Book Review: Red Thread: On Mazes and Labyrinths

Red Thread: On Mazes and Labyrinths (2020) - 272 pages. AMZN. by Charlotte Higgins

Red Thread: On Mazes and Labyrinths (2020)

Red Thread: On Mazes and Labyrinths

This book explores of the history, symbolism, and uses of labyrinths. It begins with a discussion of the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur, then goes on to discuss the different types of labyrinths, their history, and their symbolism.

Topics covered in this book:

  • The different types of labyrinths, including the classical labyrinth, the seven-circuit labyrinth, and the Chartres labyrinth.

  • The symbolism of the labyrinth, including its association with the journey of the soul, the path to enlightenment, and the cycles of life and death.

  • The history of labyrinths, from their origins in the Bronze Age to their revival in recent years.

  • The many ways in which labyrinths are being used today, for meditation, spiritual practice, and simply for enjoyment.

  • The personal journey of the author, as she explores the labyrinths of her own life.

What this book does best: The author explores the labyrinth as a metaphor for the journey of life, with its twists and turns, its dead ends and its moments of clarity. She also discusses the labyrinth as a tool for meditation and self-discovery. The book is full of fascinating insights into the labyrinth, and it is sure to appeal to anyone who is interested in this fascinating symbol.

Book Review: Labyrinths: Ancient Paths of Wisdom and Peace

Labyrinths: Ancient Paths of Wisdom and Peace (2001) - 112 pages. AMZN. by Virginia Westbury

Labyrinths: Ancient Paths of Wisdom and Peace book cover

Labyrinths: Ancient Paths of Wisdom and Peace book cover

This book is a comprehensive guide to the history, symbolism, and uses of labyrinths. It begins by tracing the origins of labyrinths back to the Bronze Age, when simple seven-circuit models were first created. The book then discusses the popularity of labyrinths during Roman times and their peak during the medieval period, when elaborate eleven-circuit models were created. In recent years, there has been a significant revival of interest in labyrinths, and the book explores the reasons for this renewed interest. It looks at the many ways in which labyrinths are being used today, such as tools for meditation, means of connecting with the mysteries of nature, or simply as elegant puzzles. The book concludes with an extensive gazetteer, indicating where the world's finest labyrinths can be found.

Topics covered in this book:

  • The different types of labyrinths, including the classical labyrinth, the seven-circuit labyrinth, and the Chartres labyrinth.

  • The symbolism of the labyrinth, including its association with the journey of the soul, the path to enlightenment, and the cycles of life and death.

  • The history of labyrinths, from their origins in the Bronze Age to their revival in recent years.

  • The many ways in which labyrinths are being used today, for meditation, spiritual practice, and simply for enjoyment.

  • A gazetteer of the world's finest labyrinths, with information on their location, history, and design.

What this book does best: Chapter 5 is all about the Chartres Labyrinth.

Maze of the Week #91 - Monte Alban Maze

Maze of the Week #91 keeps us in Mexico for my 3rd different maze of a pyramid or ruin with this Monte Alban Maze from the Zapotec archeological site in Oaxaca, Mexico. Here are my other 2 similar mazes:

Chichen Itza Maze

Mayan Ruins at Uxmal Maze

Photos: I had a chance to visit the site because I lived in the city for 3 months. Here is a gallery of pictures I took, one of which was used to make the maze. I went on a day with perfect weather - easy to do around there - and was one of the first 5 people in the site, so my pictures include very few people !

YouTube: Here is a quick 6 minute video showing the grounds if the pictures weren’t enough.

The Maze: I re-worked this maze after finishing it. A small re-color and then I re-sized it from paper size to a size that fit the structure/maze better. I also added shadows which were a huge improvement IMO.

Monte Alban Maze

Monte Alban Maze

I hope you enjoy the maze. Maze download is available on the homepage. Check out my YouTube channel where you can watch mazes being made and solved !!!

Coming next week:

A maze of an auditorium

Image-Guided Maze Construction Research Paper

I was doing some exploring as I wrote a series of articles on the use of AI and creating mazes and found a paper from July 2007 on Image-Guided Maze Construction. The authors were Jie Xu and Craig S Kaplan from the University of Waterloo. Basically they looked into creating maze art using algorithms and computer graphics. They did a wonderful 25 minute video explaining the concept which is worth watching. You can find the paper and the original video at this link.

What does the paper say ?

The paper "Image-Guided Maze Construction" by Jie Xu and Craig S. Kaplan presents a technique for automatically synthesizing pictorial mazes from images. The system allows the designer to manually partition an image into a set of regions and assign style parameters to each region. They are also able to sketch a schematic layout for the maze's solution path. The final maze will contain intertwined passages in each region, connected together by breaking walls between regions.

The paper describes four different maze textures: directional mazes, spiral mazes, random mazes, and user-defined lines. Each texture is controlled by specialized parameters. The paper also describes an algorithm for building mazes that respect the layout of a given solution tree.

The system has been implemented as an interactive application. The paper presents several examples of mazes generated by the system, including mazes based on photographs of the Great Wall of China, a portrait, and a discus thrower.

So why do I bring this to your attention so many years later ?

Well because of these 3 blog posts I wrote:

And when you combine the ideas of those 3 posts with this research paper and I come to the following conclusion: AI will be reading things like this paper and will be making great mazes soon. I can image someone like these authors working with AI and teaching it to make maze art relatively quickly IF they want to take the time to do it. Will it change what this site looks like ? Only time will tell. Maybe it becomes the typewriter in the year 2000. Let’s hope not !

Side note: I used Starryai to generate the picture for this blog using this prompt:

Make me a logo for a blog post titled Image-Guided Maze Construction paper. This is what it came up with.

starryai - make me a logo for a blog post titled