CALLING ALL ANGELS

Calling All Angels - (Mandalas for Peace Project) - © Sue O'Kieffe 2009
source image - plum tree blossom buds

While I was creating this mandala, I saw three angels hovering around the triangular center, which I see as a power symbol. The image in the very center of the triangle looks like some kind of horned animal, perhaps a bull or ox. The bull is central to the Cretan labyrinth myth, and this is the year of the Ox in the Chinese New Year .

I was even more surprised when I looked at this image from a distance. If you back up from the computer four or five feet and look at it again, it takes on a whole different characteristic. Then it speaks to me of firebird. The power in this image is unmistakable.

It wasn't until I added the language around the mandala that I felt like this image was actually finished. Indistinguishable, perhaps, but still embedded in the image are partial lyrics from Calling All Angels, by Issa (formerly known as Jane Siberry.) I am playing her music on my blog for this posting as well:

calling all angels
calling all angels
walk me through this one
don't leave me alone
calling all angels
calling all angels
we're cryin' and we're hurtin'
and we're not sure why...
© Issa 1993

I almost didn't finish this mandala. The angels intervened.

OBSERVE THE WONDERS

1000 Days of Sun - (Mandalas for Peace Project) - © Sue O'Kieffe 2009
source image - dead hydrangeas

Observe the wonders that are all around us ~ Rumi

I have been waiting for a day of no rain and hopefully even a little sunshine. I like to create mandalas from recently taken photographs, while the energy of the photoshoot is still fresh in my psyche. It was pretty cold here last night and frosty this morning, but all that white coating had melted by the time I got out with my camera. The sun never really did come out. Delicately-veined dead hydrangeas did, however, catch my eye.

Over at my doodle blog, I have been playing with mehndi-inspired mandalas. The mandala brushes I used in the background of this image were created from those hand-drawn mandalas. I've been looking for different ways to integrate my digital and non-digital mandala worlds and this is just the beginning.

This mandala makes me feel happy. I'm not sure what the significance of the title is, but when I asked for a name this is what came back to me. I think the image has a Mid-Eastern energy, and so it seemed natural to include one of Rumi's quotes in this post. I love Rumi.

This is my 237th post. Look for something exciting when I get to 250! Details to follow.

~Sue O'Kieffe
Sacred Circle Mandalas

REMEMBERING WHO WE ARE

Remembering - (Mandalas for Peace Project) - © Sue O'Kieffe 2008
source image: bearded lichen

When you see thirteen in your mandalas, perhaps the message conveyed is that you have moved into a new phase in your life. Thirteen might also be telling you that the weight of the past may hamper the new direction in your life, especially when you do not bring closure to what has gone before. Thirteen in your mandalas may be a clue that a powerful process is in force within you, and that you might do well to prepare for a freeing of your energy after what seems like a time of tribulation, hard work, and confusion. ~ from Creating Mandalas by Susanne E. Fincher

A friend of mine recently told me the story of her near death experience. By all accounts she should have died 10 years ago when she was trapped in a car rear ended by a semi. When she was rescued from the burning car, she told the EMTs who pulled her out that she was sitting on the laps of angels. I am not going to go into the details of her story, because it is her story. The effect of hearing her story, though, seemed to release me from a funk I had been experiencing for the last six weeks or so. I was uplifted. I felt at peace.

The message I heard her telling me through recounting her tale was Remember who you are. Express yourself. Do what you are called to do. Life is short. Death is an elevated state of consciousness. Shine on.

I created this mandala from the energy of my friend's inspiration, and I hope it will assist others to help them remember as well. I felt drawn to create a mandala with thirteen rays because thirteen is a number indivisible...a number unto itself. Unique.

Shine On.

~Sue O'Kieffe
Sacred Circle Mandalas

AEDM 26 - THE ANCESTORS' MANDALA

Ancestors' Mandala- (Mandalas for Peace Project) - © Sue O'Kieffe 2008
source image- decorative grasses

A patch of ornamental grasses blowing gently in the wind and shimmering in the light caught my eye a couple of weeks ago when I was out shopping for groceries. I circled round the parking lot and pulled out my trusty companion Canon for a quick photoshoot. I lovd the lacey delicacy of the grasses gone to seed.

During one of my recent investigations of the meaning of the word mandala, I discovered another interpretation that I really like ... containing essence. How much more essential could anything be than a plant at the end of its growing cycle, yet producing seeds to insure its continued growth? The alpha and omega, beginning and end, never ceasing....

When I decide to create a mandala, it seems the image tells me how it wants to be created; I have no preconceived idea what the final image will look like. It is fun for me to later look at books on symbolism to search for meanings of the imagery contained within the circle.

Seven (for the seven rays of this mandala) is a holy and mystical number ... seven days, seven planets, seven colors in the rainbow, seven directions (north, south, east, west, up, down and center), seven phases in the alchemical process of turning base material into gold. According to Jung, seven stands for the highest stage of illumination, a passing from base ignorance to golden enlightment. Seven, seven, I'm in heaven!

Because I create in such an abstract manner, I'm never really certain what Im going to create until it has created itself. Reading about the number seven as a number of ancient symbolism, I have decided to designate this mandala as the image for the ancestors' prompt in the Mandalas for Peace Project.

As peaceful as the falling snow...

This will more than likely be my last posting for AEDM as well, since I am going out of town for the Thanksgiving holiday. I hope all of you have a blessed four day weekend. Be safe and happy whatever you do in these days to come.

~Sue O'Kieffe
Sacred Circle Mandalas

AEDM 13 - COMMUNITY CREATING PEACE MANDALA

Community Creating Peace Mandala - (Mandalas for Peace Project) - © Sue O'Kieffe 2008
source image - eucalyptus leaves

There can be no vulnerability without risk, there can be no community without vulnerability; there can be no peace, and ultimately, no life, without community ~ M. Scott Peck

When I began to create this mandala, the first image I saw was two hands cradling a seed. As the mandala progressed, it evolved into a circle of hands, each nurturing its own seed, as well as offering it to be planted in the center. What will grow there?

What would you plant in the center, within your own community?

This mandala was created for the Mandalas for Peace Project and posted for day 13 of Art Every Day Month.

BIRTHING THE NEW

Birthmarks Mandala - (Mandalas for Peace series) - © Sue O'Kieffe 2008
source image - agapanthus at end of growing cycle

I love spring and signs of new growth. Summer is a riot of bright blooms. Fall reveals structure and is a reminder of the growing cycle. Blossoms fall away; new seeds are formed...birthmarks of the season yet to come. Creating this mandala was an opportunity for me to blend my digital world with my doodley one...what fun to add yet another layer of the mystery to creation by doodling my own birthmarks on the first segment of the mandala, and perhaps creating this mandala's own particular DNA. When I finished the image I imagined the center being a point of conception, with new life energy radiating outward.

This mandala, with its theme of birthing/transformation, is the third image (with 6 to go) I have created for the Mandalas for Peace project. It is my prayer that we continue to birth ourselves into the New...(raised consciousness, peace, awareness of the Oneness of us All).

~Sue O'Kieffe
Sacred Circle Mandalas

Messenger for Peace Mandala

Messengers for Peace Mandala - (Mandalas for Peace series) - © Sue O'Kieffe 2008
source image - owl and sandpiper feathers

I was given a bag of feathers over a year ago.I've kept them in my freezer in a plastic bag in order to kill the mites which reside in them naturally. Today I scanned two of them in order to create this mandala. It's much easier for me to identify birds than it is their feathers, but I do believe they once belonged to an owl and a sandpiper (or one of those other long-legged shore birds...)

Whenever I find feathers, I think of them as a sign, a message; and while doves are traditionally a symbol for peace, the owl is moreso a symbol of wisdom, darkness, death, and knowledge. I believe this death is transformative, a molting of old behaviors and beliefs that no longer serve mankind. In this particular mandala,the center is rings and rings of circles, which offers a sense of unity amongst diversity, protections, and old growth...like the rings of a tree. The Star represents the Self...upright, rooted to the earth, well grounded. The earthy golden brown represents the end of a healing process, the autumn season, the thin golden veil between the physical and spiritual worlds.

I am grateful to these birds who shed their feathers that allowed me to relay their messages of hope and joy that will arise when light bursts forth upon the darkness.

This mandala, with its focus on Animal, is second in a series for the Mandalas for Peace Project. You can read more about this project here. If you are a mandala maker reading this blog, I hope you will consider joining us over at the Mandala Oasis.

~Sue O'Kieffe
Sacred Circle Mandalas

Divine Wisdom and the Power of Women

Power of Women Mandala - (Women and Peace Project series) - © Sue O'Kieffe 2008
source image - escallonia flower

I don't often write about my images. I like to let the images speak for themselves. My intent had been to create a mandala with 9 rays, but it turned into 18. Next time I'll know how to do it. Still, the power of nine remains prevalent in this image.18 in Tarot is the Moon (authenticity, mysteriousness, integrity, openness). 1+8=9 is the Hermit(introspection, completeness, resolution, recognizing what is heartfelt and meaningful). When I create my mandalas, there is always some voice, some nudge that calls to me. Intuition beckons me.

I am honored to be participating in the Mandalas for Peace Project, a collaborative effort conceived over at the Mandala Oasis. A group of us will each be creating a series of nine images based on nine different themes over the next nine weeks. A webring for the project is in the process of being birthed.

So what is it about the number nine that is so powerful? In her book Creating Mandalas, Susanne Fincher writes:

Nine represents a band of angels, careful synthesis, and the enigma of human existence. Jung writes that by ancient tradition nine represents "a company of gods." The Bible mentions that there are nine choirs of angels. The most mysterious element of the Trinity, The Holy Ghost, was symbolized by the number nine. Nine has been a traditional symbol for benevolent spiritual beings...the number nine symbolized truth in mystic Hebrew tradition. (pp.106-107).

Kate Jobe, a member of the Project, told us 9 was the number of the Divine Feminine.

Being a knowledge- seeking woman, I decided to dig a bit deeper. In his painting of The Creation of Adam on the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo portrays Sophia, Divine Wisdom, as being present at God the Father's left hand side when Earth was created.

From the Greek Old Testament Septuagint (circa 285 B.C):
For wisdom, which is the worker of all things,taught me: for in her is an understanding spirit,holy, only one, manifold----”
( Septuagint Wisdom VII: 22 )

and from the Bible:
Happy is the man who finds wisdom, and the man who gets understanding, for the gain from it is better than gain from silver and its profits better than gold. She is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire can compare with her. Prov 3:13-15
(from Holy Spirit Divine Feminine)

Other information on Sophia:
Sophia: Goddess of Wisdom and God's Bride
The Sophia Foundation of North America
Sophia: Hidden Goddess of the West
-------------------------
The Power of Women
...Strength, Wisdom, Mystery...
......Breast, Womb, Blood......
.........Nurturing, Healing, Restoring.........
............Creating, Birthing, Releasing...........
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I thank Holy Spirit and the Wisdom of Sophia for helping me create this gift for peace.