mandalaofsoul

this relationship because it appears to be similar in its relationship to heaven and earth. Its’ powercomes from rooting in the earth and reaching toward the sky.The motif ‘man’ appears to spread out and include the motifs ‘tree’ and ‘house’ but these are notan extension of the choice of these but only modifications of it. If we look back at historicalrecords we find, for instance in the Edda, the original picture of the tree. The World Ash Yggdrasilgrows out of the primeval cosmic forces. The first time the human being is represented inchildren’s drawing it bears the character of a tree, illustrating the children’s awareness of forcesworking in their own organism. The picture of the house includes the relationship to the worldabout them. In the course of the development of children the focus of their awareness of theforces working formatively within them shifts from one area to another. This produces differentformulations of the same theme.(Strauss, 37)The hands are the furthest outreach of the heart into the world. The heart-force builds itsconnection into the world through outreaching hands and touch. The center reaches for circumference.Now it no longer hovers in space, rotating cosmically but stands on the ground. Head, trunk andlimbs are now incorporated into the figure in a symbolic way….The ‘arms’ grow disproportionallylong and make contact with the world about them. They are formed like organs of perception,and their sphere extends a long way beyond the child’s own body. The hands, either flashing outrays or ending in whirls, still clearly show the great liveliness. (Strauss, 42)By the first seven years the will is coded into the body. As we unfold ourselves into form, we reach outto connect with life and make it ours.WillIf I have one memory of infancy, it is discovering my hands. The other is watching the lights circle aroundmy cradle. When my children were born, the light that was around their mother came into their bodies.I remember watching their infant bodies in the middle of the room. It was as if when I blinked andlooked again a new being was present in a slightly more developed body.A thrust of forces which are of a completely uncontrolled will-nature are built into the form withthe power of an eruption. This appears to come from outside the human form. This impulse isoften so strong that there is hardly room on the page any more for the drawing of the head andthe trunk. This intensity of will is the same force that was expressed in the black layer of the earlyscribble drawing or as the legs of the horse show us….In earliest childhood, whilst still in thecradle, children ‘discover’ their hands. Their hands are amongst their first plaything. Towards thefourth year they begin to draw hands. But it seems to be obvious from the pictures that theyhave no idea how many fingers a hand has. …As we saw, the first rough draft of the human form46