The Mizmaze Puzzle - TrustNews February 1991
Letter from Professor James Stevens Curl
Sir
The interesting article on Mazes in the August 1990 issue of the Newsletter prompts me to write to you. Members may be interested to know that Mazes (among many other things) are discussed in my forthcoming book, The Art and Architecture of Freemasonry, which Batsfords are bringing out shortly.
Mazes in Cathedrals were symbolic of the journey through life, with all the wrong turnings, etc., until Jerusalem or Paradise was reached. Associated with such mazes were the obscure clergy-dances. Turf mazes, such as those in Wing in Rutland, may also have been pilgrimage substitutes. The faithful would proceed on hands and knees, performing prescribed prayers and acts of penitence, and taking a long time to reach the centre of the maze.
Michael Carden is quite right: the Winchester maze has probably been altered because of misunderstood cutting in later times, and it probably had a similar configuration to that of Chartres, although squared instead of circular. There was a splendid maze on the floor of Rheims Cathedral too. The point was that a Cathedral containing a maze would be a substitute for a major pilgrimage to the Holy Land, so the centre of a maze (Jerusalem) was a substitute for the real thing. But it went further than that: Jerusalem was also the City of God and Paradise, so the Maze was symbolic of the journey of the Christian soul.
Yours sincerely,
James Stevens Curl
Oakham,
Rutland