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through which the initiate must first
wander, and in antiquity, hopscotch was a labyrinth in which one pushed a stone –
i.e. the soul – toward the exit. With Christianity, the design became
elongated and simplified, reproducing the layout of a basilica" (Bord, 62-3).
Some cultures, including those of the
Scottish and the Zulu, have been known to develop games that require a maze to be drawn on
the ground. A traditional Scottish ‘game’, "Walls of Troy",
involved a maze having been drawn on the sand of beaches through which children would
run.
The game of the Zulu of Africa is somewhat more challenging. One draws a mazelike, or ‘multicursal’, labyrinth on the ground and then challenges another to find the way to the ‘royal hut’, which is a designated point within the labyrinth, though not necessarily in its center. The player, traditionally using a hollow stem of tambootie grass as a pointer, either succeeds in finding the correct path to the ‘royal hut’, or fails to follow the right course and runs into a dead end. If the latter occurs, the player is "greeted with a general shout of ‘Wapuka sogexe!’ (you are done for in the labyrinth), and has to go back to the start and begin the quest again" (Bord, 148).
Mandalas, or ritual circles used primarily throughout Asia and India in Lamaism and Tantric yoga as a yantra (aid to contemplation), are often drawn on the ground with either colored threads or rice powder. These emblems serve as a "means towards contemplation and concentration – as an aid in inducing certain mental states and in encouraging the spirit to move forward along its path of evolution from the biological to the geometric, from the realm of corporeal forms to the spiritual" (Cirlot, 190). Some mandalas are visually labyrinthine in character, and scholars have suggested there is a relationship between the mandala and the labyrinth.
For instance, the neophyte’s penetration into a mandala, through transcendental meditation, parallels the initiation process inherently expressed by the labyrinth, as previously discussed. Whereas the classical labyrinth figure literally depicts a path to a center in which the initiate, when reaching it, is described as having the transcendental experience of gaining "self-knowledge" or "self-awareness", the mandala "always alludes to the concept of the Centre, never actually depicting it visually but suggesting it by means of the concentricity of the figures. At the same time it exemplifies the obstacles in the way of achieving and assimilating the Centre" (Cirlot, 192).
Therefore, the mandala aids the neophyte in finding his own "center", which is related to the "self-knowledge" one gains through the labyrinth as well as to the previously mentioned process of individuation as defined by Jung. However, it also "protects" the neophyte from external harmful forces. The latter concept has been related to the labyrinth’s function of "protection" from evil spirits through such applications as the previously discussed "threshold designs".
Despite the
similarities of the two symbols, it has been suggested that the ambivalence of the
labyrinth symbol has precluded it from being considered the mandala of Western culture.
Certainly, it is "not a symbol that one can receive into oneself in meditation
without disquiet" (Jaskolski, 12). An appropriate metaphor for
‘life’, the labyrinth symbolizes the path we all must travel. The fact
that "this can be a path leading to either well-being or misfortune" (Jaskolski,
12-13) only seems to enhance the labyrinth’s intrigue as it evokes the same two
emotions awakened in Leonardo as he stood before the mouth of the cavern: fear and desire.
Indeed, a future seems assured for the labyrinth, a symbol that has endured
throughout the ages.
Bibliography