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 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.)

2 "Circular is the matrix of the perfect form." Collected Works (Carl Jung)

3 “The elements are conjoined in the circle of true friendship.” Petrus Bonus Collected Works (Carl Jung)

4 "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)

5 "Psychoanalysts have noted that the joining of the square with the circle (in such forms as the star, the rose, the lotus, concentric circles, the circle with a visible central point, etc.) is symbolic of the final stage in the process of individuation, or, in other words, of that phase of spiritual development when imperfections (irregular shapes) have been eliminated…for the sake of concentrating upon the achievement of Oneness." A Dictionary of Symbols (J. E. Cirlot)

6 “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)

7 "I believe we can apply consciousness to heal the world – and we already are. Great power lies within us. What has been missing is the mechanism for organizing this power. I believe this mechanism of empowerment and action is THE CIRCLE." Calling the Circle: The First and Future Culture (Christina Baldwin)

8 "Among the Chinese, the infinite being is frequently symbolized as a point of light with concentric circles spreading outwards from it." A Dictionary of Symbols (J. E. Cirlot)

9 "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.)

10 "All this, then, was the plan of the everlasting god for the god who was going to be. According to this plan he made the body of the world smooth and uniform, everywhere equidistant from its center, a body whole and complete, with complete bodies for its parts. And in the centre he set the soul and caused it to extend throughout the whole body, and he further wrapped the body round with soul on the outside. So he established one world alone." Plato, 'Timaeus' Collected Works (Carl Jung)

11 "The hearth in the home, the altar in the temple, is the hub of the wheel of the earth, the womb of the Universal Mother whose fire is the fire of life." Hero With A Thousand Faces (Joseph Campbell)

12 “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)

13 "The Mandala was developed as a reminder of the direct perception of reality." Mandala (Jose and Miriam Arguelles)

14 "In spiritual traditions worldwide, mandalas focus and reflect the spiritual content of the psyche for both maker and viewer. They are used as a healing and transforming art in Native American sand painting, Hindu and Tibetan Buddhist rituals, and modern psycho-therapy. In Jungian psychology, the mandala brings about healing in a type of psychological event called a crisis of transition. Here the ego fragments and is in danger of collapsing; the mandala forges a new relationship of the ego to the Self." Mandala, Luminous Symbols for Healing (Judith Cornell, Ph.D.)

15 "Sacred consciousness, of which the Mandala is a structural model, conforms to the Hermetic statement, 'God is an intelligent sphere whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere.'" Mandala (Jose and Miriam Arguelles)

16 "We are embedded in communities, circles within circles of communities, both small and large, focused and abstract. Holding up the ideal of unity, we strive to break down the walls which separate us from others – not only other nations and peoples, but other species and the natural world." Spiritual Literacy, Reading the Sacred in Everyday Life (Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat)

17 "Concentric circles, with one circle inside another, represents the cosmos." Symbols, Guiding Lights Along the Journey of Life (Kathleen R. Prata)

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

19 "A mandala [is] an ordering pattern or pattern of order which is either consciously devised or appears spontaneously as a product of unconscious processes." Collected Works (Carl Jung)

20 "It is the Mandala that can burst the fetters of man's internal bondage and conflict by leading him to a viewpoint from which the various polarities may be harmonized." Mandala (Jose and Miriam Arguelles)

21 "The circle, often in the form of the Sun Wheel, is represented in different cultures as the Medicine Wheel, the Wheel of Law and Life, the Wheel of the Year, and the Catherine Wheel. Jung traced the image of the circle back to the Paleolithic and Mesolithic periods, when wheels were carved and painted as a sacred symbol, thousands of years before the wheel was invented as an actual tool. Based on this research, Jung saw the wheel as a primary symbol, one of the mythic motifs springing from the collective unconscious." Calling the Circle: The First and Future Culture (Christina Baldwin)

22 "Even a pebble or a tiny insect is gathered up in the sacred hoop." Leonard Crow Dog (Sioux Native American), American Indian Myths and Legends (Richard Erdoes and Alfonso Ortiz, editors)

23 "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)

24 "Both as a principle of unity and a model of the cosmos, the sphere represents the ultimate undivided, undifferentiated whole." Keith Chritchlow, 'Twelve Criteria for Sacred Architecture' Homage to Pythagoras, Rediscovering Sacred Science (Christopher Bamford, editor)

25 "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.)

This body of quotes compiled by JoAnn Kite