Sometimes I sit down in front of my computer and try to make new labyrinth styles. Usually it does not work. The labyrinth has been around for thousands of years. It looks great and walking it makes sense. My first published stab at making new labyrinth designs was this post where I tried to create love and reconciliation labyrinth shapes (i.e. heart shaped, 2 center 1 exit).
Now, let’s look at a few more labyrinth shapes I workshopped and see what I came up with:
The Cross Labyrinth
Labyrinths are used for spiritual walking and meditation. If you are ever in Scottsdale, Arizona, the Chaparral Christian Church has a cross shaped labyrinth:
Chaparral Labyrinth illustration
My version of a cross labyrinth is the best of the 5 different versions I created (in my opinion of course). It can still be improved, I’m sure, but for now here is my interpretation:
Cross shaped labyrinth
I wanted to make sure the final walk ended in the center of the cross moving towards the top.
The Yin and Yang Labyrinth
My next labyrinth was the idea of Yin and Yang as a labyrinth. You already have a circular shape and obviously this would need two entrances. Below is what I came up with, which might actually be a good dual paisley labyrinth. I think if this was made it would need to be done with black brick on one side and white on the other. So I show you the 2 options:
The Figure 8 Labyrinth
And now a dual entrance/exit dual spiral figure 8 labyrinth, which sound like me trying to fit a lot of words into a name. Let’s just call it a Figure 8 Labyrinth. In my diagram the entrance/exit on the sides of the labyrinth (in red) is a pathway ramp that starts at ground level and goes under the labyrinth. You take a spiral staircase up the center, walk the figure 8, then go down the spiral staircase in the other center, underground and out the other side.
So the question is - is the underground cheating ? This strategy could be adapted for any number of similar labyrinths, like the Buddhist endless knot, the Turk's head knot or any of the many Celtic Knots. I may come back to this one day.
The Double Spiral Inclined Labyrinth
This has certainly been done before somewhere. Just a spiral inside a spiral so there are two paths in and out. Either 2 people walk at once and meet in the middle or you walk one path in and the other out ?
My latest idea is that each step you take is on a slight incline up until you reach the top, which is a plateau, then the second pathway comes down at a similar incline. I would switch the inner spiral labyrinths start to be farther from the other spiral to accomplish this in real life. So viewing this from afar it has almost a pyramid shape.
So those are few ideas I came up with. I tried to make a few others that did not go well or were too similar to other ideas.