Carl Jung on Mandala – Anthology
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 soul. Carl Jung, Liber Novus, Page 206 and MDR, Page 221.
One might almost say that man himself, or his innermost soul, is the prisoner or the protected inhabitant of the mandala Carl Jung, CW 11, par. 157
I knew that in finding the mandala as an expression of the Self I had attained what was for me the ultimate.
Perhaps someone else knows more, but not I. Carl Jung; Memories Dreams and Reflections, Carl Jung; Memories Dreams and Reflections, Page 197.
Only gradually did I discover what the mandala really is: Formation, Transformation, Eternal Mind’s eternal recreation.
And that is the self, the wholeness of the personality, which if all goes well is harmonious, but which cannot tolerate self-deceptions. Carl Jung, Memories, Dreams and Reflections, Page 326.
Norway is the northern country, i.e., the intuitive sector of the mandala. Carl Jung, Letters Vol. 1, Page 448- 449.
Among my patients I have come across cases of women who did not draw mandalas but who danced them in- stead. Carl Jung, Secret of the Golden Flower, Page 97.
A mandala is a technical term for a magic circle which is used for meditation, but it is also used in a lower form for purpose of witchcraft; the witches’ circle was well known in the Middle Ages. Carl Jung, ETH Lecture 25Nov1938, Page 25.
The light of the mandala, and therefore the mandala itself, is already the Buddha, although he himself is not yet visible. The mandala is not just the seat of the Buddha, it is identical with him. Carl Jung, ETH Lecture 2Dec1938, Page 39.
This round motif should be kept clearly in your mind, for it is an exceedingly important symbol in the West as well as in the East. It is especially women who produce such symbols in the West.
This is not the case in the East, the mandalas are made by men, the feminine has remained unconscious. We find an exception to this rule in the matriarchal South of India. Carl Jung, ETH Lecture XI., 3Feb1939, Page 70.
Mandalas are sometimes made with the express purpose of evil, to do people harm.Carl Jung, ETH Lecture XI, 3Feb1939, Page 71.
In India free phantasying is not permitted, phantasying there is based on dogmatic pictures which are called Yantras, contemplation pictures, mandalas, which have the object of attracting the attention and forming a guide to phantasy. Carl Jung, ETH Lecture III, 17May 1935, Pages 208.
Animals generally signify the instinctive forces of the unconscious, which are brought into unity within the mandala. This integration of the instincts is a prerequisite for individuation. Carl Jung, CW 9ii, Para 660.
It [The Mandala] is the archetype of inner order; and it is always used in that sense, either to make arrange- ments of the many, many aspects of the universe, a world scheme, or to arrange the complicated aspects of our psyche into a scheme. Carl Jung, Evans Conversations, Page 21.
So you see, in a moment during a patient’s treatment when there is a great disorder and chaos in a man’s mind, the symbol can appear, as in the form of a mandala in a dream, or when he makes imaginary and fantastical drawings, or something of the sort. Carl Jung, Evans Conversations, Page 21.
A mandala spontaneously appears as a compensatory archetype during times of disorder. Carl Jung, Evans Conversations, Page 21.
I am not whole in my ego as my ego is but a fragment of my personality; so you see, the center of a mandala is not the ego. Carl Jung, Evans Conversations, Page 21.
In the Middle Ages it [The Mandala] played an equally great role for the West; but there it has been lost now and is thought of as a mere sort of allegorical, decorative motif. Carl Jung, Evans Conversations, Page 21.
The mandala is an archetypal image whose occurrence is attested throughout the ages. It signifies the whole- ness of the Self. This circular image represents the wholeness of the psychic ground or, to put it in mythic terms, the divinity incarnate in man. Carl Jung, MDR, Page 334-335.
Equally, the complicated ornamentation of ritual mandalas in Buddhism could be regarded as a sort of psychic “tranquillizer,” though this way of looking at it is admittedly one-sided. Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 387-388
When Jung published three of his paintings from Liber Novus in his commentary on The Secret of the Golden Flower in 1929 as examples of “European mandalas,” they were presented anonymously.
~Sonu Shamdasani, Introduction 1925 Seminar, Page xxi
To clarify your mind you draw a mandala, and it is legitimate. Another says, “Oh, that’s how to do it!” and draws a mandala. And that is a mistake; that is cheating, because he is copying.
Carl Jung, C.G. Jung Speaking: Interviews and Encounters, Pages 359-364
Carl Jung Depth Psychology Blog
Carl Jung Depth Psychology Blog