When a Mandala Returns to the Center

This morning after meditation, I found myself reflecting on our creative circle on Saturday, and my heart is still vibrating with the fullness of it.

After a short guided meditation, we painted with abandon, and 25 minutes later, we paused to share. It always feels like we could have gone longer, yet what unfolded in that time was remarkable. I was deeply moved by the creative openings and insights that emerged from the participants.

For some, the usual geometric marks transformed into free-flowing, organic mandalas, beautiful flowers. For another, the ideas of a somatic felt sense of outward and inward moving circles were landing in an amazingly clear expression on the paper, which could be seen and shared.

I felt honored and touched by the depth of sharing. Each person’s expression seemed to meet the others, and through that meeting, there was a sense of being seen and received by the whole group.

Towards the end, we held up our paintings so we could see them all at once. Thank you, Debbie, for that idea. It was amazing, like a kaleidoscope of pieces creating one whole.

Looking at the paintings, I can still feel that movement of quiet wholeness in them — a completeness that has stayed with me and continues to resonate so I wanted to share it with you.

Another thing I was contemplating about this morning…

Following the original instructions, I had begun drawing from the center outward. But as the drawing developed, my hand gradually moved back toward the center again. The mandala had expanded — and then returned.

Only afterward did I realize how symbolic this movement felt.

Life itself seems to move in a similar way. A tree grows from air, water, and stardust, reaching outward until gravity and physics set their limits. Expansion is built into nature. Yet there is also another force of returning — returning to the center.

My friend looked at the finished painting and said she saw a womb, a birth, a flowering. I had been thinking of sperm and cells. Both images speak of the same mystery: the generative movement of life. The feminine principle.

In many ways, our creative gatherings follow a similar path. We begin by centering ourselves with a short guided meditation. Then expression grows outward — sometimes messy, sometimes surprising. And in the sharing, we return again, seeing what has emerged with fresh awareness. This way, the creative process becomes a living mandala:

center → expression → recognition.

As I reflected on this afterward, I was struck by how similar this movement is to the unfolding described in the Krama teachings of Kashmir Shaivism, the expansion of awareness into expression and its return again to its source. Interestingly, I am exploring this same pattern in the Kali series I am currently completing.

Moments like this remind me why I love holding these creative spaces. When we give ourselves permission to draw, paint, and simply follow what wants to emerge, something surprising often happens. The process reveals insights we would not have reached through thinking alone.

If you ever feel called to explore creativity in this way, you are always welcome to join one of our intuitive art gatherings.