The Native American Labyrinth (The man in the maze)

There is a classical labyrinth in a quite special form: The man in the maze. It is to find above all on the baskets of the Native Americans in the US which have presumably also developed this type.

The Native American labyrinth

It is round, but the goal is not in the middle. If one looks exactly, one recognises the four points of inflexion of the classical labyrinth. They also mark four corners of a square.

The subdivision in 8 segments is new, they also allow to think of the spokes of a wheel. Thus gets in addition a movement towards the centre and away from the centre. The order of paths is again 3-2-1-4-7-6-5-8; well-known from the classical type. The “path changes” always occur on the 9th and 10th ring. The 11th is as it were the stationary pole or the hub.

This could make think to the Wheel of Law  (Dharma wheel) in the Buddhism with eight spokes which on her part remind of the Noble Eightfold Path.

Painting

Sand picture

Silver jewellery

In artistic representations this type often appears, hardly as a walkable labyrinth. But it would absolutely be interesting to walk and to perceive such a labyrinth.

You can see a Flash animation on the website mymaze.

Who would like to build such a labyrinth, please here you may find the layout drawing as PDF file to look on, to print or to copy.