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
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"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) |
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"The mandala is an archetypal image whose occurrence is attested throughout the ages. It signifies the wholeness of the self. This circular image represents the wholeness of the psychic ground." Memories, Dreams, Reflections (Carl Jung (edited by Aniela Jaffe)) |
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"Every point is equally the center of a circle whose radius is infinite." The Inner Life (Charles W. Leadbeater) |
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"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.) |
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"This sense of rounded completeness is always in man's mind as a background hope to all his thoughts and activities. He imagines his own lifetime to have a rounded completeness." Creative Vision for Art and for Life (Richard Guggenheimer) |
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"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) |
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"God fashioned the sphere of light round himself. 'God is an intelligible sphere whose centre is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere'(cf. St. Bonaventure, Itinerarium, 5). The point symbolizes light and fire, also the Godhead in so far as light is an 'image of God' or an 'exemplar of the Deity.' This spherical light modelled on the point is also the shining or illuminating body that dwells in the heart of man." Collected Works (Carl Jung) |
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"The circle symbolizes the all and the eternal, the celestial unity of all." Herbert Silberer, 'Hidden Symbolism of Alchemy and the Occult Arts' Tarot Revelations (Joseph Campbell & Richard Roberts) |
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“The circle is the primary law.” Aphorism 29 in Horneffer, ‘Nietzches Lehre von der Ewigen Wiederkunft’ Collected Works (Carl Jung) |
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"The circle is a symbol of completeness; as indicated by the words, 'The Lord thy God is One.' (Mark 12:29)." Edgar Cayce Symbols, Guiding Lights Along the Journey of Life (Kathleen R. Prata) |
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"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)) |
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"The soul has movement – First it moves in a circle, that is, it turns within itself and away from what is outside and there is an inner concentration of its intellectual powers. A sort of fixed revolution causes it to return from the multiplicity of externals, to gather in upon itself and then, in this undispersed condition, to join those who are themselves in a powerful union. From there the revolution brings the soul to the Beautiful and the Good, which is beyond all things, is one and the same, and has neither beginning nor end." Pseudo-Dionysius, The Complete Works (John Farina, Editor-in-Chief) |
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"In the Mind's Eye I see the Infinite Sphere and Its Self-Awareness, two that are One." The Child Within Us Lives!, A Synthesis of Science, Religion and Metaphysics (William Samuel) |
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"The holistic perception of alchemy relates directly to the Mandala. Many alchemical charts take on a Mandala form in revealing the integral interrelationships between the elements and qualities of nature. Alchemy also defines the proceses of consciousness as an on-going state of integral awareness." Mandala (Jose and Miriam Arguelles) |
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"Your psyche is spherical, whole and complete. When you are approaching an experience of that wholeness, you begin to notice circles and spheres. The sun and moon are magnificent spherical mandalas, and isn't it a wonderful gift that both by day and by night, the heavens present the symbol of your wholeness to you?....The sphere contains the center point of your cohesive power. It can be used as an imaging device to aid in your movement toward wholeness." Reflections of an Elder Brother: Awakening from the Dream (Mary-Margaret Moore) |
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"The universe is a mandalic mirror – a sacred art and science of divine creative processes." Mandala, Luminous Symbols for Healing (Judith Cornell, Ph.D.) |
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"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) |
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"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) |
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"The soul is a spiritual substance of spherical nature, like the globe of the moon, or like a glass vessel that is furnished before and behind with eyes and sees the whole universe." Caesarius of Heisterbach, medieval Alchemist, 'Dialogus miraculorum', Dist. IV, ch. xxxix Collected Works (Carl Jung) |
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"Everything is to be brought within the circle of Love." From the Outer Court to the Inner Sanctum (Annie Besant) |
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"Since consciousness has always been described in terms derived from the behavior of light, it is in my view not too much to assume that these multiple luminosities correspond to ..conscious phenomena. If the luminosity appears in monadic form as a single star, sun, or eye, it readily assumes the shape of a mandala and must then be interpreted as the self…The symbols of the self have a uniting character." 'On The Nature of the Psyche', CW 8 Basic Writings of C G Jung (V S DeLasslo, editor) |
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"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) |
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"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) |
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"The word 'mandala' means circle in Sanskrit. The mandala, a design form which radiates out from a center, is ancient and universal, appearing in art, architecture, and dance of cultures everywhere. It is the 'magic circle' and often has a ritual, religious symbolism as in the rose window of medieval churches….In times of confusion or stress it is a way to collect your thoughts." Marilyn Ferguson's Book of PragMagic (Marilyn Ferguson) |
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"In a twelfth-century hermetic text known as 'The Book of the Twenty-Four Philosophers' there is a statement that has been quoted, through the centuries, by a number of Christian thinkers – among others, Alan of Lille (1128-1202), Nicholas Cusanus (1401-1464), Rabelais (1490?-1553), Giordano Bruno (1548-1600), and Pascal (1632-1662), as well as Voltaire (1694-1778); to wit: 'God is an intelligible sphere, whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere.'" Joseph Campbell Tarot Revelations (Joseph Campbell & Richard Roberts) |