Symbol Watcher

After a period of internal struggle, Jung's analysand/artist drew this picture, indicating that she had reached a greater understanding of her Self. "Here the rainbow-coloured radiation of the mandala begins again for the first time, and from then on was maintained for over ten years . . .," says Jung. Notice that a square resides inside the circle. This "squaring of the circle" has its own symbolic significance. I'll talk about that in my next blog.

Today, I’ll start right off the bat with an excerpt from Jung’s work, The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious (Vol. 9): “The Sanskrit word mandala means ’circle.’ It is the Indian term for the circles drawn in religious rituals.  . . . The best and most significant mandalas are found in the sphere of Tibetan Buddhism.  . . . A mandala of this sort is known in ritual usage as a yantra, an instrument of contemplation. It is meant to aid concentration by narrowing down the psychic field of vision and restricting it to the centre. Usually the mandala contains three circles painted in black or dark blue. They are meant to shut out the outside and hold the inside together.”  

As I said in Monday’s blog, the square, with its corners and sides and stops and starts, is all about earthly life and time. In contrast, a circle has no beginning or end. It’s the shape of the planets and the sun and the moon. The circle speaks to us of heaven and spirituality, and of a wholeness that encompasses the entire universe.

The all-inclusive aspect of the circle is why the imagery found in mandalas is so complex and striking. Through mandalas we attempt to express our glimpses into what is really the unknowable and undefinable expanse and depth of being.

As Jung worked with the contents of the unconscious, he noticed how often these circular images occured in the dreams and drawings of himself and his analysands. “It is not without importance for us to appreciate the high value set upon the mandala, for it accords very well with the paramount significance of individual mandala symbols which are characterized by the same qualities of a — so to speak — ‘metaphysical’ nature.  Unless everything deceives us, they signify nothing less than a psychic centre of the personality not to be identified with the ego. I have observed these processes and their products for close on thirty years on the basis of very extensive material drawn from my own experience.”  (Excerpt from Jung’s work Psychology and Alchemy, Vol. 12.)

The consistent experience of manadalas led Jung to theorize that the circle is a symbol for the individual Self. In Jungian terminology, the Self is always capitalized because it refers to the circumference of the individual psyche. As such, it contains all that is conscious and unconscious to the individual, as well as the individual’s relationship to the greater whole of the universe.

So, Jung tells us, when manadalas erupt in our dreams and drawings it is, “. . . at such times when psychic equilibrium is disturbed or when a thought cannot be found and must be sought for, because it is not contained in holy doctrine.” (Again, from Jung’s work Psychology and Alchemy, Vol. 12.)

In Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, Jung provides a very straightforward list of elements commonly found in mandalas:

• Circular, spherical or egg-shaped formation.
• The circle is elaborated into a flower (rose, lotus) or a wheel.
• A centre expressed by a sun, star, or cross, usually with four, eight or twelve rays.
• The circles, spheres, and cruciform figures are often represented in rotation (swastika*).
• The circle is represented by a snake coiled about a centre, either ring-shaped (uroboros) or spiral (Orphic egg).
• Squaring of the circle, taking the form of a circle in a square or vice versa.     
• Castle, city and courtyard (temenos) motifs, quadratic or circular.
• Eye (pupil and iris)
• Besides the tetradic figures (and multiples of four), there are also triadic and pentadic ones, though these are much rarer.  

I highly recommend the two books I’ve referenced today — The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious and Psychology and Alchemy – if you’d like to learn more about mandalas as symbols for the Self. In each work, Jung chronicles the journey of a patient struggling through the process of individuation (i.e., “the process where a person becomes a separate, indivisible unity or whole”).  

In “Archetypes” the patient is a 55-year-old woman who uses her extensive artistic talent and active imagination techniques to draw the unconscious content that came bubbling to the surface. The drawings, interpreted by Jung, are beautiful and fascinating examples of how mandala symbolism can present itself in order to guide someone along her journey toward wholeness.

“Psychology” gives us a detailed examination of how mandala symbolism sprang up in the dreams of a young man who had an aptitude for science. Although this series lacks the visual impact of the woman’s drawings, I found it very helpful to read how Jung analyzed dream content. He brought to my attention the subtle ways in which mandalas and other symbols of wholeness can present themselves in our dreams. 

– Writeye

*Please note the swastika was originally a positive symbol of regenerative power before it was contorted by the Nazi Party.

Posted on May 22nd, 2009 under Jungian Psychology • Tags: circle symbolism, individuation definition, mandala symbolism, Self Jungian definition. •  Print This Post •  Email This Post • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback