AHN NEWS: December 2006 & January 2007
This issue of AHN News is dedicated to the healing power of the MANDALA. I interview artist, author and healer Judith Cornell, and review two books -- The Mandala Workbook for Inner Discovery and Jose Arguelles' book Mandala. I also offer links to the The Mandala Project and to the Center of the Circle: Mandala Links. Lastly there is a new featuerd post from the Connection Center and two new responses from readers.
As Bailey Cunningham describes, "The mandala represents wholeness, and can be seen as a model for the organizational structure of life itself -- a cosmic diagram that reminds us of our relation to the infinite, the world that extends both beyond and within our bodies and minds.”
What a perfect symbol with which to celebrate the holidays and usher in the new year. May the mandala resources here help you to explore your wholeness and help clarify your direction as we enter 2007."
Many blessings,
Mary Daniel Hobson, Arts and Healing Network, email
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AHN INTERVIEW:
Judith Cornell: Artist, Author and Healer
"True healing is not physical -- it is a spiritual awakening to our True Self…. If art is used for that purpose then it can be quite healing as it purifies the mind of thoughts that create dis-ease." -Judith Cornell
Judith Cornell is the award-winning author of Mandala: Luminous Symbols for Healing and the Mandala Healign Kit. After a radical awakening in 1979, Dr. Cornell began pioneering a method to help others to awaken and heal at their deepest levels. Her method blends the sacred art and the spiritual science of the mandala with theories in quantum physics, raja and kundalini yoga, and transpersonal psychology. An artist and healer, Judith offers workshops and trainings in her mandala process. Mary Daniel Hobson interviewed Judith in November about her creative journey, her recovery from cancer, and her outstanding work with the mandala.
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Mary Daniel Hobson: Tell me a little bit about your background? How did you get started in the creative arts and what led you to your work with mandalas?
An example of one of Judith's early mandalas
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Judith Cornell: I majored in fine arts in college and also pursued a MFA at New York State University, which I completed in 1969. I moved to California in 1975 and continued to follow the traditional path of the schooled artist until 1979 -- meaning I produced work to show in galleries. It was at that time I felt art was off track and not healing for me. In fact I found the art scene competitive and very ego driven.
Just as I was feeling most depressed about the state of the arts and was about ready to give it up as a profession, I had a radical awakening -- a mystical experience, in which I saw in an inner vision that the true role of the arts was for spiritual healing (enlightenment) and glorification of that which some call God or supreme consciousness. In a flash I was flooded with divine light beyond the sense of dualities and saw how consciousness is divine light -- the One Source of the phenomena we have called the universe and all forms that arise in this field of energy including the human body/mind. I saw the evolution of consciousness and humans were evolving to take their place as co-creators to eventually create more forms out of this light. And I saw how we are all part of that divine light and infinitely creative through the power of thought and intention.
The mystic vision I had resulted in a quantum leap in my consciousness. It made me stop all previous art endeavors and instead I left the "art scene," became mostly a hermit and began painting luminous circles for three years. Later I found out through study of the Asian arts that I was creating mandalas. My purpose for creating these paintings was to reflect the inner light of my being and to create art that would be healing and uplifting to the viewer as well. My first display of these images took place in a church in 1982. These mandalas were not meant to strengthen the ego but were used to focus on that which alone is real -- the supreme self as luminous consciousness or as the Buddhist's would say “clear light of being.”
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As Judith explains, "In the year 1993, during
meditation, I heard a voice of the Divine Mother
within asking me to write the Mandala: Luminous
Symbols for Healing book which was published in
1995. This image was used on the cover of the first
mandala book. It was created as a digital mandala
taken from the center part of the Sri Yantra. Its
interpretation and coloring arose out of meditation
guided by spirit during its inception.
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Mary Daniel: What exactly is a mandala?
Judith: Mandala in Sanskrit means sacred circle. The use of mandalas is rooted in historical practices from many different spiritual traditions. Mandala traditions are derived from direct experience of truth and have always been used as a means of turning inward to investigate the mind and to discover the inner truth about our essential nature.
In the Indian Hindu Tantric tradition, the mandala symbol for enlightenment and ultimate healing is called the Sri Yantra. Sri Yantra represents the unfolding of the universe both within you and without. These two processes -- the inner journey and the outward unfolding -- alternate eternally in a process known as manifest-unmanifest, or the entire creative process consisting of emanation, dissolution, absorption, and then emanation again.
Mary Daniel: Could you share a little of the history of the mandala?
Judith: Since the 1980's mandalas have attracted much interest among a wider public in the West. The main focus of such interest has been directed toward Tibetan mandalas as a result the Tibetan monks traveling throughout the world and constructing these mandalas in museums and other public places.
However the mandala as a form of meditative practice originated out of India long before it was taken up as a practice in Tibetan Buddhism. Mandalas are found across a wide spectrum of South Asian religious traditions, including those of the Hindus and Jains and in the West through the Navajo American Indian tradition. However most people in the West know hardly anything about these other traditions since they are not done for mainstream public viewing but are done within an ashram or spiritual community. In 1997 I took refuge with a enlightened Hindu Tantric yogini -- Amma the hugging saint -- who is my present spiritual teacher. I have been to India twice since then and have learned even more about the sacred tradition of the Sri Yantra and the mandala as it is currently practiced throughout India.
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There is also a whole tradition of mandala making thousands of years old that is most prevalent in the villages throughout India. It is a tradition passed down from mother to daughter. They make colorful Kolams with white and colored rice power or flowers in front of their doorsteps each morning or for special spiritual festivals.
Historically South Asian mandalas are created by yogis as meditation devices used for purposes of enlightenment. Other purposes for mandala forms or yantras as they are called in the Hindu Tantric tradition are done by pujari priests as certain mantric rituals to create a beneficial effects within the person so requesting such a ritual. Mantra chanting while constructing one of these devices activates certain pranic or life force energies within the physical and subtle body for purposes of mental and physical healing. And like in the Tibetan tradition, these mandala are swept up afterwards as a reminder of the impermanence of material reality.
Mary Daniel: Why are mandalas such a potent healing catalyst?
Judith: Many people believe that just by looking at a mandala or by coloring a mandala that it will be a powerful healing catalyst. The true healing mandala symbolism arises from one's meditative state of consciousness created through intentionality, chanting (mantra's) and meditation. The symbol that arises out of this inward state of consciousness is then expressed outward in a form called a mandala to express or mirror back the invisible formless spirit. With this kind of focus it becomes a powerful healing catalyst to help activate pranic energies and the inner light -- awakening us to our divinity and true essence.
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Mary Daniel: How have people benefited from doing the mandala process found in your books?
Judith: Since my first mandala book, Mandala: Luminous Symbols for Healing, was published in 1995, people of all ages -- children, families, psychologists, ministers, nuns, visionary corporate trainers, nurs¬es, medical doctors, schoolteachers, art therapists, cancer patients, wom¬en's groups and those in alcohol/drug rehabilitation centers -- have successfully used my mandala process for healing and spiritual transformation.
For example, a few weeks after the attacks on September 11, 2001, I received a call from a 6th grade teacher whose school was a short distance from the Pentagon. She told me that after the attack she and her students were deeply stressed and unable to focus. A friend suggested she have the class make mandalas to help center and relieve the stress. Never hav¬ing made a mandala before, she used some of the practices taught in my book Mandala: Luminous Symbols of Healing in her classroom, and was able to experi¬ence firsthand how powerful the process of creating mandalas was for herself and her students. She reported that it calmed and centered the students and greatly enabled them to heal from the post-traumatic stress they had suffered.
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Mary Daniel: Would you be willing to share a little bit about how you worked with the creative mandala process during your own experience with cancer?
Judith: Most people when they are diagnosed with cancer concentrate on the effects cancer has on the physical body. One also is faced with fear for one's mortality and other emotional issues and unfinished business that come during a time of facing a life-threatening disease. In 1981 when I was diagnosed with cancer, my focus on healing was to meditate on that which I really am -- the inner light of consciousness. To heal from cancer I did visualizations, meditations and a ceremonial mandala that was a letting go of my breast through a mastectomy. I took meditative music, my mandala and other luminous art I had done to the hospital to set the right healing vibration and intention for swift healing and recovery.
In more recent times, I have worked with cancer patients with the mandala process. We do not focus on the diagnosis, but what is real -- one's consciousness which is immortal -- the physical body is not who we really are. I also take people through a death and dying process where they resolve unfinished emotional issues so that that does not impede their sense of well being. I also teach them how thought can create illness or health. The key to the healing aspects of this approach is using the mandala process as a meditative process to access prana or life force energies, and using intentionally and specific words for healing mind and spirit.
Mary Daniel: What advice do you have for others who are interested in using art to heal?
Judith: I cannot speak for other types of art. True healing is not physical -- it is a spiritual awakening to our True Self and a reconnecting to our spiritual source of being from within. If art is used for that purpose, then it can be quite healing as it purifies the mind of thoughts that create dis-ease. It allows us to reflect and transmit the Light of Our Being shinning like a thousand suns. Then we become a gift to the world for because we have the courage to be our True Self and live by that truth.
To learn more about Judith Cornell's work with the mandala, please visit www.mandala-universe.com. To order her books or the Mandala Healing Kit, please click here.
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FEATURED BOOK:
Mandala Workbook For Inner Self Discovery
By Anneke Huyser
 "More and more people are fascinated by the universal and yet unique phenomonen of the mandala, its varied kaleidoscopic play of color, its symoblic content, and transforming effect. Looking at mandalas yourself can be even more fulfilling. The urge to make circular shapes is indicative of the deep-seated need for wholeness, and it is illustrative of integration of significant events and of the contents of consciousness." -Anneke Huyser
Mandala Workbook for Inner Self-Discovery provides a wonderful hands-on introduction to the healing art of mandala making. Anneke Huyser lays the groundwork for mandala making with a chapter dedicated to mandala history, discussing mandala forms in nature, prehistoric cave painting, folk art, medieval sacred art, Tibetan Buddhism, and Navajo culture. She then devotes several chapters to the creative process of making mandalas, offering advice, providing examples and illlustrations, and giving exercises for getting started. She also discusses different media to use in making mandalas from watercolor to embroidery. A chapter devoted to symbolism provides tools for creating meaning in your mandalas, while the subsequent chapter provides guidelines for interpreting mandalas. Her last chapter provides some guided visualizations to take you deeper into the creative and healing process of mandala making. The book is well illustrated with both black and white drawings and color pictures of completed mandalas. Overall, Anneke encourages a free flowing approach that is very connected to process and personal meaning.
This 112-page softcover book was published by Binkey Kok Publications in 2002. To order a copy, please click here.
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FEATURED BOOK:
Mandala
By Jose and Miriam Arguelles
 "...the Mandala is essentially a vehicle for concentrating the mind so that it may pass beyond its usual fetters. In its own way, the Mandala as therapeutic tool achieves the same end, for in projecting his own mental complexes upon the cosmic grid of the Mandala, the patient exorcises his mind, and liberates himself from various mental obsessions. For this very reason, the Mandala must be constructed with great care and concentration. It symoblizes the various levels of awareness within the individual as well as the energy that unifies and heals. Making a mandala is a universal activity, a self-integrating ritual."
-Jose and Miriam Arguelles
This book is packed with fabulous information and illustrations. From aerial photos of Stonehenge to galactic whirlpools, the book explores the emblematic circle as a means for transformation and transcendence. It embraces myriad sacred traditions from the Tibetan to the Navajo. This would be an invaluable resource for anyone seeking to understand the cultural and spiritual roots of the Mandala.
This 140-page softcover book was published by Shambala in 1974. It is currenly out of print, but used copies can be found on Amazon by clicking here.
This book was recommended by Margaret Lindsey, who teaches a class dedicated to the Mandala at JFK University's Arts & Consciousness Department in Berkeley, CA.
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FEATURED LINK:
The Mandala Project
www.mandalaproject.org
 "The word 'mandala' is from the classical Indian language of Sanskrit. Loosely translated to mean 'circle,' a mandala is far more than a simple shape. It represents wholeness, and can be seen as a model for the organizational structure of life itself--a cosmic diagram that reminds us of our relation to the infinite, the world that extends both beyond and within our bodies and minds." -Bailey Cunningham, founder of the Mandal Project
The Mandala Project is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting peace through art and education. It offers a visual demonstration of individuals coming together to create something larger than themselves while maintaining their personal uniqueness. The site includes a wealth of information on mandalas including links, descriptions, and pictures as well as a free download-able mandala that you can color in yourself. It also has information on the "Labyrinth Project" which uses mandalas to teach peace and to blend the study of math & science with the arts.
Click here to read an interview with the Mandala Project's founder Bailey Cunningham in the October 2002 issue of AHN News.
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FEATURED LINK:
The Center of the Circle: Mandala Links
www.abgoodwin.com/mandala/ccweb.shtml
This page offers links to many mandala resources online. The links are organized by themes such as Mandalas & Healing, Creating Your Own Mandala, Contemporary Mandala Artists and more. You can check it out at www.abgoodwin.com/mandala/ccweb.shtml
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FEATURED POST:
The Arts & Healing Connection Center
Each month, we publish a highlight from the Arts & Healing Connection Center.
This month we feature this post from a web master from Bryant, Alabama who writes:
 "One of the most powerful experiences I've had with art and healing was when I took an integrative breathwork series. After each session, we were asked to create a mandala that represented our journey.
What an amazing, amazing process.
The colors chosen, the ways our abstract spiritual experiences were given form on the page, the exquisite beauty of the journey that ended up represented on each mandala...all of it was just priceless to me.
I still have those mandalas, many years later, because they so powerfully remind me of where I've been and far I've come.
This post, called "Making Mandalas," appears on the Connection Center under the forum, Share Your Experience
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READERS RESPOND
Artist Vicky Chaet writes:
“…Over the years, I've learned that the Arts and Healing Network has served humans by bringing peace, which in turn brought mental, spiritual, emotional and physical healing through the images made accessible on this network. It is gratifying to play a small part in it through my role as a creator of mountain paintings. Careful harmony proportions in my painting, with overwhelming majesty of mountains is what humbles me, releases me from the grip of my everyday concern. The responses I received from Network users, satisfied me that I brought this peace to others. I even received a commission through the Network, for someone who had enough money to own their own reminder of peace. These are all complete strangers…Thank you for serving this network, a creative enterprise.”
Art therapist Tammy Skodinsky writes:
I just wanted to let you know that I am a fairly new subscriber and now look forward to each issue. I am a registered art therapist and love to see all the imaginative ways art is being used to heal in the world today.
I would love to see an issue and maybe even be involved in it on how art itself actually heals. I create energy portraits of people who need a visual representation of their energy fields. The image is then usually used in meditation and aids in connecting with the divine self as well as healing actual ailments. From process to product...art heals.
Thank you so much for your work in putting this newsletter together.”
Please send us your thoughts and feedback on this issue of AHN News! We would love to hear from you!
Was this issue of AHN News helpful and how?
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Please click here to send your comments, ideas, and feedback. Thank you!.
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