Twenty years ago I began to draw mandalas on black paper with colored pencils under the tutelage of the late Judith Cornell, who was a guide of great spiritual power and insight to many. For eight years I attended Judith's wonderful week-long retreats at places like the Angela Center, Esalen, and Mt. Madonna in CA. Making mandalas became a healing practice and helped me greatly in dealing with my winter bouts of depression. Their mystery and luminosity took me deep into the spiritual world. However, eventually I grew frustrated with the black paper which I experienced as limiting. Until recently I could not find my way back into mandala making. Then I discovered a way to create mandalas on white paper with watercolors, followed up with watercolor markers and watercolor pencils. Here is my first experiment: The Tree of Life Mandala.
This mandala measures 16" across. Creating it made me think of Carl Jung's study on "The Secret of the Golden Flower." Interestingly enough, this image arose in my intuition just as I was considering Reiki training. Now that I have completed my First Degree of Reiki, I feel so grateful to know that the golden energy which glows from the center of this image is available to everyone, and is deeply healing....the most wonderful, indescribable gift from a Divine Source, the Universal Life Energy which flows through the Tree of Life.
I could not hold the camera steady enough so this photo of the very center is blurred. I hesitated before including it, but then I began to think it's almost better this way....softer, warmer.
After two decades of creating mandalas, I could not make this one come out geometrically "perfect." It seemed to want to go its own way! The hours I spent on it were a long meditation, calm and peaceful. They were beautiful days in the depth of winter which I shall always remember. I never framed any of my "perfect" mandalas, but I think I will frame this one.
When you begin your new life, the sails on your little boat will fill with wind. You will find yourself on strange waterways that you searched for all your life and never expected to find. I have.
I know now that I must take chances in this life and give up clinging to all I have been; it is more satisfying to me to bring forth what I have not known, and sit in its gaze, and come to know it.
This one definitely needs to be framed. If for no other reason than as a reminder that beauty can be found in that which is not perfect.
I can not even begin to put into words what I think when I look at your pictures. You have put so much wonderful detail into this creation and the colors are so vibrant and alive. Thanks for sharing!
Posted by: Myoriah | 02/03/2013 at 05:12 PM