The Inner Life of the Astrological Mandala: Macrocosm and Microcosm

by Claudia Bader

At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless; Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is, But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity, Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards, Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point, There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.
–T.S. Eliot1

 
This excerpt from T.S. Eliot’s poem, Four Quartets, to me speaks the experience of the mandala. The archetype of the mandala and the rich meanings connected to it encompass all of my themes today, thus the title of this lecture: The Inner Life Of The Astrological Mandala. Using the archetype of the mandala, I hope to speak to dimensions that unite us all as astrologers; a psycho-spiritual exploration of the power of our art, our divine science. In particular, a non-verbal level of the power of astrology.

To do this I will be using a view of astrology informed by my other professions of psychoanalyst and art therapist. In the psychoanalytic world, the lens comes from the psychoanalyst C.G. Jung (1875-1961), who used mandalas in his work and life, and the British psychoanalyst D.W. Winnicott (1896-1971). Winnicott stated: “This is the place I have set out to examine, the separation that is a not a separation but a form of union.2”

Winnicott paid true and deep attention to the psychic space between mothers and babies, extending this into cultural experience in adult life. He named this space the transitional space, and negotiating this space in early life well is dependent upon “good enough” attunement by the “ordinary devoted mother.”

Also from the psychoanalytic world, I will use a lens taken from neurobiological research on what it is that allows us to feel known, and what heals. From art therapy, informed by psychoanalysis, I will be using a lens honed by my 30 years of teaching art diagnosis to art therapists and other clinicians, the art of interpreting symbolic meaning in art, and in particular, my work with mandalas3.

Are we looking at a cup, or are we looking at two faces facing each other? In this famous image from Gestalt psychology, there is a foreground and a background. Our more conscious focus is what we see in the foreground. Whichever you see first, I am identifying as our usual profound work with astrology, research and interpretation of charts of all kinds… the rich and endless study of meaning through astrology’s vivid symbolic language. However, when we use different eyes, the background comes into focus and we see that there is something there of equal importance. It is non-verbal; it has been less conscious, but nonetheless, always there in the background. The mandala of the chart itself as a graphic image, and the mandala of the rhythm of the wheel of the zodiac and the solstices and equinoxes; and these connect to aspects of our art that heal. This is the area of our connection to astrology I will mine today.

Mandalas

In Western astrology Dane Rudyar was the first to call attention to the relationship between astrology and mandalas in his book, The Astrological Mandala. Many Western astrologers have expanded upon this since then: Tad Mann, Kelly Hunter, Jodie Forest, to name a few. Mandalas are forms that by their very presence in the world, remind the viewer of the sacred in the universe and in oneself. “Mandala” is a Sanskrit word for circle or disk shaped object. The basic structure of a mandala is extremely simple. It is a circle. This circle has special qualities, combining the ideas of circumference and center at the same time. The word mandala signifies a sacred enclosure and is at times is understood to mean a place created for the performance of a particular ritual or practice, or for the use of a great teacher or mystic.

A circle on a page creates an inner and an outer space; in art therapy this quality is used for reflection on the self, for seeing the relationship between the inner world and the outer world, as well as the centering and containing aspects of the form. It also resonates to the archetype of the center. A recent replication study reaffirmed that coloring in mandalas reduces anxiety, more than coloring on a plaid design (which is used because it is repetitive, and thought to be calming) or on a blank rectangular or square format paper (van der Vennet and Serice, 2012).The coloring in the mandala circle need not have any particular pattern or design; any kind of coloring within a circle, whether it is abstract or realistic is more calming than coloring on a piece of paper without a circle drawn upon it. A study published in 2017 on the perception of safety found that, when asked to draw what it feels like to be safe, in the different imagery drawn, the mandala was significant, and the only abstract form used. The rest of the images depicted were things like gardens, or a person at rest5.

Whether we use Western or Eastern astrology, a round chart, rectangular, or diamond shaped chart, astrology has circularity created by its cyclicity. The circle and its divisions, the repeating circle of the zodiac, are the crux of astrology. Astrology charts of all kinds share the circle of the zodiac. As the center is prominent in all charts forms, they share the archetype of the center as the center as well.

The circle itself has many symbolic meanings for humankind; more than anything, it is an idea, since perfect circles seldom exist in nature6. But it is an idea and a symbol we humans have created from our observance of nature and development of science. In fact, the wheel, one of the most important inventions of all time, comes from it. Like a wheel, circles can turn and so also represents life and it’s ongoing cycles, from birth to death. That’s why the circle of the chart, and the circle of the signs are such potent archetypes. Because it has no parts the circle is completely self-contained, not needing anything from the outside. Based on this fact and that it has no beginning or end, it represents oneness, the whole, and eternity.

Jung described it as

“the premontion of a centre of the personality, a kind of central point within the psyche, to which everything is related, by which everything is arranged, and which is itself a source of energy. The energy of the central point is manifested in the almost irresistible compulsion and urge to become what one is, just as every organism is driven to assume the form that is characteristic of its nature, no matter what the circumstances.”

He worked with mandalas in his private and professional life. Jung stated that the mandala is the archetype of wholeness, relating it to his concept of the “Self.”

This sacred circle is everywhere, in the sun, the moon, a flower, a face, and eye. Mandala images arise spontaneously in dreams and art as symbols of the center of the self, often occurring when people are in the healing process. Creating mandalas has been found to help the physical healing process as well when they are used in conjunction with meditation. In dreams, mandalas show up in many ways in imagery that shares its geometry or meaning, such as a flower, a well, a square in the middle of a village or town, a fountain. For instance, a dream may start: “I am in Grand Central Station,” or “I am standing at a well in the middle of a grove in the forest.” A dream like this establishes the dreamer firmly in the center of their psyche.

The circle is elaborated by making it concentric, or by combining it with a quadrated form, like a cross or square.

The circle combined with quadrated form, whether inside or outside the circle, is the classic form of the mandala. It sets up the relationship of opposites; the circle, beyond time and space in it’s never ending wholeness, is fixed in time and space by the quadration. In terms of time, there are the equinoxes and solstices, the four seasonal turning points in the year; in terms of space, the four directions. The four directions of the cross fix the endless movement of the circle, which has no beginning and no end. From this foundation, this sacred circle is then elaborated upon in multitudes of ways creating meditative devices the world over.

The cycle of existence–day and night, and the regular returns of the seasons; fixes the circular motif in our viscera. Juxtapose this with the linear experience of time and aging, or the quadrated experience of the equinoxes and solstices, the turning points in the day of dawn, noon, sunset, midnight as well as the four directions—and the circle with a cross becomes imbedded in our very bones.

An example of the archetypal power of the classic mandala form can be seen in the work of John Weir Perry, a Jungian analyst who worked with people suffering with schizophrenia. First, over a 12 year period, he worked with them in a hospital setting 3 times a week for 3 to 6 months with minimal medication. He then created an experimental residence facility in San Francisco in the 1970s that did not use medication. He found that as they reconstituted themselves an archetypal image sequence occurred in their hallucinatory content as they healed. The final image was a quadrated world; when presented in a visual format, it was a mandala8.

The profound organizing theme was renewal; the king is mythically sacrificed and then reborn in a drama through which the whole cosmos participates in regeneration. As kings are rulers, the archetype of the king can be understood as a metaphor for the ruler of the psyche. Initially the hallucination presents a negative self-image which is then compensated for by an overblown self-image often of mythological proportions. As the patient continues deconstructing themselves, he (or she) establishes a location at the world center, or cosmic axis. At this point the patient may have a feeling of participating in some form of drama or ritual. Themes of dismemberment or delusions of having died and arrived at an afterlife are present. As the regression continues the patient may experience being taken back to the beginning of time. A conflict arises between two opposite forces: good versus evil, chaos versus order, which is often represented in terms of warring political parties or world powers. The patient may experience a threat from the opposite sex or fear being turned into the opposite sex. This conflict is eventually resolved and the patient experiences an apotheosis as royalty or divinity, and enters a sacred marriage. A new birth of a superhuman child may take place. The last stages often involved the patients planning a new society or cosmos with a fourfold structure. When presented in visual imagery the fourfold world or cosmos would be in mandala form.

The classic mandala form is more obvious in the graphic of a Western chart, as our charts are round wheels; however, the fact that the cyclic circle of the signs and houses are punctuated with the quadration of the Kendra houses creates a similar effect. Bernadette Brady, in her chapter, “Horoscope as Imago Mundi” in the book Astrologies discusses how profoundly chart space is sacred space; as stated above, mandalas are sacred enclosures; thus, entering the space of the chart is to enter a sacred space.

The Western astrological chart is an obvious mandala.The foundation structure of the image is a circle with a cross, as depicted above. The two main axes mentioned earlier, create the cross. On a graphic level, the chart depicts how we come from one whole, symbolized by the endlessness of the archetype of the circle, individualized – symbolized by the horizontal and vertical axes, and then the elaboration of the houses. Thus, we inhabit a mandala of existence on earth, and to study an astrological chart is to contemplate a mandala.

That is the macrocosmic geometric mandala of the astrology chart. There is a microcosmic mandalic experience as well, which is the bulk of my original work. This level of the mandala is that of the experience of the holding environment of our mother’s arms, the mirroring experience that occurs when we feel the rightness of the description of ourselves through the mandala of the chart, and how this resonates with the importance of the human face; in fact, I will show how the underlying geometry of the Western chart shares the underlying geometry of the human face. All of these factors contribute to the healing experience of working with astrology.

Dr. Allan Schore, a psychoanalytically oriented neurobiologist states that research shows that “ the attunement to the patient in an empathically resonant field is what heals, not a specific technique …(and that) …affective processes appear to lie at the core of the self.9” For him, it is a question of being, a quality of the implicit self, rather than doing, which is the explicit self.” These define what makes us human10. This is one of the gifts our work with astrology brings. I will now outline some deep levels of how this is an aspect of our work with astrology.

The Holding Environment And Mirroring

The holding environment is a psychical and physical space within which the infant is protected without knowing he is protected. Before we can crawl or walk, we are encircled in our mother’s arms; and this extends to emotional space in the psyche. The term was created by the D.W. Winnicott. According to Winnicott, a newborn child exists in a stream of unintegrated, comfortably unconnected moments. This existence is pleasant and not terrifying for the child. It is a reverie. These early experiences are crucial to a proper development of personhood. The person responsible for providing this framework is the mother, and if this holding environment is not provided by her, the deficiencies will manifest themselves later in the child’s life. This environment does not have to perfect-it simply needs to be “good enough.11” “the ordinary devoted mother,”

Seeing and being seen is a face to face encounter. Much of our waking time in early life is spent gazing into our mother’s face; especially when we are held in her arms. D.W. Winnicott was acutely attuned to the importance of the face. Winnicott also recognized that there is mutual response between mother and baby, with the face the crux of the communication. He made the point that when the infant sees the mother’s face, what he sees is himself13. Beebe citing Bower, states “Research using brain imaging suggests that faces enjoy special status in the brain…neural activity in the temporal lobes …surges twice as much when adults watch faces vs. other objects.” She also makes the point that “Facial communication operates… largely out of awareness. Dr. Allan Schore makes the point that research shows the infant brain develops in critical periods from the last trimester of pregnancy through the first year and half. Early experience is literally built into the brain15. Newborns will immediately seek out the mother’s eyes and face, and when presented with different images to look at, will fix on the picture of a human face16. The mystical psychoanalyst Michael Eigen discusses the human face, talking about it as the most significant “organizing principle in the field of meaning.17”

The earliest communications are experienced from facial expressions and body reactions; these interactions, both good and bad (like love or disgust) are perceived in milliseconds, are “hidden,” in the sense that they are below conscious awareness but deeply registered. Significantly, all of this research completely supports the idea that there is an unconscious.

The Face, The Mandala, And The Chart18

The importance of the human face has long been observed. Karen Machover, a pioneer in “draw a person” projective tests, made a number of points about the significance of the face. Faces are the most individually identifiable part of our physical being and the most constantly visible. She stated that subjects, when asked to draw a person, no matter their age, often offer a face or head as the completed drawing. Body parts, such as torsos, legs, or arms are never drawn on their own to represent a person.19 (p.40)

In early developmental art, the mandala form and the face are interconnected. Mandala forms emerge very early on, in the scribbling stage which occurs from 18 months to 4 years old on average. These forms are one of the graphic precursors to the first drawn faces, and these earliest faces have a mandalic structure. Children start to draw around 18 months old. Before a child can draw a recognizable face, his or her drawings go through several stages: random marks like squiggles and scribbles.

Children practice combing shapes and squiggles; Rhoda Kellogg (1970) calls these combines. One of the earliest combines has a mandaloid form.

The earliest images of humans usually have a mandala formation, with a huge head with markings at the approximate place of the cross in a mandala (figure 5). They are also very cute.

Another aspect of the mandala’s power may be connected to the geometry of the face, for the face has a mandalic structure. In learning to draw, artists are trained to see the underlying geometry in physical form. To draw a face with accurate proportions, you learn that the space from the top of the head to the eyes is approximately the same distance as the eyes to the chin.  As far as a mandalic structure is concerned, the horizontal axis is the eye line, and the vertical axis being the line created by the nose. This is similar to the basic structure of the mandala.

Psycho-Spiritual Aspects Of The Astrological Mandala

The levels of psychological resonance of the mandala may be thought of in this way: the circle of the mandala creates a symbolic holding environment like the circle of mother’s arms. The experience of being held in a session and known through astrology taps into the recent neurobiological research that has found that the attunement to the patient in an empathically resonant field is what heals, not a specific technique.

To repeat “…affective processes appear to lie at the core of the self,” and these define what makes us human. It is a question of being, a quality of the implicit self, rather than doing, which is the explicit self.21”

The face has a loose circular form, and in the face are the eyes; concentric mandalic forms. Finally, the core facial architecture is similar to that of a mandala, the circle with a quadrated form. The mandala may evoke the face, our earliest mirror, the early holding environment of our mother’s arms, as well as the experience throughout our lives of looking into faces, our most human aspect. The circle of the mandala and the circle of the chart create a symbolic holding environment which hearkens back to the experience of lying in the circle of the mothers’ arms and looking into her face.
Astrology charts are objects, an image on a computer screen or a piece of paper; an image then held in the mind. They are literally images of an intersection of me and not-me.

In early childhood, the first not-me object Winnicott called the transitional object; an example of this is a Teddy Bear. Winnicott felt that in adult life transitional phenomena extends into art, and culture.

Christopher Bollas, an American psychoanalyst who worked with Winnicott, theorized that the transitional object evolves into the “transforming object.” He feels we search for transforming objects throughout our life. When we are in the presence of a transforming object, he describes the experience this way:

“Such moments feel familiar, uncanny, sacred, reverential, and outside cognitive coherence. They are registered through an experience of being, rather than mind… and speaks that part of us where the experience of rapport with the other was the essence of being22.

Michael Eigen Says This:

“D.W. Winnicott writes of essential aloneness made possible by unknown support. An aloneness that is supported by another one doesn’t know is there. A primary aloneness supported by an unknown boundless other. To think that aloneness has in its very core a sense of an unknown infinite other …The very quality of our aloneness depends on it…there is something sacred in this core… Our lives tap into a sense of holiness connected with a background aura of infinite unknown support.23”

Again, to quote Winnicott, who inspired Bollas and Eigen:

“This is the place I have set out to examine, the separation that is a not a separation but a form of union.”24

Astrology is just such a place and encounter; we experience it through charts. This is something all astrologers share, no matter our orientation. The core architecture and sacred space of the mandala of the astrological chart connect the microcosm of our early preverbal experience with the macrocosm of how we are pieces of eternity manifesting in time and space.

 

Notes and references:
Sections of the above article appeared in the Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion in the entries “Mandalas and Faces,” and “Astrology and Mandalas.”
1 The section of the poem is Burnt Norton, second stanza.
2 Winnicott, 1971, pp. 97-8
3 In particular, this paper is an outgrowth of my studies in a psychoanalytic institute, the Institute for Expressive Analysis in NYC, which inspired me to write an article published in 1993 for Glenn Perry’s Journal of AstroPsychology, as well as art therapy informed articles on Astrology and Mandalas and Mandalas and Faces (2010) for the Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion and the NCGR Memberletter in 2015
4 Rudyar 1974
5 Gerge, 2017 pp.116.
6 For scientific explication of this phenomena, see http://www.stufftoblowyourmind.com/blogs/do-perfect-circles-exist-in-our-universe.htm
7 Jung , Mandala Symbolism, 1972, p. 73
8 Perry, 1962, 1999, pp.159-165.
9 Schore, 2007
10 Schore, 2012, “the emotional right hemisphere[of the brain] and not the linguistic left is dominant in the human experience, and that the fundamental problems of human experience cannot be understood without addressing this primal realm.”p.8 More recent research (Gainotti 2012) is showing that it is not only the right hemisphere, but the subcortical layer of the brain, right hemisphere.
11 Winnicott, 1965, p.145.
12 Winnicott,2002,p.11
13 Winnicott, 1971, p.112
14 Beebe, 2005. pp. 90-91
15 Schore 2007
16 Lamb and Sherrod, 1981 p.62
17 Eigen, 1993. pp.56
18 An earlier version of this material was published by me in the Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion. Bader, 2010. Permission given by Springer Press.
19 Machover, 1971. pp. 40
20 Edwards,1989. pp.141-2
21 Schore, 2007.
22 Bollas, 1978. Pp.384-5
23 Eigen, 2009. pp.11,12
24 Winnicott, 1971. pp. 97-8.

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Image sources:
All images provided by the author

First published in: ivcconference.com/constellation-news/, 2018.

Author:
Claudia Bader, MPS, Licensed/Registered/Board Certified Art Therapist, Licensed/Nationally Certified Psychoanalyst, and NCGR-PAA Level IV Certified Astrologer. A psycho-spiritual experiential astrologer who loves research and prediction, Claudia has pioneered the interface between psychoanalysis, astrology, alchemy, art, and mandalas since 1973 for both the astrology communities and the psychoanalytic communities. She is co-author of the best selling Love Planets (in print since 1990), and a contributor to the Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion as well many other articles. Creator and facilitator of the labyrinth/mandala room through AFAN for 3 UACs, she has lectured at 2 UACs and will again 2018. Claudia is in private practice in NYC.

© 2018 - Claudia Bader - Constellation News

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