Circle The Word Mandala

“The nature of God is a circle of which the center is everywhere and the circumference is nowhere.” Empedocles, 490-430 BC

The word “mandala” comes originally from Sanskrit, the ancient classical language of India.  The literal translation into English is “circle”, and can refer to anything round.

It was probably the Tibetan Buddhists who first made the word mandala known to westerners with their elaborate sand mandalas.  Carl Jung also added to the term’s popularity with his study of circle symbolism within human psychology. 

Mandala has now come to mean, more generically, the use of a circular design within spiritual art, ritual or meditation.  Mandalas can be found through out the the world in the religious history of Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, African and Native American Indian tribes and even some Indigenous Australian ceremonies.

Sacred circles go by other names as well, such as Chakra (also Sanskrit for “wheel”), Medicine Wheel (Native American), Yantra (Hindu), rose window (Christian), Celtic knots, and many more than I can list here.  Many Mandala enthusiasts look to the circular patterns in nature for inspiration as well, like the spiral of a shell or the growth pattern of petals on a flower.

So our regard for the circle as a spiritual symbol goes deep, as does our use of it as a tool for deepening our sense of connection with the divine and expressing ideas of wholeness, completion and unity through art and ritual.

So when you see the word Mandala, circle it.  It means a lot.