earliest history, humans have intuited the power and importance of the circle. In her gorgeous Sacred Geometry Oracle Deck, Francene Hart explains why: “This most basic of geometric shapes contains within it a doorway to inner realms that has informed and inspired cultures and individuals since the beginnings of humankind.” Our first art, a pattern of concentric circles leading to a center point, was pounded into a rock 50,000 years ago by Aborigines in Australia. Our earliest spiritual gathering places were mandalas. Newgrange, a circular mound of earth protecting tombs and passages, was constructed in Ireland in 3200 BCE. Only in the 1960s did an Irish professor discover that it is aligned perfectly with sunrise on the winter solstice. Our most famous and mysterious Neolithic sacred site is Stonehenge. We do not know why it was built or how it was used, but we can't miss that it is a massive stone mandala. All spiritual traditions express the union of the human and the divine with this sacred geometric shape. The Native American medicine wheel, the dome of a mosque, the labyrinth and rose window at Chartres, Celtic crosses, the yin-yang symbol—all are mandalas. But perhaps no culture has perfected the mandala like the Tibetan Buddhists. The intricacy and beauty of a Tibetan sand mandala simply take the breath away.
To paraphrase Hafiz, there is something about circles that humanity loves. Why? Because the circle has no beginning and no end. It is the picture of wholeness, of unity, of endless potential. But it's not a static picture. The mandala is alive. As Bailey Cunningham says in Mandala: Journey to the Center, the mandala “is both a symbol and manifestation of creation” (emphasis added). C. G. Jung was captivated by this manifestation ability. He spent a lifetime exploring the transformative power of the mandala. In his memoir, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, Jung described how he began to work with mandalas in 1916:
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 transformation from day to day.
Only gradually did I discover what the mandala really is: “Formation, Transformation, Eternal Mind's eternal recreation.” And that is the self, the wholeness of the personality, which…cannot tolerate self-deceptions.
My mandalas were cryptograms…. In them I saw the self—that is, my whole being—actively at work.
Jung wrote several books on the transformative power of the mandala, including Psychology and Alchemy and Mandala Symbolism. After working with hundreds of clients and their mandalas, Jung observed that the mandala is
a kind of central point within the psyche, to which everything is related, by which everything is arranged, and which is itself a source of energy. The energy of the central point is manifested in the almost irresistible compulsion and urge to become what one is [Jung's italics]…. Although the centre is represented by an innermost point, it is surrounded by a periphery containing everything that belongs to the self—the paired opposites that make up the total personality.
I can attest that there is a driving force to become what my mandala depicts, both the conditions at the center and the desires at the periphery. But it's not something I consciously manage or control. This is a very important point. If someone had told me on January 1, 2010, as I was completing my mandala, that in thirty-one days I would no longer be bankrupt, I'd have said it was impossible. But on the soul level, it was not only possible, but it was also easy and perhaps even inevitable.
Jung explained this miraculous power: “Most mandalas have an intuitive, irrational character and, through their symbolical content, exert a retroactive influence on the unconscious. They therefore possess a ‘magical’ significance…whose possible efficacy was never consciously felt” (Mandala Symbolism). This is a great relief. It means that you do not have to, nor should you, have conscious control over everything you put on your mandala. Lao Tzu knows why:
Trying to control the future
is like trying to take the master carpenter's place.
When you handle the master carpenter's tools,
chances are that you'll cut yourself.
—Tao Te Ching, verse 74, Translation by Stephen Mitchell
There is something far greater than individual will at work in the mandala. To Jung it appeared as if “the solution, seemingly of its own accord, appears out of nature…felt as ‘grace’” (Memories, Dreams, Reflections).
No one understood this mysterious grace better than Jose and Miriam Arguelles. Their definitive book Mandala, long out of print, is my essential mandala resource. Every time I open it, I find something deep to ponder. They begin by explaining the principle of the center, which is the source of the mandala's energy: “The center is the beginning of the Mandala as it is the beginning and origin of all form…. The center is symbolic of the eternal potential.” Then they explain how we work with that eternal potential:
Essentially, each human being is a Mandala…; but this Mandala must be developed and created anew for each individual…. The Mandala may be regarded as an engine of change, releasing energy to the extent to which the individual using it and concentrating upon it is capable of identifying himself with it. Ultimately, the Mandala leads its user to a visualization and realization of the source of energy within.
I love the term an engine of change. It sets my heart singing. But how is a mandala an engine of change? For that we need a dose of modern physics. Einstein opened the door when he said, “A human being is part of the whole, called by us ‘universe,’ a part limited in time and space. He experiences his thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest—a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness.” In Science and the Akashic Field, Ervin Laszlo, the great systems theorist, explains,
[R]esearchers are rediscovering what Einstein realized and ancient cultures have always known: that we are linked by more subtle and encompassing connections…. [T]here is not only matter and energy in the universe, but also a more subtle yet real element…. In-formation of this kind connects all things in space and time—indeed it connects all things through space and time.
But how is it all connected? My dream showed everything floating in black space and connected by golden threads. Physicists call that black space the Akashic Field. Akasha is an ancient Sanskrit word for the invisible ether in which everything is connected. In 1907, Nikola Tesla, the father of modern communication technology, first postulated that this invisible element exists. In an unpublished paper, he described an “original medium,” a force field that becomes matter when energy acts on it.
With modern equipment, scientists can now observe the effects of this original medium—a quantum field of energy that remains after all other forms of energy are removed at absolute zero. They call this primal energy the Quantum Vacuum, Akashic Field, or A-field.
It may be a vacuum, but it sure isn't empty. Laszlo explains that the Akashic Field is superfluid, superdense, frictionless, and positively alive with information. Everything in the universe is not only immersed in the Akashic Field, but everything also sends energy and information back and forth to everything else. This exchange of energy is called quantum entanglement, and it means nothing is separate. Laszlo's startling conclusion is that “all matter is conscious…there is no categorical divide between matter and mind” (Science and the Akashic Field).
Well, if science can point to the presence of the Akashic Field, then perhaps my best sources of information on the power of the mandala and my vision of the floating sphere were the masters and teachers of the Akashic Record. The Akashic Record is a name for the countless traces of information that have passed through that quantum medium throughout time. Many cultures sensed the presence of this unseen library and gave it a special name; the Hebrew Bible, for example, calls it the Book of Life. This information is so precious that it is protected by highly evolved beings called masters and teachers. With training, you can learn to open your own records. Through the brilliant Akashic Record trainer and reader,
Lauralyn Bunn, I asked the masters and teachers to please explain what I was shown. They said:
First and foremost, it has geometric information. It