Mandalas in Psychology
Psychotherapist Carl Gustav Jung noticed that when faced with important choices, his patients would unconsciously draw on anything at hand. Intrigued by these mysterious circles, Jung himself began creating mandalas, keeping them in a special notebook later known as The Red Book.
Thanks to him, new therapeutic methods emerged — mandala-diagnostics and mandala-therapy — practices used by psychologists and art therapists to this day. These techniques guide a person on a journey within.
The Archetype of the Self
At the foundation of all human existence stands the most ancient and all-encompassing archetype – the Self. It is the primordial wholeness, the indivisible core of being. Its symbol is the circle – the perfect form without beginning or end, containing infinity and eternal return. The cross inscribed within the circle expresses the tension between the earthly and the celestial, between matter and spirit, between time and eternity.
The most powerful expression of the Self, however, is the mandala – the universal image of harmony, revealed by Jung as the spontaneous language of the soul. The mandala is not merely a drawing but a gateway to inner wholeness, a key to the integration of the conscious and the unconscious. It reflects the perfect order that humanity instinctively seeks both within itself and in the cosmos.
Personified, the Self appears across cultures as the supreme embodiment of the Divine: as Tangra – the Heavenly Father and eternal law; as Jesus – incarnated Love and Life; as Buddha – awakened consciousness that liberates. In these figures, the archetype is not different but one and the same – a unity recognized by every culture through its own symbolic language.
To connect with the Self means to enter one’s own mandala. It is the path toward inner harmony – centering around the still point at the heart of existence, where all opposites converge into a single rhythm. The mandala is not merely an image – it is a living archetype, reflecting our timeless longing for wholeness and meaning.