DREAM: GLORIOUS MANDALA, SYMBOL OF THE SACRED...march5, 2011

I was standing in front of a very white bright wall. on it was about a six foot perfect colorful circle. The circle was filled with bright  pastel colored areas that showed all movement toward the center. These were like glass gas lights and the bright white background light was shinning through them.  I knew it was lighting me up also. It was a beautiful sight. Voices were calling me to leave but I refused. I feared if I turned away from the light it would leave and I did not want that.

This Mandala Is Similar To The One In The Dream

 REFLECTION: This is a mandala. Jung  concluded such figures  are the most dynamic of any symbol of the Self, of the Sacred. I've had many many mandalas come to my consciousness via day and night dreams. Mandalas have been perhaps the most common  stained glass and painting  designs in places of worship through the centuries.  This is not by accident or just a pretty design when it arrives spontaneously to human consciousness.  Such designs are found all through the ages across all cultures, religions and in modern day dreams. Jung found them to symbolize the goal of  human spiritual/psychological development.  They are a product of the collective unconscious and demonstrate our human need for beauty, order and to have the conscious opposites of human to find the path to be united and whole again. Here are some examples of famous religious mandalas: 

Tibetan Mandala , 17th century

Notre Dame Paris, 13th century

Strasbourg Cathedral, 14th century

For several years after Aug  1985  I spontaneously drew mandalas nearly every day. It was a very therapeutic activity. It did not feel like it was 'me' doing the drawing or look like anything I had ever done before. These just rather came out of me.  I was doing that both years that I taught school in  85-87. The one in the dream is unlike any in my previous dreams or drawings. The kind of colors and the shapes inside of it are new to me. It did  not have straight lines inside. All the lines are  circular curves,  like puffy and cloud shapes. And the colors run the full range  of the visible spectrum from violet to red. Interesting that this dream comes on transfiguration Sunday.  Today's sermon was on the transfiguration and the  'glory of God.'  The mandala well parallels how most of us imagine the brightness around Jesus in that story. And my response was to be  mesmerized and speechless. I surely did not want to leave this 'glory.'