In ancient times the figure of the labyrinth was often understood as a mirror of the cosmos and a common metaphor for continuity, irrationality, immensity, vastness, and the unknown. In this contribution the labyrinth is liberated from its colossal symbolic weight as this eludes new knowledge and curiosity. Rather, the aim is to bring the labyrinth from myth to logos. Therefore, the optics of a specific writing format is considered: the essay. The writing of an essay cannot be equated to the making of a labyrinth, but the hypothesis is that they share common architectonic gestures. The aim is to mechanise the architectonic writings of Borges. To condense the architectonic gestures of it and make a contrapunction with other voices. Both the labyrinth as motivic key and the essay as writing form elude a fixed definition. As first weighing I reflect on the perspective of the I both in the Labyrinth and in the Essay. The gesture of weighing supposes a personal alignment. Both the essay and the labyrinth form an image that can be only perceived in time. Referring on Jan Pieper, the labyrinthine is by no means the same as chaotic, but describes a very subtle form of architectural order. Essay writing is less a means of reporting on past events than an exploration of the potential. Borges proposes that universal history is the history of a few metaphors. As illustration, he traces the evolution of one metaphor varying throughout centuries.
By comparing the constellations we can grasp the invariance of the equation. The Analogy of the essay and the labyrinth is not pure – there remains an obscure lacunae. The figuration of ‘labyrinthine architectonics’ may enable us to create a more capacious imaginary of the hidden bonds.