The Mandala ought to be a collective phenomenon
If the motif of the mandala is an archetype it ought to be a collective phenomenon, i.e. theoretically it should appear in everyone.
In practice however, it is to be met with in distinct forms in relatively few cases, though this does not prevent it from functioning as a concealed pole round which everything ultimately revolves.
In the last analysis every life is the realization of a whole, that is, of a self, for which reason this realization can also be called “individuation.”
All life is bound to individual carriers who realize it, and it is simply inconceivable without them. But every carrier is charged with an individual destiny and destination, and the realization of them alone makes sense of life.
True, the “sense” is often something that could just as well be called “nonsense,” for there is a certain incommensurability between the mystery of existence and human understanding.
“Sense” and “nonsense” are merely man made labels which serve tjo give us a reasonably valid sense of direction. ~Carl Jung, Psychology and Alchemy, The Symbolism of the Mandala, Page 222, Paragraph 330.
