While I wrote the book, Activate Divine Creativity: The Life-Changing Magic of the Mandala, I did a lot of research on what a mandala is, and it is fascinating.
Here is a summary of what I found.
A mandala is a combination of sacred geometry, which is always perfect, and precise, with creativity, which is messy and original. View Wikipedia article.
The shortest answer to, "What is a mandala?" is... "A circle."
But this answer didn't satisfy me, so I continued my research to into "What is a Mandala?"
I discovered that "mandala" originated in the Sanskrit language, which is the sacred language of Hinduism, the language of classical Hindu philosophy, and of historical texts of Buddhism and Jainism.
The first syllable "manda" means"essence" and the second syllable, "la" means "container." And in Sanskrit the most simple definition is "Circle."
Therefore, a mandala is a "circular, essence container", or a "circle with symbols in it".
The circle is one of the most ubiquitous symbols found in religious places all over the world. Mandalas are central in Buddhism and Hinduism, but are found in Christian, Native American, Jewish, and Islamic art.
Mandalas are drawn within a circle and as it turns out, we humans love circles.
We resonate with circles. A newborn begins to see in a circle. The sun is a circle. Consider these familiar circles: the earth, the moon, flowers, eyes, faces, stars, snowflakes, halos, wreaths, cookies, wheels, gears, icons, buttons, the Olympics symbol which has five interlocking rings of different colors, representing the five major continents of the world united together in a spirit of healthy competition. You get the idea!
So, once a circle is drawn on a paper or a canvas, it's easy for your mind to be OK with filling it up with symbols and drawings.
Carl Jung knew the answers to the question, "What is a mandala?"
According to Jung, ”a mandala is the psychological expression of the totality of the self” (1973: 20). Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist, discovered the significance of mandalas through his own inner work.
“I sketched every morning in a notebook a small circular drawing, a mandala, which seemed to correspond to my inner situation at the time. With the help of these drawings I could observe my psychic transformations from day to day…My mandalas were cryptograms…in which I saw the self—that is, my whole being—actively at work.” (1965: 195-196).
Jung used mandalas with his patients. He claimed that creating mandalas helped people work out issues in their psyche that they didn't even know existed.
What??!! Working out issues in your psyche by drawing stuff in a circle? How can this be?
Consider that a mandala is a "circle containing symbols." If you ask someone to draw a circle and draw symbols in the middle, what appears is something from their own personal database of symbols. Their essence.
As students in my mandala classes start to understand the answer that a mandala is simply a circle with symbols in it, it becomes their personal "essence container."
I've seen hundreds of different symbols appear on the page or canvas of my students. It often surprises as to how they begin to draw symbols and shapes without much thought. They are just having fun.
Mandala students will typically draw something specific to them or their culture, their upbringing, current affairs. I often hear "I have no idea why I drew this symbol!"
I've had students say things such as, "I haven't thought about (name of person) in years!" as they look at the symbols they drew.
I've had people finish their mandala and proclaim they're going to start "that project" that's been on their mind for years.
I've had students cry, grieve, laugh with delight, feel empowered, feel more in love, and more!
From my own experience of teaching hundreds of people to draw or paint a mandala, I can attest that once the circle is in place, people begin to draw and color. They relax and invariably, at the end of the class or workshop, I hear, What, our time is up?? I want to keep going!"
So you can see that NO artistic experience is required to create your very own, personal mandala.
Every student gets the same paper, pencil, compass, ruler and markers. Every student gets the same instructions.
I hope to see YOU (and your mandala) at a class soon.
Kathy Rausch
p.s. All of the mandalas in this post were created by students. And do you notice how no two are alike? Like snowflakes!