The stunning labyrinth above was built with hundreds of hours of volunteer effort, dedication, love and patience.  The Labyrinth has seven paths representing the seven chakras. It measures 11 metres across.

Earliest representations of the Labyrinth have been found on pottery shards dating back to 4000 BC.  To walk the labyrinth is to be reconnected to the body and the earth.  It is a universal pattern of wisdom and energy.  The Labyrinth is a powerful tool for ceremonial and meditational walking, it heals the spirit and balances vital life-force energies. 

The idea to build the Labyrinth came to us during a meditation at the gardens in late 2004.  In 2005 we chose to build it on the site where there was originally an American Indian Medicine Wheel planted with medicinal herbs.  The herbs were long gone and it was overgrown with grass.  A pair of blue tongue lizards were living in the middle of it who decided to find a new home when we started removing the grass from the site. 

Originally we made the Labyrinth out of donated pavers on a bed of sand and filled the gap in with gravel.  In 2006 we decided to make it more solid and permanent so we cemented down the pavers and laid mosaic in between.  With a white om symbol as a centrepiece and the colours of the chakras in the outer layers. We mixed 150 barrows of cement.  The mosaics were laid using the ancient roman technique.  It took three months of hard work, several days a week to build it the second time but it was a wonderful experience. 

The Labyrinth is a great performance space for our annual Festival of Joy. The Labyrinth was completed on the 13th of October 2006.  We had it blessed by Tibetan monks and for the ceremony of the Festival of Joy we had chanting, singing, dancing and drumming on it.  It is a truly wonderful labyrinth!!  We love it.

Volunteers who created it were - Gill, Michael, Janet, Bronwyn, Supapon, Richard, Michelle, Genna, Christine, Amelie, Zack, Aleisha, Michael, Robert, Jack, Liam, Sandy and others.

Many thanks to Harry the tiler for showing us the mosiac techniques and Geoffry Smith, Anne and Amy from Blue Mountains City Council for their support.

by Gill Brame