New Labyrinths in the Eastern USA
Sig Lonegren
Labyrinths have been the focus of increasing interest in the last ten years both in Britain and in the US and Canada. While most of the interest has been focused, rightly so, on the famous older examples in Crete, Italy, Britain, in Chartres and other Gothic Cathedrals in France, the Scandinavian coast, Hopi land (Arizona, USA), Nazca (Peru), and many others, there has also been a growing interest in the construction of new labyrinths as well. There are labyrinths being built on both sides of the Big Pond. To begin with, I'd like to divide these new labyrinths into two categories - temporary and permanent.
Temporary Labyrinths
In the first five years that I was building them, the vast majority of the labyrinths that I was involved in constructing were temporary ones. In the US this was mostly the indoor variety of bright yarn and masking tape to hold the yarn "walls" to the carpet. They're easy to make, and quickly teach the participant how to construct full-sized copies of these ancient magical single-path mazes. At the same time in OakDragon Camps in Cornwall, Devon, Somerset and Wiltshire, in England and in Dyfed just under the Prescellies in Wales, we were making outside ones - either yarn and stick labyrinths or ones out of football field marking lime. Next summer (1993), OakDragon will be offering a Sacred Space and Healing Camp in Britain where we will be working on the techniques behind the construction of stone rings, medicine wheels and labyrinths and ways of using these spaces for transformational healing. (For information write: OakDragon, PO Box 5, Castle Cary, Somerset, BA7 7QY, England).
There have also been a number of lawn-mower labyrinths constructed. The first one I made was in 1986 in a farmer's field in Butleigh, Somerset, England, within sight of the Glastonbury Tor at a Glastonbury Camps Beltane Gathering. For the last several years I've been offering an apprenticeship program in the Construction and Uses of Sacred Space here in Vermont. One of my major goals is to have my students construct permanent sacred spaces. Because one must continue mowing lawn-mower labyrinths, these are the most tenuous labyrinths in the "permanent" category; however, several of them have been kept up for several years now, so I feel that they can be seen as at least quasi-permanent. One Classical seven circuit lawn-mower labyrinth is on Paul Kervik's land in North Ferrisburg, Vermont. Another is a Classical eleven circuit labyrinth that is next to a beautiful small stone ring that our class also built on John and Babbie Earle's farm in Chelsea, Vermont. Unless I note otherwise, all labyrinths mentioned in this article are of the Classical seven circuit type:
 The Classical Seven Circuit Labyrinth and its Seed Pattern.
Permanent Labyrinths
There have been many permanent labyrinths built here in the US within the recent past. The first one I experienced was the turf labyrinth my publishers, Jamie George and Francis Howard Gordon of Gothic Image, helped me make in my front lawn here in Vermont in 1986. In addition to keeping it mowed on a regular basis, the dirt path needs to be weeded three or four times a year. I can appreciate how quickly a white horse or other chalk hill figure would disappear if not maintained, not to mention the turf mazes/labyrinths that have disappeared in Britain for lack of use and interest. The magic had been forgotten. And it is now being discovered again...
 The turf labyrinth on Sig Lonegren's lawn, Greensboro, Vermont.
Students in the apprenticeship program have built a number of labyrinths. In addition to the two lawn-mower labyrinths mentioned above, in Essex, in northwestern Vermont we built a traditional seven circuit labyrinth out of sweat rocks (stones previously used in Native American sweat lodge ceremonies). This one is set in a small valley surrounded steeply on all sides by higher hills. Native Americans come there to lead these cleansing and healing sweat lodges. There's a very interesting one in northeastern Connecticut in Woodstock. There my friend Reva Seybolt has constructed a most unusual quasi-classical nine circuit labyrinth made of sweat rocks (Native Americans run sweats there as well). Reva reports that she finds that she likes walking the labyrinth at night best. The quartz and reflective bits of these heat-shattered rocks make the walls eerily visible in the dark. The seed pattern and resultant labyrinth look like this:
 Irregular classical labyrinth with asymmetric seed pattern, located in Woodstock, Connecticut.
I have a teacher and friend named Twylah Nitsch who is a Wolf Clan Mother of the Seneca Nation of the Haudenosaunee (white people call them Iroquois). I taught her how to dowse, and she showed me how closely my dowsing corresponded to what her "band" (group of spirit guides) were showing her. At a workshop that I led at her home on the Cattaragus Reservation in western New York I laid out a rectangular labyrinth, similar to ones of the Hopi and Tohono O'otam of the American southwest. This stick and yarn rectangular labyrinth was then walled with stones. Many of her students use it to this day.
Just south of Grandmother Twylah's home in western New York is the wonderful community of Lily Dale. It is a spiritualist community rooted in the traditions of the Fox sisters who started this movement in the middle of the last century. Over the years I have had many pleasant associations with Lily Dale from helping Twylah to set out a permanent medicine wheel in front of the hotel to speaking and teaching there on many occasions.
Mark and Elaine Thomas live at Lily Dale and run the School of Spiritual Healing and Prophesy. After I had explored the uses of the labyrinth at their school for several years, Mark and Elaine sought permission to erect a permanent labyrinth in the Dale. We found a perfect spot in a circle of trees next to the childrens' school. The labyrinth is made of yew trees and other flowers. In a few years, the yews will grow together and be cut knee high to form a hedge. It has proved to be a popular addition to the community. The kids love to run it.
There is another seven circuit example in Ithaca, New York, at the Foundation of Light. Chuck Pettis built the first modern stone circle that I know of in the US there in the 1970's. It is a small simple circle with interesting astronomical properties. A string and stick labyrinth I set up near that seminal circle has been converted to a stone walled one by the people at the Foundation.
The permanent US labyrinth farthest away from Vermont that I have had anything to do with is in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, at a place called Sparrow Hawk Village. It is a spiritual community started by Carol Parish and her husband, Charles Harra, and I helped them locate and design their sanctuary in the early eighties. This year Carol and Charles invited me out there to pick the location of a labyrinth that would be hooked in energetically with the sanctuary through an energy ley that goes through the centre of both. The labyrinth has a covering of heavily packed stone with the actual outline being done in paint on this packed rock surface. It is sixty feet in diameter, so many people will be able to walk this labyrinth at the same time. It was designed by Charles Harra to be low in maintenance and also to withstand the expected heavy use by the students who go there to Carol's Sancta Sophia Seminary and to other events and services there.
Marty Cain
Marty Cain is an artist who loves to go walking through the woods. When she comes to a special place, she has what she calls "an art attack". She tidies up the place, puts stones in rows or spirals, rakes it with a branch, and in general, with no tools, adds her artistic touch to a naturally sacred space. Her slides are fantastic! I urge you to have art attacks when you walk through Nature. It is a wonderfully therapeutic way to honour the Earth. Marty has a meander labyrinth in her garden of her home in Newport, New Hampshire. It was located by dowsing, and is surrounded by herbs, flowers, and vegetables that were all placed in conjunction with the spirit of that land. Marty has also played a major role in the construction of two other unusual labyrinths.
Harvard University has a womens' college associated with it called Radcliffe. Marty was an art teacher there, and as part of her class in the autumn of 1990, she and her students constructed an enormous lime labyrinth on the quadrangle at Radcliffe. She also demarked the veins of underground water and the energy leys she dowsed crossing there. Underneath the quadrangle is a warren of tunnels that connect the various buildings. They are used by the students in the winter and in inclement weather. Marty marked the veins of water and the energy leys down in the tunnels as well. While this was only a temporary labyrinth, it was a magical artistic event that captured the imagination of every student who crossed the Quad at Radcliffe that autumn.
 "Site Lines" by Marty Cain, Radcliffe Quadrangle, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Marty also had a hand in the location and layout of a quite large white quartz stone labyrinth in a reclaimed quartz quarry at the Kebec Crystal Mines in Quebec, Canada. There are other attractions there including a tour through the quartz mine and a stone circle made entirely of white quartz boulders (I know of only one all quartz stone ring in Britain - at Duloe in Cornwall).
Ross Jennings
Ross Jennings is a professional geomancer who lives in southern New Hampshire. He has constructed two classical seven circuit labyrinths, one in a magical bit of woodland full of Algonquin stone piles next to a development in Townsend, Massachusetts, and the other at Hearthstone, the community where he lives in New Hampshire.
I understand that Adrian Fisher of Minotaur Designs has been talking with people in Great Barrington, Massachusetts about the possibility of building one of his celebrated mazes there. That would be an interesting addition to this list should it come about.
American Society of Dowsers
In terms of groups who are doing things with labyrinths here in the US, the American Society of Dowsers (ASD) has supported the labyrinthine work of Alex Champion, feather Anderson, Nicholas Fink and others at the ASD West Coast Conference, and the work of Ross Jennings, Marty Cain, Wayne London, Jay Doherty and yours truly at the ASD Annual Conventions in Danville, Vermont {telephone (802) 684-3417 for details}. Labyrinths have been discussed for many years now at both of these ASD gatherings. While I have constructed temporary labyrinths at gatherings of other organizations, I know of no other group here in the US that has so consistently covered this ancient magical single path maze.
 Sig demonstrating his turf labyrinth to the Danville Chapter of the A.S.D.
Please note that this is by no means a complete list of labyrinths in the eastern US. It is only offered as a starting point. I have heard about other labyrinths being built around the US, but unfortunately, I did not note their locations. I know that Alex Champion has built a number of beautiful permanent labyrinths and magical mazes out on the West Coast. I would encourage US subscribers of Caerdroia to send site locations and other pertinent information about any permanent labyrinths that they know of here in the US. Caerdroia keeps track of labyrinths all over the world, they're the logical folks to record this information.
I would also like to remind readers that in most cases, these US labyrinths are on private land. For example, I'm certainly not interested in having hoards of folks showing up on my door as a result of this article. Please do not arrive at any of these sites unannounced. At the same time, there have been enough new labyrinths built here so that it is now important to record where they are. The only places that are open to the public are the yew labyrinth in Lily Dale {telephone (716) 595-8721}, the packed rock labyrinth at Sparrow Hawk Village in Tahlequah, Oklahoma {(916) 456-3421}, and the quartz labyrinth at the Kebec Crystal Mines in Quebec, Canada {(514) 535-6698 or -6550}. Any Caerdroia subscriber is welcome to walk my turf labyrinth in Greensboro, Vermont, but please call in advance (802) 533-2240.
Sig Lonegren, Vermont, October 1992