Copyright by Nancy Ann Bandiera 2006 The Dissertation Committee for Nancy Ann Bandiera certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: THE MEDIEVAL LABYRINTH RITUAL AND PERFORMANCE: A GROUNDED THEORY STUDY OF LIMINALITY AND SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE Committee: Lynn C. Miller, Supervisor Larry D. Browning, Co-Supervisor Joni Jones Brian M. Stross Betty Sue Flowers THE MEDIEVAL LABYRINTH RITUAL AND PERFORMANCE: A GROUNDED THEORY STUDY OF LIMINALITY AND SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE by Nancy Ann Bandiera, B.A.; M.A.; M.F.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May 2006 Dedication To my nephews, Jesse and Andrew Acknowledgements I am grateful to the various soul forces and human energies that have inspired me to create and implement this research study. I have been blessed over and over with a remarkable opportunity to engage in a celebration of life and Spirit with so many wonderful people. I feel inadequate in expressing my profound gratitude to my dissertation committee for their unconditional support in my efforts to grow as a spiritual person and scholar through these many years. I express my deepest appreciation to: Lynn Miller, my chairperson, for her gifts of creativity, performance, and scholarship, and her dedication to nurturing me and so many others in becoming aware of their potential and realizing their dreams. Her inspiration, insight, and realm of possibilities are contagious. I am so grateful for her patience, guidance, and friendship. Larry Browning, my co-chair, for his generosity in giving me so much encouragement in learning how to think like a researcher and to follow through even when I did not know how I would muster the courage to jump into the next phase of the unknown. I am so grateful for his patience in allowing me to journey through so many phases of growth. Joni Jones, for her contributions to performance ethnography and for being a role model integrating her spirituality, performance, and scholarship as a v unifying force. She is always willing to care for both my spirit and mind and I am so grateful for her life and presence in my life. Betty Sue Flowers, for her most thoughtful insights, wisdom, and guidance. She knows so well how to share her gifts in scholarship and practice in tending to the development of a student’s heart, mind, and soul. I am so grateful for her generosity and participation in my life. Brian Stross, for his scholarship and steadiness. He consistently offers enthusiasm, insights, and belief in my life and work. I am so grateful for his encouragement to keep alive my desires to bring meaning and purpose out into the world. Lauren Artress, for her outstanding leadership in training labyrinth facilitators around the world. Linda Webster, a labyrinth facilitator, for her compassion, encouragement, and help in creating performance events for this study. Pat Thomas, a Methodist minister and most incredible friend, for her dedication, support, and prayers during my program of study. Rev. Dr. Sarah Bentley of the New Life Institute in Austin, for her support during preliminary study. I am also grateful to family, my sister Vicki, Dan, Doug, and LuAnn and my colleagues, Alisha Lenning and Jill Carleton. I especially thank all the subjects of this study for their willingness to share and their dedication to my project. vi THE MEDIEVAL LABYRINTH RITUAL AND PERFORMANCE: A GROUNDED THEORY STUDY OF LIMINALITY AND SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE Publication No._____________ Nancy Ann Bandiera, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2006 Supervisor: Lynn C. Miller Co-Supervisor: Larry D. Browning To explore the concept of the medieval labyrinth as a spiritual tool generating the phenomenon of transformational spiritual experience as found in the Reverend Dr. Lauren Artress’ Theater of Enlightenment, seven labyrinth ritual performances were created and thirty-two participants were interviewed. The central argument is that ritual and performance both share the concept of spirit—a developing consciousness towards self-knowledge, which is the journey to wholeness. Explaining the what, why, where, and how of phenomena occurring in performance is the work of performance studies. Situating the labyrinth as liminal performance, the phenomena of transforming spiritual experiences are explored. Chosen to generate theory, grounded theory methodology involved: vii developing categories and themes inductively rather than imposing classifications on the data; analyzing interview narratives of subjects’ spiritual experiences; and formulating a set of relational statements as labyrinth ritual performance theory. Using an outdoor medieval labyrinth and an indoor portable canvas labyrinth modeled after the Chartres labyrinth and built by artisans from Artress’ non- profit, Veriditas, thirty-one subjects perceive they had spiritual experiences: (1) relating to the Divine—God, Goddess, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, Spirit, Essence, or the Universe; (2) finding Self—inner knowing, inner Self, life-force, or center of Self; (3) walking a sacred space—demarcated space for meditation, design of ancestral tradition, or historical Christian tradition; (4) gaining meaning— intellectual and emotional clarity of events, life-plans, problems, or situations; and/or (5) creating intention—co-creation with energy forms or the natural world. The three stages of the labyrinth path mark where change occurs while emotions, appreciations, motivations, values, and attitudes mark what changes. How change occurs involves contextual, causal, and intervening conditions; actions/interactions; and consequences that parallel the continuum of Krathwohl’s taxonomy in the affective domain. Individual stories emerge around themes of spiritual, personal, and/or social development. This study contributes to performance studies in exploring what ritual does to the performer by way of thought, action, emotions, the senses, space, time, embodiment, and agency. Implications suggest the field of performance studies deal with the concept of Spirit in performance and research. viii Table of Contents List of Tables.........................................................................................................xii List of Illustrations ................................................................................................xii Chapter One: The Medieval Labyrinth and Research Study.................................. 1 Introduction .................................................................................................... 1 Statement of the Problem ............................................................................... 5 Research Question.......................................................................................... 8 Significance of the Study to Performance Studies ......................................... 9 Background of the Present-Day Labyrinth Revival ..................................... 14 Medieval Christian Symbology of the Labyrinth......................................... 17 Contemporary Archetypes of the Labyrinth................................................. 23 The Labyrinth Journey from Darkness to Light........................................... 28 An Experience with the Dialectic of the Labyrinth...................................... 31 Definition of Terms...................................................................................... 36 Organization of Chapters ............................................................................. 37 Summary ...................................................................................................... 38 Chapter Two: Theoretical Approaches to Labyrinth Performance ...................... 41 The Aesthetic Field and the Work of Art..................................................... 41 My First Engagement with the Labyrinth .................................................... 48 The Labyrinth as a Happening .................................................................... .51 A Labyrinth Happening................................................................................ 54 Religious Studies.......................................................................................... 61 Ritualistic Theatre and the Concept of Spirit ............................................... 67 Reader Response Theory.............................................................................. 72 My Reading of the Student's Anonymous Letter ......................................... 74 An Anonymous Comment............................................................................ 81 Other Labyrinth Research Studies................................................................ 81 ix Summary ...................................................................................................... 90 Chapter Three: Conceptual Frameworks of Ritual and Performance .................. 93 The Labyrinth Ritual and Performance........................................................ 93 My Labyrinth Engagement in the Middle of the Night................................ 99 Liminality and Spiritual Experience........................................................... 101 The Labyrinth as Restored Behavior.......................................................... 111 Flow and Reflexivity.................................................................................. 113 Liminal and Liminoid