I will first describe the process of creating this kind of Mandala art and then I will share with you some of the wisdom gained from creating this piece.

Mandala means circle in Sanskrit, and the circle is one of the oldest symbols of human consciousness. It means many different things, but the most common one is wholeness. The Mandala (or circle) has been used for thousands of years, by differing cultures worldwide, as a method for deepening conscious awareness of unconscious material as well as a method for accessing spiritual and transformational realities.

I first learned about Mandalas as an undergraduate student of psychology, when I studied various forms of Art Therapy. There are many ways to utilize this symbol for your self-discovery. The method employed in this picture (as in much of my Mandala Art) was to begin with a circle in the center of the page. Then I stare into the circle and notice what wants to happen.

That is the hard part, because part of me wants to be “artistic” and in control so most of my Mandala Art looks terrible to me at some point in the process. It is often so ugly I feel embarrassed to look at it. But that is part of the journey, allowing the ugliness, the imperfection to emerge and let go of my judgments. It wants to tell me something about me, and the ugly part is the shadow element of my psyche; the part of myself I think is ugly, or inferior, or less than. The challenge is to keep going anyway and to keep allowing what wants to happen to happen. Through allowing ugliness, beauty emerges.

Initially I draw the image with a black pen, allowing no erasures, for even mistakes are messages that want expression. After the image has been drawn, I then color it with color pens, and later, paint it with acrylic paints. Each picture can take weeks, months, or sometimes years to finish. All throughout, there is a dialogue occurring between the emerging image and me. Sometimes this dialogue is completely unconscious, wordless, expressing itself through the movement of the emerging image. Often, it is only after the image is complete, that I understand something consciously about what it is showing/telling me. The process is often compelling; it urges me onward, wanting my attention and participation. Sometimes, I feel lost and afraid, uncertain of myself, and need to go to my Mandala Art, because it comforts me, calms me, and reassures me that I’m O.K. and that there is always a way through any challenge.

Bony Eyes, is still communicating with me, as most all of my Mandala Art does. Bony Eyes also represents what the Huichol Indians call a Nierica, which means opening. This opening is “between the worlds” and through the opening one can enter, view or sometimes participate in other levels of consciousness. The Nierica quality of Huichol Art is one of the inspirations for my art. The way to discover the opening in Bony Eyes is to stare at the center of the center. If you keep your gaze steady, movement will begin to occur in your peripheral vision, and as the movement occurs the image will become three-dimensional and appear to be coming toward or away from you. If you keep on gazing, thoughts, images, imaginings will come to your mind, taking you into other dimensions.

At the time in 2006, at age 56, when I was working on Bony Eyes, I had been reading an article from National Geographic about the catacombs beneath the Vatican in Rome, complete with many photos. The catacombs were the last resting place of the millions of bones of monks and priests who had been associated with the Catholic Church throughout the ages. The photos showed bones, bones, and more bones, neatly stacked and arranged in aisle after aisle, lining the catacomb walls from floor to ceiling, and continuing for miles beneath the streets of Rome. I could not stop looking at all those bones, or imagining myself as one of the catacomb caretakers. The bones “wanted” to come into my Mandala; wanted to be in the center of each direction. Why?

I was in the second Saturn return and facing the final quadrant of life and the message I received was that I had to understand my purpose for this time in life and live it before I died. Bony Eyes did not frighten me, I was able to calmly look at the inevitability of death and have it inspire me. It was true, I didn’t have “forever” in the physical form of my current life; if I was here for a purpose, I’d better get on it. Today, I can happily say I’m “on purpose” with my life. Having the opportunity to have the artistic and psychological expression of my deeper self, my soul, through Mandala Art, has helped me get here.

One’s purpose changes with the phase of life you are in. The phase of life of the elder is one that developmental psychologist Eric Ericson named generative. Elders often have wisdom to share that helps generate new possibilities for the younger generations. In this phase of life, far from being useless and in the way, as many elders unfortunately may be considered, elders can give the gifts they have taken a lifetime to accumulate. Being a “Wisdom Elder” gives my life purpose and joy and I am grateful, very grateful.

(…) Dr. Sally, who had the good fortune to be born in California and live in the San Francisco Bay area at the height of the psychedelic revolution. When Dr. Sally was the ripe old age of 16 (in 1966), she was a weekend flower child, tripping down in Haight-Ashbury whenever she could. She and her friends experimented with mind-altering substances mirroring the “counter-culture” behavior of her time. (Due to diverse dangers from ingestion of psychedelic substances, Dr. Sally would not recommend such unguided experimentation today.) But back then; a whole new world was opening up. However, this story is being told now, because during that time (late 60’s and early 70’s) Dr. Sally realized over and over again, that the altered states she was experiencing were native to the human species and eagerly desired to discover a “natural” way to reach those exalted states without having to resort to taking drugs. This desire is one of the factors motivating Dr. Sally to create and develop the Wheel of Wisdom project. Additionally, it underscored her career choice of psychology, because the key to understanding altered states was the understanding of the human psyche and consciousness itself.