This resource has four sections: • Returning to Your Center• Mandalas and Nature• Mandalas and the History of Art and Architecture• Exercise in Creating a Personal Mandala
The mandala is often used as a tool for focusing the mind. It is frequently in the form of a circle ‒ a shape that has been known to all cultures throughout history. The word mandala is from Sanskrit and means “the mystic or sacred circle.” The mandala is simultaneously representative of sound, light, color, form, rhythm, and harmony. Geometry and numerology play an important part in the design and creation of mandalas.
Returning to Your Center Carl Jung taught that mandalas are symbolic of our inner selves. He used mandalas to give creative form to his inner conflicts during his own self-analysis, and felt that mandalas help us grasp an illusive understanding of our inner worlds.
I experienced this when I visited the Gothic cathedrals in Europe. While viewing the mandalas in the huge stained glass windows, my heart was filled with awe and inspiration.
The insight and comprehension of my soul was there without words and suddenly I felt an enormous peace and comprehension. The same thing happens when I create my own personal mandalas.
The Healing Art of Creating Mandalas
Exploring the history, art, and science of the sacred mandala as inspiration to design your own symbol for inner harmony
Level: Intermediate to AdvancedFlesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 10.3Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease: 50.9Drawspace Curriculum 5.3.R16 - 6 Pages and 6 Illustrations
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Figure 2
Sometimes, I empty my mind and just let the images flow. Other times, I’ll ask a specific question or meditate on a certain issue.
Then, I randomly pull a marker from the box and start to color in the circle.
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Figure 1: This Tibetan mandala represents Om Mani Padme Hum which means “jewel in the lotus flower”. According to Tibetans, when repeated as a mantra, it helps to establish a connection to all levels of consciousness.
The process provides a way of centering yourself and seeing many different or conflicting ideas, experiences, or emotions.
By creating a mandala, you can understand the meaning of important life experiences and return to your center. There is a center within each of us which is a source of energy and power. It is part of the human dilemma, however, to become out-of-balance due to the stress and disharmony of everyday life.
In creating a mandala, we draw our attention away from outside influences and concerns and connect to our inner selves. The process of simply drawing a circle and filling it in can actually capture a picture of what’s going on inside of you. From there, it can help you understand the truth at the very center of your being, which can help you grow to your full potential.
I had a client named Emily who was the primary caregiver for her mother during the last two months of her mother’s life. I instructed Emily to find some time alone when she could, and randomly pull markers out of a box and just color in a circle – with no thought of the outcome.
Emily later said, “I found the exercise so relaxing and a form of release. It helped me to let go of emotions that were bottled up inside.” After her mother passed away, Emily shared the mandalas she had drawn. They were actually a visual record of the tumultuous path she had recently traveled.
Mandalas and NatureExamples of mandalas are all around us in nature. Every cell in our body, for instance, is a living mandala. So is the iris of an eye, a snowflake, and a bird’s nest. A sunflower is a mandala, and even a spider web has a mandala structure.
Native American tradition teaches us that all life revolves around the sacred medicine wheel. There is harmony and peace when we return to our centers.
Once we recognize the unity between the world around us and the world within us, we can return to our center.
The mandala then becomes a reflection of the universe as a whole and an image of our own spiritual unity with that wholeness.
According to Ruediger Dahlke, author of Mandalas of the World, mandalas are the basic elements of creation ‒ part of everything, and at the same time also the whole.
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Figure 2: This mandala is from the Native American Cheyenne Tribe. It symbolizes the universe.
Figure 3: This mandala represents the Tibetan prayer wheel. Known as the “Khorten”, this prayer wheel has traditionally been used by Tibetans for meditation and to facilitate global healing by sending prayers out to the world.
He theorizes that only when we have returned to the center will we realize that everything remains as it is: eternal, timeless. The creation of a mandala teaches us how to return to the center. Mandalas are visual representations of wholeness.
In her book, Mandala, Luminous Symbols for Healing, Judith Cornell says the practice of creating mandalas will reveal a renewed sense of the spiritual nature of life as well as deep healing on all levels of your being.
Mandalas and the History of Art and ArchitectureThroughout human history, the mandala has been a common and recurring form of sacred art. Mandalas can be found in Sun Worship temples throughout Mesopotamia; Christian churches; and Islamic mosques.
Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, most commonly referred to as Vitruvius, was a First Century AD Roman engineer who literally wrote the book on architecture.
Most of Europe’s magnificent churches were constructed using his models. Vitruvius’s architectural principals were based on the concept that the proportions of the human body are fundamental in achieving beauty.
Vitruvius felt that the proportions of a temple should mirror those of a well-formed human being, and presented his canon of a man in a circle and square to support this claim.
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Figure 4: This Celtic mandala represents the combination of completion and progress. The three prongs or spirals are often said to represent personal growth, human development and spiritual expansion.
Figure 5: This mandala is from the Native American Navaho Tribe. It represents The Great Mother or Mother Earth. 1400 years later, master artist and
mason, Leonardo da vinci was still using Vitruvius’s design theories, and considered him his most important mentor.
Both Vitruvius and DaVinci used and realized the power of sacred geometry. In ancient texts, a square form represented the earth, while a circular form represented the heavens.
Vitruvius suggested that the proportions of a temple ought to be like those of a well-formed human being because sacred geometry is found in the proportions of the human body.
The use of the golden number in ancient Greek temples is explained by its relation to human proportions.
Sacred geometry is divine rhythm which results in manifest existence.
Wikipedia describes sacred geometry “as attributing a religious or cultural value to the graphical representation of the mathematical relationships and the design of the man-made objects that symbolize or represent these mathematical relationships.”
All the laws of nature can be derived directly from sacred geometry. The concept of the Golden Mean, as it is sometimes called, is a system of mathematically formulated geometric proportion. The belief is that mathematical ratios discoverable from geometry also form the basic features of the natural universe.
Artists are taught that using the Golden Mean in art provides stable composition altered by contrast.
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Figure 6: The Celtic knot symbol is also referred to as the mystic knot, or the endless knot. In viewing these beautiful knots, we cannot see a beginning or an end, and therefore we are reminded of the timeless nature of our spirit.
The old masters used the Golden Mean in their work. During the Renaissance, many artists believed that harmony and symmetry were a part of any beautiful object and that geometric design was the best way to show the perfection of God’s creation. As a result, it was common for Renaissance artists to use geometry when creating works of art.
Even today, artists often use shapes made from the Golden Mean to organize forms in their works. Scientists teach us that the dynamic essence of any structure using this proportion is endless motion towards perfection. It emulates nature’s own frequency.
British physicist and mathematician, Roger Penrose has developed findings which verify the presence of the Golden Mean in the process that perfects DNA into its coherent superconducting path.
The Golden Mean resonates growth and evolution, motion and change. Sacred geometry is known to be mathematically aligned with nature and affects things such as plant and shell growth, human formation and planetary orbits. The symbols have been around since ancient times and reoccur throughout history, reminding humanity of universal laws and understandings. This, in turn, creates in us a sense of ordered calm.
People are surrounded by proportional harmonies in nature, art and architecture. They are also evident within ancient structures and in relation to cosmic awareness. The blueprints for sacred geometry are the keys and the foundations of life on this planet.
Once we realize we are one with nature, we can experience completeness and unity with the infinite energy of universal truth which then results in peace, harmony and health.
Exercise in Creating a Personal MandalaTo create a mandala, we fill a circular form with shapes and color representing inner thoughts and consciousness. You can use paint, colored pencils, markers, or whatever medium feels right.
Use this exercise as a direct way to make contact with your inner self. Go inside and find meanings unique to only you. Remember: no one part of the mandala is more important than the other; they all create the circle. Be spontaneous and let go. Allow your inner resources to speak.
You will find that the exercise will lighten tension and bring insight to questions or issues. It is best to find a quiet space where you won’t be interrupted for at least 30 minutes. It might help to play soft music. Just let your hands draw without thought of outcome. Let the piece flow and create itself.
You might want to meditate on a particular question or issue first and then concentrate on your question as you create your mandala. Or, you can fill in the circle with images that have come to you through meditation.
Step 1: Begin by finding your center – place your marker or colored pencil in the center of the paper and move out from there.Don’t worry – your images will reflect you inner thoughts just by the very nature of letting yourself go.
Step 2: Draw, color, use shape, line or whatever you feel.Remember that mandalas are usually represented in the shape of a circle but don’t have to be – if you don’t want to stay in the circle, allow yourself artistic license to create your own form.
Step 3: When you are done ask yourself the following questions and journal the answers:• Are there any repeated patterns? • Do I see any clues or messages that answer my initial question? • How did I feel while doing this exercise? • What emotions arose?
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