ESOTERIC MANDALAS


Twelve Mandala Drawings I picked up in a card shop in London around 1979,  corresponding (apparently) to the astrological signs of the zodiac.
Posted November 26, 2008.  (Published by Dragon's World, Ltd., Limpsfield, Surrey, UK. Copyright 1975, A. T. Mann-Petschek Arts. Distributed by Phin Publishing, Ltd., Churchill Road, Cheltenham, Glos., UK. Printed in England.)

 Aries: (21 March - 20 April). Stone circles built approximately 2400 BC. Attributed to Atlanteans, Phoenicians, Druids, Romans, Giants, Queen Boadicea, and Merlin. Its geometry suggests its use as an astronomical obseratory and spiritual centre.


 Taurus: (21 April - 20 May): The Great Pyramid at Giza. Astronomic temple and stone monument built approximately 2170 BC. Served as burial chamber for the Pharoach Cheops, and also functioned as an initiation temple, astronomical observatory, calendar determinant, and as a standard for ancient Egyptian surveying, wights and measures. The square and circle determine its form, location, and the position of its passageways and internal chambers.


Gemini (21 May - 20 June): A memory theatre, Vitruvius, Palladio, Dee, Fludd. The classical Greek Ampitheatre described by Vitruvius was an image of the world. The four equilateral triangles inscribed within a circle also reflect the zodiac. Palladio's 1567 reconstruction is here adapted to the magical meory ideas of Dr. John Dee and Robert Fludd (noted late-Renaissance alchemists and esoteric philosophers). The memory art produced a specific correlation between the audience, actors, and sets which was probably used in th Globe Theatre of Shakespeare.


Cancer (21 June - 21 July). Jambudvipa World Diagram, Jaina Cosmos. Western India Jaina diagram from the Seventeenth Century. This schematic representation of the universe shows the regions through wich the individual passes in approaching his liberation at the center, Mount Meru. The positions upon the diagram are the layers of space, time and matter which determine our fates, and indicate the proper actions necessary for release.


Leo (22 July - 22 August). Figura Intellectus, Magicosmic Mnemormandala. Based upon a diagram by Giordano Bruno in 1588, this meditation figure synchronzes the operations and structure of the mind with the divine astrological order of the cosmos. It provides a matrix for information which indicates their magical correspondences and permutations.


Virgo: (23 August - 21 September). Sri Yantra, Hindu Tantric Yantra. Hindu mandala of the Seventeenth Century. The divine powers and their interrelationships are shown as linked trinangles surrounding the mysterious matrix point in the center. The lack of images allow the initiate to distill and concentrate his being in preparation for unification with the Godhead.


Libra (22 September - 21 October): I Ching, squared and encircled. Ancient Chinese oracle from the Second Millenium BCE, the I Ching Book of Changes is a divinatory system based upon the permutations of positive and negative energies in nature and man. The sixty-four hexagrams are transitional states which are shown around a circle and within a square.


Scorpio:  (22 October - 20 November): Tibetan Buddhist Mandala, Mahakala Gonpo-Magpo Chakra. Tibetan Buddhist tantric mandala of the Seventeenth Century: Mahakala, the Great God of Time, dances with his female consort within the sacred precint of the four  elements. This eternal lovemaking dance symbolizes the recurrent creation and destruction of the Universe by the powers of Time.


Saggitarius: (21 November - 20 December): Aztec Calendar Wheel, Precious Fire Serpents. Stone carving thirteen feet in diameter from Fifteenth Century Mexico. The Sun disk is both a calendar and a historical-mythological record of the Aztec Indians. The Sun is the center and is surrounded by four seasons and eras, twenty day names, penetrating rays, and two great fire snakes recalling the cosmic energies.


Capricorn (21 December - 19 January): Kabbalah-Sephiroth, Tree of Life. Medieval Jewish mystical diagram, Kabbalah is the mystical system of the Jews and the Tree of Life is a graphic system of classification used in conjunction with it. The ten spheres are the pure numbers and the twenty-two paths connecting them correspond to the letters in the Hebrew alphabet, the whole being capable of leading the initiate from the  ignorance of Malkuth at the bottom to the Crown of Kether at the top.


Aquarius (20 January - 18 February): Astrology, Cosmic Geometry. The most ancient science and mantic art, based upon the correspondence of the Cosmos and man. Originally it included astronomy, medicine, mathematics, geometry and psychology, and underlies most religious systems in history. The structure of astrology is the relationship between the circular movements of planetary bodies and the squares and triangles which subdivide them.


Pisces (19 February - 20 March): North Rose window, Chartres Cathedral. Leaded stained-glass window in Chartres Cathedral, built in 1145 CE. This rose window displays the principles of Christianity through images of the Virgin held by her Mother, surrounded by the Doves of the Spirit, the Kings of Israel, and the Twelve Prophets. The mysteries of the Church are transmitted by the images, colors and geometrical relationships to both the simple and the wise.