Melody Carr
Melody brought her skills as a poet, gardener, and photographer to her mandala journey. From these she developed a distinctive ‘Folk Art’ style that reflects her strength of character and grounding in reality. As she began the mandala she was at a major life turning point. Thoughout our journey together she reassessed where she had come from and dreamed of where she wanted to go.
Melody’s Story
I am a woman who
is walking onward, though there are no paths
who is swimming to the island of my soul
who is watching the mountain’s stillness
who is opening her heart and pulling all the bandages off
who is dancing in the fires of the people
who sings walking the hills in the autumn of time
who comes through the cataclysm
who is the spirit held in glass and the reflections of sacred forms
who is outlasting tragedy and violence all around
who is companioned by the spirit of the cyclone
who floats in dark waters
and exhales her troubles.
Janet Asman
Janet was a clothing designer before becoming a realtor. She brought her highly developed sense of color and design to painting her mandala. Taking pride in all that she does, she worked with commitment toward giving her mandala a sense of completeness. Her mandala reflects a sense of fulfillment and accomplishment.
Janet’s Colors
The four main colors I see when looking at my mandala are blues, greens, whites, and golds. To me the blues and greens represent peace and calm, growth and earth. The whites and creams feel like spirit and the light, purity. The golds feel like wealth of spirit and the imprinted potential for wholeness. Gold balances out the colors. All the colors represent richness of spirit and the presence of grace. In my life I have always had a clear connection with spirit. I knew I wanted my mandala to reflect that connection. I have to feel peace in my existence along with inspiration and grace. This is the level I strive to operate on and to learn from.
Janet’s Journey
Hope Lewis
This was Hope's fourth mandala. She is a poet, quilter, gardener, and family matriarch with years of experience in doing dream work. Each mandala reflects her experiences expanding awareness and unique pointillist style.
Worm and Snakes in Hope’s Mandala
Worm. Life reborn from corruption. Human race derived from the worm. Worm marks the stage preceding dissolution and decomposition. Points the way leading up from the primordial energy to life. Transformation and transition to a higher state. Passage of earth to light/death to life. Larval state to spiritual release. Snake. Mankind and snakes opposites. Serpent in all humans. Have no control. Lower psyche. What is unusual, incomprehensible and mysterious. Snake shocks the spirit. Snake a line that goes into infinity. Sacred made manifest. Old God. Dual symbol of soul and libido. Cosmic serpent bites its tail.
Worm and Snakes in Hope’s Mandala
Worm. Life reborn from corruption. Human race derived from the worm. Worm marks the stage preceding dissolution and decomposition. Points the way leading up from the primordial energy to life. Transformation and transition to a higher state. Passage of earth to light/death to life. Larval state to spiritual release. Snake. Mankind and snakes opposites. Serpent in all humans. Have no control. Lower psyche. What is unusual, incomprehensible and mysterious. Snake shocks the spirit. Snake a line that goes into infinity. Sacred made manifest. Old God. Dual symbol of soul and libido. Cosmic serpent bites its tail.
Hope’s Story
This is the story of a woman who remembers her inner child and loves her and has watched her grow into an older soul. Having gone through many life experiences, she realizes the mystery of lie is a journey to the center of all things, a journey to oneness with all things. Sitting in nothingness is sitting in all things. A paradox indeed. A mystery indeed.
Opening to the dream world, to the symbolic world, has brought me to this oneness. This ever expanding view will continue I hope until she disappears exactly how she appeared 73 years ago. This journey is an alleluia experience if one can move forward knowing one is never alone while moving closer and closer to the unknown that somehow we sense to be present. This is the story of a woman who finds peace in knowing all is as it should be even in the worst of times, even when the mystery refuses to show itself.
LiDoña Wagner
I was introduced to mandalas by Carl Jung over thirty years ago and have been drawing and painting mandalas ever since. After studying with Madeleine Shields in Victoria, British Columbia, I took what I knew about dream work, journal writing, meditation, creativity, and personal growth and designed a Dream Mandala Journey process using a Tibetan Buddhist structure. I have been taking women on Dream Mandala Journeys for nearly twenty years and every time I learn something new.
LiDoña’s Story
This is the story of a woman whose natural joie de vie led to a denial that she had become old even as she experienced increasing physical difficulties. The colors in her fire ring expressed her yearning for deeper spirituality.
A year into her mandala journey her health was declining; she finally acknowledged that she was old. Her dream reflections and dialogues told her that the individuation journey was complete and it was time to begin a new journey of learning to express love and compassion. They also reflected her struggle to write the book that would accompany her completed Maiden Migrations installation.
The color green kept appearing and reappearing, revealing her closeness to nature and her ability to nurture, parent, and protect. Another color, a warm yellowish orange called Gamboge, asserted itself as a powerful metaphor for change and reflected her energetic striving, sense of identity, and healthy assertiveness. This Gamboge color called out to her to recognize a developing sense of a more genuine and personal spirituality.
As her mandala journey took her to the four portals into the Inner Garden, her diminished health was too blatant to ignore. Her naturopath put her on a diet that revealed her health issue was not arthritis. Her portals announced inner strengths: Root chakra/I am safe. Power chakra/I am whole and perfect. Heart chakra/I love and am loved. Throat chakra/I am light.
Working on the Inner Garden provided peace while she was negotiating a reassessment of her illness. Red is the dominant inner garden color. This color used in ritual celebrations marks an arousal of healing, life-giving potentials deep within the psyche. It also is a sign of progress toward achieving one’s great work. It represents the energy we need to survive, be healthy, and transform ourselves to greater inner wisdom.
Completing the Inner Garden precipitated creation of a lace-like pattern in the Sea of Life to connect the Inner Garden to the transition ring and dream cycle. Her mandala work provided strength to go to Seattle and arrange for the first exhibition of Maiden Migrations in June of 2019.
Then the bottom dropped out of her plans for the future as X-rays revealed that something was eating away her right hip bone. A total body scan revealed she had a metastatic bone disease in several bones of her body. More tests. Learning there were no tumors in any major organs was a relief. A bone biopsy gave a definitive diagnosis: metastasis from breast cancer 21 years ago. She learned that this is considered to be a chronic illness for which she will need to have treatment for the rest of her life.
This woman’s Inner Garden takes the shape of a cross, suggesting that she is waging a hero’s battle and may be called upon to endure a period of testing. She is balancing the contradictions that are part of human nature. The garden is filled with flowers that suggest a growth process unfolding in her relationship to the self. It reveals her soul’s work.
