Hamish Miller and Paul Broadhurst, authors of The Sun and the Serpent, dowsed ley lines in the Glastonbury and Cornwall area finding numerous sacred sites that sprang up centuries ago, along the often-interwoven underground energy currents they termed the Mary and Michael lines. In this century, the long-buried Taddle Creek was influential in the creation of an 11-circuit classical labyrinth here in Toronto, Canada. The lost Taddle Creek appears on a sketch in the city archives in 1797, of the Macauley estate in what is now downtown Toronto.
In 1984 the architects (Thom Partnership and Landscape Architects Fleming, Corban McCarthy) were commissioned to make meaning of a parched, leftover plot of public land enclosed by the Church of the Holy Trinity, the back door of the Eaton Centre and the Bell Trinity building.
They acted upon a whisper from the Taddle Creek, creating a water fountain and basin. Trinity Square Park, also featured three gates leading to a sunken square of lawn.
Sixteen years later, members of the Labyrinth Community Network of Ontario (LCNO) also heard that whisper.
Read moreRecently, I met up with three friends to walk the Tree of Life labyrinth that artist Dennis Bolohan was commissioned to design and install beside the library in Cookstown for Innisfil’s bicentennial celebrations which had been delayed due to COVID restrictions.
As a committed labyrinth walker and certified Labyrinth Facilitator I was curious to experience walking the Tree of Life design. The Chartres 11-circuit design is my chosen favourite, but I managed to keep an open mind as we made our way to the entrance where a sign gave us a brief overview of the labyrinth’s background and purpose.
Read more14 Toronto Wading Pool Labyrinths added to directory – for photos see directory
Read moreA labyrinth is a pattern with a single winding path that leads from the entrance to the centre. All labyrinths are unicursal, that is, they have only one path. Mazes are multicursal. Their many paths present a puzzle which the walker must solve in order to reach the centre.
WHAT DOES A LABYRINTH PATTERN LOOK LIKE?
There are two basic labyrinth patterns, the Classical or Cretan, which has seven paths or circuits that surround the centre, and the Chartres or Medieval style, based on a pattern set into the floor of Chartres Cathedral in France in the early years of the 13th century, which has eleven circuits leading to the centre.
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