How does a mandala work?
Carl Jung, psychologist, rediscovered the mandala not in a scholarly context, but in the midst of deep personal crisis when he began sketching mandalas during the First World War. He found that sacred symbols emerged spontaneously in dreams and artwork to promote wholeness and rebirth independent of religion. Eastern traditions had depicted the realization of the higher Self in elaborate and highly ritualized imagery. But, Jung actively demonstrated in that the natural function of the Self is to promote higher consciousness by integrating opposites (e.g., masculine vs. feminine). In a process depicted by even a simple mandala, these polarities are held in conscious, creative harmony by a center that unifies them.
