Following Ariadne’s thread
This week I've been thinking about labyrinths. As the Epstein case resurfaces with new revelations, it brings a tide of conspiracy theories and dark speculation that can be hard to avoid and can feel overwhelming. These stories have a way of trapping us – not just in horror at what they reveal, but in a particular kind of mental paralysis.
Conspiracy theories are head‑heavy. They keep us in an endless mental loop, spiralling inward, suggesting the world is so rigged, so monstrously complex, that our own agency is a myth. They want us to believe the maze is inescapable. But while we can't ignore the darkness, we also can't let it steal our capacity to act.
Labyrinths were never actually designed to confuse. Across cultures, they have been paths for reflection, ritual, and transformation: walking them slows the mind, engages the body, and channels emotion, allowing insight to arise through movement rather than overthinking. Unlike conspiracy theories, which trap the mind in spirals, labyrinths guide us deliberately – showing that slow, deliberate steps can carry us through complexity without being consumed by it.
In Natalie Haynes' retelling of the Minotaur story, Ariadne lives above the Labyrinth and knows its dangers. Using her knowledge, she creates a red thread as a lifeline, a way for others to navigate darkness without losing themselves.
This week in our The Streets Belong to Everyone salon with Morag Rose and Polly Atkin, we discussed how the antidote to feeling trapped is to return to the ground beneath our feet, even, or especially, if it means walking slowly, falteringly, wonkily. For Morag and Polly, walking is tactical resistance – for all of us, but especially for vulnerable groups, women, and those with disabilities. Our vulnerabilities can be our superpowers: our vigilance, our slow walking pace can become attunement and attention. We can walk with others for connection. We can turn the streets into a game or a meditation, and while monsters may lurk in the shadows, we can still move toward the light.
In this spirit, our upcoming WALC Café: Walking Arts and Health on 25 Feb explores how the walking arts nourish our well-being – physical, mental, and across all the seasons of our lives.
Until then, let's keep hold of the thread and keep walking.
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Writer, walker, digital storyteller, psychogeographer
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Placecloud
Researchers use Placecloud to mark sites of significance with short podcasts.
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2026-03-03 19:00 UTC
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Modern day pilgrimage is growing in popularity – every year numbers grow along some of the oldest and most traditional pilgrimage routes. Pilgrimage has been practised for millennia and is shared by all the world’s major religions, on every continent – there isn’t a day when a pilgrimage is being undertaken. In days... Keep reading
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What have you been working on? Submit your work to the world’s largest archive of walking pieces. If your work is recent, it is automatically eligible for the Sound Walk September or Marŝarto Awards, meaning you stand to win cold, hard, cash in the process.
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What happens when a Grammy-winning engineer and a legendary musician team up to create music that defies the constraints of modern perfectionism? Join host Buzz Kni... Start listening
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What does it truly mean to carry the weight of a legendary legacy while striving to carve out your own path? Join host Buzz Knight on this heartfelt encore episode ... Start listening
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Have you ever taken a walk to connect with your roots and reflect on your dreams? Join host Buzz Knight in this heartfelt encore episode of takin’ a walk, where he ... Start listening
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Join the Brothers Gillespie and their devoted fans on a walk across the sands from the Northumberland coast to Holy Island. As we follow in the footsteps of centuri... Start listening
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What does it mean to carry the legacy of a legendary musician while forging your own path in the world of music? Join host Buzz Knight on this encore episode of t... Start listening
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Have you ever wondered how music can heal the deepest wounds of the heart? On this captivating encore episode of the Music Saved Me Podcast, host Lynn Hoffman sits ... Start listening
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Join Buzz Knight for this encore presentation with acclaimed country music singer-songwriter Cyndi Thomson, best known for her chart-topping hit “What I Really Mean... Start listening
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Upcoming events
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2026-02-22 08:30 UTC
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More info :
Bernardo BRUNO (President) Terminalia Festival
https://terminaliafestival.blogspot.com
Mail: terminaliafestival@gmail.com Keep reading
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2026-02-25 13:00 UTC
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This online get-together is exclusively open to the Online Jury and Grand Juries of SWS and Marŝarto. We will debrief the outgoing jurors, and onboard the new juror... Keep reading
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2026-02-25 19:00 UTC
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Through our new WALCAfé series, WALC invites you to explore how Walking Arts plays a vital role in well-being, both individually and collectively, physically and me... Keep reading
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2026-03-03 19:00 UTC
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Modern day pilgrimage is growing in popularity – every year numbers grow along some of the oldest and most traditional pilgrimage routes. Pilgrimage has been pract... Keep reading
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7 Mar - 27 Jun, 2026 UTC
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The Walking Arts & Local Communities (WALC) online course invites you from March 2026 on into the artistic practice of walking arts. Designed for artists, creators,... Keep reading
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2026-03-07 08:30 UTC
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The opening talk “Introduction into Contemporary Walking Arts” provides a historical and conceptual foundation for walking as an artistic practice. Keep reading
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8 - 29 Mar, 2026 UTC
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British Summer Time is a series of short sunrise walks in consideration of the time change. Over fourteen seasons, walkers from across Europe, Asia and the Americas... Keep reading
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WALC
Walking Arts & Local Communities (WALC) is an artistic cooperation project, co-funded by the European Union, Creative Europe, starting in January 2024 for four years. With seven partners from five countries, WALC establishes an International Center for Artistic Research and Practice of Walking Arts, in Prespa, Greece, at the border with Albania and North Macedonia, backed up by an online counterpart in the format of a digital platform for walking arts.
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Introducing the new WALC partner The Milena Principle: a nomadic artistic platform that understands walking as movement, relation, and utopia. Through Made of Walki... Keep reading
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2026-02-25 19:00 UTC
· Online
Through our new WALCAfé series, WALC invites you to explore how Walking Arts plays a vital role in well-being, both individually and collectively, physically and me... Keep reading
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From our network
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Eaux, flux, courants et stagnances, fragilité/puissanceCours intérieures, espaces enclos, espaces intimes/extimes, dedans/dehorsParkings, underground résonant, Hori... Keep reading
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Introducing the new WALC partner The Milena Principle: a nomadic artistic platform that understands walking as movement, relation, and utopia. Through Made of Walki... Keep reading
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The February 2025 eBulletin covers topics like the Walking Summit 2025 video release, reporting footpath parking, and South Island speed limit consulatations
The po... Keep reading
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Rock on! A community walk featuring rocks at the edge of Edinburgh, to celebrate the Festival of Terminalia 2026Sunday 22nd February, 2pm-4pm (there and back). Mee... Keep reading
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Source: Hugarflug 2026 – Open for applications | Iceland Academy of the Arts Keep reading
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Writing about walking
We are celebrating Writing About Walking – for the last 5 years we have run annual poetry and flash fiction writing competitions on different themes. During 2026 we will be spotlighting shortlisted works from each of these by including one in each of our weekly newsletters.
Do share this newsletter with a writer friend.
This week we have chosen A Deep Intake of Breath by Jan Howcroft that was shortlisted in the 2022 competition on the theme of Walking Home.
“I’m going to do the circular,” he says, late afternoon. “You want to come?” It’s the most he’s spoken to you in a week.
He waits outside for you to put on boots and pull an olive jacket over jeans. You lock the door.
The forest breathes earth and decomposition. At first the track is narrow, lined with brambles, but soon widens to a gravel path between the trees: hornbeams, coppiced beech, all leafless now.
Last night, he smelled of soap; a soap you never buy.
You need to ask him why, but can’t. Instead, you stop to prod at fungi on a fallen trunk; behind him you can breathe more easily.
A spaniel runs towards you, nose to ground, and slows to sniff your hand. He wags his tail then zigzags off.
What if you’re wrong?
A family passes on bikes; the tiny girl behind is travelling in a cart.
He’ll deny it, you know he will.
Almost home. You can see his two-tone jacket where the path winds round the woodpiles. He’s waiting for you, by a patch of downy feathers.
“What happened here?” you ask, rhetorically.
He points.
A wood pigeon. One of its wings is splayed out and in the place its head should be there’s nothing, just a pool of blood. The only colour in the dying light. “My God,” you say.
It’s cold now but neither of you moves. He looks at you. Before he speaks, you hear a deep intake of breath.
Read more here
Want to read other long and short listed pieces under this theme?- use this link