My Personal Mandala

I'm in a class about the Tibetan culture. Our teacher assigned each of us to create our own personal mandala. The mandala is a meditation tool.

The outmost part represents the physical world, so I put things in this part that I come into contact with everyday. A CD for my music collection, a book for the books I read (and reread), a willow tree, because I've always been drawn to them, and a Celtic trinity knot, because I have that knot as a necklace. Also, the first circle has small claddaghs, a celtic symbol for love, loyalty and friendship.

The part within that first circle before the first square is the outer self. Top clockwise, my eyes: my most complimented feature next to my hair, Firefly logo (Everyone that knows me at all knows my obsession with this show), Calico Jack Rackham's flag (he's my favorite real pirate, and again, if you know me at all, you know my pirate obsession), a forest: represents one side of my clothing style, earthy, a hippie chick, Hot Topic logo: The other side of my clothing style, punk/emo/goth etc., Irish and Scottish Flags: My ancestors came from these countries, and I'm proud of my heritage, a cat: I'm studying to be a vet, so I work with animals, an anime chibi: I sometimes go through extreme mood swings not unlike an anime character, and it shoes my love of anime.

The first square is the inner self, and here I have a dove breaking out of a shell and taking flight. I am trying to break out of my own shell. Behind is is an ocean, ranging from stormy and turbulent to calm, much like my emotions and self image.

The next square in are my talents and things that contribute to my happiness: Music, academics, writing, art, Irish Dance, and Spanish.

The yellow "temples" have written inside them a mantra I am trying to live by, from the musical Rent "There's only us, there's only this. Forget regret or life is yours to miss. No other path, no other way. No day but today. There's only now, there's only here. Give in to love or live in fear. No other course, no other way. No day but today." It means appreciate and live in the moment, because you may not have tomorrow and you won't get back yesterday.

The next square in is my path to God. The colors represent the seven chakras, red being much like the outer circle of the mandala, the physical, moving toward the white spiritual. The footprints are both symbolic and literal. When I talk to God, I'm usually walking.

The outer of the two inner circles is just tiger striped, it is the circle of protection of my spiritual self. Tigers have always been my power animal, and I see them as a protective symbol.

The inner most circle is God. I view God both as a separate entity from me, and also a part of me, of all people, things, ideas, etc. I try to find the God in something when I get frustrated with it.

This took about six hours to complete, and that was pretty much non-stop. There are parts I'm proud of and others that I think could be better. Overall, I'm very pleased with this project.

I don't have a scanner, so you'll have to settle for the photograph.