This means they have been around for at least 5000 years. The most ancient of the labyrinth patterns is the seven-circuit labyrinth that's been found in many places around the world and appears across Northern Europe, India, Peru and many other countries. In fact, the seven-circuit labyrinth is also the symbol for the Earth Mother among the Hopi people of the North American southwest. Labyrinths are often confused with mazes. Mazes, unlike labyrinths, contain right and wrong turns and dead-ends.
Labyrinths are a single path that inevitably lead the walker into the center.
Labyrinths open a portal beyond our normal waking consciousness, into an expanded awareness, in which new insights are revealed. For folks like me, who need to pray and meditate in a way that involves all of the senses, walking has made it possible for me to reflect on my life struggles and relationship with The Holy One in a manner that wasn't possible until I began walking. Many forms of praying and meditating ask us to sit still and be quiet in ways that are distracting rather than focusing. Goodness knows there are not enough ways for people to honor their whole beings in world today. The first labyrinth in the Burlington, VT, area sits behind All Saints Episcopal Church at the corner of Dorset and Spear streets.