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

HIDE detailed search and navigation | Quotes | References | JoAnn

From this author

From this reference

Circle
Click to randomize

1		"The mandala form is universal and deeply fixed in our psyche." Jeanne Miles, American artist Parabola, the Magazine of Myth and Tradition (various)

2		"We connect with Her [Goddess] through the moon, the stars, the ocean, the earth, through trees, animals, through other human beings, through ourselves. She is here. She is within us all. She is the full circle." The Spiral Dance, A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess (Starhawk (Miriam Simos))

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

4		"In its most elevated form, the sacred circle mirrors an illumined state of consciousness through a symbolic pattern – making the invisible visible. It is meant to draw both creator and viewer into an encounter with animating sources of numinous energy." Mandala, Luminous Symbols for Healing (Judith Cornell, Ph.D.)

5		"The circular sea with no outlet, which perpetually replenishes itself by means of a spring bubbling up in its centre, is to be found in [the writings of] Nicholas of Cusa as an allegory of God." Collected Works (Carl Jung)

6		"The circle, as the symbol of completeness and perfect being, is a widespread expression for heaven, sun, and God; it also expresses the primoridal image of man and the soul." Collected Works (Carl Jung)

7		"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)

8		"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.)

9		"The circle is ever open, ever unbroken. May the Goddess awaken in each of our hearts." The Spiral Dance, A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess (Starhawk (Miriam Simos))

10		"I am deeply convinced of the unity of the self, as demonstrated by mandala symbolism." C. G. Jung: Letters, 1906-1950 (Gerhard Adler and Aniela Jaffe, editors)

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

12		"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)

13		"All centres are symbols of eternity, since time is the motion of the periphery of the wheel of phenomena rotating around the Aristotelian 'unmoved mover'." A Dictionary of Symbols (J. E. Cirlot)

14		"There are times when doubts over me steal, but I know Thou are there and awake. Thou art – and art – and I feel no surging of aeons can shake Thee – Life is a ring, I have found – I am child, boy, man, more – I learn the circle is rich, the full round complete in its perfect return." Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926), German poet The Choice Is Always Ours (Dorothy B. Phillips, Chief Editor)

15		"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)

16		"The eye is the first circle, the horizon which it forms is the second: and throughout nature this primary figure is repeated without end." Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), American essayist and poet A Beginner's Guide to Constructing the Universe: The Mathematical Archetypes of Nature, Art & Science (Michael S. Schneider)

17		"Stay at the centre of the circle and let all things take their course." Lao-Tzu Revelations: The Wisdom of the Ages (Paul Roland)

18		"Jung, in his studies of the mandala geometric designs which arise from the depths of the unconscious, came to the conclusion that in these mandalas one can find the expression of the Anthropos, or 'complete man.'" The Gnostic Jung and the Seven Sermons to the Dead (Stephan A. Hoeller)

19		“Caesarius of Heisterbach says that the soul has a ‘spherical nature.’” Collected Works (Carl Jung)

20		"The Circle is the Thought; the diameter (or the line) is the Word; and their union is Life." The Secret Doctrine (Helena P. Blavatsky)

21		"The circle has been variously interpreted as a state of oneness, unity, heaven, the sun, Yang, the Self, ultimate wholeness, enlightenment." Seeing With the Mind's Eye (Mike Samuels, M.D. and Nancy Samuels)

22		"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.)

23		"The circle (or sphere) is a symbol of the Self. It expresses the totality of the psyche in all its aspects, including the relationship between man and the whole of nature. Whether the symbol of the circle appears in primitive sun worship or modern religion, in myths or dreams, in the mandalas drawn by Tibetan monks, in the ground plans of cities, or in the spherical concepts of early astronomers, it always points to the single most vital aspect of life – its ultimate wholeness." Aniela Jaffe, 'Symbolism in the Visual Arts' Man and His Symbols (Carl Jung)

24		"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)

25		"A certain circulation appears in love because it is from good and toward good and that circling agrees with the divine eternity of love, since circular motion alone can be perpetual." Thomas Aquinas, DDN, n. 450, p. 148 Sheer Joy, Conversations with Thomas Aquinas on Creation Spirituality (Matthew Fox)

This body of quotes compiled by JoAnn Kite