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Through the Labyrinth: Symbol and Spiritual Journey From Paleolithic caves to Cathedrals constructed in the 12th and 13th centuries, to present day believers, the labyrinth has held a mysterious and spiritual significance in the human experience. In symbol, myth and place, the importance of the labyrinth cannot be underestimated, as it has crossed cultures and continents for more than 30,000 years. The first known symbolic mark is the zig-zag, dating back to 40,000 B. C. and found on fragments of bone attributed to the Neanderthal. From the zig-zag evolved serpentine forms rectilinear in shape or rounded as a spiral. All of these marks represented water, as Paleolithic people made a connection to water as an essential life-sustaining element. A child is born after water flows from the womb. The water and new life arrive from an unseen dimension, through the vulva and into the world. Water falls from the sky, nourishing the ground and bringing forth fruit and plants that provide sustanence. Paleolithic and Neolithic tribes experienced life and death as a continuum. Seasons changed, death occurred and the moon disappeared from the night sky, but there was always another spring, a new life and the moon returning to its rightful