Walk(...ing the Pattern..) in the Rain

[pyat]

Thursday nights I take Elizabeth to a music class in Burlington. I usually take the hour she is in class to sit in the library, walk, or eat a foot long hotdog at Easterbrooks, a locally famous restaurant. As the weather improves I've been doing more walking through the nearby Central Park. This park contains, among other things, a labyrinth. This particular one is an 11-turn labyrinth, based on the one at Chartres Cathedral. On my previous visit, it was teeming with children running back and forth.

Today, it was raining and cold, and I had it to myself, as it were. Given the date - significant for Pagans and early Christians - I decided to take a turn through the labyrinth. It was a curiously ruminative experience. It seemed to take a very long time indeed to get to the centre of the pattern, and the route twisted back and forth on itself, bringing me to unexpected quadrants of the greater circle. The route, outlined in salmon-coloured stone, reminded me variously of the nestled windings of an intestine (eew), the convulted strand of a knotted rope, or a path through a hedge. Coming to the centre at last generated a thrill of achievement, but upon arrival I also found myself very relaxed. Focusing on the task of wending through the maze sort of concentrated my attention, and I could see how doing this in the long term might create a kind of quiet trance state.

Reaching the centre, I also suddenly realized that the only way out was back in. So, out I went again. And, for several minutes afterward I was in a sort of quietly content and reflective state of mind. Upon emerging, I found it had taken a full 15 minutes to traverse the pattern, even though the circle itself is only 25 feet wide.

Comments

So....

[pxtl.livejournal.com]

Aww, walk all the way to the middle and not even gaining the power over space and time to allow you to teleport away to anywhere in shadow that you like? What a rip-off.

Re: So....

[pyat.livejournal.com]

I'm glad someone got the reference! *highfivenerdpower!*

One day, I want to hit Ambercon Northwest in Oregon.

Re: So....

[doc-mystery.livejournal.com]

So, just walk the Pattern again above!

::B::

[doc-mystery.livejournal.com]

Another couple of mazes I recommend are the interiors of McMaster University Medical Centre (MUMC), and the new Michael G. DeGroote Learning Resource Centre (MDLC).

Both have a numbering system that defies all logic and planning. Both act as a cognitive test of mental capacity, where if you succeed in either 1) finding your designated room or 2) finding the exit, you must be cognitively intact.

::B::

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Both act as a cognitive test of mental capacity, where if you succeed in either 1) finding your designated room or 2) finding the exit, you must be cognitively intact.

I suspect I would come out in a rather different mental state, though!

[mrs-dm.livejournal.com]

Man, you are so Unitarian. You just don't know it yet. It's just a matter of time.

Well, seriously. There's a labyrinth-thing going on at the Unitarian church every year or so. I never paid much attention or signed up -- it seemed too hippy-dippy (stop laughing, doc_mystery! I'm not as hippy-dippy as you think). But your experience sounds interesting. Maybe I'll try it.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Man, you are so Unitarian.

Isn't everyone? ;)

It really was a worthwhile experience. I didn't know it was a Unitarian thing, though!

[matthiasrat.livejournal.com]

Labyrinths were very popular in Medieval times. You can find quite a few in Catholic Cathedrals. They were used because it gave penitents the ability to make pilgrimages without actually having to travel. Often times, penitents would navigate the labyrinths on their knees.

And May 1st this year was significant for Catholics being the Feast of the Ascension. :-)

Glad you had fun with it!