paths, for instance, you would need an eighteen-foot rope.
• Permanent marker to mark the measuring rope.
• Plumber’s plunger for holding the measuring rope in place.
• Music to play during construction to help you relax and concentrate (optional).
Instructions
1. Measure your space and determine the center. Look at Figure 6.2g. Notice that the functional center of the labyrinth is not the exact geometrical center of the labyrinth; the functional center is two path widths below the exact center. Once you have found the exact center of your usable space, measure two path widths down to find the functional center, the point from which you’ll be making your measurements. Mark that spot with a small piece of tape.
You will be working with the top of the labyrinth first, creating half circles. Figure out where you want your entrance to be; these half circles will be opposite the entrance.
2. Knot a loop in one end of the measuring