C.G. Jung: “I sketched every morning in a notebook a small circular drawing, a mandala…”

 Jung Describes His Process of Drawing Mandalas

I sketched every morning in a notebook a small circular drawing, a mandala, which seemed to correspond to my inner situation at the time. With the help of these drawings I could observe my psychic transformations from day to day. . .. Only gradually did I discover what the mandala really is: ‘Formation, Transformation, Eternal Mind’s eternal recreation.’ (Faust, II) . . .

My mandalas were cryptograms . . . in which I saw the self–that is, my whole being–actively at work. To be sure, at first I could only dimly understand them; but they seemed to me highly significant, and I guarded them like precious pearls.

I had the distinct feeling that they were something central, and in time I acquired through them a living conception of the self. The self, I thought, was like the monad which I am, and which is my world. The mandala represents this monad, and corresponds to the microcosmic nature of the psyche.”

 
Memories, Dreams, Reflections

Source of Image: The Red Book, Page 107