Understanding the Labyrinth as Transformative Site Symbol and Technology by Vanessa Compton (2007).pdf

Understanding the Labyrinth

as transformative site, symbol, and technology:

An arts-informed inquiry

Vanessa Compton

A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements

for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

Department of Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning

Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the

University of Toronto

ABSTRACT

The unicursal labyrinth was first inlayed in the pavement of the Cathedral of Notre Dame de

Chartres in France in 1200 CE, coincident with the flowering of the School of Chartres,

where the Ars Liberales curriculum formalised dialectic inquiry, technologies of the

imagination, and recursive spiritual development. Reclaimed in recent years for walking

meditation, the labyrinth functions, in the context of post-structural, holistic and aesthetic

education, as a site of experiential learning and a technology for guiding the imagination into

transformative patterns of thought. Its image symbolizes the order-versus-confusion binary

characteristic of the integrative processes of personal development.

This research project focuses on understandings drawn from existing literature on the

historical, mythological, and mathematical labyrinth, the accounts of individual seekers and

practitioners, and the author’s personal experience from five years as labyrinth “keeper” in an

urban parish church in Canada. Three personal essays document this involvement with the

labyrinth from the dramatic first encounter, through intellectual quest and personal

pilgrimage, to responsibility for installation and maintenance as public sacred art in a host

community. The inquiry includes an extensive literature review of the historical site and the

many avenues of approach to understanding the interaction between place, identity, and

learning that occurs in the labyrinth .

Grounded in hermeneutic aesthetics and the methods of auto-ethnography,

phenomenology and arts-based research, the inquiry investigates the connection between this

ancient, mathematically significant site, the experience of reflective engagement with it, and

contemporary interpretations of pilgrimage conceptualised as intentional seeking in the

developmental process of self. Implications for education lie both in the labyrinth’s symbolic

function as a public art form demarcating and validating ritual space for care of the self, and

in its capacity to activate the incubation of individual and collective imagination, bring about

shifts in perception, restore personal equilibrium and perspective, and access tacit knowledge

and inner wisdom. The medieval designers intended that users experience the characteristic

sense of integrated consciousness and heightened imaginative function, a heritage that is to

be welcomed at this historical juncture.

GRATITUDE

I have been blessed in this lifetime with great teachers, wise friends, and fine companions

who have illuminated the Path through their gifts of witness, storytelling, insight and

example.

This thesis would not exist at all if it weren’t for the work of the Reverend Dr. Lauren

Artress. Her untiring effort to explore and articulate with humour, generosity, and wisdom a

planetary vision of the labyrinth — and along the way showing what a difference one person

can make in this world — has been an inspiration for which I am very grateful.

I owe much to the Reverend Patrick Doran, brother-in-spirit and comrade of countless

“Benedictine” hours maintaining the St. Paul’s Labyrinth, who taught me most of what I

know about pilgrimage, mission, and service.

I extend sincere gratitude to the members of my doctoral thesis committee, my supervisor

Dr. Jack Miller, Professor David Booth, and Dr. Linda Cameron, for their commitment of

time and energy, and for providing an incomparable model of collegiality and intellectual

support. I would like to thank also to the Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning

at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto for its

continuous financial support within the department and through the Ontario Graduate Studies

scholarship program. Thanks also go to Margaret Brennan and Mary MacDonell in Student

Services for their patience over the years of administering these funds.

Much appreciation goes to these generous friends: Mary Ann O’Connor, for careful

reading and commentary; McEvoy Galbreath, in whose company every step lands on sacred

ground; and Michael Fletcher, for cheerleading, spreadsheets, and dinner.

Last, but not least, I wish to say “Thank you, kids,” to Selena, Aretha, and Nicholas

Black, for your energy, optimism, and faith wherein lies the hope of this emerging world.

iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... ii

Gratitude .................................................................................................................................. iii

Table of Contents..................................................................................................................... iv

Preface....................................................................................................................................... v

Illustrations ............................................................................................................................. vii

1. Introduction........................................................................................................................... 1

2. Objectives of the study.......................................................................................................... 5

3. Method .................................................................................................................................. 7

4. Theoretical orientation ........................................................................................................ 13

5. Literature review................................................................................................................. 19

6. Understanding the Labyrinth .............................................................................................. 33

7. The Labyrinth as Laboratory .............................................................................................. 53

Thread: An essay about origins + labyrinthine learning .................................................... 63

Cathedral: A reflection on pilgrimage and hermeneutics .................................................. 90

Parish: An essay about coming Home ............................................................................. 145

8. Implications for education ................................................................................................ 174

Appendix 1............................................................................................................................ 189

Appendix 2............................................................................................................................ 191

Appendix 3............................................................................................................................ 193

Appendix 4............................................................................................................................ 194

Appendix 5............................................................................................................................ 195

Appendix 6............................................................................................................................ 196

Appendix 7............................................................................................................................ 201

Appendix 8............................................................................................................................ 202

Appendix 9............................................................................................................................ 224

Appendix 10.......................................................................................................................... 226

Appendix 11.......................................................................................................................... 228

Acknowledgments and Photo Credits................................................................................... 230

Bibliography ......................................................................................................................... 232

PREFACE

The eleven circuit Chartres labyrinth

I began exploring the labyrinth in 1997 due to an incident that occurred in an undergraduate

religious studies course on sacred places. For my class presentation, I had chosen as my topic

the unicursal (single path) labyrinth, about which I knew nothing. Using a pattern I found on

the Internet, the class laid out a seven-circuit labyrinth in tape on the floor. Then we all

walked through it together. I assumed that, because we were engaged in purely “intellectual”

pursuits, the information concerning ritual process in the material I had gathered about the

labyrinth was entirely theoretical, and not applicable to a classroom situation. The

presentation went well: the class was cooperative and the labyrinth looked beautiful. We had

fun, except for one of the older students who complained of feeling crowded and nauseous.

I had underestimated the power of experiential learning. The following week, this student

described the aftermath of the presentation. A violent incident at home over the weekend had

triggered the insight that her marriage was a labyrinth, with her abusive husband as the

Minotaur at the centre! She decided to institutionalize him for previously diagnosed early

stage Alzheimer’s disease and had set the process in motion the very same day, to the great

relief of their adult children.

The story she recounted of revelation and personal transformation was so impressive that

I felt compelled to learn all I could about this phenomenon (Compton, 2002). How could

such an innocent, even clueless, undertaking could have such a profound effect? It did not

seem to matter whether participants believed in the power of the labyrinth or that they even

be aware of it. That suggested that the pattern was intentionally planned to have a particular

effect—at least the one I had witnessed (and what did that signify, in the world of scholarly

synchronicity?)— and perhaps others as well. This unleashed a cascade of questions: Who

had designed this thing? What were they thinking? What could we learn from it? Most

important, were there implications for education in such a life-altering site?

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