ONE

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 circle is a symbol of the psyche (even Plato described the psyche as a sphere).” Aniela Jaffe, ‘Symbolism in the Visual Arts’ Man and His Symbols (Carl Jung)

2		"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)

3		"There is a simple self-moving power directing all things to mingle as one; it starts out from the Good, reaches down to the lowliest creation, returns then in due order through all the stages back to the Good, and thus turns from itself and through itself and upon itself and toward itself in an everlasting circle." Pseudo-Dionysius, The Complete Works (John Farina, Editor-in-Chief)

4		"Self-knowledge reveals to the soul that its natural motion is not, if uninterrupted, in a straight line, but circular, as around some inner object, about a center, the point to which it owes its origin. If the soul knows this, it will move around this center from which it came, will cling to it and commune with it as indeed all souls should….for divinity consists in being attached to the center." Plotinus, 'The Good or The One' The Essential Plotinus (Translated by Elmer O'Brien, S.J.)

5		"Everything is to be brought within the circle of Love." From the Outer Court to the Inner Sanctum (Annie Besant)

6		"The unconscious can be reached and expressed only by symbols, and art, myth, dream, and fantasy, with their symbolic propensities, are effective psychopomps, leading the mind to an anamnesis of the origins of psychic life. The result of this anamnesis (an 'unforgetting' or rediscovery) is, on the one hand, an accession to power and vitality resultant from this integration. On the other hand, the mind experiences a perception of something akin to essential form and divinity at the heart of the creation and begins to sense an underlying acausal pattern of continuous creation. The two aspects coalesce in spontaneous images, often taking the form of a mandala and emphasizing a unifying centrality surrounded by a symmetrical quaternary or circular structure suggesting a microcosmic-macrocosmic identity between creature and the cosmic creation." The Strong Eye of Shamanism, A Journey Into the Caves of Consciousness (Robert E. Ryan, Ph.D.)

7		"If man has alienated himself from the source, the center within, then it is the purpose of a Mandala ritual for our time to be used as a primal tool for investigating and opening that center, once again granting the individual an identification with the cosmic forces and their source." Mandala (Jose and Miriam Arguelles)

8		"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)

9		"The mandala…portrays an autonomous psychic fact, characterized by a phenomenology which is always repeating itself and is everywhere the same. It seems to be a sort of atomic nucleus." Collected Works (Carl Jung)

10		"From atom to god, the Law repeats itself in ever widening circles." Regents of the Seven Spheres (H. K. Challoner)

11		"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.)

12		"In the state of consciousness natural to the field within the mandala – that of Self-realization, or nonduality – such opposites as inner and outer, or subjective and objective, male or female, matter and spirit, are all grasped as connected, married, ultimately unified." Michael Flanagin, Ph.D., 'The Mandala in Jungian Psychotherapy' Mandala, Luminous Symbols for Healing (Judith Cornell, Ph.D.)

13		"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.)

14		"The ouroboros is an expression of the unified field of matter and mind, and the cosmic destiny that is also ours. 'Oneness'. Alchemy, The Art of Transformation (Jay Ramsay)

15		"Circular motifs…point to our original wholeness – they are without beginning and end, self-contained and eternal." Journey Into Consciousness: The Chakras, Tantra and Jungian Psychology (Charles Breaux)

16		"We are the countless centres of one and the same sphere." Writings in Time of War (Pierre Teilhard deChardin)

17		"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.)

18		"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.)

19		"God created the empyrean or highest heaven as a pure and simple radiance encircling and enclosing all the heavens and every corporeal and material thing which he ever created." John Ruysbroeck (1293-1381), Heaven, A History (Colleen McDannell & Bernhard Lang)

20		"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.)

21		"Re-vision your home as a container for a sacred circle of love." Who Do You Think You Are? The Healing Power of Your Sacred Self (Carlos Warter, M.D., Ph.D.)

22		"The world snake, 'ouroboros', swallowing its own tail, expresses the essence of Gnostic esotericism. It is a representation of the cosmos, the circle of eternal becoming, often seen with the words "One is the All.'" Gnosticism: The Path of Inner Knowledge (Martin Seymour-Smith)

23		“The circle has had enduring psychological significance from the earliest expressions of human consciousness to the most sophisticated forms of 20th-century art.” Aniela Jaffe, ‘Symbolism in the Visual Arts’ Man and His Symbols (Carl Jung)

24		"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)

25		"Well, there is something magical about a circle. For one thing, geometrically it encompasses more space than any other shape. But this is just a mathematical beginning. The circle is also profoundly symbolic, for a circle travels without leave-taking. So it combines journeying with returning. It's powerful in bringing the two together." The Way Things Are (Huston Smith, edited by Phil Cousineau)

This body of quotes compiled by JoAnn Kite