'Every day I discover more and more beautiful things.
...Colour is my day-long obsession, my joy and torment.'
-Claude Monet (1840-1926)
Oracles Jupiter * Juno
Carl G. Jung, Interpretation of Dream 35, offers this insight in regard to the mandala:
“DREAM: An actor smashes his against the wall, where it looks like {a circle divided into eight parts ~the B’gua used by dowsers/feng shui}
As certain material not included here shows, the ‘actor’ refers to a definite fact in the dreamer’s personal life. Up to now he had maintained a certain fiction about himself which prevented him from taking himself seriously. This fiction has become incompatible with the serious attitude he has now attained. He must give up the actor, for it was the actor in him who rejected the self. The hat refers to the first dream of all, where he put on a stranger’s hat. The actor throws the hat against the wall, and the hat proves to be a mandala. So the ‘strange’ hat was the self, which at that time – while he was still playing a fictitious role – seemed like a stranger to him.
The Intellect and the Emotions
Gem from inspired teachers
"Borrowing almost word for word from the Eastern religious writers, San Juan [St. John of the Cross] points out that the two great enemies of integration within man are his mind and his emotions. These two forces which should illuminate him and bring him closer to reality, have up to now, in the common experience of man, had a tendency to darken him, bringing him into further confusion. They have beset him with intellectual and emotional difficulties that can be more dogmatic, more tyrannical, than any external situation. That we should have war in the world, is a great tragedy; but that we should have war in the soul, is a still greater tragedy. And as long as the brotherhood of man is not factually established in society, we must assume there is war in the soul. For the soul alone, through its health and normalcy, can finally bestow peace on the body and on the world of which man is a vital part.
This thinking, then, is very close to the teaching of Buddha, who placed the responsibility for most human difficulties upon the mind and the emotions. Buddha and San Juan unite also in another conviction; namely, that in some mysterious and wonderful way, the mind and emotions must be educated. They must be given to understand, and to know their relation to, the total life of the individual. There is a practical point that comes from this reflection, and we can apply it directly to the world of psychological research around us.
Today, the tendency in psychology is for man to release the soul upon the body. He is taught to believe that by the extraversion of his psychic life, he will escape from the neurosis of internal pressure. The mystic, however, in all times, has doubted this, and for very good reason; namely that the individual, presented mentally and emotionally with the confusion of consciousness, is unable to cope with this confusion. The mere fact that he extraverts is not solutional, inasmuch as it brings him increased incentive to follow inner confusion rather that outer; and as the inner is more dangerous than the outer, the mere objectification of his own undisciplined internal, is not the solution to his problem. If he merely extraverts, and merely does what he feels like doing forever – if he merely permits the locked content of his life to flow into objectivity – he opens a Pandora’s Box and, in many instances, finds himself in a desperate situation."
-Manly P. Hall, The Dark Night of the Soul
Secret Adventures of Jules Verne Record your tracking information for future reflection. Although many things we define in certain terms today will hold a different meaning in future reflections, we are able to follow our process with a record committed to writing. Carl Jung is famous for his later life acceptance of alchemy, after years of dream analysis, even though he abandoned the theories in full when he was younger. Reminds us of the Bob Dylan line, "I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now."
POWER ANIMALS
The
legend of the white buffalo is a perfect example of other parts of a tradition. The white buffalo is a real, known, and documented symbol today. Many felt the image was pure symbolism since the story has been handed down for hundreds of years. Only yesterday white buffalo prophecy and legend, passed by word of mouth from generation to generation as real, did not yet exist in a physical sense. So we say the lines we speak and repeat until they are real - the same as if they had coverings like a growing tree or a cloud cluster in the sky. Akasha, spirit, lives in our words and thought forms as much as within a tree, a falcon, or a human being. Meditation on power words and symbols should go hand in hand. More in our newsletter - sign up if you'd like the exercises emailed to your addy - it's free!
All these symbols are relatively fixed, but in no single case can we have the 'a priori' certainty that in practice the symbol must be interpreted in that way. -C. J. Jung
"Just as the stupas preserve relics of the Buddha in their innermost sanctuary, so in the interior of the Lamaic quadrangle, and again in the Chinese earth-square, there is a Holy of Holies with its magical agent, the cosmic source of energy, be it the god Shiva, the Buddha, a bodhisattva, or a great teacher. In China it is Ch'ien -heaven - with the four cosmic effuences radiating from it. And equally in the Western mandalas of medieval Christendom the deity is enthroned at the centre, often in the form of the triumphant Redeemer together with the four symbolical figures of the evangelists."
Movies like the Harry Potter [Tetragrammaton and the
Four Wands] and
Lord of The Rings series have opened our eyes to lost paradigm patterning. Even
The Matrix provides the audience a full spectrum dawn at the completion of three films.
Traditions fairies, woodland nymphs - many elementals- of fire, earth, air and water, are deeply rooted in the history of mythology, religion and culture. Fairies of old were plentiful, wondrously varied in attributes. The Fairy Tree plays has an important role in the
life of The Maid, Saint Joan d‘Arc. Scotland fairies are known as “men and women of peace.”
The mandala is associated with the center of the court, the central plaza in any town, sometimes the ancient well. In any home, the emotional atmosphere is often generated inside a tranquility zone [click fountain above],
shrine, or by art forms like statuary,
painting, and flower arrangement. Go The Zone
for more information about the psyche center.
The mandala and labyrinth have a lot in common, because both patterns are considered maps. In the business world you could refer to the mandala as an operational flow chart of efficient energy. The image is a symbol for energy activated on three or more dimensions - simultaneously.
J. E. Cirlot says, "[The mandala] is a Hindu term for a circle. It is a kind of yantra (instrument, means or emblem), in the form of a ritual geometric diagram, sometimes corresponding to a specific, divine attribute or to some form of enchantment (mantra) which is thus given visual expression. Cammann suggests that mandalas were first brought to Tibet from India by the great guru Padma Sambhava in the 8th century A.D. They are to be found all over the Orient, and always as a means towards contemplation and concentration..."
The mandala art blueprints direct and guide according to their own unique approach, however
Eastern art forms often contain an additional element known as 'akasha.' If you haven't seen THE LITTLE BUDDHA you'll find it an informative and refreshing movie. There is an illuminating explanation of an intricate sand mandala by Eastern monks.
Western art forms frequently represent akasha as concealed within one of the four Western elements, usually fire. Avant-guarde artists can employ akasha by changing the relationship the viewer experiences with regard to the art form. Some popular artists known for their unorthodox style include Jackson Pollack,
Yoko Ono (see YES Ceiling Painting) and Frank Stella. The 'first' mandala we hear about in Western literature is drawn from the four rivers that flow in the Garden of Eden, described in the Book of Genesis. In the Eastern version, the first mandala was taught by our historical Buddha in the sixth century B.C. in India. The mandala and the life of Buddha are both beautifully explained in the film, 'The Little Buddha' ~ one I recommend for anyone taking up the study of mandala composition as a possible meditation and art form combined.
Informal mandalas provide insight on many levels. Study
the profound versions in great architecture, or mundane keepers on manhole covers. If you are a nocturnal spirit, you may enjoy buzzing about town under the light of the moon, armed with paper and chalk. Check out the most original designs for fabulous collectable transfers.
If you prefer a pedestrian approach, just draw a circle on a page of paper and place a 'good' centre power image in the middle of the circle to get things underway. Once you have selected a centre (reference links follow article) your illustration is on track. Doodle around the image, perhaps while you are talking on the phone, waiting in a supermarket line or for a bus, or while watching TV commercials.
Working from the center image out to the edge of the paper, just remember to keep the drawing balanced at all times. Check step by step instructions in a
'how to make a mandala' picture book example.
After completing this exercise, start a mandala with your own art at the centre of the art form, perhaps based on images from a dream or a story you enjoy. Until you feel you know what would be ‘right’ to put at the centre of your design, try some possible 'trim' or ornamentation for the corners of your paper.
Some art resources & helpful ideas with your art work can be inspirational as your logo and/or new business stationary.
If you aren’t a doodler, use a ruler or cut out little pictures from old magazines about varied subjects that interest you. That will do for starters. It may help to know the centre is often associated with pure jade and lapis lazuli, in Eastern thought, and according to Carl G. Jung, throughout hundreds of dreams in his file.
When you’ve completed your project, keep it with you in places where you can feel stressed – your car, desk drawer at your work station, a purse or wallet and so forth. Look at the center of it when you want to get back into harmony with your world.
The mandala is a energy mask to establish in symbolic form, what your center is, like the study of natural alchemy helps to see underneath the superficial appearances of the plant, and into its growing process. This little sideways glimpse into the sub-texture of things reminds us about links we share with all people, places and things. The mandala is a ‘middle way’ power tool that, when used during prayer and meditation, facilitates energy flow weaving all links and bridges into one – connecting all facets of the total self.
A mandala should always represent order at the higher awareness power threshold. When drawing your own mandala, keep it simple and centered, with everything in the design exactly balanced. Then your mandala helps to balance you. Avoid art forms with a claim of balancing potency when you note anything within the overall design that is off center or distributed disproportionately.
Of course, there are religious mandalas you can acquire if you wish. Religion makes it easier to locate an excellent mandala for your life today. Many orators summon, from the imagination of their audiences, an image of the twelve tribes camped in the desert, around the Ark of The Covenant. Architects in word and stone repeatedly draw on the appearance of Christ at the Last Judgment, in the center of the four evangelists. Mandalas used in secular advertising have become so mainstream and unconscious we don’t even realize what symbol we see, such as the Safeway sign, clearly the Tao symbol (yin and yang) from Eastern shores.
ADDITIONALLY, some favor an abstract mandala or zodiacal mandala derived from clan lore/history, flown as a banner or crest, worn as jewelry or utilized as a seal.
Manly P. Hall published a book about symbolism and mandalas (1989) well worth acquiring for additional work with this effective tool.
The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown, opens the book of One Earth symbols that are ready to graduate into The Aquarian Age. All cultures are now in the process of engaging blueprints outlined to endure as the collective, updated archetypal system [and prototype models] for the next three thousand years.
Brown has crafted a suspenseful mystery that additionally touches the relevant theme for those on the quest for the historical Jesus Christ. Over the course of three hundred years we will change our perception of the
Good Shepherd [as solarized.] The Dying Water God [Trump XII, Chapter 12 in Revelations] in the Age of the Fish, Pisces, will be viewed as the Ascended Christ, judge of the living and the dead - the Aquarian Christ.
Brown suggests there is a code built into the patriarchal language of symbolism that is known only to initiates who can recognize the key. The subject is not new. Europe once hosted three Western Orthodox Popes, and an Eastern Orthodox Pope [four popes who claimed to be the visible Christ on Earth.] They generated a series of questions about the history of Christianity that have not been answered. Dan Brown has researched one of many threads scholars have pursued over the centuries. [see the
Aramaic words of Jesus @ The Unicorn Pond.]
Louvre curator Sauničre (Jean-Pierre Marielle) is Brown's personification of the ancient knowledge hidden within esoteric and exoteric symbols. Sauničre is cut down in the museum by forces trying to silence the truth. He can manage to lay down clues like bread crumbs for symbologist Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) and police cryptologist Sophie Neveu (Audrey Tautou), who arrives unexpectedly from headquarters. The story takes off at this point, with an investigation into the visible and subtle patterns at work in the greater and lesser storylines. Langdon seeks advice from Sir Leigh Teabing
(Ian McKellen) an historian, English knight, and personification of the chivalric noble in secret societies.
The book has a fascinating sub-text that alludes to, but does not dwell on, our modern day inability to translate such matriarchal systems as The Bembine Tablet because we use patriarchal codes across the board. The pure masculine code cannot yield an accurate translation of scripture written in the Temple of Isis. Langdon does cover the various compromises that have been integrated into Western mainstream mysticism, such as the eleven circuit labyrinth, popular during the Crusades when it was impossible to visit the Holy Land. Anciently the centre of the Labyrinth was known as the Goddess, and now Christ waiting at the heart of the design.
The ancient knowledge was forced underground when Christianity was legalized so everything converted to code. Scholars, scientists, and physicians were convicted of heresy and executed, the Albigensian Crusade [A.D. 1209 - 1229] wiped out the peaceful Cathars who lived in southern Europe, and conversion by the sword came to represent religion in the Piscean military era.
From Duncan Macleod website: Jean Markdale in his book, Cathedral of the Black Madonna says that the cathedral was built on what once had been a druidic sacred site. He says that the ‘Black Madonna’ statues there are examples of the Christian adoption of what had once been a goddess religion.
Chartres Cathedral is full of distinctly Jewish and Christian symbolism expressed in statues of Biblical characters and Christian teaching. However the local folk culture and age-old symbols can also be found. The stone masons who built the cathedral included a wing of stone work dedicated to the seven liberal arts, showing interest in numerology and sacred geometry.
Informal mandalas provide insight on many levels. Study
