Creating art of a specific kind is the purpose of the mandala workshops taught by Lily Mazurek of Pembroke Pines, Florida.  The shape of the mandala is a perfect circle.  As created by individuals with different concerns, the mandala embellished with pretty colors, shapes, pictures and symbolism goes beyond an artistic expression and becomes a highly personalized reflection of what is going on in the maker internally, whether in the mind, the heart or the body.  Mazurek looks  forward to teaching a series of Saturday workshops set at the same time, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., at the same place, the metaphysical shop Griffin’s Loft in Davie, Florida on August 23, September 27 and December 13.   All workshops are open to the public for the cost of $99 in advance, $108 at the door by telephoning 954/625-6775.

     The term mandala, a word from the classical Indian language of Sanskrit meaning circle or completion, has a long and storied history.  Hindu in origin, the word is found in other Indian religions such as Buddhism.

     Adopted by many spiritual traditions, the mandala has different uses as a teaching tool, a means to establish a sacred space, and as an aid to meditation and induction into a trance state.

     The ancient Aztec culture used a circular calendar to keep time and express their religion beliefs.  Indigenous people in North America used stone medicine wheels as mandalas, which played a part in ceremonies and the study of the heavens.  Medicine wheels are employed even now by Native Americans.   Mandalas  also  take  the  form  of dream catchers.  There was even a 12th century Christian nun, Hildegard von Bingen, who created many beautiful mandalas as a means to express her beliefs and visions.

     While long embraced by Eastern religions, mandalas have only recently found an audience among Western religions and secular cultures.  These complex circular designs have power.  According to writer Bailey Cunningham in the book “Mandala: Journey to the Center:”  “Awareness of the mandala may have the potential of changing how we see ourselves, our planet, and perhaps even our own life purpose.”

The mandala’s applications are far-reaching.  This circle with a center is often found in architecture.  Structures built around a center include Buddhist stupas, Muslim mosques and Christian cathedrals.  Mandalas are also found in flowers, seashells and rings of tree trunks among various manifestations in nature, as well as in biology, geology, chemistry and physics.
In practice the word mandala is a generic term for any plan, chart or geometric pattern representing the cosmos.  It is also a microcosm of the universe.  “Many cultures have mandalas,” says Mazurek, who has a slide show in her workshop explaining their global   significance.    “Tibetan   monks   today travel to cities to create them and chant to get themselves in a meditative state.  When they’re finished making a mandala, they sweep up the mandala’s powdered pigments and put them in a flowing body of water to carry their message and blessings where others go.”

     Learning to deal with a diagnosis of breast cancer in 1996 focused Mazurek on this unique and purposeful form of circular artwork.  “My belief is that mandalas appear when you most need them, to bring you back to a state of wholeness,” she says.  “I feel we’re entering the age of the mandala.  I needed to help myself get through surgery and radiation.  I was going through a huge upheaval.  I had seen a video of circular shapes and one thing led to another and another.  I developed a process of reaching for imagery out of my subconscious.  Making mandalas helped me psychologically.”

     Through the encouragement of friends, Mazurek decided to share her gift with others.  “I started giving workshops and the feedback I got was powerful,” she says.  “People found help with a variety of problems including weight loss, financial problems and incest.  I lead people through the process.  I’ve presented workshops at churches, universities, cancers centers, an AIDS conference, salon groups, a birthday party, and a conference for oncology social workers. 

I can do workshops one-on-one or in groups, as in a family with all the relatives working on one
group Mandala.  I can also conduct workshops in a corporate or business setting for team-building purposes.”

     Meditation and creative visualization are the processes used by Mazurek in her workshops prior to her students setting to work on making a mandala.    “Mandala is an energy medicine made manifest,” she says.  “It’s a body-based process to bring imagery forward, which then goes into a mandala.  You change the frequency of a problem through color and shape.  In meditation you get in touch with your emotions and feel them as color or shapes.  When you put them in a mandala it doesn’t stay the same because new revelations come forth.  The mandala is a starting point as something to meditate upon, which leads to another realization.  The problem can be healed or you gain a new perspective on it.”

     While most mandalas are regular and symmetrical in shape, the mandalas created by Mazurek and the people who take her workshops tend to be otherwise.  “They are organic and irregularly shaped,” she says.  “The processes we are using to go to the subconscious and the body link to a problem.  Creating mandalas has a real purpose because the mandala is a basic structure in life that reflects the psyche.  It mirrors back to me where I am.  The mandala is a handy expression of self that I can learn from.  I can go into the process of making a mandala with a particular problem and come out with a better feeling.  Sometimes it’s very intuitive.”

     Making one mandala sometimes isn’t enough to address a certain concern.  “If I’m not able to get to the heart of a problem, I’ve had to do four or five mandalas in a series,” explains Mazurek.  “The last series had to do with  relationships  and  unresolved   emotions Doing the mandalas helped me get over them.  This isn’t at all a cerebral process.  It’s a totally gut-centered process that leaves you feeling differently and thinking about it.  To me the mandalas are almost alive because they continue to move and change.”

 “But this is about expressing what’s inside yourself and getting people in touch with their own
symbolism and colors.  I give them templates so they can trace a circle and they can create their own structure inside of it.”

     Mandalas had a vocal advocate in decades past.  One of the world’s most famous psychoanalysts, Dr. Carl Jung, found mandalas useful in his work.  He believed his drawings of mandalas enabled him to identify emotional disorders and work toward achieving wholeness in personality.  He saw the mandala as “a representation of the unconscious self.”

Using symbolism with personal meaning perhaps only to themselves, the students in Mazurek’s workshops confront difficult problems.  “People are putting shapes and content into their work, whether it’s abstract or dealing with people and relationships,” she says.  “I’ve had children going through their parents’ divorce who make zig-zags which can indicate pain, confusion or sadness.  I have a de-briefing at the end of the workshop and allow people to speak.  Most people do speak and their realizations become clear as they talk about them.  I also allow cross-talk so others can describe what they see in your mandala in order to provide extra insight.”

     Attendees at Mazurek’s workshops are channeling their issues through art.  “While painful things come up, it’s a safe environment and such a fun process,” she says.  “I’ve made one hundred mandalas.  I usually date and scribble on the back of the paper.  When I come back to the mandalas later, I sometimes don’t even remember what I was going through at the time, which means the energy is off of it.”

     Other forms of holistic healing are also part of Mazurek’s repertoire, including Reiki, emotional freedom, and herbal medicine.  “I seem to be a medical intuitive,” she says.  “I started out teaching on my friends as guinea pigs and the results were bigger than I expected.  I was told I really had a gift.  Mandalas are such transformative tools that can have profound effects on people.  It makes me feel good to be able to help people in this way.”

To contact Ms. Mazurek about her mandala workshops or her upcoming website, email her at mandalaworkshops@bellsouth.net.