Mandala

Mandalas are two-dimensional drawings of five or six-dimensional figures. They, in turn, are in a sense "maps" of the region of "space." Space itself is many-dimensional as has been hinted at. ("Dark matter" is evidence.)

Adam Blatner

Mandalas: Adam Blatner

Mandalas and Soul - Adam Blatner

a channel for this soul-making work has been a type of drawing: the Mandala. That’s a Sanskrit word for circle, and making and contemplating mandalas have been an important spiritual practice in Tibet and India. Mandalas are instruments for contemplation, both for gazing at and meditating on their form, or for allowing these shapes to be felt by actually creating them, constructing them, coloring them. Other examples of mandalas can be found on the internet. In general, mandalas involve circles with an indicated center and some degree of symmetry. Sometimes they are enclosed in squares.

Mandalas and Jung:

Mandalas as Evocative Metaphors

An evocative metaphor is a way of using a metaphor that evokes associations, ideas, related memories and feelings. Mandalas are good for this, because when you review a patient’s mandala, you may find yourself asking about certain features—the circumference as boundary: Is it broken, open, vague, or tight and thick. Is this what the patient has or wishes that she had? Similarly, you can explore the design of the center, or if there are layers, concentric circles within the mandala. Are the different parts balanced, and what do the various elements mean?