100 Days for Mandalas – Week Fourteen – Endings & Beginnings & In Between

September 5th, 2012

MANDALA INFORMATION, INSPIRATIONS & MEDITATION – The ending of 100 Days for Mandalas, Beginnings of a New (stay tuned), and In Between.

ENDINGS – This blog post has been hard to write. This week is the last blog for 100 Days for Mandalas. The official ending date is September 8th. It really isn’t an ending, it is more like a graduation, moving on to something different with a new foundation underneath to support and inspire. This has been a journey of unexpected joys seeing all the mandalas that have come into being. Thank you all for contributing your creativity and comments.

BEGINNINGS OF A NEW – There are thoughts about another 100 Days for Mandalas around the start of the New Year. I can’t wait until next summer for another 100 Days. I am too inspired by the creativity and depth of mandalas that have been shared by all. In the meantime mandalas will show up regularly in this blog.

IN BETWEEN – One of my greatest joys is teaching mandala workshops. For the third time I will be teaching, along with my dear friend and mandala companion Kelly Larson, the workshop we created called “Entering the Sacred through Images and Words”. The dates are Friday evening Oct. 19th and all day Sat. Oct. 20th. For the first time this workshop will be held at Rockhaven, a beautiful retreat center outside of St. Louis. There is the option to stay overnight in the former boat house turned art studio and sleeping quarters. I can’t wait.

A CELEBRATION – MANDALA PARTY AT NEXT MANDALA GET TOGETHER. Tina Sparks (see mandalas below) was at my house for the last mandala get together. She suggested a mandala party to celebrate 100 Days for Mandalas. The next get together will be September 23rd. We will have round treats – cookies, cup cakes, sliced round veggies and more. If you have contributed a mandala or mandalas to this blog, please join us. Email me for more info at: Linda@CreativityForTheSoul.com.

THE MYSTERY OF MANDALAS – A shift is taking place, just like the weather. It isn’t officially fall, but after Labor Day the shift to fall is felt. There is a more inward time approaching. Making mandalas will is always a great joy, but they will be deeper in some ways with the shift. Making mandalas is something that can be done at any time, at any level and in infinite ways. The circle of a mandala has no ending and beginning, it represents the whole, that which embraces all and holds all in its sacred space. It is the place where the mystery of the soul can be expressed and held in wholeness.

MANDALA PROMPT – The Mystery of the Mandala
Mandalas hold the mystery of the soul. That mystery reveals itself in shapes, colors and words. The mystery sometimes stays a mystery and doesn’t speak in the linear, logical way we honor in Western cultures. The mystery speaks in subtle ways through intuition, feelings, signs, heart, synchronicity, images, senses. Mandalas help us get in touch with the ways our soul speaks through not only mandalas but in all parts of our lives.

MANDALA MEDITATION – The Mystery of the Mandala

MANDALA INSPIRATIONS & SHARING
The mandalas below show a variety of ways to create mandalas. The first two were created at Christ of the Desert Monastery in New Mexico by Kelly Larson and myself.

Kelly created a mandala with the shibori technique of dyeing fabric.

Tina Sparks created the watercolor mandalas below. She has been so inspired and inspiring with the many many mandalas she created. It is always a joy and surprise to see not only how many mandalas she has created, but to see the unique variety of her creativity.

Here are Tina’s mandalas.