The Sanskrit word mandala means circle. It is an archetypal image found in all cultures and can be seen in religious practices and in psychological development. The universality of the circle image is visible in the stained-glass windows of cathedrals, in Tibetan Buddhism mandala meditation, in Navaho sand painting, and in children’s first drawings.
Jung reintroduced the mandala to Western culture. In 1916 he painted his first mandala and discovered that his daily mandala drawing corresponded to his current psychological situation and psychic transformation. He found that the mandala appeared in dreams and that, at times of psychic conflict, mandala drawing was self-healing,moving one toward wholeness. Jung noted that the object of drawing individual mandalas was to locate the Self, and he believed the integrative art form was a tool for the individuation process. Like a compass, the mandala points in a direction. One may not be aware of the direction, but one is led none the less.
The class is didactic, experiential, and will sharpen the participant’s Jungian lens when exploring the dynamics of the mandala, personally and clinically. In addition to learning the language of images and symbols, course participants will learn to give prominence to symbol amplification, personal associations, and the objective nature of the psyche when interpreting mandala images. Participants will create mandalas, learn basic interpretive skills, and, like Jung, experience the mandala as a teleological compass to the Self during the individuation process.
Schedule:
- Didactic Discussion of Mandalas and Jungian Theory
- Questions and Discussion
- Drawing of Mandala
- Individual and Group Discussion of Drawings
- Interpretation of mandala images, symbols, and teleological-individuation process
- Case Application
- Closure with Questions and Answers