Mandalas: Sacred Geometry as a Map of the Cosmos and the Mind
Draw a circle. Place a point at its center. From that center, organize all the space within the circle according to a principle of sacred symmetry — concentric rings, radial axes, geometric forms nested within forms, each zone assigned a meaning, a color, a deity, a quality of consciousness. When you have finished, you will have done what human beings across half a dozen unconnected civilizations have done for three thousand years: you will have made a mandala . The word comes from Sanskrit — mandala (मण्डल), meaning "circle" or "disk," though the concept it names is far richer than either translation suggests. A mandala is simultaneously a cosmological diagram (a map of the universe from its center outward), a psychological map (a diagram of consciousness in its various states and levels), a ritual object (a physical or visualized sacred space in which deities are invoked and spiritual practice is conducted), and a work of art (a geometric composition of extraord...