Mandala means circle. Many mandalas take a form that includes concentric circles, symbols and patterns in a geometric kaleidoscope of images. They can be drawn, painted, modeled, or danced.
The circle symbolizes the infinite, wholeness, the cosmos, the totality of the Self, and the eye of God. It is the most primal shape-- the shape of planets and of atoms.
Carl Jung, a contemporary of Freud, introduced the mandala to the West. He believed a personal mandala symbolizes various levels of awareness within an individual as well as the energy that unifies and heals. He used the mandala as a therapy modality.
Joseph Campbell believed a mandala indicates the cosmic images that are operating in our lives. It reveals the center that coordinates an individual’s circle with the cosmic circle. It is the center from which we come and to which we shall return-- the alpha and omega.
The mandala is a portal to the center of our soul where we are drawn to the center and find at-one-ment.
“There is no linear evolution; there is only a circumambulation of the self. Uniform development exists,
at most, only at the beginning; later, everything points toward the center.
This insight gave me stability, and gradually my inner peace returned. I knew that in finding the mandala as an expression of the self I had attained what was, for me, the ultimate. Perhaps someone
knows more, but not I.”
--- Carl Jung
