Source: Tamara Donn
Testers: Tia Azulay; Fran Montague
Materials: Use an actual or a conceptual single-path labyrinth (as opposed to a maze). Read more about labyrinths at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labyrinth. The following excerpts are from Wikipedia’s entry on Labyrinth:
The term labyrinth is often used interchangeably with maze, but modern scholars of the subject use a stricter definition. For them, a maze is a tour puzzle in the form of a complex branching passage, with choices of path and direction, while a single-path (“unicursal”) labyrinth has only a single, Eulerian path to the centre. A labyrinth has an unambiguous through-route to the centre and back and is not designed to be difficult to navigate. …
Symbolically it is represented in art or designs, on pottery, as body art, etched on walls of caves, etc. Physical representations are common throughout the world, and are generally constructed on the ground so they may be walked along, from entry point to center and back again. They have historically been used in both group ritual and private meditation.
Ritual: Describe, map, trace, walk or creatively express your own/a woman’s journey through your/her cycle using an actual or conceptual labyrinth.
Hints: This exercise is contemplative, best performed during a time of retreat and focus in a pleasant, peaceful setting.
Experience: During a Wise Women Network meeting, the group were motivated to express themselves creatively and, inspired by Tamara Donn’s passion for labyrinths, created the images shown below.
The experience enabled us to explore attitudes and feelings towards our own personal cycles. The entrance of our labyrinths represented the beginning and end of the cyclical month, and the centre the middle of the month, when ovulation occurs. As we traced our pathway through the labyrinth, our thoughts turned to aspects of our cycle that had significance for us and which we could explore further.
