circle

S+ Stimulant: A circle for breakfast

 

“I sketched every morning in a notebook a small circular drawing,…which seemed to correspond to my inner situation at the time….Only gradually did I discover what the mandala really is:…the Self, the wholeness of the personality, which if all goes well is harmonious.” – Carl Jung From Memories. Dreams. Reflections.

At Seymour we’re interested in creative acts where the process is more important than the end result itself.

Mandalas are a good example of this. Mandala is a Sanskrit word meaning circle and usually refers to a circular design considered to represent a microcosm of the universe and by extention- you.

Psychologist Carl Jung, a pioneer of the introduction of mandalas to the West recognized that the urge to make mandalas emerges during moments of intense personal growth. Their appearance indicates that a profound re-balancing process is underway in the psyche. The result of the process is a more complex and better integrated personality.

“The mandala serves a conservative purpose—namely, to restore a previously existing order. But it also serves the creative purpose of giving expression and form to something that does not yet exist, something new and unique….The process is that of the ascending spiral, which grows upward while simultaneously returning again and again to the same point.”

– Jungian analyst Marie Louise von Franz, C. G. Jung: “Man and His Symbols.”

In various spiritual traditions it is used to focus attention and promote calm as it is said to represent that pure land of the unthinking mind. In his pioneering exploration of the unconscious through his own art making, Jung observed the motif of the circle spontaneously appearing and believed that the patterns we create when drawing a mandala represent our dream state and fantasy mind.

Instead of reaching for your computer first thing in the morning, why not draw a simple circle on paper and pour the unfettered contents of your morning mind into it. Creating mandalas helps stabilize, integrate, and re-order inner life.

 

 C.T. 2014

 

 

[sourced and excerpted from Wikipedia]

Published: September 16th, 2014

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