Commentaries on Mandalas Painted at the 1992 Worldwork Seminar

"Amy and Amy Mindell invited me to attend the 1992 Worldwork seminar and paint mandalas , giving me these simple instructions: do your inner work, track the group's process and write something about each mandala."

"The way I paint mandalas is largely intuitive. I spend a few minutes tuning in to myself. I may sketch a little before beginning, and then I make up the picture as I paint. It is only in retrospect that the results make any sense, if they make any sense at all. Here are the mandalas and the commentaries that go with them."

Mandala is a Sanskrit word meaning "that of essence." Traditionally used as centering devices and regarded as symbols of wholeness, I use them as tools to help me enter the stream of my process.

1. Mountain with full moon over it and ring of fire around the large circle. Painted on 6/14, Sunday, the day before the seminar begins.

My mood was one of quiet anticipation. There is fire around which has yet to enter the circle. I painted this mandala in the afternoon shortly after arriving in Stoos. That night I woke up around midnight and looked out the window and was surprised to see that a full moon was right over the very mountain I'd painted that afternoon. I took this as a sign of assurance that the seminar would involve synchronicities for myself, all participants, and the world.

2. Coffin shape with the earth in it over the mountains with light behind them. Painted on 6/15, Monday, the first day of the seminar.

Everyone at Worldwork seems to share mutual concern over the fate of the earth. The colors of the fire from the first painting have entered the circle. There is light coming from behind the barren-looking mountains, but it is not clear whether it is the light of a new dawn or a final sunset.

3. Figure standing over fire. Painted on 6/16, Tuesday, the second day of the seminar.

The fire has entered the circle. As the group defines itself and is more expressive it becomes apparent that we are multi-racial, multi-national, and multi-sexually oriented, a multi-everything body that is in a lot of pain.

4. Fire. Painted on 6/17, Wednesday, the third day of the seminar.

Emotions run high in the group and there seems to be fire everywhere. The group process is really starting to cook! After starting this mandala I took a walk and ran into another participant who said, "Everything is getting so intense! It's like a huge fire; you either walk through it and become transformed by it, or you struggle against it and get burned."

5. TVee, girl, skeletal remains. Painted on 6/18, Thursday, the fourth day of the seminar.

The group entered extremely painful emotional territory as people worked in the middle on issues related to the resurgence of nazism in parts of Europe, and on memories of the Holocaust A young woman with Down's syndrome who was not part of the seminar entered the room just as expressions of anguish were rising. She cried and ran from the room, but returned minutes later. She beckoned a woman who had been working in the middle to come to her. She embraced her and said that she'd like to give her tea or coffee, and then she announced to the entire group that she'd like to give us all tea or coffee! The unexpected visit of this empathic, innocent spirit seemed to be exactly what we needed.

6. Flowers, star in center, dark crescent. Painted on 6/20, Saturday, the weekend break.

I felt exhausted and depressed but fought it. I tried to nurture myself and take time to 'smell the flowers,' with which the nearby mountain top was covered. Something heavy hangs in the background, a dark goddess like Kali.

7. Yin/yang symbol in center. Painted on 6/21, Sunday, the weekend break.

I felt even more depressed than I did on Saturday. I resisted it by trying to forcibly instill a sense of balance and order in the mandala. I didn't know why I included a snake, which to me represents healing energy and fluidity, but its placement in the painting made me feel hopeful.

8. Black hand/white hand. Painted on 6/22, Monday, the sixth day of the seminar.

This mandala represents integration of movement: the racism group processes have moved toward some sense of integration, and I have a sense of reconciling opposites within me. As a result I enjoy more color, life and light.

9. Oroboros, sun/moon. Painted on 6/23, Tuesday, the seventh day of the seminar.

After the resolution between opposites represented by the mandala with the black and white hands touching, this painting resulted from seeing that as we continued to deal with deep issues in the group there is no final resolution of opposites. Like day and night, and the snake that eats its own tail, processes are cyclic and eternal.

10. Heart in center. Painted on 6/24, Wednesday, the eighth day of the seminar.

I began this mandala in the morning before the day's group work began, feeling playful and relatively unconcerned about how the finished painting would turn out. I went to the group leaving the center and black area empty. A man led us through a powerful exercise that accentuated our differences yet had the effect of bringing us closer and into a heartfelt space. After this experience I finished the painting. Although two days of the seminar remained, I felt my project was complete.

Jim Chamberlain is a student of Process Work. He currently lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin where he manages an alternative book store. He is working on a book featuring a number of his mandalas with commentaries.