QUEST MANDALA

Quest Mandala - (Meditation Card series) - © Sue O'Kieffe 2008
source image - Siberian iris

So I was thinking about how, in the Victorian age, flowers were used as a means of communication. Maybe they were a predecessor to Hallmark Cards for expressing feelings for the chronically shy. Or maybe, just maybe, it was because there is something magical and longstanding about the memory of receiving flowers.

Anyway, while I was perusing this website looking at the different, old-fashioned meanings of flowers, I was happy to discover that iris meant Message. I created this particular mandala for my dear friend Brenda, who is about the depart on a spiritual journey in the mountains of Oregon. Brenda is an awesome woman who has been right there with me as I have been on my own journey of artistic development.

Dear Heart, know that I am holding space for youhere as you go to receive your messages. Aho!

Sue O'Kieffe
Sacred Circle Mandalas

BREATHE

Breathe Mandala - (Meditation Card series) - © Sue O'Kieffe 2008
source image: flowering crab apple blossoms
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You know that our breathing is the inhaling and exhaling of air. The organ that serves for this is the lungs that lie round the heart, so that the air passing through them thereby envelops the heart. Thus breathing is a natural way to the heart. And so, having collected your mind within you, lead it into the channel of breathing through which air reaches the heart and, together with this inhaled air, force your mind to descend into the heart and to remain there. ~Nicephorus the Solitary