Some helpful comments from a friend in the Uniting Church:

A maze is designed to confuse and trick the walker.

A labyrinth (normally) only has one path, so you can’t get it “wrong”, but the twists and turns still surprise you sometimes, just when you think you’re nearly there. It’s used for meditation, not recreation or entertainment like mazes.

There’s a photo of it at http://vic.uca.org.au/retreatcentre/photos/labyrinth1.jpg.

See also

http://vic.uca.org.au/retreatcentre/

It’s a spiritual discipline, which means that it’s hard to describe how it benefits you from “outside” the experience; you need to experience it before you can reflect on its effect (kind of like daily prayer or daily study of the Bible, neither of which I manage as daily disciplines at this stage of our busy life). However, walking the twists and turns is closely parallel to the experience of life: you’re never quite sure where it will take you next, especially when you first begin the journey; others from the outside can sometimes provide assistance, but sometimes their perspective is inaccurate for you; you can be sure you’ll get to the end of your journey, but when you do you may find it’s really just the beginning of coming back again; etc. etc.

I’ve also walked the labyrinth at Chatre Cathedral in France (there’s nice photo of it at

http://vic.uca.org.au/retreatcentre/photos/ChatrewithCandles.jpg,

among other places), which is one of the classic labyrinths; ages old, walked by countless pilgrims over the centuries, intricate in design.

I also know of a portable labyrinth (on a large tarpaulin) which is used as a gentle Christian entree (a form of outreach, perhaps pre- or re-evangelism) at “new age” festivals; it’s regularly dragged around the state as part of a Christian ministry.

A search for “labyrinth” at Yahoo (http://au.search.yahoo.com/search/aunz?p=Labyrinth&y=y) gives some interesting links to sites around the world, some probably weird, some not.

[Name withheld]

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