Labyrinth

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labyrinth jlb 1. A unicursal path wound to a central turn-about. 2. A geomachynically-rendered purificator utilized in ritualized ablations of the soul. 3. A Greek Key fit with a lock.

Usage


...toomed entanglements, walled, mine eyes bereft..

Extrapolation


Ancient labyrinths dot the globe from the arctic to the Mediterranean. Unlike the maze, whose object is to befuddle those going from Point A to Point B, the highly-stylized labyrinth loops one to the core and back out the same path. Labyrinths have long served as physical manifestations of metaphorical journeys wherein one returns from tribulations (or wanderings), bettered. Similar devices include Mt. Fuji, Dante's Inferno, beanstalks, and the Bath-Marie. Like the Bath-Marie, a labyrinth draws the impure into a central chamber, removes impurities, and expels the purified agent while containing the baser stuff.

TerraWee briefly sported an elaborate labyrinth named Saturn. Its concentric rings of shrubbery circled a deep sinkhole, and Watchtowers orbited the outskirts. Art Doll pumped the sinkhole full of pancake batter, flash-fried the surface, and slathered it with gallons of butter. He intended to raise funds by selling off chunks at TerraWee's Solar Bakery, but an early winter storm turned his giant flapjack into an ice-skating rink. The unflappable Doll laughed. "What can I say? Saturn's cold."

The most famous labyrinth stems from gnostic Minoan legends. Daedalus fathered the labyrinth as a boneyards for the minotaur and placed his son Icarus inside. Icarus crept darkly through the hunimal tomb before leaping out in angelic ascension, ditching his burdensome Father. Of course the gods casually swat him back to earth, his journey perhaps more transhumance than transhuman or alchemic. "Ah but that brief moment of flight, crooned the fallen angel in phoenix-like recollection".1 

Birth itself apes this process: a sperm wriggling through feminal channels to the womb, joined to an egg (its halfness lost), expelled some nine months later -- now somehow greater than its original form, more than the slimy stuff shot forth by the Father into the void. Oedipus beware -- your children are unlikely to forgive their creation.

Notes


Note 1:  Jenkins, Jane. Notes on Self.

See Also



Desiderata