It is difficult to really call it "work". Using the mandala, in any of its many techniques, is more like "play". When it becomes "work", when it becomes an effort or strain, it is time to set it aside and do something else.

There are two different ways in which mandalas can be used. You may do them yourself, exploring your own life on paper, creating "visual affirmations" and so forth. Or you can work with a professional, either a spiritual minister (who works with you as a partner to use mandalas for self-help and spiritual development) or an art therapist (who uses mandala as one of many tools in the area of "art therapy").

Mandalas have been used in a new and growing field of clinical psychology, called Art Therapy, a relatively new field in the area of clinical psychology. It is an effective work that has helped many people find a healthier integration of Self. I am not an art therapist, nor do I practice clinical psychology. What I do is provide the tools and impetus for others to use mandala in its original purpose and sense - self-exploration, meditation, and spiritual development.

Probably the most significant difference between Art Therapy/Clinical Psychology and what I do as a minister and mandala artist, is that clinicians are trained to look for pathologies, dis-ease, and broken-ness. In fact, many art therapy clients come from a clinical setting -- clinics, hospitals, institutional schools, prisons, etc. -- i.e., patients who have been already diagnosed with significant mental or emotional problems that prevent healthy functioning at their individual best potential. For these people, professional certified art therapists are a godsend, unlocking barriers and helping patients find a path to growth. Metaphysicians, on the other hand, come from the perspective of wholeness, health, and growth. My clients are not broken, they are not clinical "labels". They are people already familiar with spiritual development and self-help techniques... or at least are interested.

I do not "analyze" someone else's work or attempt to "diagnose" the person. However, having worked in spirituality almost my entire life, it is only natural I would have intuitive insights about someone's art as an expression of their inner being. It is my obligation to share those insights that are helpful and beneficial, and to open dialogue to allow the client to express more fully. But even at this, it is not for an outsider (me) to tell someone else their problems or even the solutions. Rather, I open doors for self-discovery, allowing the individual to find his or her own answers. In this way, the individual retains responsibility for making his own choices.

Other times I will have insights about someone else's issues and I will create a mandala for them, which they can post and view in their home or sacred space. This works much the same way as posting affirmations or other "power" images. There is nothing magickal in the artwork itself, no intrinsic healing power in a piece of paper with a picture on it. All it does is create a manifest expression of Spirit at work. We know that all is Mind, and that Spirit/Mind works by intention and visualization. Putting our intent into picture form, rather than in printed words, often works better for some people in achieving the results desired.

As a personal preference, I would much rather provide tools for others to create their own mandalas, because it allows the individual to become a participant in their own healing or development process.

If All Is Whole and Healthy, Why Use Healing Mandalas?

We are not human beings, having spiritual experiences. We are spiritual beings having human experiences. At the level of Spirit, all is perfect, whole, healthy, and complete. There is no lack or limitation. As we manifest in this world, however, we often experience the results of a mis-use of Mind, creating awkwardly in the material world what flows harmoniously from Spirit. There are many theories about "why" we experience sickness, poverty, and loss, or why we become "victims" of other people's behaviors. I don't care about theories and "explanations", since they almost always focus on effects, rather than Cause. We know the Cause is always perfect, whole, and complete, so that should be our starting point in dissolving problems.

Working with a Healing Mandala enables to return our focus to Cause. Again, there is nothing magickal in the mandala itself, but it is a tool for returning our focus to Cause, allowing us to retrain our use of Mind from a perspective of health and wholeness.

What is the Difference Between Healing and Cure?

In the medical world we often hear about people achieving a "cure". What they mean is that they have dissolved the problems or symptoms. When a person is "cured" of cancer, it means the cancerous cells or tumors are removed and the body has been treated in various ways so that a recurrence does not happen. A person is considered "cured" of cancer, if there is no recurrence after five years from treatment. Other cures are also measured by the standard of "no recurrence"

There is nothing wrong with removing symptoms and achieving a cure, but without removing the cause of the symptoms there is no healing. "Cure" relates to symptom and effect, while "healing" relates to cause. Healing takes place at the level of Mind/Spirit. If the body's natural systems have become sufficiently destroyed, there may not be a restoration or cure, but the inner being can be healed. An example would be a person with a terminal illness. Even though the body will pass away, the person inside the body finds a calmness about it, knowing that only the body will pass away while the inner being, the Spirit, will continue on. A different example regards financial healing. Winning the lottery or landing a good-paying job would be a financial "cure" -- it solves the symptom of limited funds. But the inner being hasn't necessarily made the connection between Source and Channel of funding. That is, just because there is money in the house doesn't mean the inner person has learned to trust Source, or that the person has learned to handle money wisely. It will continue to slip through his fingers one way or another. But once a person connects to his Source, and realizes there is always an abundance of all that is needed, there will never again be lack and limitation, WHETHER OR NOT that person actually has cash-money. Money is just one means of exchange, and a mere symbol of abundance. We want it, not because we value stamped metals and printed papers, but because of what we can do with it. Once we connect to Source, we realize we can do what we want even without cash money. THAT is true financial healing, and it may or may not include curing the symptoms, although usually it does, since effect always follows cause. Yet there are still those who live in abject poverty and manage to live an abundant life, surrounded by beauty, joy, and incredible inner peace.

Healing Mandalas can be made for any reasonable purpose, whether one wishes to correct the symptoms of financial limitation, emotional imbalance, romantic affairs, working relationships, physical ailments, etc. Whatever the effect is, it can be altered.

If All Is As It Should Be, Why Seek Healing?

When we say that all is as it should be, we are declaring a Universal principle that the effects we experience are a direct result of the causes we set in motion. My life today is the only possible way that it could be, given the exact combination of choices and experiences and beliefs and everything else in my life so far. This does NOT mean I should just sit back and let things happen, as if I could be no more than a victim. It DOES mean that I am an active participant in the life I create AND an active choice-maker in how i wish to experience the life I have created. It means accepting the fact that the life I now have is my own responsibility. It means accepting the fact that if I wish to have a change, it is up to me to create that change. It means becoming actively involved in changing Cause in my life.

To seek a healing, or to use a Healing Mandala, is to willingly participate in the process and to allow that process to operate through me. If my bank account is hurting, it is up to me to heal my use of Mind -- to literally change my perception from one of lack and limitation, restoring my perception to the truth of universal abundance. If my physical body is sick or hurt, I can use a healing mandala to turn my focus away from the symptoms and heal my Mind by restoring it to the truth about universal health and wholeness.

Having said all that, we know that in our human experience, we use approximately ten percent of our Mind potential. Those who have begun developing spiritually use slightly more since they have learned (or intuitively do it naturally) to tap into Mind/Spirit. We have seen too many examples of the power of Mind in action to doubt the principles, but we also take a realistic approach and accept that there is simply a lot more to learn before every human being can pass through this lifetime without experience poverty, or sickness, or emotional hurts. As humans we do hurt, and we do get sick, and we do experience a host of problems. The difference, however, is that those who are spiritually awake and aware tend to "suffer" far less. To an outsider, such people seem to have insurmountable odds, but they themselves aren't suffering in the midst of them. Rather, because of their spiritual awareness, things that would devastate most people, are simply set aside or worked around without unnecessary suffering. Problems come with being human, but suffering is always a choice. It is a choice that spiritual people don't often make because it is a waste of inner energy. There is simply no point making yourself miserable simply because you are in pain or experience a conflict in life. People choose suffering as a way to avoid actively participating in solutions, and often because they don't realize they have "permission" to do otherwise. It is impossible to suffer while actively participating in something else; likewise it is impossible to give full active participation when in the midst of suffering.

Working with the Healing Mandalas is an aid to choosing the more healthy option.