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		"The mandals [is] a sacred, mystical symbol of the universe." Breaking the Mind Barrier (Todd Siler)

2		"The Mandala is a figure or design found in the art of virtually all peoples. It is based on a perfectly balanced circle, in which the mid-point is given a particularly great importance." Jung's Psychology and Its Social Meaning (Ira Progoff, Ph.D.)

3		"In 1918-1919 Jung sketched a circular drawing in his notebook every morning. These mandalas gave him insight into the development of his personality, a sense of the meanings growing in him. 'My mandalas', he wrote, 'were cryptograms concerning the state of the self which were presented to me anew each day. In them I saw the self – that is, my whole being – actively at work.' ('Memories, Dreams, Reflections')" Spiritual Pilgrims, Carl Jung & Teresa of Avila (John Welch, O. Carm.)

4		“Roundness partakes of the nature of wholeness because the circle or sphere (like wholeness) is without beginning or end. To think in round terms may be interpreted to mean keeping the mentality upon the level of greatest inclusiveness, ever striving to attain fuller inclusiveness.” Lectures on Ancient Philosophy (Manly P. Hall)

5		"Represent Unity by a circle; at the Present Moment, outside Time, a scission occurs and forms two streams: one goes to the left, away from the other, which goes to the right; each runs on a half of the circle, the Chinese Yin and Yang. On the opposite side, the antagonists rediscover each other and unite. The circle, or cycle, has never ceased to be, the scission has broken nothing…..This absurdity is the Truth." R. A. Schwaller deLubicz, 'Nature Word', Lindisfarne Nature Word (R. A. Schwaller deLubicz)

6		"The Mandala has appeared throughout man's history as a universal and essential symbol of integration, harmony, and transformation. It gives form to the most primordial intuition of the nature of reality, an intuition that inheres in each of us, giving us life." Mandala (Jose and Miriam Arguelles)

7		"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)

8		"The hidden potential within the single fertilized cell from which the entire structure of a human arises is a mirror in miniature of the creation." The Hidden Face of God: How Science Reveals the Ultimate Truth (Gerald L. Schroeder, Ph.D.)

9		"The point signifies unity, the Origin and the Centre. It also represents the principles of manifestation and emanation, and hence in some mandalas the centre is not actually shown but must be imagined….There are two kinds of point to be considered: that which has no magnitude and is symbolic of creative virtue, and that which – as suggested by Raymond Lull in his 'Nova Geometria' – has the smallest conceivable or practicable magnitude and is a symbol of the principle of manifestation." A Dictionary of Symbols (J. E. Cirlot)

10		"In both dreams and religion, the relation of the center to the mandala expresses the relation between the potential and the actual." Michael Flanagin, Ph.D., 'The Mandala in Jungian Psychotherapy' Mandala, Luminous Symbols for Healing (Judith Cornell, Ph.D.)

11		"The sphere is a whole, and hence it underlies the symbolic significance of all those images which partake of this wholeness, from the idea of the mystic 'Centre' to that of the world and eternity, or , more particularly, of the world-soul. In neo-platonic philosophy, the soul is explicitly related to the shape of the sphere, and the substance of the soul is deposited as quintessence around the concentric spheres of the four Elements. The same is true of the primordial man of Plato's Timaeus….Another important association is that of perfection and felicity. The absence of corners and edges is analogous to the absence of inconveniences, difficulties, and obstacles." A Dictionary of Symbols (J. E. Cirlot)

12		"The Point within a Circle…is the Divine Spirit indwelling creation and abiding in the nature of man." A New Encyclopedia of Freemasonry (Arthur Edward Waite)

13		"The circle is the original sign, the prime symbol of the nothing and the all; the symbol of heaven and the solar eye, the all-encompassing form beyond and through which man finds and loses himself." Mandala (Jose and Miriam Arguelles)

14		"The mandala emphasizes the process of spiritual growth, of the mind's evolution echoing the evolution of the universe." Breaking the Mind Barrier (Todd Siler)

15		"The universe is a mandalic mirror – a sacred art and science of divine creative processes." Mandala, Luminous Symbols for Healing (Judith Cornell, Ph.D.)

16		"The circle represents the superconscious mind, perfect and complete before creation. It is the symbol of unmanifested Deity, including everything and wanting nothing, without beginning or end, neither first nor last, timeless, sexless, absolute." Violet Shelley, 'Symbols and the Self' Symbols, Guiding Lights Along the Journey of Life (Kathleen R. Prata)

17		“All the radii of a circle are brought together in the unity of the center which contains all the straight lines brought together within itself. These are linked one to another because of this single point of origin and they are completely unified at this center.” Pseudo-Dionysius, The Complete Works (John Farina, Editor-in-Chief)

18		"In a world that is split, divided by the 'Civil War of Man', healing is needed to make whole. Mandala is a whole-ing technique; it is the alchemy of opposites reuniting, a blueprint that can be placed upon anything, or any man or being." Mandala (Jose and Miriam Arguelles)

19		"In the products of the unconscious we discover mandala symbols, that is, circular and quaternary figures which express wholeness, and whenever we wish to express wholeness, we employ just such figures." Memories, Dreams, Reflections (Carl Jung (edited by Aniela Jaffe))

20		"The emergence of the mandala in the spiritual and artistic imagination of various pioneering figures of our century anticipates a new consciousness that can contain these opposites simultaneously." Michael Flanagin, Ph.D., 'The Mandala in Jungian Psychotherapy' Mandala, Luminous Symbols for Healing (Judith Cornell, Ph.D.)

21		"I think the Native Americans have it right when they say, 'Life is a circle'." Joan Borysenko, Ph.D. Angels: The Mysterious Messengers (Rex Hauck, editor)

22		"No matter what cultural lens is used, the symbol of a circle which contains the whole world and the various evolutionary levels of consciousness is powerful and universal." Mandala, Luminous Symbols for Healing (Judith Cornell, Ph.D.)

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

24		"The Mandala is infinite, as are the capacities of the individual." Mandala (Jose and Miriam Arguelles)

25		"The Universe is boundless and unlimited, a circle whose circumference is everywhere." Encyclopedia of Ancient and Forbidden Knowledge (Zolar)