Additional Mandala Making Tips

The whole practice of Mandala Making is a dance and a balance between structure and freedom, order and creative chaos... and we could say between Yin and Yang. The mandala is the Tao interface or Golden Mean intermediary bringing together the best of these two archetypal cosmic principles. They may appear like incompatible polarities but, in essence, they are perfect complements seeking a holy marriage on the common ground of oneness offered by the Mandala, the Tao and the Golden Mean. In the human realm, the Child is the Mandala of Man & Woman.

Due to its symmetry, geometries and proportions, the mandala offers the supportive function of wave guiding and focusing your attention to the CENTER: the center of your Spirit Self and the center of the universe.  This is not a center separate from its manifested parts but an all-inclusive Center embracing all the polarities, all the extremes and unifying them in the supra-coherent dance of original Oneness. Because the true mandala contains the holographic codes of creation.

Making your own mandala is joyously mapping out the vortex of resonant harmony between you-the-human-person and you-the-infinite-spirit. It may look flat at first glance but be aware that there is a spiral dynamics hidden in it like a buried treasure... and be ready because this multi-dimensional spiral will take you on a wild journey indeed.

Below, we give a few additional ideas and suggestions that can help you in your mandala making apprenticeship & mastery.

1. You can personalize your mandala in various ways:

•  You can add to your mandala a special, personal symbol, sign or shape that maybe only you will recognize but has some powerful meaning for you. Or it can be a little story, or an intention, a wish that you give shape to and place in a certain location on the ground of your mandala
• You can connect your mandala with your birth data. Using a 12-symmetry pattern, you can correlate your main astrological elements from a zodiacal chart to your own mandala. You can trace the aspects of your astrological influences as color geometries and/or project them in the future or reconfigure them from a higher spirit perspective. Or you can only mark your Sun and Moon, or Houses and integrate them in your mandala design... Be creative as you are listening to the guidance of your Higher Self to apply or transform certain aspects of your life and destiny.
• You can integrate your numerology into your mandala. Your Birth, Destiny, Personality or Soul Number can provide the symmetry group structure you want to use and explore in your personal numerology mandala...
• You can play with the shape of your name. The letters or characters of your name are symbolic shapes, like hieroglyphs, that have basic meaning if you blow them up, turn them around, symmetrize them etc... You need to learn how to enter inside the shapes of your name (or someone else's name) and understand from inside out the energy flows of that letter or character.

2. Observe nature.
Mother Earth and Father Sky, in all their manifestations, are the master teachers of harmony, balance, interactive connectedness and mutual participation... When you are outdoors, make quick sketches of what catches your attention. Or take pictures of what you like (flowers, plants, animals, clouds, shapes, patterns...). Later, you can integrate these natural elements in your mandala. You can also use tracing paper and reproduce in your mandala outlines from books with images of nature or people. Or maybe you already are a good realistic artists and you can draw out directly and improvise some of nature's shapes that will add meaning and resonance to your mandala.

3. Observe the environment of your daily life, the many aspects of culture.

4. See your mandala in 3D.
Realize that there is a vertical direction or axis going through the center and turning the seemingly 2D looking mandala into a 3D sphere connecting in all directions. Keep the awareness of this 3D axis as you develop the 2D construction.

5. For coloring your mandala, you can go digital: scan it and color it in Photoshop or equivalent software. Take advantage of the layer feature, the gradient capabilities and the filters... This way, you can explore with a variety of coloring schemes on several versions of your mandala.

6. You can mandalize any shape. Take, for instance, the floorplan of your house, and reproduce it  4 times around the center (at 90º from each other). Or 6 times (at 60º). Use your knowledge of symmetry groups to experiment with "mandalizing" any shape (try with the letters or characters of your own name).

7. Make a "Friendship Mandala".  Sketch some visual form of your group of friends or the members of your family and place them in a band around your mandala. This way, all of your friends or family members will be unified within the same larger pattern...

8. If you are a musician, you can incorporate musical chords in your mandala by using certain proportions: 2/3 for the musical fifth, or 3/4 for the musical fourth. Or you can see various parts of the mandala as “octaves” of  musical sounds cascading to higher (and lower) frequencies.

… And now you may be ready to throw out all the rules, tips and suggestions…
Refresh your creative imagination screen
JUMP IN & DANCE!

With delighted curiosity,
watch how your hand & fingers
create a new world, a new mandala…