Word: mandalas
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...Need for Symbols. In this process, symbols help. One which particularly fascinates Jung is the mandala,** a square and-wheel pattern embodying the number four or a multiple of it. A precious stone, often equated with the philosopher's stone of the alchemists, can symbolize the Self. The interlaced, banyanlike Tree of Life is often seen to bear a single luminous blossom-perhaps the Orient's Golden Flower, or a Christmas-tree star-which signifies the way of life that is life itself...
...mandala, meaning magic circle in Sanskrit, is most familiar as an aid to contemplation among Buddhist and other Oriental sects. A medieval
...dreams and in researches he made among theological, philosophical and mystical works, Dr. Jung found the quaternity symbol everywhere. The square, the circle, the mystic squared circle suggest four; the Buddhist mandala-symbol is usually a circular lotus containing a square building with four gates; there are four seasons, four points of the compass, four Evangelists, etc. In the patient's dream of the "world clock" appeared "four little men," just as people in groups of four tended to appear in all his dreams. Only the Christian symbol of the Trinity fails to conform to this system of fours...