To a Colourful Christmas!

Christmas Colour Wheel  by The Mandala Group 2017

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This year's mandala is something a bit different, a colour wheel with a collection of summer flowers and added Christmas cheer from multi-coloured holly leaves and yin yang berries.  Cathy, Sky Dymondz, Jojo, Jenni and Shastina all contributed to this colourful mandala.



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Paper Fans 1

Springtime Fans as a Snapshot of an Energetic Journey by Shastina 2015

These pink fans look to me like they are revolving around a central energy force. As the light flows from the central flower and shines from the green stars, it beams onto the other shapes forming the centre of the energetic journey and causing them, including the fans to revolve.  Everything is to be held like this for a moment, a snapshot of an energetic journey.  Yet even in its still state, you can see the way it all looks when revolving.  

As the fans resemble ones you could make by concertina folding paper and then, spreading one end of it out to create a fan shape. I thought that paper fans would be the name I'd use for this collection of mandalas. This is the first of the collection.

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Experiments in spirals

Experiment with Spirals: a collage, by Shastina only 2015.

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Lace Snow

Lace Snow by Shastina, copyright The Mandala Group 2014


A snowflake made of lace flowers. 
 Although it hasn't snowed yet, it's a seasonal thought.

A favourite template



One to colour in- A Favourite Template, Copyright The Mandala Group 2011

This template was created on the computer, using a mandala programme and is one we've used so many times I think it must certainly be a favourite!  By using this as a starting point, the group have then cut out the concentric circles/lotus flower shapes and then each person takes a concentric circle piece, to add colour to and designs patterns within the piece they are given . 

It's also one to colour in, everyone can have a go!   Feel free to participate ~ print out & add colour.

A favourite book

My favourite book on mandalas is called MANDALA: Journey to the Centre by Bailey Cunningham. It's packed with colourful images and what an inspiration this book has been to the group. Bailey Cunningham also has a website called The Mandala Project, where you can find details of the book. So if you want to take a look, there's a link at the bottom of this very post.
http://www.mandalaproject.org/

Sacred Circles: Around the world with the mandala

Mandalas are found in many traditions around the world as sacred circles. The Chinese Yin-yang symbol, the Hindu Yantra symbol and the Native American Medicine wheel are good examples.  Tibetan Buddhist monks have a tradition of making them as meditation mandalas with coloured sand and Rose windows can be seen in Christian cathedrals too, within beautiful stained glass.  In natural surroundings ripples on water, cobwebs, snowflakes and starfish are reminiscent of them.  Then into the mysterious, as crop circles often depict them.  In a more mundane setting they may be on dinner plates and other pieces of pottery. 

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End of the Winter

Five Mandalas Copyright The Mandala Group 2013

A collection of one person mandalas, designed by individual members of the group. Each one depicting an overlap in the change of seasons. This shows both new life at the beginning of spring...



...and wintery ideas from the fragile end of the winter...





...Where the old meets the new in the overlap of the two.








In the end of winter or the beginning of spring, this overlap is possible...So five mandalas by five group members.

 

 

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Celebration Mandalas

Say it with Candles- mandala 1,copyright Shastina of The Mandala Group 2013

Say it with Candles- mandala 2,copyright Shastina of The Mandala Group 2013

Say it with Candles- mandala 3,copyright Shastina of The Mandala Group 2013


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Three say it with candles mandalas, or actually the same mandala taken from different angles; so that three different views are shown.  It is another one in the Found Objects category. The objects this time are on the theme celebration.

Have a Happy Day today whether it's a special one for you or not! 

A recipe

My uncle once commented that mandalas look like pizzas, so here's a recipe for a mandala

Ingredients:
1 circle drawn on paper
selection of colouring pens
100 beautiful thoughts
A collection of coloured papers to use as a mount, save for later

Method:
Using a chosen colour scheme, select the colours you want to use from the colouring pens.
Add colour to the circle, working from the centre.
Then sprinkle liberally with beautiful thoughts.
Cut out the circle and your mandala is finished.
Serve with a coloured mount.

Enjoy!

The Angelic Core of Chakra Stars

Chakra Stars, Copyright Shastina only, of The Mandala Group 2012

The Angels are with everyone, every moment of every night and day.

In Chakra Stars, the golden light in the centre is the angelic core of this mandala and represents the angels' light entering the crown chakra.   The radiating through the chakras, takes place as a transformation; from colour to colour through the chakra stars.

Why I Love Colour

Colour Love by Shastina only, The Mandala Group 2012

I have always loved colour.  It's what makes life bearable.  It's the essence of beauty.

Colour can be beautiful, it can transform your moods, it can heal. Colours in the right combinations can be soothing, calming and peaceful or vibrant and life giving. 

 I love colour!

Every life's a circle

If life's a circle, then I wonder, whereabouts in the circle is everyone?  And if each life is a circle, how can we tell which pattern matches each one of us? 

If every life is a circle then it's duration is predestined by the circumference of that circle. Then a mandala can be formed within this and the pattern within this becomes the essence of that life's mandala.  Although some die early and some die late, they all travel their own journey, circling the centre and within and around the varied pattern, unique to them. 

If a loved one be taken away, be it a pet, such as a beloved dog or cat, or a friend or relative, is there any comfort in the thoughts ~ everyone lives out their own unique mandala, be it long or short and everyone has lived out their own circle and their own mandala, in their own time?