Mandala 2

I really enjoyed beginning working with the Mandala book.  The first mark was a little intimidating, but after that I enjoyed getting started on the project.  It is a matter of relaxing and letting go enough to begin.  For me, there is always that inner critic who says it is not going to be good enough.  I have to battle down that inner critic before I can get started.

The book I am working with, Mandala Luminous Symbols for Healing, 10th Anniversary Edition,by Judith Cornell, PH.D., Quest Books, USA comes with a CD of meditations and exercises.  I used to work a lot with guided meditations but had drifted away from them.  It was refreshing to work with a guided meditation again.  I felt very relaxed afterwards.  The meditation is also printed in the book.  I found it helpful to read the meditation first, then play the CD.  After that, I was ready to do the exercise.  I suppose you could actually do the exercise while the CD was playing, but I prefer to work in quiet.  In the past I have found that whatever music or CD I am listening to tends to affect the direction of my work.  I would rather work in silence and allow the ideas to well up without interference. 

In the past, I have mentioned on my blogs that I know I am on the right track when synchronicities begin to happen.  I have already had two since I started this project.  It is as if the universe is telling me that it wants me to continue in a particular direction.  The first synchronicity was was on my Facebook page.  The day I began the Mandala project a video of a sand mandala created on a pottery wheel was placed on my Facebook page.  It was a mesmerizing video of patterns of shifting sand.   The post was made just as something someone thought I would find interesting.  She had not read the blog.

The second synchronicity came right after my last blog post.  In that post I has said I had thought that the Muse was the mythological inspiring spirit for a man and the inspiring spirit for a female was called a Djin.  That was incorrect.  The correct term for the spirit supposed to inspire women was called a Daimon. (Pronounced DYE-mon).  I was reminded of this the very next night after I had made the incorrect blog post.  I read a book of meditations in the evening before going to bed.  That particular meditation was on courting the spirit of inspiration.   The meditation indicated the proper term.  I actually did know that, I just had a temporary failure to recall the proper term.  It is not as if the book of meditations was art focused.  The meditations are about many different subjects.  This one just happened to hit at the time necessary to give me the information I needed.  In other words, a synchronicity.

The photo above is my second exercise from the book.  The exercise only tells you how to make a drawing.  What you draw is of what idea wells up into your mind.  The exercises build on one another so that you progress through to more difficult Mandala.  Eventually the exercises lead into color as well, so things won't always be in black and white.  However, black and white is a very comfortable place to start.

I know that not all of my readers are going to be interested in Mandala.  I am concerned that I may grown bored if I only focus on making Mandala.  I am going to switch between the Mandala project and a second project.  This is not all that unusual for me.  I usually have more than one project going at one time; usually a quilt project and paper mache' project, or something to that effect.  When I reach an impasse on one project I put it down for a few days and work on the other project until I have had time to work things out.  The projects don't generally begin at the same time, as they are this time.  Starting a project alongside one that is already in the works seems to help with the motivation needed to start the new project.I find that I have to limit myself to no more than three projects at once so I don't get too scattered.  Eventually one project becomes primary and
receives most of my attention.  I will also be blogging on my second project intermittently during the Mandala project. The first blog post on the second project will be on this Sunday.