Personal Mandalas
According to Joseph Campbell, every world religion employs the circle as a metaphor. Inspired by the mandala-making practice of the Tibetan monks, we began the new year by creating personal mandalas. We kept our guidelines simple, so each person could follow the leanings of her soul ( “soul” understood as the whole of us: our total being).
Personal Mandala Guidelines:
- Employ a circle to depict your soul; you might include your values and how you hope to live into them, and/or how you embody the physical elements, and/or how you see yourself connected to all that is;
- employ symmetry in your design; and
- employ symbols, feeling free to create your own. You may wish to choose a visual metaphor for your soul and place it in the very center of the circle. What describes you?
To begin, we viewed mandalas from a number of traditions (found on an Internet image search) and then set about creating our own, using a variety of arts materials: a practice that I expect will take at least the entire month. I’m finding mandala making a challenge that I both dread and anticipate.
Wish to create a personal mandala as your new year’s practice? If so, we would love to see it! Share your mandala (and a description of it, if you’d like).