Mandalas and the State of the Self

My mandalas were cryptograms concerning the state of the self which were presented to me anew each day.

In them I saw the self– that is, my whole being–actively at work.

To be sure, at first I could only dimly understand them; but they seemed to me highly significant, and I guarded them like precious pearls.

I had the distinct feeling that they were something central, and in time I acquired through them a living conception of the self.

The self, I thought, was like the monad which I am, and which is my world.

The mandala represents this monad, and corresponds to the microcosmic nature of the psyche.

I no longer know how many mandalas I drew at this time.

There were a great many.

While I was working on them, the question arose repeatedly: What is this process leading to?

Where is its goal? From my own experience, I knew by now that I could not presume to choose a goal which would seem trustworthy to me.

It had been proved to me that I had to abandon the idea of the superordinate position of the ego.

After all, I had been brought up short when I had attempted to maintain it.

I had wanted to go on with the scientific analysis of myths which I had begun in Wandlungen und Symbole.

That was still my goal–but I must not think of that! I was being compelled to go through this process of the unconscious.

I had to let myself be carried along by the current, without a notion of where it would lead me.

When I began drawing the mandalas, however, I saw that everything, all the paths I had been following, all the steps I had taken, were leading back to a single point–namely, to the mid-point.

It became increasingly plain to me that the mandala is the center.

It is the exponent of all paths. It is the path to the center, to individuation.

Memories, Dreams, Reflections

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