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In this article we will investigate another well-known symbol of the Monad that represents ‘Oneness’ – that is the mandala.

We will explore how the mandala shows up in many cultures throughout the world and across time.

In Articles 4 and 5 we saw all the names that have been given to express the inexpressible concept of the Monad. It was pointed out that wars have been fought and torture has been committed over this concept of naming what cannot be named, and forcing others to interpret truth through all too narrow channels.

With the mandala we have a visual representation, rather than words, that attempt to express this same inexpressible concept. The point is to remember that though religions use different symbols, at the core of all the various symbolism lies the same concept of Unity and Infinity.

 

“The paths are many, the truth is One.”

 

The Monad by Renee Hoadley, acrylic on wood

 

The Monad as represented by the Mandala:

Mandala means circlein Sanskrit मण्डल. It also means concentricenergycircle, essenceor hitch– as in an ox to a cart (or to yoke, as in yoga).

 

A mandala describes material and non-material realities. It represents the cosmos as a whole, metaphysically, and a microcosm of the universe from the human perspective.

Mandala designs link the spiraling movement of consciousness, sacred geometry, psychology and healing.

The basic form of the mandala is a square with four gates containing a circle with a center point.

 

This represents a journey from the outer world to the sacred inner world of the divine – a journey from the physical to the metaphysical (spiritual).

Psychologist David Fontana tells us that the mandala’s symbolic nature can help one “to access progressively deeper levels of the unconscious, ultimately assisting the meditator to experience a mystical sense of oneness with the ultimate unity from which the cosmos in all its manifold forms arises.”

 

Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Carl Jung (1875-1961) reintroduced the mandala to the western world during his pioneering exploration of the unconscious through art making.

Jung said, “Only gradually did I discover what the mandala really is: …the Self, the wholeness of the personality, which if all goes well, is harmonious.”

He went on to say, “The mandala serves a conservative purpose – namely, to restore a previously existing order. But it also serves the creative purpose of giving expression and form to something that does not yet exist, something new and unique…The process is that of the ascending spiral, which grows upward while simultaneously returning again and again to the same point.”

“Jung recognized the urge to make mandalas emerges during moments of intense personal growth. Their appearance indicates a profound re-balancing process is underway in the psyche. The result of the process is a more complex and better integrated personality.”1

 

Art therapist Susanne Fincher says, “Creating mandalas helps stabilize, integrate, and re-order inner life.”

The circle or the wheel as a symbol of the universe is found throughout many aeons and many cultures.

 

A structure built around a center is a common theme in architecture: Muslim mosques, Buddhist stupas, Christian steeples, teepees…etc.

 

Buckminster Fuller designed the geodesic dome. This shape has the highest ratio of enclosed area to external surface area. All structural components contribute equally to the whole. The geodesic dome is “a great structural representation of a 3D mandala”.

Geodesic Dome, Credit: Andrew Kaszowski Spaceship Earth, Epcot Center, Universal Studios, Florida

 

Mandalas as Multi-cultural Cosmic Diagrams

“Whether the product of an eastern or a western culture, the circular mandala or sacred diagram is a familiar and pervasive image throughout the history of art.

India, Tibet, Islam and medieval Europe have all produced them in abundance, and most tribal cultures employ them as well, either in the form of paintings, buildings or dances.

Such diagrams are often based on the division of the circle into four quarters, and all the parts and elements involved are interrelated into a unified design.

 

They are most often in some way cosmological; that is, they represent in symbol what is thought to be the essential structure of the universe: for example, the four spatial directions, the four elements, the four seasons, sometimes the twelve signs of the zodiac, various divinities and often man himself.

But what is most consistently striking about this form of diagram is that it expresses the notion of cosmos, that is, of reality conceived as an organized, unified whole.”2

John Michell writes, “In the symbolism of all religions, a geometric construction representing the heavenly city or map of paradise has a central place. It occurs in sacred art as a mandala, a concentric arrangement of circles, squares, and polygons depicting in essence the entire universe.”3

 

We will next take a look at the mandalas that show up throughout various cultures. In this article we will look at Christian mandalas. In the second part of this series, Article 15b we will look at mandalas from the cultures of ancient Rome, prehistoric Stone Circles, British Isles/Celtic, Native America, China, Korea, Japan, Thailand, Hinduism, Tibet and Islam.

 

Mandalas in Christianity

Mandalas play a large role in traditional Christian art.

See for instance the 12^th century fresco, The Wheel of Life, at St Mary’ Church at Kempley in Gloucestershire, England (pictured below). It consists of a central circle with ten radiating circles around it. Those are then enclosed in another larger circle. This purportedly represents the 10 ages of man.

 

There is a similar wheel (yet worse for wear) on the north wall of the former chapel of St Anthony in Leominster Priory church in Herefordshire (pictured below with re-creation).

Credit: Dr. S. Coyne Ancient Art & Architecture Collection

 

Here is a Norman painted cross from 1130 CE from the south wall of the Priory Church of St Peter and St Paul, Leominster, Herefordshire, England:

Credit: Spencer Means

 

There are also traces of what are probably two further Wheel of Life diagrams on the north wall of the north aisle of St Albans Cathedral and on the west wall of the nave of St Mary’s church, Kemsing in Kent.

Another wheel is present in The DeLisle Psalter.

 

The de Lisle Psalter is “a courtly book for which no expense was spared and which in its refined elegance is typical of the Decorated Style under King Edward II in Westminster, one of the finest and most perfect embodiments of Gothic art.

Whether Robert de Lisle was the patron or only the first owner of the manuscript is unknown. The owner of a series of estates, the Baron Robert de Lisle had been active as Peer to Parliament from an early stage. The kings Edward II and Edward III appreciated his services until 1341, at which point in time he entered a Franciscan monastery in London as its foremost supporter. In 1339 he bequeathed the De Lisle Psalter to his two daughters who had retired to the abbey of Cheqesaundes. And afterwards it will remain forever with the ladies of Cheqesaundes.”4

 

Regarding the Franciscans Mary Dove writes, “The Franciscan spirituality which created and was sustained by trees of life and towers of wisdom may seem to us to have been obsessively concerned with pattern, number and correspondence, but at least as important with the Speculum Theologie tradition is the perception that the ‘altercation of opposites’ underlies all things.”5

She goes on to explain, “In the rota altercacionis oppositorum [early 1400s] in the de Lisle Psalter, “at the top of the wheel Superbus (the proud man) proclaims ‘I look down on the lowly, for I am called the greatest of heroes) and immediately afterwards (the wheel reads from left to right) Humilis counters the proud man with ‘I do not wish to be called lord for I have overcome the mighty’. The miserly man and the magnanimous man then speak their opposing verses, and so on all round the wheel; opposites confront each other, visually yoked together, until Death, back at the top of the wheel, concludes the altercation with ‘I praise nothing; I spare nothing; I bring all things to an end’.”6

The de Lisle Psalter is bound with the Howard Psalter, a 14th-century illuminated prayerbook produced between 1310 and 1320. Here are three mandala images from the Howard Psalter:

 

 

Rose Windows

Another common expression of the mandala in Christianity is through Rose Windows (circular stained glass windows).

There are many styles of ‘Rose Windows’ including:

• Oculi
• Late Gothic in Italy. No traceries; filled with elaborate pictures in stained glass designed by the most accomplished Late Medieval and Early Renaissance designers including Duccio, Donatello, Uccello and Ghiberti. Example: Florence Cathedral (pictured below).

 

• Wheel Windows
• Romanesque period & Gothic Italy. Simple tracery of spokes radiating from a central boss or from a central roundel. Example: Church of San Francesco at Lucera, Italy (pictured below).

 

• Plate Tracery
• Transition between Romanesque and Gothic. Chartres, France. Example: The “Dean’s Eye” in Lincoln Cathedral (pictured below) and Dzialoszyce, Poland.

 

• Early Gothic
• Gothic Revival. Northern France (Laon Cathedral). Tracery comprising overlapping arcs like flower petals, circular and square shapes.

Credit: Andrea Kirkby

 

• Rayonnant Gothic
• Gothic & Gothic Revival. France (St Denis) and England (Westminster Abbey). Divided by mullions radiating from a central roundel overlapping in a complex design, each light terminating in a pointed arch and often interspersed with quatrefoils and other such shapes. Example: Ruins of Languidou Abbey (pictured below).

 

• Flamboyant Gothic
• Late Gothic. Beauvais Cathedral, Ameins Cathedral & Sainte-Chapelle in Paris. Marked by S-curves in the tracery causing each light to take on a flamelike or ‘flamboyant’ shape. Example: The “Bishop’s Eye” at Lincoln Cathedral (seen below) and at Meaux Cathedral in France.

 

• Renaissance
• A return to the Classical. Plain untraceried oculi were sometimes employed. Example: Pazzi Chapel, Florence (pictured below).

 

• Baroque
• Greater use of ocular windows, not always circular, sometimes oval or a more complex shape. Untraceried or crossed by mullions of very simple form but often surrounded by ornate carving. Example: The Holy Spirit in the Reredos behind the High Altar of St. Peter’s Basilica and at Catania, Italy.

 

• Modern
• A range of influences: abstract art; ship’s portholes; unglazed circular openings of Oriental architecture
• Pictured below is the Glory Window created by Gabriel Loire in 1976, Dallas, Texas:

 

 

French Gothic Rose windows

We will focus for a moment on one particular style of the Rose window – that of the French Gothic.

“Each world view will obviously ascribe widely differing functions to artistic activity and experience. The modern mind has severed the symbol, the image, from all metaphysical moorings…the medieval artist was committed to a truth that transcended human existence.

The Gothic age, as has often been observed, was an age of vision. The supernatural manifested itself to the senses. In the religious life of the 12^th and 13^th centuries, the desire to behold sacred reality with bodily eyes appears as a dominant motif. Architecture was designed and experienced as a representation of an ultimate reality.”8

The first Gothic building was constructed in Paris. The abbey church of Saint-Denis was completed in 1144, following the first three Crusades (pictured below).

 

The first Gothic Rose window was created around 1200 in France. Below is pictured the north transcept of the Abbey Chruch of St. Denis in Paris, France.

 

Interestingly, the stained glass of the Middle Ages first appeared in the Iran/Iraq area in the 11^th century. The Crusaders, particularly the Knights Templar, brought back this Sufi influence from Muslim areas after the Crusades. Sufis trace their origins further back than Mohammed. Sufism is the mystical source of Islam. They were concerned with the direct experience of God and attaining visionary states of consciousness.

 

“The great Sufi writer Ibn Arabi said that a Sufi master is someone who unveils one to oneself…

 

Sufism taught the sometimes painful process of ‘waking up’, of becoming aware of ourselves and of the cosmic, mystical current that runs through us and becoming more fully alive.”7

 

The stained glass windows were meant to transform ‘that which is material to that which is immaterial.’

There is the symbolism of light (symbol of the spiritual) moving through the physical (the glass) in order to illuminate it. The glass then becomes transparent and filled with light, able then to offer harmony and inspiration to any who gaze upon it.

“The stained-glass windows of the Gothic replace the brightly colored walls of Romanesque architecture; they are structurally and aesthetically not openings in the wall to admit light, but transparent walls. As Gothic verticalism seems to reverse the movement of gravity, so, by a similar aesthetic paradox, the stained-glass window seemingly denies the impenetrable nature of matter, receiving its visual existence from an energy that transcends it. Light, which is ordinarily concealed by matter, appears as the active principle; and matter is aesthetically real only insofar as it partakes of, and is defined by, the luminous quality of light.

Saint Chapelle, Paris, France

 

No segment of inner space was allowed to remain in darkness, undefined by light. The side aisles, the galleries above them, the ambulatory and chapels of the choir, became narrower and shallower, their exterior walls pierced by continuous rows of windows. Ultimately they appear as a shallow, transparent shell surrounding nave and choir, while the windows, if seen from the inside, cease to be distinct. They seem to merge, vertically and horizontally, into a continuous sphere of light, a luminous foil behind all tactile forms of the architectural system.”9

Saint Chapelle, Paris, France

 

Stained glass windows are now found in Australia, Ecuador, England, France, Italy, the United States, Germany, Sweden, Spain, and Peru among many others.

This stunning art form, rooted in ancient culture, operates on spiritual, meditative and emotional levels.

 

The Gothic Cathedral was meant to be a “crucible for human transformation.”

 

Every detail was attended to: the harmonic geometry of the architecture; the vastly tall ceilings; the light illuminating the gorgeous Sacred geometry mandalas; the music heard – Gregorian chanting of Benedictine monks; and the burning of incense including Frankincense and Myrrh.

Chartres Cathedral, Chartres, France

 

“Frankincense elevates personal and spiritual love and heightens awareness on all levels by inspiring and awakening the spiritual senses. It enhances divine connection and brings inner peace.”10

Listening to Gregorian chants increases the production of alpha brain waves encouraging a relaxed state of mind. Furthermore, “the musical structure of chanting can have a significant and positive physiological impact…it has been shown to lower blood pressure, increase levels of the performance hormone DHEA as well as reducing anxiety and depression.”11

 

All these elements put together were meant to encourage humanity to learn to connect with the divinity within themselves so that they could connect to [and hence, love & respect] all others. It was meant to encourage humans to reach higher spiritual heights and levels of consciousness.

The contemplation of such harmonies was meant to lead the soul to the direct experience of God, Cosmic Consciousness or All-That-Is.

Ceiling of Sienna Cathedral dome, Sienna, Italy

 

 

Eldred Aelfwald comments, “In much the same way the center of Eastern mandalas depict the “godhead” or divine aspect of the world, so do rose windows. Typically Christ or the Virgin and Christ are found in the central rosette of most windows. In eastern philosophy, there are many paths to reach the divine, and these are represented by “gates” at the cardinal points of the mandala. By the same token, saints depicted in the petals of a rose window can be seen as intermediaries (or paths) to Christ.”

 

Rose Windows utilize Geometry on Three Levels: manifest, hidden and symbolic.

• Manifest: visual impact

• Hidden: defines the exact placement of every major figure of the rose window relating to the radial elements, concentric divisions and the center

• Symbolic: found in numerical significance of the following chart12:

 

Number	Meaning	Number	Meaning
1	Unity of all things; circle	6	Equilibrium and balance of the soul; Solomon’s seal
2	Duality and paradox of opposites	7	Mystic number, the ages, planets, virtues, gifts of the Spirit, liberal arts
3	Stability transcending duality; triangle	8	Baptism and rebirth; octagon
4	Matter, 4 elements, 4 winds, 4 seasons (year & precessional), 4 directions, 4 equinoxes/solstices; square
5	Man, magic, Christ’s wounds; pentacle	12	Perfection, universe, time, apostles, Zodiac, tribes of Israel, precious stones in foundations of New Jerusalem, Full Precession of the Equinoxes

Keith Critchlow writes, “The Rose can also be taken to represent the totality of the wheel of passing time. The fivefold petal pattern is taken to refer to the five elements and the recurring cycles of the cosmos.”

 

 

Mandalas in Architecture: Sacred Architecture

Sacred architecture has a symbolical function. Information is encoded in the structure that represents the world as a reflection of the Cosmos.

 

True beauty, according to Augustine, is anchored in metaphysical reality.

 

There is a pattern in sacred architecture that represents a higher cosmic order.

This pattern includes scale invariance or self-similarity. It means that each part of the world (each entity, each life form) is but a reflection of the full divinity, majesty and wonder of the Infinite Cosmos. The whole is present in each of the parts.

The temple serves as a mean between the human domain and the larger domain, the planet & cosmos.

“The church is, mystically and liturgically, an image of heaven…It is, for example, quite true to say that the Gothic architect sought to represent the splendor of the city that, according to the Book of Revelation, was of ‘pure gold, like to clear glass’. [However] with few exceptions, the Gothic builders have been tight-lipped about the symbolic significance of their projects, but they are unanimous in paying tribute to geometry as the basis of their art.”13

Strausborg Cathedral, Strasbourg, Alsace, France

 

Michael Schneider writes, “Temples and society were both meant to mediate and harmonize the heavens with the affairs of people.”14

The temple “was designed on the principle that ‘like attracts like,’ on the understanding, as Plotinus put it, that if one wishes to attract any aspect of the universal spirit, one must create a receptacle in its image.”15

 

Temples were designed as:

• timekeeping device
• a measuring tool
• a clock & calendar

However, the core purpose of the temple is the idea of the temple reflecting the heavenly order of the universe.

The physical temple is used until the initiates learn how to build the temple in their hearts.

“We are seeking the lost ground plan of that ideal city which Plato described as “a pattern set in the heavens, where those who want to see it can do so, and establish it in their own hearts.”16

 

Temples or places of worship are seen in every religious tradition. According to Keith Critchlow, “A temple is a mesocosmos, and the ‘gods’ are the timeless principles of that cosmos.”

Westminster Abbey, London, England, north portal

 

Gothic Cathedrals

We took at look at the Rose windows of Gothic Cathedrals above. We will now take a look at other elements of these cathedrals.

Gothic Cathedrals were built in the Age of Virgo between the 12th and 16th century. Often these cathedrals were dedicated to the Virgin Mary.

Cathedral of Notre Dame, Paris, France

 

Cathedral windows

A window allows the passage of light into a dark space. This is a simple sentence and a simple concept yet it has profound spiritual meaning.

 

Often windows were made with simple designs:

• quatrefoils – composed of four partially overlapping circles (4-leaf clover shape)

 

• trefoils – three overlapping circles (3-leaf clover shape)

 

• arches – rounded, pointed, or lancet

 

We will now look at many examples of cathedral widows.

 

Lincoln Cathedral – Lincoln, England

• The “Bishop’s Eye” – south window – double vesica design

 

• The “Dean’s Eye” – north window – stained glass; 4 central circles surrounded by 16 smaller circles

 

• Interior view of the crossing tower – beautiful geometry that appears to a 4-petaled flower unfolding; origami-like

Credit: Aidan McRae Thomson

 

Cathedral of Notre-Dame – Chartres, France

 

• altars at Chartres designed with the squared circle and hexagonal fusion of geometry

 

• very popular labyrinth on church floor – See Article 17

“The rose window, which in its outer circle displays the signs of the zodiac, represents the chakra ablaze as it should be when we reach the center of life’s labyrinth, dancing finally to the Music of the Spheres. Nor for nothing has Chartres Cathedral been described as an alchemical crucible for the transformation of humanity.”17

 

Cathedral of Notre-Dame – Paris, France

• west facade – 12-point geometry

 

• north Rose window – Gothic Rayonnant style – 16-point geometry

 

• South rose window – 12-point geometry

 

Evreux Cathedral – Normandy, France

• north transept facade – intricate mandala over entrance

 

• south front- 10 petaled geometry

 

• west front – 8-petaled geometry
• octagonal central tower

 

Reims Cathedral – France

• West end – two Rose windows – 12 and 16-point geometries (12 point pictured below)

 

• north transept – 12-point geometry

 

• Main Gate

 

• Labyrinth of the cathedral

 

Cathedral of St. John the Divine – New York City

• western end – unique 7-point geometry above door (pictured below); 4-point geometry above

 

• stained glass window – 16-point geometry

 

Winchester Cathedral – Hampshire, England

 

• ground plan is an interplay of simple vesica based triangular (ad triangulum) and square (ad quadratum) systems

Credit: Quadrivium, page 83

 

• axis points 72 degrees from north, creating a ‘magical magnetic pentagram’

 

Examples of other Christian Mandalas

• ‘Universe Supported by God with the Signs of the Planets’, Pietro di Pucci da Orvieto, Campo Santo, Pisa, Italy

 

• La Creation du monde: Christ Chronocator (c. 1370) – Giusto de’ Menabuoi

 

• Medieval understanding of spheres of the Cosmos derived from Aristotle, explained by Ptolemy

 

• Systema Ptolemaicum – Atlas Coelestis, 1742 – Johann Gabriel Doppelmayr

 

• Catalan Atlas VILADESTES (c. 1375) Abraham Cresques

 

• Universe formed of concentric circles, with Christ at the top and Hell in the Center. L’Image du monde, Royal 19 A IX f. 149 – Gautier de Metz (1464)

 

• God creating the Cosmos (Bible moralisee, French, 1250). The ‘Cosmos’ look suspiciously like a Mandelbrot Set.

 

• Vincent de Beauvais, Miroir Historial [Speculum historiale], traduction française par Jean de Vignay. Vol. I (Livres I-VII), 1370-1380

 

• Seed of Life Image – “Figurengedicht”, From a copy of ‘Luther’s Churches Pastilla’, 1638 – John William Kress

 

• Paradise by Giusto de’ Menabuoi (Firenze, 1330 ca.-Padova, 1390 ca.)

 

• Paradiso by Gustav Dore, 1868 – Illustrates Canto 34 from Dante’s Paradiso

Other Christian symbols that invoke the mandala include:

 

The Celtic cross:

 

The rosary:

 

The halo:

 

Oculi (circular opening in center of a dome):

 

The Crown of Thorns:

 

The Rosy Cross (Rosicrucian symbol):

 

The labyrinth – See Article 17.

 

Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179) was a German Benedictine abbess, writer, composer, philosopher, Christian mystic, visionary and polymath. Hildegard’s works include three great volumes of visionary theology.

She also created beautiful mandalas to express her many visions. Four of these are pictured below:

A few of her quotes are as follows:

“We cannot live in a world that is not our own, in a world that is interpreted for us by others. An interpreted world is not a home. Part of the terror is to take back our own listening. To use our own voice. To see our own light.”

“The Word is living, being, spirit, all verdant greening, all creativity. This Word manifests itself in every creature.”

“Humanity, take a good look at yourself. Inside you’ve got heaven and earth, and all of creation. You’re a world – everything is hidden in you.”

“Everything that is in the heavens, on earth, and under the earth is penetrated with connectedness, penetrated with relatedness.”

“Every creature is a glittering, glistening mirror of Divinity.”

“There is the music of Heaven in all things.”

 

Continue this Article on mandalas in 5b.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandala
2. Lawlor, Robert, Sacred Geometry: Philosophy & Practice, Thames & Hudson, 1982
3. Michell, John, The Dimensions of Paradise, Inner Traditions, 2^nd edition, 2008
4. Muller und Schindler, The de Lisle Psalter, http://www.muellerundschindler.com/en/product/de-lisle-psalter/
5. Dove, Mary, The Perfect Age of Man’s Life, Cambridge University Press, 1986
6. ibid.
7. Booth, Mark, The Secret History of the World,Overlook Press, 2010
8. Von Simson, Otto, The Gothic Cathedral: Origins of Gothic Architecture and the Medieval Concept of Order, Princeton University Press, 1974
9. ibid.
10. http://www.hiddenpoweruniversity.com/frank_myrrh.htm
11. The Washington Post, Chant: A healing art?, 25 June 2008, https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/jun/25/chant-a-healing-art/
12. http://dragon_azure.tripod.com/UoA/Med-Arch-Rose-Window.html
13. Von Simson, Otto, The Gothic Cathedral: Origins of Gothic Architecture and the Medieval Concept of Order, Princeton University Press, 1974
14. Schneider, Michael, A Beginner’s Guide to Constructing the Universe, Harper Perennial, 1994
15. Michell, John, The Dimensions of Paradise, Inner Traditions, 2^nd edition, 2008
16. ibid.
17. Booth, Mark, The Secret History of the World,Overlook Press, 2010
18. Lawlor, Robert, Sacred Geometry: Philosophy & Practice, Thames & Hudson, 1982
19. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_circle
20. http://www.sun-nation.org/sun-maya-hunab-ku.html
21. http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/mudra-japan.shtml
22. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/45596
23. Mahdihassan, S, Comparing Yin-Tang, the Chinese symbol of creation, with Ouroboros of Greek alchemy, American Journal of Chinese Medicine, 17(3-4), 1989, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2633627
24. Gyurme, Tenzin, The Flower of Life and the History of Meta-Physics, House of Goddess – Ireland, 2007
25. Khanna, Madhu, Yantra: The Tantric Symbol of Cosmic Unity, Inner Traditions, 2003
26. Encyclopedia of New Age Beliefs
27. https://archive.asia.si.edu/exhibitions/online/mandala/mandala.htm
28. Henry, Richard, Geometry – The Language of Symmetry in Islamic Art, http://artofislamicpattern.com/resources/educational-posters/
29. ibid.
30. ibid.
31. http://spiritualawakening.weebly.com/mandalas-what-are-they.html