There are many ways to categorize labyrinths. Are they public or private, what pattern is used, what are the materials that they are made from and what is their intended purpose? Labyrinths may be temporary creations and only walked once or they can be permanent installations meant to last for hundreds of years.
PUBLIC LABYRINTHS - Labyrinths can be built on church grounds, hospitals, schools or be placed in community parks. Many of these installations are of a permanent nature and are often available to the public 24/7. These labyrinths serve both individual and community needs and can be walked by a single person or a large group seeking to build community.
PRIVATE LABYRINTHS - It is quite common for labyrinth enthusiasts to have personal or private labyrinths. This may be as simple as having a wooden or metal finger labyrinth that can be held in the lap or set on a table so that they traverse the path with their finger or a stylus. Or it may be a full sized walking labyrinth set in the backyard garden. These are usually used as a personal transformational tool but access is often granted to community members by appointment.
PORTABLE LABYRINTHS - Once again we could be talking of a small hand held wooden or metal finger labyrinth or we could be talking about a 35 foot diameter walking labyrinth painted on heavy canvas. "Have labyrinth... will travel". The obvious advantage is that a person having such a labyrinth can facilitate a labyrinth walk anywhere they have room to place the labyrinth. Churches or community groups with limited grounds may choose a labyrinth of this nature and then set it up on a lawn, meeting room or even a parking lot for special events or occasions.
TEMPORARY LABYRINTHS - Temporary labyrinths differ from portable labyrinths in that they are designed to only exist for a short time and then they are disassembled. It is common for churches or community parks to construct temporary labyrinths for special functions or events that may last from a day to a week or two. A temporary labyrinth could be made by using masking tape to create a pattern on a wood, tile or carpeted floor. Lines could be painted onto a lawn or field of grass and the path could be additionally mowed to create a relief pattern. Stones could be lined up on a parking lot surface or a line could be scribed into the sand at a beach or etched into the snow. I have created several rope labyrinths at music festivals where the rope was simply coiled back up at the end of the event.
PERMANTENT LABYRINTHS - Sometimes permanent labyrinths grow out of temporary installations. My personal labyrinth started out as a design painted on the grass. Then stones replaced the painted lines. Later gravel replace the grass and then the whole labyrinth was surrounded by an earth mound that was planted in flowers with an irrigations system installed. At Waycross Retreat Center in Indiana, their temporary lawn labyrinth became a permanent fixture when they simply decided to keep the path mowed year round. This labyrinth is now more than 10 years old but it will quickly disappear if they ever decide to quit mowing the path. Most permanent labyrinths have more monolithic construction. There can be carved, etched or painted on concrete slab or laid out in paving stones. Painted labyrinths can last for years in parking lots or playgrounds or on wood or tile floors in indoor facilities. There are stone or brick labyrinths and even floral garden labyrinths where plantings of flowers create the design. There are also massive mounded earth labyrinths and hedge labyrinths. One of the most famous permanent labyrinths is the labyrinth at the Chartres Cathedral in France which dates back more than 800 years and is built into the floor of the cathedral with inlaid stone blocks.
LABYRINTH PATTERNS - There are many types of labyrinths in the world and many new forms are being currently developed. Here we will talk about some of the more common and well known designs. Please use our links page for further research and study on this subject. The earliest know form of .labyrinth design is the seven circuit classic or Cretan style labyrinth. This basic pattern has been modified in many ways over the years and while the overall shape may vary from oblong, square, octagonal or round and the size of the center may vary greatly, the basic seed pattern remains the same and your progress through the pattern is typically the same.
One of the most well known patterns is the medieval Christian version found at the Chartres Cathedral in France built around 1201 AD. This version contains 11 concentric circles that are broken up by turns at 4 quadrants to create a much more complex pattern than found in the classic. It has been found that the Chartres labyrinth was designed and built incorporating the ratios that describe the formation of the golden mean spiral which also describes the formation of forms found in nature and is part of what is know as sacred geometry. The use of sacred geometry is quite commonly used in the building of cathedrals as the shapes produced by their use create spaces that are lofty, inspiring and pleasing to the human psyche.
Most of today's labyrinths are based on these two fundamental types but they can vary from having only three concentric circles to as many as fifteen or more. Today, labyrinth builders and artists are exploring possibilities and I have seen heart shapes, animal shapes, clasped hands, freeform meanders and linear designs called wands. One of my personal favorites is the vesica patterns designed by Alex Champion that have intersecting paths that create a pattern resembling a flower or mandala. This pattern leaves large spaces between the paths that would be perfect for the creation of a garden labyrinth and it is my hope to eventually build such a labyrinth on my property.
LABRYINTH BUILDING MATERIALS - Only the imagination limits the materials that you can use in creating a labyrinth. Portable canvas labyrinths are commonly painted with enamels or acrylics. Once they are painted you simply roll them out to create an instant labyrinth. One of the quickest and easiest methods to create and outdoor labyrinth would be to scratch a pattern into the sand at a desert or beach location or to paint a pattern on a lawn, mowed field or parking lot. I have seen labyrinths built with canned goods collected in a school canned food drive simply arranged on a floor or playground surface. Using surveyor flags can be used in laying out a lawn labyrinth if you don't want to paint the grass and then you could weave rope or plastic flagging or caution tape through the flags to further define the path. If the grass is long you could mow the path to create a relief pattern. To make them more permanent, lawn or turf labyrinths could also have their paths lined with rock, bricks, wood, poured concrete, planting beds with flowers or anything else imaginable. Instead of grass the paths could be made from mulch, bark chips, sand or gravel. Paths could be laid out in poured concrete, slabs of flagstone or any other stone with a flat surface. You can layout patterns in two colors of paving stones or etch, paint or cut the pattern into a monolithic poured concrete slab. I have seen photos of floor labyrinths in inlaid marble, granite, tile and carpet.
