C.G. Jung: “I had painted the first mandala in 1916…”
Carl Jung, on Drawing his First Mandala
It was only towards the end of the First World War that I gradually began to emerge from the darkness.
Two events contributed to this.
The first was that I broke with the woman who was determined to convince me that my fantasies had artistic value; the second and principal event was that I began to understand the mandala drawings.
This happened in 1918-1919.
I had painted the first mandala in 1916 after writing the Septem Sermones; naturally, I had not then understood it
