Jon Appleton

Megalithic Insights               						Jon Appleton
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Click the audio play button above to hear me talk about labyrinths.

Labyrinths

The gift of the Appleton dance.

As seemed appropriate we hugged, moved past each other, switched hands and set off once more clockwise round the centre, having exchanged paths. It seemed magical that we could stay together while one of us was dancing to the centre and the other into the outer world. To enter the labyrinth is to enter a place of enchantment. Two circuits later we were back at the place where we had first met and were then ‘torn apart by the divergence of the ways. I went out to stand in the mundane world by the entrance and she went in to complete the three short circuits to the centre, where the ‘Sun’ is. In a half joking way I began begging my ‘Goddess’ to come out to join me but, though she came towards me for a little while on four occasions she always turned away again. At last she came to the outer, Saturnian, path and I could hold her hand again as she walked ‘widdershins’ round the longest, slowest path. I spoke to her of the riches I would bestow on her if she came out to be with me. But, after another circuit, near the entrance she left me again to go back into the heart of the labyrinth. We were experiencing a mystical drama imposed on us by the form of this enchanting design. Finally, after two more circuits she appeared, released at last, at the entrance and we joyfully embraced. The entrancement was complete. At that moment, across the field, the music round the fire fell silent. What a coincidence and a heart stopping moment. When I told Sig later about this serendipitous moment his reaction was “Damn, my book has just been published and it should have had this in it.” The next edition included it and now there have been four reprints. Since then I’ve gone on showing various groups how they can experience the “Appleton” both as a single couple and in large groups of a hundred and more. Fifty couples weaving their way together on a large labyrinth is quite a sight. There’s also a more meditational way of doing it. The Labyrinth Society in the USA has used the dance version many times as a finale on the last night of their national convention. The Appleton dance animation above was originally commissioned by Sig Lonegren for his www.geomancy.org website and created by Heather Hoon .
The paths and the signs
Click the play button above to see the Appleton dance in action.
Gardner's Double Appleton: In 2011, Geomancer Grahame Gardner discovered an extended version of the Appleton that allows up to three people to walk side-by-side in the labyrinth and cycles people into the movement so that the 'dance' becomes continuous. We decided to call it Gardner's Double Appleton. See it in action here: - ( Here's the link to the YouTube video if you want to share it) -
Contact me if you would like more information or a workshop arranged. Reading about it is one thing, experiencing it is something else.
Many years ago, at an Oak Dragon Camp down in Devon after a day of workshops, we were gathered round a fire at the top of the field. Musicians were playing and people dancing while others sat in the shade of the wood enjoying the beauty of the soft evening light as the sun dropped lower in the sky. One of the workshops I had attended was Sig Lonegren’s about using the classical, seven path, ‘Cretan’ labyrinth as a problem solving device by walking the paths with a question in your mind to find an ‘answer’ at the centre. As you follow the 7 paths each can be seen to embody a different energy related to your question. Starting with “What do I think about it?” followed by “What do I feel about it?” and so on until the centre is reached. A place of No Thing where Something will come in to your mind. The full procedure, rationale and construction for this can be found in Sig’s wonderful book Labyrinths, Ancient myths and modern uses published by Gothic Image, ISBN 978-0-906362-69-3 and on his web site . As I danced by the fire I noticed a woman wearing a poncho who was, with arms outstretched, whirling her way round the labyrinth, that we had made earlier in the day, down across the field. That looked good to me and so I ‘boogied’ down to join in. By the time I got there she had come out and was coming back up to the group round the fire. I had taken my problem with me, it was “When is work ‘play’ and when is play ‘work’?” Alone I stepped lightly along the ‘winding way’ and soon stood at the place of ‘No thing’ at the centre and an answer came. This is part of it. Then, as I turned to leave the ‘maze’, I saw that my partner was dancing across the grass to join me. Just as she was entering and starting the path of Mars I was stepping towards her to enter the Earth path. We met, smiled and joined hands. She turned left and I turned right and we danced together yet in ‘opposite directions’ for our first circuit of the labyrinth. Then we both turned left and went round again, anticlockwise this time, in the paths of Jupiter and Saturn respectively, until we met face to face back on the other side of the entry path.
How the “Appleton” Labyrinth dance came to me.
Megalithic Insights               						Jon Appleton
Continue
Click the audio play button above to hear how to contact me…
Back

Labyrinths

The gift of the Appleton dance.

Click the audio play button above to hear Jon talk about labyrinths
How the “Appleton” Labyrinth dance came to me Many years ago, at an Oak Dragon Camp down in Devon after a day of workshops, we were gathered round a fire at the top of the field. Musicians were playing and people dancing while others sat in the shade of the wood enjoying the beauty of the soft evening light as the sun dropped lower in the sky. One of the workshops I had attended was Sig Lonegren’s about using the classical, seven path, ‘Cretan’ labyrinth as a problem solving device by walking the paths with a question in your mind to find an ‘answer’ at the centre. As you follow the 7 paths each can be seen to embody a different energy related to your question. Starting with “What do I think about it?” followed by “What do I feel about it?” and so on until the centre is reached. A place of No Thing where Something will come in to your mind. The full procedure, rationale and construction for this can be found in Sig’s wonderful book Labyrinths, Ancient myths and modern uses published by Gothic Image, ISBN 978-0-906362-69- 3 and on his web site . As I danced by the fire I noticed a woman wearing a poncho who was, with arms outstretched, whirling her way round the labyrinth, that we had made earlier in the day, down across the field. That looked good to me and so I ‘boogied’ down to join in. By the time I got there she had come out and was coming back up to the group round the fire. I had taken my problem with me, it was “When is work ‘play’ and when is play ‘work’?” Alone I stepped lightly along the ‘winding way’ and soon stood at the place of ‘No thing’ at the centre and an answer came. This is part of it. Then, as I turned to leave the ‘maze’, I saw that my partner was dancing across the grass to join me. Just as she was entering and starting the path of Mars I was stepping towards her to enter the Earth path. We met, smiled and joined hands. She turned left and I turned right and we danced together yet in ‘opposite directions’ for our first circuit of the labyrinth. Then we both turned left and went round again, anticlockwise this time, in the paths of Jupiter and Saturn respectively, until we met face to face back on the other side of the entry path. As seemed appropriate we hugged, moved past each other, switched hands and set off once more clockwise round the centre, having exchanged paths. It seemed magical that we could stay together while one of us was dancing to the centre and the other into the outer world. To enter the labyrinth is to enter a place of enchantment. Two circuits later we were back at the place where we had first met and were then ‘torn apart by the divergence of the ways. I went out to stand in the mundane world by the entrance and she went in to complete the three short circuits to the centre, where the ‘Sun’ is.
The paths and the signs
In a half joking way I began begging my ‘Goddess’ to come out to join me but, though she came towards me for a little while on four occasions she always turned away again. At last she came to the outer, Saturnian, path and I could hold her hand again as she walked ‘widdershins’ round the longest, slowest path. I spoke to her of the riches I would bestow on her if she came out to be with me. But, after another circuit, near the entrance she left me again to go back into the heart of the labyrinth. We were experiencing a mystical drama imposed on us by the form of this enchanting design. Finally, after two more circuits she appeared, released at last, at the entrance and we joyfully embraced. The entrancement was complete. At that moment, across the field, the music round the fire fell silent. What a coincidence and a heart stopping moment. When I told Sig later about this serendipitous moment his reaction was “Damn, my book has just been published and it should have had this in it.” The next edition included it and now there have been four reprints. Since then I’ve gone on showing various groups how they can experience the “Appleton” both as a single couple and in large groups of a hundred and more. Fifty couples weaving their way together on a large labyrinth is quite a sight. There’s also a more meditational way of doing it. The Labyrinth Society in the USA has used the dance version many times as a finale on the last night of their national convention. The Appleton dance animation above was originally commissioned by Sig Lonegren for his www.geomancy.org website and created by Heather Hoon .
Click the play button above to see the Appleton dance in action
Gardner's Double Appleton: In 2011, Geomancer Grahame Gardner discovered an extended version of the Appleton that allows up to three people to walk side-by-side in the labyrinth and cycles people into the movement so that the 'dance' becomes continuous. We decided to call it Gardner's Double Appleton. See it in action here: ( Here's the link to the YouTube video if you want to share it) -
Contact me if you would like more information or a workshop arranged. Reading about it is one thing, experiencing it is something else.
Jon Appleton