mandalaofsoul

through the acquiring of selfhood—the process of becoming an ‘I’—resembles an encapsulatingof the soul. The house-form arising from this is based on the right angle. (Strauss, 52)With the building of an earthly house, we look outward for discovery. Our bodies are made to lookoutward and to discover. The soul space around our body is now held in the four walls of earth. Thesesame forms appear in the art-making sequences of the Mandala Process.FearWith the appearance of house, another archetypal imperative emerges. The direct perception of theinner worlds and their spiritual support is less evident. If there is violence, fear accelerates.The phenomenon of fear stands in direct connection with the shutting in of the individuality.Little children do not mind being left alone at night—but then, when they grow ‘older and moresensible’ they scream at night and call for their mother. They beg their parents to have to leavethe door open in the evening and the light on outside. Fear has its origin within the human being.The dog in the street or any other threat from outside does not primarily produce it. Fear occurswhen the unquestioned oneness with the world is lost, when children have moved step by stepinto the abode of their body and this becomes denser and denser. The process is like breathingin. We are in danger of suffocating, of getting cramp, if we do not have the chance to breatheout again.(Strauss, 57)Fear enters. Fear changes the archetypal experience. When the Mandala Process moves ourconsciousness, the unknown arises and with it the fear that was sublimated there in earlier experiences.As the outer drawing expresses, we move by means of awareness into previously veiled realms.Adventure or fear offers us a choice in our readiness to proceed. So, we proceed at a useful pace. Wemove from heaven (circle) into earth (square) as the context for our life. The unconscious at age sevenreflects back to us as form and we look outward for answers.In no other motif can one see the multiple experiences in the process of human incarnation soclearly as in the motif of the house. On the one hand the process of moving into the house leadsto becoming shut off. One is now completely dependent on oneself. On the other hand, when onehas take possession of the house, the door to the world opens from inside. By means of thesedrawings children show us a path that leads through heights and depths, joy and sorrow, goodfortune and bad. (Strauss, 58)With dependence on self, we experience the opportunity to feel alone and separate andcontract, or realize that we can move into life from our center. The choice is that of being by ourselvesand responsible, or alone and a victim as we formulate our movement into the world. For the48