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The Labyrinth:A Spiritual Journey
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The Labyrinth:A Spiritual Journey
Ellyn Sanna with Kenneth McIntosh
ANAMCHARABOOKS
Ancient Mythmodern meaning
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The Classical Labyrinth:The Hidden Monster
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The Labyrinth: A Spiritual Journey
We each have a part of our nature that we have a rejected,
a monstrous, twisted creature,
the illegitimate child
who proves weve been unfaithful:
a Minotaur.
We hide this beast deep inside us,
where no one will ever catch a glimpse of it,
not even (especially) ourselves.
And yet, echoing from the labyrinthine
depths of our own hearts,
we hear the beasts roars of pain.
The thunder of its angry hooves shakes our being.Judith Nystrom Kennedy
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The Classical Labyrinth: The Hidden Monster
King Minos had a terrible secret, one he sought to hide from
the world. His wife, Pasiphae, had fallen in love with a huge
white bull. That alone would have been shameful enough,
but Pasiphae had conceived a child from her illicit affair,
a horrifying monster that was part human and part bull.
Minos could not bear to see the proof of his wifes adultery,
and so he built a labyrinthand he hid the Minotaur, the
hideous, rejected child, at the very center.
It is the Minotaur
who conclusively justifies the existence of the Labyrinth.
Jorge Luis Borges
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The Labyrinth: A Spiritual Journey
The entire myths cast lives within you.
The jealous King Minos is you.
The infatuated and heartbroken Queen Pasiphae is you.
And most of all the Minotaur is you.
You have betrayed yourself.
You have hidden your deepest shame
inside the labyrinth of your heart.And you will never know peace
until you go in and confront it.
Jayne Silverberry
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The Classical Labyrinth: The Hidden Monster
But although the Minotaur was hidden away from sight,
King Minos could not forget himnor was the Minotaur
easy to forget, since deep in the dark of night, his bellows of
rage and hunger echoed through the palace. Consumed with
shame and frustration, the king lashed out at his enemies,
the Athenians, demanding they sacrifice to the Minotaur
seven young men and seven young women every ninth year.
What do you sacrifice to the monster that lives inside you?
The people you encounter?
The people you love?
Yourself? Judith Nystrom Kennedy
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The Labyrinth: A Spiritual Journey
A labyrinthine man never seeks the truth,
but only his Ariadne.
Friedrich Nietzsche
The terrible feast continued every nine yearsuntil on
the third cycle of nine years, Theseus was one of the young
men who came to Crete to be sacrificed to the Minotaur. The-
seus was determined to kill the monster rather than be killed
by it, and the kings daughter, Ariadne, fell in love with the
brave young man.
Ariadne gave Theseus a sword and the end of a thread
from her spool, so he would not become confused within
the labyrinth and would be able to find his way out again.
Theseus fought the Minotaur, killed him, and emerged tri-
umphant from the labyrinth.
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The Classical Labyrinth: The Hidden Monster
We want to be in control.
We want to map our own life.
Ultimately, life almost always requires
that we simply surrender control,and trust the direction that comes to us
from something outside,
our Ariadnes thread.
It could be a relationship.
It could be a job,
or parenthood.
Always, it is something
we cannot control
that leads us on a pathwe could never have predicted.
Annie Brown
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The Labyrinth: A Spiritual Journey
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The Classical Labyrinth: The Hidden Monster
Ariadnes thread was known as a clew, the root meaning
of our modern word clue: something that points the way,
something seemingly small that helps us unwind a greater
meaning. Feminist scholars have viewed the threads role in
the labyrinth story as a connection to women as spinners and
weavers, to the Fates (the three women who spun the thread
of human life), and to still more ancient feminine symbols of
spider and web.
The great awareness comes slowly, piece by piece.
The path of spiritual growth is a path of lifelong learning.
M. Scott Peck
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The Labyrinth: A Spiritual Journey
The Ego, the monster, wants what it wants.
It is hungry, always hungry,
and it will consume everything in its path
in its futile attempt to sate his hunger.
Theseus is the Everyman Hero who comes to kill the Monster,
to stop the endless sacrifice.But he cannot succeed without giving in to Ariadne
and following her lead.
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The Classical Labyrinth: The Hidden Monster
Ariadne, the embodiment of emptiness
and the transcendence of Ego,
the utterly passive and submissive,
is the only one who can lead Theseus
through the complex labyrinth and back out again.
His . . . ego is no better than the Minotaur he seeks to slay
his ego, is in fact, the Minotaur itself.Only by this submission to Ariadne,
in seeking her help, can he succeed.
Adam Zatheos