Journal of Sacred Work

 Note: The following meditation was written by Liz Wessel, R.N, M.S., Director of Education/Mission Services at St. Joseph Home Health Network. An example of one of Liz’s mandalas, used as a Touch Card, appears at left
.

   It was the
summer of 1997; I frequented a used bookstore that seemed a rather magical
place to me as I often found a special book to read as guide along my spiritual
path. As I walked the narrow aisles and browsed books set upon musty old
shelves, my eyes set upon a book by Carl Jung. I began thumbing through pages
only to discover mandala images drawn by Jung’s patients. The written words
were of no interest but the colorful drawings steeped in meaningful symbolism
captured me. It was in that moment that I knew for certain drawing mandalas was
to become part of my spiritual journey throughout my life…

  I began each
drawing began with a circle and curiously; I did not tire of the process but
drew almost continuously during my 2-week stay in Vermont. I made some mandalas just for fun
and others reflected special meaning for people dear to me and were given as a
gift from my heart. Mom viewed each one as though a true work of art, praising
as only a mother can; yet her affirmations were very encouraging to me.
   Mandala is the
Sanskrit word for sacred circle. To me the circle symbolizes God, there is no
beginning and there is no end, of spirit eternal and Love unending. The center
of the circle symbolizes pure spiritual light and unity. It is here that we are
born and set out upon our journey in life, each following our own unique path
and returning to the same unified source at journey’s end.
   This
insightful quote from the book “Black Elk Speaks” describes the circle well. 

Everything
the power of the world does is done in a circle. The sky is round and I have
heard that the earth is round like a ball and so are all of the stars. The wind
in its greatest power whirls. Birds make their nests in circles, for theirs is
the same religion as ours. The sun comes forth and goes down again in a circle.
The moon does the same. And both are round. Even the seasons form a great
circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The
life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything
where power moves.

    Mandalas often
have cardinal points, which symbolize the polarities that exist in nature.
Examples, North, and South, East and West, night and day, joy and sorrow, fire
and water, and chaos and order. Everything engages in a movement forward and a
movement away in the cosmic dance of life. Although each element has an
opposite, there is no ultimate separation as all is interdependent and
co-exists to create the fullness of life.   In this way,
mandalas offer a process of integration and harmony as one begins to live in
awareness of how all our differing parts are necessary in creating our
wholeness. We begin to see that, the shadowy more fragile parts of ourselves
are to be approached tenderly and with loving kindness and acceptance. Only
then can our darkness join with light as God’s grace and transforming Love
heals our woundedness.   When my brother
Phillip was suddenly killed in a car accident, I was just 21 and I had never
lost anyone close to me through death. I did not now how to grieve and I was
living a long way from family and friends as I started my first nursing job
working on the oncology unit  at St. Joseph Hospital.            
   Through the years, it was the patients and families I cared for that taught me.
When dad died, and soon after my in-laws, I understood the importance of
grieving. Mandala’s became a vehicle for me to express grief and to pour out my
love as I bled off some of the pain.
   For me, the
process of creating a mandala is a reflective one, helping me to center, and offering
a path to self-discovery. As a spiritual art form, it allows for meaningful
expressions of Love that can be shared with fellow caregivers. Contained within
a mandala are the macrocosm of the universe and the microcosm of a human life,
all a loving interweaving of a greater whole.

There I was
standing on the highest mountain of them all, and round about beneath me was
the whole hoop of the world. And while I stood there, I saw more than I can
tell and I understood more than I saw; for I was seeing in a sacred manner the
shapes of all things in the spirit, and the shape of all shapes as they must
live together like one being. And I say the sacred hoop of my people was one of
the many hoops that made one circle, wide as daylight and as starlight, and in
the center grew one mighty flowering tree to shelter all the children of one
mother and one father. And I saw that it was holy… But anywhere is the center
of the world.  – Black Elk