Dreaming About a Labyrinth: What Does it Mean?
Labyrinths are one of the most symbolic structures on Earth. Everyone remembers the famous myth of the labyrinth of Crete, which was the starting point for its popularity in the West. Dreaming about a labyrinth is very common, and its interpretation is linked to various nuances of everyday life. We’ll show you 6 possible interpretations of this dreamy experience.
The impact of labyrinths and mazes in our culture is clear. Even today, labyrinth designs are very popular, not to mention the way they’re integrated into art or architecture. Think for example of the movie The Shining (1980) or the ice labyrinth in Poland that took the Internet by surprise a few years ago. Let’s look at possible meanings when dreaming about a labyrinth or maze.
Dreaming about a labyrinth: Possible meanings
If you have had dreams about mazes or labyrinths, you’ve surely wanted to know what they could mean. Certainly, its meaning can be very ambiguous; especially if you don’t establish any sort of connections with your real life. To find a possible meaning when you dream about a labyrinth, you have to evaluate your life, and get some relevant conclusions.
However, the problem that often occurs is that we do the opposite: we think up some interpretations and then try to forcefully apply them to our lives. We’ll show you 6 possible interpretations of dreaming about a labyrinth, all of them with a practical or material application.
1. Spiritual search
The first interpretation that the experts give to dreaming about a labyrinth is related to a spiritual search. In many cultures, a labyrinth symbolizes the path from the world of the living to the world of the dead. In short, the beginning symbolizes birth, the journey symbolizes life, and the end symbolizes death.
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Humanity has built systems of belief organization to interpret this path. On a formal level, we call these systems religions, but on an informal level we can label them as just beliefs. If you’re in the middle of a spiritual battle about your faith, your beliefs, how you feel about life or death, then you may dream about a maze.
2. You’re emotionally or physically lost
Since there is only one safe path among dozens of options when completing a maze, dreaming of a maze can be a metaphor for feeling lost. You may feel this way both physically and emotionally, so this dream is also related to experiences such as distress or loneliness.
Read this great article too: 7 Questions About Dreams
For example, you may be in an unsatisfying relationship or you may live in a place where you don’t want to be. You may have a job that makes you unhappy, or your social relationships may be non-existent. Anything that has to do with losing a sense of direction can make you dream of a labyrinth: drug use, depression, financial difficulties, and so on.
3. You’re testing your skills
Completing a labyrinth requires skills and abilities of high esteem. Think right now about a hypothetical maze that’s several miles long. Depending on your skills, spatial ability, ingenuity, or determination, it could take you anywhere from several hours to days to get out of it. For example, in a Greek myth, Theseus uses Ariadne’s thread to return to the starting point.
This can be interpreted in your life as you going through a difficult experience that requires the greatest depths of your ingenuity, concentration, or commitment. It could be a testing time at a new job, the responsibility of caring for a newborn baby, the development of a new venture, or a time of exams at school. Your progress in the dream reflects your progress in real life.
4. You want to start a journey
We’ve already mentioned that the labyrinth exemplifies the journey from life to death. This can also be interpreted as any kind of journey, one in which you encounter various obstacles you need to resolve. Keeping this meaning in mind, we can synthesize the following arguments as to why you dream of mazes:
- You’re preparing for a journey that will test all your abilities.
- You want to add more adventure in your life, but some fears may be holding you back.
- You’re tired of routine, monotony, and want to make a drastic change by leaving everything behind and starting a new life.
- You’re an adventurous person and are about to plan the biggest trip you’ve ever taken.
In this case, we’re referring to a physical journey, although it can also be interpreted as a more abstract journey. However, it’s something you want to do despite the difficulties. The dream is yet another reminder to yourself to show you how much you want it.
5. You’re repressing your demons
In a Greek myth, Daedalus built the labyrinth of Crete to imprison the Minotaur within it. In ancient beliefs, it was attributed to the ability to capture evil or spirits. This is why we find labyrinths before entering a temple or any kind of building. T he labyrinth as a receptacle of darkness is common in many cultures.
If we take this interpretation into account, dreaming about a labyrinth can be a way for you to tell yourself that you’re repressing your demons. You’re not facing them and you’re choosing instead to lock them inside of you. By demons, we mean emotional issues such as depression, insecurities, trauma, low self-esteem, and so on.
6. You’re in a stage of rebirth
Returning to the analogy of the labyrinth as a journey, it’s important to consider that every traveler undergoes a transformation along the way. Certainly, the obstacles they have to face give them experience and wisdom, as well as a completely different perspective compared with at the start of the journey. Think of Odysseus’ journey in the Odyssey, for example.
Broadly speaking, we can sum this up by saying that you’re in the midst of a stage of rebirth. One in which you’re leaving behind dogmas, paradigms, ideologies, or thoughts and replacing them with a new way of seeing the world. If you dream that you’re emerging from a maze, it will show that you have completed your journey.
The interpretations given are, of course, symbolic, and their relationship to your life can be varied. You need to find the relevant connection for your life, so that you can choose what kind of meaning to attribute to dreaming about a labyrinth.
All cited sources were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, currency, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.
- Dudeja, J. P. Labyrinth walking: Origin, patterns, significance, walking procedures and spiritual benefits. International Journal of Yogic, Human Movement and Sports Sciences. 2018; 3(2 Part K), 666-673.
- Geoffrion, J. K., & Louët, A. P. Medieval Marvels: Fifty-Three Eleven-Circuit Manuscript Labyrinths. 2020.
