Masonic & Occult Symbols Illustrate

Was the labyrinth chosen intentionally or was it just a coincidence? In The Symbolism of the Eastern Star we read: “The meaning of the word Labyrinth is a series of winding passages, a maze of intricate windings; copied from the structure made in Crete by Dadalus (sic).” The Seeker's Handbook explains more about this: “By a second derivation, labyrinth comes from the ancient Greek word labrys, ‘the double-headed axe.’ In Cretan myth, the maze of Daedalus, where Theseus found and slew the Minotaur, was known as the place of the double headed axe—this being, apparently, the weapon of slaughter or sacrifice that the hero used. But deep research into Mediterranean culture of five to seven thousand years B.C. (reported by Marija Gimbutas) turns up the curious notion that the doubled-headed axes may have been a visual pun: At the earliest stage it appears to have been more common as the image of a butterfly! Now the butterfly itself—in Greek, psyche —is the earliest symbol that we have for the immortal human soul. It was also an emblem held sacred to the Great Goddess or Mother Earth. Somehow the butterfly is deeply connected with the labyrinth, as much as the double-headed axe. These two images, one so masculine and the other so feminine, appear to spring from an ancient unity of some kind.”