The
Stronachie Labyrinth
Grahame
Gardner
A
garden labyrinth in Perthshire constructed in 2005.
Dedicated to the memory of Michael Buller, whose love
and energy was woven into the labyrinth.
In
2004, I was commissioned by Jannette Kidd, a Reiki practitioner
in Perthshire, to design a labyrinth for her front garden.
The property is in a remote location high in the Ochil
hills, with stunning views to the north. The location
was to be on the site of a small flowerbed in the centre
of the lawn with a slight slope.
When
I visited her to investigate the site and talk further
about her wishes, Janette expressed a strong affinity
with the Classical 7-circuit labyrinth pattern and wasn’t
interested in any new-fangled labyrinth designs. The
size of the labyrinth was to be less than 20 feet diameter
to minimise digging work (the existing flowerbed was
about 14 feet across). Janette also has four dogs, so
was keen for the construction to be dog-proof. We initially
looked at a design using cobbles and crushed slate,
but she felt that the dogs would make short work of
anything that wasn’t completely solid, so it became
clear that we were looking at a patio–type construction
using bricks or pavers. This had obvious cost and size
issues; I didn’t think it would be possible to
get a 7-circuit design into less than a 25ft. diameter.
Janette had connections with a local building firm run
by a friend, so we agreed that she would try and source
the materials from them. She was also having an extension
built on the house at the time, and arranged to keep
the builders on site afterwards to prepare the ground
and lay the labyrinth.
Meanwhile, I dowsed the area to see where the most energetic
point would be to site the labyrinth. I found a strong
water line flowing downhill under the flowerbed, and
an energy ley crossing this within the flowerbed. This
was clearly the spot, although I was somewhat troubled
by the various bits of metal earthing wire and pipes
that protruded from the ground. Possibly there was a
fountain there at one time, or perhaps they were just
remnants from previous uses of the house, which used
to be distillery workers’ cottages.
Deciding on the orientation of the labyrinth was easy
– the garden only had views to the North, so it
was logical that you should be facing that direction
when you reached the goal. This would mean that the
entrance was facing towards the door of the house, and
although we would have to cut some steps into the bank
to accommodate this, it was still the only sensible
choice.
A few weeks later, I returned on a clear, crisp November
night to ceremonially ‘Draw Down the North’
by sighting on the North Star to establish a baseline
axis, and formally consecrated the site, with the help
of Janette and her husband Brian. I inserted pegs and
string to mark the north-south axis, and established
East and West cardinal directions using a druid’s
cord and more pegs.
Winter came and went, and finally the builders were
finished on the house and ready to work on the labyrinth.
Janette had found some lovely pre-cast pavers in contrasting
colours of white and purple-red to use. I drew up a
plan using two rows of red stones laid lengthwise for
the paths, and a single row of white stones laid sideways
for the walls, with no space between. This was the smallest
possible configuration that was possible to walk, but
the diameter was a little over her figure of 20 feet.
However, we asked the builders to excavate and level
a 20 foot area and prepare it with a hardcore and sand
base.
I re-dowsed the site to check if anything new had happened,
but all seemed to be pretty much as it was. In the picture,
the white line is the north-south axis, the yellow line
is the water vein, and the pink is the energy ley.
The plan of the labyrinth has also been laid out in
these shots, using Robert Ferré’s rope
method. It was at this point that Janette finally realised
that 20 feet just wasn’t enough; we were going
to have to excavate another foot or so of the bank in
a couple of places to accommodate the widest points.
In doing this, I encountered a real test of my dowsing
ability. A steel pipe or bar appeared, running out of
the bank at roughly a 45° angle and disappearing
into what would be the outer path of the labyrinth.
Work stopped as we tried to figure out what this could
be. It was going to be a massive job if we had to really
excavate deeply to reroute or rebury this pipe. I thought
it most likely to be water or gas, but Janette assured
us that all the house utilities were at the other side
of the garden, and that this was probably just another
bit of old stuff that had been left in the ground. In
the absence of any better intelligence, I decided to
dowse it. Finally, after much questioning, I concluded
that it was an old water pipe that was no longer in
use and disconnected at least at one end. I confidently
declared that it was safe to cut, and handed the hacksaw
to the builder..!
Fortunately, the pipe did turn out to be empty, and
we soon had the offending ends bent and buried out of
the way.
With the pipe sorted, construction started in earnest.
The two builders very efficiently laid out the main
circuits while the rest of us ferried bricks over to
them and distibuted them in piles around the edge. This
was my first build completely in pavers and it was an
interesting learning experience. I was glad we had a
couple of professional builders working on it who knew
about such things as how to ensure there was a very
slight slope radiating out from the centre to help drainage,
and most importantly how to use a powered stonecutter
saw without taking your foot off..!
The most difficult thing was cutting the stones for
the tighter corners - I tried to think of several ways
of marking out the stones for this accurately, but in
the end it was plain old trial and error that won the
day. The wedge-shaped 'offcuts' from this process were
then used to fill in some of the not-quite-so-large
gaps, and the rest filled in with builder's sand. The
finished result is very pleasing, and in thickening
dusk we were able to walk the almost-complete labyrinth.
The quantity of bricks that we had estimated, checked
by dowsing, turned out to be fairly accurate; we were
six white bricks short for the outer wall, and had half
a pallet of red bricks remaining, which would be fine
for doing the steps down to the entrance.
Over
the next few weeks, the builders finished off the banked
edge of the lawn with vertically planted logs, and cut
the steps into the bank. I returned with a small standing
stone (left over from a previous project), to install
in the ‘node’ point created by the curved
edges of the paths. I like having standing stones in
a labyrinth as they reinforce the vertical connection
and provide grounding for detrimental earth energies
that otherwise escape [1].
It’s also good to touch it as you walk, and this
nodal spot in the labyrinth is quite powerful. Normally
the node is formed by the crossing of the two lines
that make up the ‘walls’ of the labyrinth,
but in this case I ‘rounded out’ the corners
to give the rounded diamond-shaped node. There is obvious
fertility symbolism present here too, with the diamond
representing the feminine and the stone masculine. Normally
I would have placed the stone in the goal of the labyrinth,
but the dimensions of the path just wouldn’t allow
for that, so the node was a natural choice. This position
allows you to touch the stone several times as you pass
it on the path, and is a convenient place to make offerings
and affirmations.
At the top of the steps down to the entrance, a slab
of sandstone was set into the lawn. This 'pausing stone’
gives you a chance to collect your thoughts and set
your intention for your walk. Together with the steps
down, you really have a sense of descending into a different
space as you enter the labyrinth.
The labyrinth was formally opened on 18 Dec. 2005, just
a day or two after the highest full moon in 19 years,
as we were at the major standstill in the lunar cycle.
All the work was complete, and Janette had decorated
the labyrinth and garden with flowers and candle lanterns
on poles.
It drizzled with freezing rain as about twenty people
held hands around the labyrinth and tried to raise some
energy in the wintry air as I led a guided meditation
to connect the labyrinth to other nearby sites in the
‘grid’ and activate it energetically. About
three minutes into things it started to rain quite heavily,
making concentration somewhat difficult, but we persevered
and by the end of the ceremony the rain stopped long
enough for all of us to walk the path in relative comfort.
Perhaps due to the presence of several Reiki masters
and other energy workers at the opening ceremony, the
walk was a very lively experience. Several times on
the outer circuits I felt myself being pulled towards
the centre and ended up leaning in that direction.
Subsequent
to the opening ceremony, a few odd things started to
happen in the house and its inhabitants, leading me
to suspect that the new energetic connections were affecting
the balance of the house. To use an electrical analogy,
it was as though we’d installed a power station
in the garden without putting in a step-down transformer
for the house. I
had the opportunity to return with a student a few months
later, and found that things had indeed moved on energetically
- the labyrinth had developed its own weak blind spring,
and a new water vein of pure water (purple on the Mager
rosette) was flowing from it under the house. Interestingly,
it passes underneath the fireplace but thankfully not
under any beds.
I also found a brand-new energy ley flowing through
the labyrinth from the east, and continuing on through
the corner of the newly-built extension on the house.
I had suspected some nature spirit trauma in this area,
and here was a classic example of a building corner
obstructing a 'fairy path' and causing a blockage.
Thankfully,
things were fairly easy to fix; I did some earth acupuncture
on the ley with wands and flower essences, made some
offerings to the nature and tree spirits of the garden,
and things settled down pretty quickly. But I feel that
this is going to be a continuing relationship as the
labyrinth grows stronger.
[1]
In terms of earth energies, work done by the British
Society of Dowsers' Earth Energies Group shows that
the labyrinth form will actually 'ground' detrimental
energies. The standing stone in the node aids in this
process and prevents anything leaking out of the entrance.
See
this article by Billy Gawn for more on how this
works. In this case, the stone is placed on the edge
line of a water vein and an energy ley. The stone
height and orientation were all dowsed on site to
ensure correct placement.
It doesn't have to be a standing stone - anything
above a certain mass and height will do, for example
a sundial on a plinth.
The
Stronachie Labyrinth is listed on the World-Wide
Labyrinth Locator, but please remember that it
is on private property and is not open to the public
without prior arrangement.
If you would like to consult us about a labyrinth
project please contact us.
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