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oblivion25 — Circular Labyrinth

Published: 2005-03-13 16:30:13 +0000 UTC; Views: 7029; Favourites: 49; Downloads: 492
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Description Wanted to design a tattoo for myself that I thought would say a little bit about me and what I believe in. I found some "old" designs in a book I got a LONG time ago. I was thumbing around and found a Labyrinth design which I was aware had a deeper spiritual meaning.
If your interested in using it please feel free, it’s not a symbol that I can claim I came up with. In case your wondering about some of it’s meaning here is a description and some background information about the symbol:

Labyrinth

Often scratched or carved on a Stone Age monuments and gravesites, the labyrinthine design apparently represented the soul's journey into the center of the uterine underworld and its return toward rebirth. A labyrinth was not the same as a maze. A labyrinth had only one path, winding but branchless, heading inevitably toward the goal. Designs of this type were common on ancient coins, titles, floor patterns, and especially tombs and sacred caves.
Labyrinth means "House of the Double Ax," from labrys, the sacred ax of Crete. The word was originally applied to the Minoan palace at Knossos, home of the fabled Minotaur (“Moon-bull”), who guarded the central underground chamber as his Asian counterpart, bull-masked Yama, guarded his underworld. The journey into this central chamber seems to have been a death-rebirth ritual, although the classical myth of Theseus makes it a hero’s ordeal.
The pagan tradition of walking the labyrinth as an initiatory procedure passed down through the centuries in children’s games like “Troy Town.” Christian authorities also took it over the created many labyrinthine floor patterns in churches and cathedrals. Ritual walking of the pattern was said to represent a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and back again. And yet, paradoxically, the labyrinth was also a symbol of hell, because Virgil’s Aeneid said it marked the gates of the Sybil’s temple at Cumae This temple was always considered to be one of the entrances to the underworld, in both pagan and Christian traditions
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Comments: 4

oblivion25 [2007-11-05 01:42:09 +0000 UTC]

Sorry that it took so long. I am glad that the design was well liked.

THANK YOU to everyone that commented and added to Favorites.

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lamba-sol [2007-09-08 18:44:29 +0000 UTC]

that's not only a different design than what I am familiar with, but you included some good historical information that I had not been aware of.

Thank you for putting this up, it looks awesome.

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LunaAuryn [2007-08-11 22:01:23 +0000 UTC]

I love that symbol, that would be a wonderful tattoo

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littlemissartemis [2007-01-30 06:50:16 +0000 UTC]

I've never seen this version before. Interesting.

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