“One easily enters into pleasure, But leaving it is a great difficulty. By too much desire to obey one’s belly, One becomes worse in every faculty. This fine statement we conclude From the Labyrinth, into which one May easily enter; but if deeply Inside, the exit is difficult. Likewise, in vain pleasure, One enters too easily, but leaving is not easy.”
"If anyone asks what sacred symbols these philosophers bear, Nature herself cannot fully explain their causes. The beginning of studying things is like entering a labyrinth, Of which the divine part is the highest philosophy."
A labyrinth is composed of concentric circles, interrupted at certain points, forming a winding and inextricable course. He who enters without order or knowledge wanders for a long time, continually advancing deeper into the twists of the circuit, and finds it difficult to discover the exit. But he who knows the succession of the turns and follows the appropriate path reaches the center without confusion and then returns to the beginning. Thus the labyrinth represents the image of the world and of human life, in which many allow themselves to be seduced by appearances and lose themselves in their wanderings. Only wisdom, patience, and understanding lead to the middle, from ignorance to knowledge, from darkness toward light. The straight path is not found by chance, but through knowledge and discipline.
“He who ventures courageously into a labyrinth seeking to find the truth of his life is forced by its circuitous pathways to circumambulate the center of himself, to learn to relate with it and to perceive it from all sides. He can only reach it by passing through the entire interior space of the labyrinth beforehand, by relating to all of its dimensions, and integrating them all into the wholeness of his personality. In fact, in a labyrinth all passages lead into each other, making up an interconnected whole. Uninterrupted and leaving no part out, they form the basis for life's adventure of individuation. Hermann Kern provides the following interpretation in relating such psychic processes to the figure of the labyrinth: The labyrinth is thus also a symbol of integration, individuation, of the concentration of all essential layers, aspects, and levels of meaning of a human existence. It symbolizes, among other things, the process of maturation from a one-dimensional person, fragmented into a thousand separate functions, into a rounded-out personality, composed in itself, which has found its center.” — The Labyrinth by Helmut Jaskolski
The Labyrinth of Love
"What is love? And therefore love is the bond of the soul, by which the human spirit is joined. Love is the root of all good, without which nothing good can exist.
The order of love. This is what love does, and how love acts. He who loves God loves all things rightly. He who loves the world loves in disorder. He who loves only himself loves nothing rightly. He who loves God does not lose himself, but finds himself perfected in love.
The Labyrinth of Love. Observe carefully how love draws the soul inward. What is scattered is gathered together. What is divided is made one. Through love the soul is perfected."
“The maze has a double function of allowing access to hidden places and prohibiting it to those who don’t have the necessary qualifications. Only those who know how to find the way get to the Center, for everyone else, the labyrinth is the place of getting lost and ultimate loss. The path is never straight; its sinuities are the periphery of existence and the multiple states of being that the initiate has to go through and "resolve" before reaching the unity of the Center. This is equivalent to a consecration, to an initiation; to an unholy and illusional existence yesterday, a new real existence is happening now. The symbol of the labyrinth highlights above all the idea of a "progressing" towards an occult Center. In the esoteric sense, the meaning is the same as the search for the "Lost Word" or the "Holy Grail". This leads us directly to a more "inner" meaning; the one who walks the labyrinth is able to eventually find the "central place", that is, from the point of view of the initial realization, his own center, which also agrees with the equivalent symbolism of the heart. Another equivalent symbolism is that of the "pilgrimage"; in this regard we will remember the labyrinths that were once drawn on the floor of certain churches, whose route was considered "alternative" for the pilgrimage to the Holy Land; otherwise, if the ending point of this route represents a place reserved for the "elected", such a place It is truly a “Holy Land” in the initial sense of the expression; this point is nothing but a picture of a spiritual center, as is every place of origin. " - Renè Guènon, Symbols of Sacred Science
