Labyrinth as Symbol
September 30, 2026
A labyrinth is a journey to the center. Unlike a maze, for which it is often confused, a labyrinth has no dead ends where you must turn around and return the way you came. Labyrinths meander, sometimes (often) turning back on themselves but always moving toward center. Once the center is reached, the walker pauses to survey the path taken, and then quietly turns and moves outward, changed by the journey.
I find the labyrinth a fitting archetype* to deepen the understanding of the process of Jungian Coaching. An archetype is a concept found in human thought for millennia, i.e. primordial. Whether one has walked a labyrinth or not, most people have an innate understanding of what it represents. Labyrinths have existed for eons and across cultures. The earliest known certified labyrinths were created around 250 B.C. though there are reports of labyrinths in cave paintings as early as 2500 B.C. Why? Why have humans created these patterns, walked these paths for so very long? People who have walked labyrinths, myself included, find them calming, inviting of self-reflection, and peaceful. Studies have backed these subjective feelings, and, as we know, our culture of “prove it” likes studies. They have shown
“that walking or otherwise interacting with the labyrinth [may] enable a set of physical responses (increased calm, quiet, and relaxation; decreased agitation, anxiety, and stress) that allows for the emergence of a set of “state of mind” responses (increased levels of centeredness, clarity, openness, peace, and reflection). In turn, these “state of mind” responses [may then] increase one’s receptivity to flashes of intuition, hunches, nudges from one’s “inner voice,” and other types of insight regarding one’s problems, issues or concerns.”**
That is exactly what we are looking for in Jungian Coaching: nudges, intuition, and our inner voice to let us know in what direction we wish to grow.
In coaching using a Jungian lens, we enter into relationship with the unconscious, tapping into what lies under our choices, decisions, or ways of living. We go beyond the external culturally impacted/created wants and needs to our truer selves and our deeper desires. By entering the world of the imagination, dreams, and fairy tales, we let go of cultural constraints and explore the inner world of symbols, images, and dreams and what they may tell us about ourselves and how we are, or want to be, in the world.
*archetype: a primordial image, character, or pattern of circumstances that recurs throughout literature and thought consistently enough to be considered a universal concept or situation. https://www.britannica.com/topic/archetype
**Rhodes, John W. “Commonly Reported Effects of Labyrinth Walking.” Labyrinth Pathways, 2nd Edition, July 2008, pp. 31–37.
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