Mandalas as Maps

Mandalas are the maps to our souls. Meditation is the vehicle used to travel this map.

A map is defined as one-to-one correspondence between two different things, or places. A road map represents a path between two different locations. Your brain carries the critical map of your body’s inside – it’s a visceral map representing neural pathways branching out to the various organs within, otherwise known as the Body Mandala. By focusing on these pathways through meditation you allow access to your organs through the brain and these neural pathways. Starting from the brain and following the light to each part of our bodies the Body Mandala is revealed. When we meditate with an open mind, and truly invoke an intention, a healing symbol can come to us through these neural pathways, ultimately evolving into a mandala.

Mandalas depict our inner condition in a way we can understand fairly easily. Through interpretation of healing symbols, and colors used, we can diagnose the condition experienced as revealed by our subconscious. Visually looking at a mandala with our eyes – the prototype mandala – we start at the outer edge and automatically move to the center of the mandala. Our naked eye simply looks at the mandala and it knows the path it wants to take already. The sacred journey to the center begins. It’s a journey to meet our subconscious, a journey that allows healing to begin.

Digital Mandalas are created from digital photographs of various objects found throughout the universe. The mandala created from the image reveals and inner piece (peace) of the object not easily seen with the naked eye. Much like our own bodies, which require special equipment, or a meditative focus, to see inside, the mandala truly serves as the maps to seeing the inside spirit of the object being examined.

After having been a photographer for 20 years, I began using my photography to create Digital Mandalas over five years ago. Until last year I was only a digital artist using my computer to create beautiful artistic images. In 2009 I attended a retreat allowing me to incorporate meditation with drawing mandalas using colored pencils. This retreat allowed me to connect more fully with the healing aspects of the mandala, while allowing me also to connect more fully with the artist inside. The side effect was that I became connected with the idea of using mandalas for healing purposes and as maps to the inside of our bodies, and all things of which I take a picture. I create mandalas daily and I facilitate workshops guiding participants through meditation, creating intention, and leading them toward connecting with their body mandala and creating their own maps to the soul.

~Vincent Ferguson
503-241-0170
May 2010