Mandalas and Labyrinths
In such cases it is easy to see how the severe pattern imposed by a circular image of this kind compensates the disorder of the psychic state– namely through a the construction of a central point to which everything is related, or by a concentric arrangement of the disordered multiplicity and of contradictory and irreconcilable elements.
This is evidently an attempt at self-healing on the part of Nature, which does not spring from conscious reflection but from an instinctive impulse.
Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious
[When it occurred to me that building a labyrinth would be a good idea, it did not occur to me that what I was also doing was creating a mandala; it was only in retrospect that I understood I had unconsciously created am image/analogy of wholeness and healing.]
Mandalas and Labyrinths
In Tibetan Buddhism the figure has the significance of a ritual instrument (yantra), ·whose purpose is to assist meditation and concentration.
Its meaning in alchemy is somewhat similar, inasmuch as it represents the synthesis of the four elements which are forever tending to fall apart.
Its spontaneous occurrence in modern individuals enables psychological research to make a closer investigation into its functional meaning.
As a rule a mandala occurs in conditions of psychic dissociation or disorientation, for instance in the case of children between the ages of eight and eleven whose parents are about to be divorced, or in adults who, as the result of a neurosis and its treatment, are confronted with the problem of opposites in human nature and are consequently disoriented; or again in schizophrenics whose view of the world has become confused, owing to the invasion of incomprehensible contents from the unconscious.
In such cases it is easy to see how the severe pattern imposed by a circular image of this kind compensates the disorder and confusion of the psychic state—namely, through the construction of a central point to which everything is related, or by a concentric arrangement of the disordered multiplicity and of contradictory and irreconcilable elements.
This is evidently an attempt at self-healing on the part of Nature, which does not spring from conscious reflection but from an instinctive impulse.
Here, as comparative research has shown, a fundamental schema is made use of, an archetype which, so to speak, occurs everywhere and by no means owes its individual existence to tradition, any more than the instincts would need to be transmitted in that way.
Instincts are given in the case of every newborn individual and belong to the inalienable stock of those qualities which characterize a species.
What psychology designates as archetype is really a particular, frequently occurring, formal aspect of instinct, and is just as much an a priori factor as the latter. Therefore, despite external differences, we find a fundamental conformity in mandalas regardless of their origin in time and space.
Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious
A Study in the Process of Individuation
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Image: Labyrinth at Chartres — Jung’ mandala 1916 — Alaska Labyrinth
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…..In such cases it is easy to see how the severe pattern imposed by a circular image of this kind compensates the disorder and confusion of the psychic state—namely, through the construction of a central point to which everything is related, or by a concentric arrangement of the disordered multiplicity and of contradictory and irreconcilable elements.
This is evidently an attempt at self-healing on the part of Nature, which does not spring from conscious reflection but from an instinctive impulse…
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