MEMOIR LOGO CONCEPT: The aleph and a Sufi mystic inspired my creation and design of the syzygy logo, which I initially based on the symbolism of the yin and yang.
But the concept expanded when I first saw the aleph in Judith Cornell’s
Mandala Healing Kit, My inexplicable attraction to it led me to incorporate it into my logo before I knew what it meant.
I later read that the “Aleph (the first letter of the sacred Hebrew alphabet) embodies the primordial, divine potential of the universe. ... Aleph contains all the universe’s potential and all of its emptiness simultaneously. Aleph represents a dynamic process of movement from unity to diversity and back to unity,” Jennifer Judelsohn, Songs of Creation.
And the mystic poet Rumi inspired me to use the fire and water concept after I read The Question. Here is an excerpt:
“The presence is there in front of me. A fire on the left, a lovely stream on the right.
One group walks toward the fire, into the fire. Another toward the sweet flowing water.
No one knows which are blessed and which are not.
Whoever walks into the fire appears suddenly in the stream.
A head goes under water, and that head pokes out of the fire.”
LOGO ART: Cropped fire and water images from Free Images.
LOTUS LOGO: In spiritual and religious literature, “the lotus is a symbol for the macrocosm and the microcosm, the universe and man. The lotus represents the divinity of the cosmos as well as the divinity of man.
The lotus is the center of the infinite, omnipresent consciousness which connects with the consciousness of the universe. Through the intuition, one of man’s divine gifts, the spiritual student can see the infinite, omnipresent consciousness as the lotus flower within himself.”
LOTUS ART: Courtesy
Homestead, my website service provider. (Temporary art while I design of my own lotus logo.)
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THE MEMOIR
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Mandala Healing
Tuesday, March 14, 2013. I woke up this dank and drizzly morning with a spasm. Once passed, I poured a bowl of Cheerios and went to my computer, which went on a loop for seven or eight boots before I finally had to call tech support and waste another two hours with a tech who was condescending and was more interested in selling me more product than fixing my computer. (BTW, I paid $169 for a year of tech support back in November for this unlimited luxury.)
But thanks to Caroline Myss, I got a grip.
Last night I had listened to her Spiritual Power, Spiritual Practice, which reminded me of the importance of pulling back my power. (I found the CD set in a box in my closet a couple weeks ago when I was looking for something else. It appears to be out of production at this time.) No wonder I snapped when those bowls fell out of the cupboard and when that ice cube fell on the floor! Caroline said if we “spend” all of our energy on trivial mishaps or old grudges, we will go into debt, and the first place we will borrow from is our creativity. And I needed my creativity today.
I had a rough draft of how I wanted to set up my Jung & Me page after researching and brainstorming last night, but even after hours of searching, I could not find any artwork for the page. I think it was the Universe who finally hit me on the head and said to create my own. Hmm, it’s about a mandala symbol, and I have a Mandala Healing Kit by Judith Cornell—been sitting right on that bookshelf four feet from me for probably five years, not to mention a fully loaded art case under my desk, which I have even stubbed my toe on a few times, both of them gifts from a special friend, but which always seemed to take the backseat to something more important.
I cleared the table and cleared my mind and pulled out the art kits and put on my favorite “soft” CD: “Fairy of the Woods” by Gary Stadler. I relaxed, changed my focus, prayed, and shook off the negative energy from earlier. I sat at the table and contemplated the image in my mind, visualized the image of my soul from when I was a child, and looked through the stencils in my kit. But nothing resonated, really. I wanted to use any symbol but the cross. I knew the cross had nothing to do with my symbol.
But the Hindu symbol held no meaning for me. I wouldn’t even have known what it was if it weren’t labeled in the workbook. I really liked the Judaism symbol, and the Buddhism symbol reminded me of “wheels of a soul,” the cover of a book I saw on reincarnation. Hmm. The tao. It’s a yin and yang symbol. That’s suitable. But I already have artwork for that. And I really love the Native American symbol, and the Islam one too. I started tracing some of the stencils and just messed around with different ones. But none of them had the power to “activate” the image in my mind, until I finally drew a partial Native American religious symbol to make a cross, mind you. The rest took care of itself.
I immensely enjoyed the next couple of hours, in a “zone” of sorts, magical really, as I created an image on paper that really didn’t look like the image in my mind, yet I knew it felt right. When I finished, I was really pleased with it. Granted, it looked like a second-grader’s art project, and I can’t explain it, but I loved it.
From there I got online to find a corresponding quote from Jung about the symbol of the Self as a sphere, and instead I found Dr. G. Boeree’s quote, which expressed something I didn’t recall ever knowing—the cross as a symbol of the Self? I should have known that! But it just didn’t make sense until I read Boeree’s quote and looked back at my drawing. Uncanny! To draw the cross and then read about the cross in that quote was a synchronicity. And I took some odd comfort in knowing that the cross was not just a symbol of the Self for me, but was an archetype for the Self in what Jung called the collective unconscious; that is, as a collective archetype, and as a believer that all religions lead to the same God, it got me off the Christian hook.
Truly inspired, building the Jung & Me page was a wonderful experience, and through the process, the creative energy I “spent” this morning irritated with tech support has been deposited back into my account with interest. ♀ ♂
Out of my mind now features the mandala
This feature, "Out of My Mind," will document various creative projects and/or processes as they initiate in my unconscious and are brought to consciousness. It’s a behind-the-scenes demonstration of how the creative process can bring joy to our soul if we sit still long enough and allow it to work within us. (This page temporarily doubles as a feature and primary page, but the two will diverge in future installments, as something new is featured here, archiving this page, while developing the mandala concept further in future installments of the primary page.
IN PROCESS
© 1955–2015 Syzygy: Crossing the Bridge to Self. All Rights Reserved.
When I could not find just the right artwork to capture outwardly my innate sense of Self (especially as I sensed it as a child), it seemed the Universe told me to create it myself. So even though I lack artistic ability (my mother would disagree), I managed to create the above art with the help of The Mandala Healing Kit by Judith Cornell.
My Second Drawing: I don't know. It looked better in my head. Not sure where to go with it.
My First Drawing: Nah. I actually have a cross similar to this that I have worn on and off over the years. And I like it. But it is not my image.
My Third Drawing: Yes! Something about this image really speaks to me, and it would become the basis of the final form of my mandala.
“The archetype is like a black hole in space: You only know it’s there by how it draws matter and light to itself. … The most important archetype of all is the Self. The Self is the ultimate unity of the personality and is symbolized by the circle, the cross, and the mandala, figures that Jung was fond of painting.”
Dr. C. George Boeree
Professor Emeritus
Shippensburg University