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		"Deity and the cosmos may be likened to a circle or sphere whose circumference is nowhere – hence boundless – but those center is everywhere. And each monad is such a divine, immortal, preexistent center." Editors Reincarnation: The Phoenix Fire Mystery (Cranston/Head, editors)

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

3		"If you go into your garden, you may feel yourself present in the divine embrace right there in the presence of a golden sunflower with a mandala for its center – the Immanence of the Transcendent in the flower." Dancing in the Flames, The Dark Goddess in the Transformation of Consciousness (Marion Woodman and Elinor Dickson)

4		"If the life-mass is to be transformed a 'circumambulatio' is necessary, that is, exclusive concentration on the centre, the place of creative change." 'Psychology and Alchemy' Collected Works (Carl Jung)

5		"The individual who reaches out from the seemingly separated center of being can, if he will, contact the cosmic center of life. From there he may reach out to the periphery of all reality as easily as the miracle of the radiant, expanding mind of God penetrates the universe with light." Understanding Yourself: A Spiritual Approach to Self-Discovery and Soul-Awareness (Mark L. and Elizabeth Clare Prophet)

6		"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)

7		"The idea of rotation is the keystone of most transcendent symbols: of the mediaeval 'Rota'; of the Wheel of Buddhist transformations; of the zodiacal cycle; of the myth of the Gemini; and of the 'opus' [work] of the alchemists. The idea of the world as a labyrinth or of life as a pilgrimage leads to the idea of the 'centre' as a symbol of the absolute goal of Man – Paradise regained….Pictorially, this central point is sometimes identified with the geometric centre of the symbolic circle." A Dictionary of Symbols (J. E. Cirlot)

8		"Never during its pilgrimage is the spirit of man completely adrift and alone. From start to finish its nucleus is the Atman – the self-luminous abiding point, boundless as the sky, indivisible, absolute, the only reality." Huston Smith, 'Karma, Rebirth and Freewill' Reincarnation: The Phoenix Fire Mystery (Cranston/Head, editors)

9		The center of the Cyclone, in the deepest analysis I have yet done, is the quiet peaceful creating meeting place for all of us, connected in the Cosmic Network of Essences." The Center of the Cyclone: An Autobiography of Inner Space (John C. Lilly, M.D.)

10		"To be integrated, to be made whole, means to be able to maintain contact with one's center." Mandala (Jose and Miriam Arguelles)

11		"Could men see clearly – as the seers have always seen – experience would be apprehended as an organic whole, continually proceeding from and returning to the one source – the center of being." Mandala (Jose and Miriam Arguelles)

12		"The mandala is, above all, a map of the cosmos. It is the whole universe in its essential plan, in its process of emanation and of reabsorption…..the universe not only in its inert spatial expanse, but as temporal revolution and both as a vital process which develops from an essential principle and rotates round a central axis." G. Tucci Mandala (Jose and Miriam Arguelles)

13		"Is not this divine centre, required by the nature of things to justify our activity, precisely He whose influence makes itself positively felt in us by the tendency to greater cohesion, justice and brotherhood?" The Vision of the Past (Pierre Teilhard deChardin)

14		"Every little spark of beauty's burning is but a fragment of the central fire." Sister M. Angelita, 'Lesser Fires' (20th century) The Book of Catholic Quotations (John Chapin, Editor)

15		"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)

16		"The soul, which is immortal, has an arithmetical, as the body has a geometrical, beginning. This beginning, as the reflection of the great universal Archaeus, is self-moving, and from the centre diffuses itself over the whole body of the microcosm." Isis Unveiled (Helena P. Blavatsky)

17		"The center principle manifests itself through man in the same ways as it does through a flower or a star; in it we may discover our cosmic commonality – our cosmic community." Mandala (Jose and Miriam Arguelles)

18		"Leibniz held with Bruno that each monadic center – whether an atom, a man, or a sun – is a mirror and replica of the entire cosmos, as well as the moving power in evolution." Editors Reincarnation: The Phoenix Fire Mystery (Cranston/Head, editors)

19		"Act from the center – which the poet T. S. Eliot called 'the still point.'" The Visionary Window: A Quantum Physicist's Guide to Enlightenment (Amit Goswami, Ph.D.)

20		"By going to my center, my central axis, I can experience the central axis, pole, or pillar of the world – the cosmic hub, the navel of the world (omphalos)." The Unfolding Self: Varieties of Transformative Experience (Ralph Metzner)

21		"The organizing center from which the regulatory effect stems seems to be a sort of 'nuclear atom' in our psychic system. One could also call it the inventor, organizer, and source of dream images. Jung called this center the 'Self'….Throughout the ages people have been intuitively aware of the existence of such an inner center. The Greeks called it man's inner 'daimon'; in Egypt it was expressed by the concept of the 'Ba-soul'; and the Romans worshiped it as the 'genius' native to each individual. In more primitive societies it was often thought of as a protective spirit embodied within an animal or a fetish." Marie Louise vonFranz Man and His Symbols (Carl Jung)

22		"God is central in each part of the universe, down to the tiniest atom." Mysticism, Its History and Challenge (Bruno Borchert)

23		"A great many ritual acts have the sole purpose of finding out the spiritual 'Centre' of a locality, which then becomes the site, either in itself or by virtue of the temple built upon it, an 'image of the world'." A Dictionary of Symbols (J. E. Cirlot)

24		"In the centre of the heart dwells the true soul, the breath of God." Paracelsus, 'Liber Azoth' Collected Works (Carl Jung)

25		"We enclose you in the sacred circle of life. We ask you all to join in the circle. We put all creation in the circle, especially what is broken and needs healing. We put all of you in the circle because we love all of you." Burton Pretty On Top, Crow (Native American) spiritual leader, to the Parliament of World Religions, 1993 The Quest (various)