A new labyrinth!

A few weekends ago I went to a friend’s house to see the beautiful park she has created behind her house in memory of her son. Paths wind through the wooded lot; benches provide places to sit and think; a “smash room” lets you take out your anger on crockery, the pieces of which are then used for mosaics around the property.

Naturally, I soon identified a spot that cried out for a labyrinth.

It’s hard to visualize in this photo, but trust me, the space is there.

My first thought was to build a five-circuit labyrinth.

The space is about 35 feet wide; we could put a seven-circuit labyrinth there, but my friend intends for the park to be a public space and a gathering space, and if you have multiple people walking the labyrinth at the same time, a narrow path (necessitated by the number of circuits) makes meditation a bit awkward. Five circuits gives us breathing room.

Then, when we conferred last week after my friend had cleared most of the space of small saplings — we will work the paths around the larger trees — the layout of the cleared spaces suggested a triskelion pattern instead.

I’ve marked the entrance and the center of this pattern for your more better understanding. This drawing has too many circuits for our purposes, but actual triskelion labyrinths are more in line with what we’re trying to do.

Once I began doodling ABORTIVE ATTEMPTS, though, I think I will go with another idea:

We’ll have a ten-foot “foyer” with benches for sitting and thinking, and then the labyrinth will have one turn each of the lower centers (like the examples above), but then instead of another unwinding, we finish with a spiral leading to a larger center.

We’re still discussing what goes in the center. The paths will be outlined with stones, which can be painted by visitors, and the surface will be generously provided by the pine trees that shelter the space.

I’ll keep you posted.