This is a copy of the one on the floor of Chartres Cathedral. The church, and its masons, knew about sacred geometry and sacred architecture; and, if you had a model of the Cathedral, you could fold down the wall with the rose window, and the window would land precisely upon the labyrinth.

I use it as a problem-solving device. You can print this one out, and follow the path in and out with you finger (suggest using your left hand if you are right-handed, and vice versa)., and you might like to think of the centre as your deeper, wiser self and the outside as the outside world - and your relationship to each as your finger makes its journey.

Clients who walk mine can stop and think, wherever they want, and spend as much time in the middle as they like. Some of them just dump their problems outside and, when they return, the problem has gone.

One client who took masses of sleeping pills now just steps into the labyrinth in her imagination, as soon as she turns out the light, and falls asleep long before she can get to the centre.

Try it, it's fun! (click here to go to a print-friendly version of the Labyrinth)

Some books to whet your appetite:

Lonegren, Sig: Labyrinths: Ancient Myths and Modern Uses, Gothic Image Publications, UK, 1996
West, Melissa Gayle: Exploring the Labyrinth: A Guide for Healing and Spiritual Growth, Broadway Books, USA, 2000
Martineau, John: Mazes and Labyrinths in Great Britain, Wooden Books, UK, 1999

©Diana Beaver: 1997, 1999, 2001, 2003