Many / One

A database of 11,000+ illuminated guiding quotations in 40 categories from 600+ inspired books by our most brilliant and influential authors.
Compiled by JoAnn Kite

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1		"In the cyclic system of the ancients, birth and death merged in a circular continuum." The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets (Barbara G. Walker)

2		"The sun makes of our planet an alchemical retort in which the ocean waters are lifted to heaven and then, their impurities distilled away, are returned to the earth in drops of rain. This continuous circular process epitomizes the natural interrelationship between heaven and earth – between the archetypal figures of the collective unconscious and man's ego reality." Sallie Nichols, Jungian author Angels and Mortals, Their Co-Creative Power (Maria Parisen, compiler)

3		"The mandala is an image and a synthesis of the dualistic aspects of differentiation and unification, of variety and unity, the external and the internal, the diffuse and the concentrated. It excludes disorder..because, by its very nature, it must surmount disorder. It is, then, the visual, plastic expression of the struggle to achieve order – even within diversity – and of the longing to be reunited with the pristine, non-spatial and non-temporal 'Centre', as it is conceived in all symbolic traditions." A Dictionary of Symbols (J. E. Cirlot)

4		"It seems the circle has resided within us since the dawn of time, and is a form familiar to us at a deeply resonant level. Over and over again, when this mythic resonance is activated, people experience a sense of 'having been here before' as they enter the circle." Calling the Circle: The First and Future Culture (Christina Baldwin)

5		"From whichever point a Mandala is entered, a path opens that leads to the eternal center." Mandala (Jose and Miriam Arguelles)

6		"I have found that the eye which sees the whole circle expresses our soul simply and perfectly." Nikos Kazantzakis The Way of The Earth, Encounters with Nature in Ancient and Contemporary Thought (T. C. McLuhan)

7		"In the Mind's Eye I see the Infinite Sphere and Its Self-Awareness, two that are One." The Child Within Us Lives!, A Synthesis of Science, Religion and Metaphysics (William Samuel)

8		"As a cosmogenic model, the Mandala is a synchronous, self-renewing whole." Mandala (Jose and Miriam Arguelles)

9		"The mandala is an archetypal image whose occurrence is attested throughout the ages. It signifies the wholeness of the self. This circular image represents the wholeness of the psychic ground." Memories, Dreams, Reflections (Carl Jung (edited by Aniela Jaffe))

10		"Through God, all bodies come together, exert influence upon one another and sustain one another in the unity of the all-embracing sphere." Writings in Time of War (Pierre Teilhard deChardin)

11		"In early Christian remains, the circle frequently appears as a serpent with its tail in its mouth." Violet Shelley, 'Symbols and the Self' Symbols, Guiding Lights Along the Journey of Life (Kathleen R. Prata)

12		"In order for this world to fulfill itself, we must interact together, forming a full circle of reality, a great ballet of spirit and experience, choreographed perfectly to afford each of us a starring role in the game of Life." Spirit Guides (Iris Belhayes)

13		"The mandala focuses attention on the center. The circle allows a center to emerge and the center then organizes the chaos about it. Patterns of meaning develop in relationship to the center." Spiritual Pilgrims, Carl Jung & Teresa of Avila (John Welch, O. Carm.)

14		"In one sense, all sacred religious structures partake of the Mandala principle: the Egyptian and Mexican pyramids; the temples of India, Buddhist stupas; Islamic mosques; the pagodas of China and Japan; and the tipis and kivas of North America; in the churches and cathedrals of Christianity." Mandala (Jose and Miriam Arguelles)

15		"According to Jung, the mandala is an image of unity and totality existing a priori and in potentia within the human mind. It represents the inner orderedness of the cosmic source, the foundation of beauty and harmony in a sacred cosmos, divinity unfolding in cosmos, nature, and mind." The Strong Eye of Shamanism, A Journey Into the Caves of Consciousness (Robert E. Ryan, Ph.D.)

16		"At one with the physical world around them, they (Native Americans) perceived the interconnectedness of all things, the circular nature of the universe, and the rightness of both birth and death in the overall scheme of creation." Seven Paths to God, The Ways of the Mystic (Joan Borysenko, Ph.D.)

17		"Man is a transition, an agent of transformation as well as the material to be transformed. This transformative operation can occur only through the focusing power of some new symbol or image of the whole process in which man now finds himself involved. In its universality, the Mandala provides at least the base structure for such a symbol." Mandala (Jose and Miriam Arguelles)

18		“The circle is the primary law.” Aphorism 29 in Horneffer, ‘Nietzches Lehre von der Ewigen Wiederkunft’ Collected Works (Carl Jung)

19		"The centre of a circle is regarded as the indivisible source of all the radii extending from it;…pre-existing in God are all the inner essences of created things." St. Maximos the Confessor, 'Second Century on Theology' The Philokalia, volume 2 (various authors, compiled by St. Nikodimos of the Holy Mountain)

20		"When White Buffalo Calf Woman came among us bringing the Sacred Pipe which represents wholeness and holiness – the respectful honoring of our unity with all things – she reminded us of its importance for the continuance of Life itself. Ken Carey in 'Return of the Bird Tribes' brings us her words: 'Creation does not take place where there is a scattering and dissipation of energies,' she explained, 'Creation requires a gathering together and focusing of your power within a circle of commitment – like a seed, an egg, a womb or a marriage. If you would create and not destroy, you must remember always the Sacred Hoop. Consider wisely the ways in which you would use your power and then around those ways draw the sacred circle of commitment. In the warm atmosphere of that circle, the power of love builds and builds like a storm above the wet summer prairie until the circle can hold no more and explodes in the conception of the new." Brooke Medicine Eagle, Native American healer, 'Creating a Path of Beauty' The Fabric of the Future (M. J. Ryan, editor)

21		"The Mandala is a module exhibiting principles of organicity: interrelationship of parts, interdependence of systems, resonance and synchronicity." Mandala (Jose and Miriam Arguelles)

22		"Between four and six thousand years ago the ancient peoples in Europe built stone circles and decorated them with interlocking scroll loops. Similar motifs appear all over the world. The psychologist Carl Jung said such images are archetypes or universal structures in the collective unconscious of humankind. Could such a collective wisdom perhaps be expressing its intuitions of the wholeness within nature, the order and simplicity, chance and predictability that lie in the interlocking and unfolding of things?" Turbulent Mirror (John Briggs and F. David Peat)

23		"Reflecting on wholeness and balance as represented by symbols of integration such as the cross and the circle can sometimes help us bring our spiritual life into balance." Shadows of the Sacred: Seeing Through Spiritual Illusions (Frances Vaughan, Ph.D.)

24		"The oldest mandala drawing known to me is a paleolithic 'sun wheel', recently discovered in Rhodesia….Things reaching so far back in human history naturally touch upon the deepest layer of the unconscious and affect the latter where conscious speech shows itself to be quite impotent. Such things cannot be thought up but must grow again from the forgotten depths, if they are to express the deepest insights of consciousness and the loftiest intuitions of the spirit. Coming from these depths they blend together the uniqueness of present-day consciousness with the age-old past of life." C. G. Jung The Secret of the Golden Flower (Richard Wilhelm, translator)

25		"The center of the circle is the point of transformation. It corresponds to pure essence, to timelessness, to transparent light." The Spiral Dance, A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess (Starhawk (Miriam Simos))