Worldwide Labyrinth Locator

We did it! -- A brief History

It all started in Glastonbury in May of 2002 – an appropriate birthing place for any labyrinth project. Sitting in the living room of Sig and Karin Lonegren, were such noted labyrinth-world dignitaries as Jeff Saward, Helen Curry, and Lauren Artress, and of course, Sig himself and many others. The group was originally together for the Glastonbury Symposium, an educational program of The Labyrinth Society, but on this evening they were meeting to discuss a possible project. The concept was that Veriditas and TLS would partner to create a streamlined, easy-to-use, comprehensive labyrinth locator.

An agreement was reached to explore the possibilities for financing and take it from there. Pamela Ramadei, TLS treasurer and one of the people at the original meeting helped find the money. She approached the Faith, Hope and Love Foundation that ultimately provided the funds to hire a programmer, Michael Macrone, a project director, Pat McLaughlin and see the project through to its launch.

Two years and hundreds of hours of programming later, the World-Wide Labyrinth Locator is up and running. But many, many other things happened in the meantime. For example, Jeff Saward (who is now the Locator’s researcher and administrator) spearheaded an international discussion about labyrinth typology. The group wanted people to be able to search the database on a number of fields including narrowing a search to a particular type of labyrinth. But was it called a "Seven-Circuit Cretan" or a "Seven-Circuit Classical?" Specifics had to be agreed upon for this particular search function to be effective. Participating in the discussion were Sig Lonegren, Alex Champion, Adrian Fisher, John Kraft, Robert Ferré and others. The result is the detailed "Glossary of Labyrinth Types" found on the Locator.

In addition, there were hours of meetings between Lauren Artress, founder of Veriditas, and Helen Curry, then president of The Labyrinth Society. This was a big step for both organizations and they had to decide how this new relationship would work. The result was a detailed administrative manual. It covers everything from how online donations are handled to who is responsible for updating the website.

It has been an exciting project for everyone involved and we are pleased to have the WWLL up and running. Who knows? This may be the first of many projects taken on jointly by TLS and Veriditas.

To visit the Locator, please click here.