Creating Mandalas

Sr. Jeana's mandalas The creation of a mandala can give form and expression to the whole of your being. It is a creative way of expressing intuitive insights and awarenesses. In the drawing of a mandala, any tension caused by the conflicting parts of self can be released and healed.

Suggestions:

After selecting your materials, find a quiet place to work .
Close your eyes and become aware of your breathing, breathing in and out in a slower and softer manner. As you rest in God's presence, consciously become aware of God's presence within.
Open your eyes and look at the colors before you, choosing a color to begin your mandala.
Draw a large circle. You may draw it freehand, or use a paper plate.
Begin to fill in the circle with color and form, letting the color find its own form.
When the drawing of your mandala comes to a resting place, look at it from different angles and identify with a small "t" what you sense is the top of the drawing. Date the mandala for future reference and give it a title.
View the mandala from at least arm's length, with the "t" at the top. Make a list of the shapes and objects in the mandala. Write down your personal association with each shape and object: words, feelings, images, or memories that come to mind. Remember: whatever comes out is beautiful because it is part of your sacred story.
Note the colors in the mandala beginning with the predominant color, working through to the least dominant. Engage in free association.
Read through the list of associations, noticing any pattern of meaning, any predominant theme or idea. Record these in your journal.

History of the Mandala

Mandalas have been used for centuries as guides for spiritual healing and growth. The word mandala is Sanskrit for the center, circumference, or a magic circle. This definition was written by Carl Gustav Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist. He thought that the mandala is a part of the whole being, the Self, the center of our personality. He suggested that the mandala shows the natural urge to live out our potential, to fulfill the pattern of our whole personality.

Why Create a Mandala?

Creating a mandala has the regenerative and curative power to activate the latent powers of the mind. Creating a mandala has a calming and relaxing effect on the mind and body, focusing and strengthening the will to heal. As it contains conflicting parts of our nature, the drawing one creates releases tension. Even drawing the circle itself can be healing. Meditating on one's creation helps focus and open one's heart to the power of God's unconditional love. It can bring joy as it facilitates the healing of a sense of psychological fragmentation.

Mandalas can make the invisible visible, expressing paradoxical situations or mysteries of ultimate reality that can be expressed in no other way. Like the symbolism of a dream, the mandala provides a perspective in which one can understand the unity within one's experience and the greater structure of the cosmos. Like the Word Incarnate, a mandala gives form and expression to spiritual truth.