Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
The Kundalini Sakti, symbol of<br />
coiled up psychic energy.<br />
Illuminated manuscript page.<br />
Rajasthan, c. 18th century.<br />
Gouache on paper.<br />
66<br />
as 'liberation through sight'. The act of seeing, which is analogous<br />
to contemplation, is in itself a liberating experience. In earlier<br />
times, mineral and vegetable pigments, such as crushed gemstones,<br />
rock, gold, silver, turquoise, lapis lazuli, etc. were used for<br />
paintings; contemporary artists use gouaches which give their<br />
work a brighter appearance but lose the subtle colours and tones of<br />
earlier works. During festivals and ceremonies in India, popular<br />
forms of mandalas, drawn and coloured in a variety of decorative<br />
patterns, are often made on floors and walls. They are also traced in<br />
miniature, simple forms by women on their palms as auspicious<br />
signs and for protective purposes.<br />
In the West, the mandala as an archetype released from the<br />
primordial collective unconscious is much discussed in the works<br />
of C. G.Jung, who studied it as a basic therapeutic art form created<br />
by patients in their quest for self-realization. In this respect, the<br />
mandala is a psychological representation of psychic totality and<br />
suggests a form of stability in the process of individuation,<br />
unifying opposite forces in the psychic matrix to form the totality<br />
of an integrated personality. Such individual mandalas contain an<br />
unlimited variety of symbols and contents, whereas ritual<br />
mandalas are restricted to defined styles and motifs. Another such<br />
similarity exists between mandalas and the Navajo sand-paintings<br />
used for ritual healing. In the latter, the basic structure is quite<br />
similar: the circle indicates the centre of the cosmos, around which<br />
at various points are drawn symbols designating elements, the<br />
seasons and the four directions, the outer periphery and the inner<br />
motif being mutually inter-dependent.<br />
By extension, the universality of the holistic concept of the<br />
mandala can be observed in organic nature and human consciousness<br />
alike. From atom to star, each particle's structure represents a<br />
wholeness in potentiality which becomes manifest in space and<br />
time relative to its nature. It is possible that the inspiration to<br />
portray the cosmos in the art form of a mandala came from this<br />
basic source.<br />
The Subtle Body and its Representation<br />
In the symbology of tantric art, the structures of the various<br />
psychic centres in the subtle body are represented in lotus forms<br />
known as chakras, and the paths of the energy currents are mapped<br />
visually in the form of spirals. These are known from both<br />
miniature paintings and scrolls. Whereas the mandalas and yantras<br />
are ritual motifs with a utilitarian value to the adept, these