LIVING A PEACEFUL LIFE

Revitalizing Mandala (Mandalas for Peace Project) © Sue O'Kieffe 2009
source image: salal

I thank you God for this most amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, and for the blue dream of sky and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes.~ e.e. cummings

I had the pleasure recently of exploring a part of the North Coast of California that I'd never really visited before. I'm not sure how far my friend and I walked to reach Elk's Head, but along the way we actually saw plants new to both of us. Times like that are really a delight. When we reached our destination, we got out our drums and played to the ocean for about 30 minutes. It raised my energy levels, and I have to believe the sea lions, pelicans, gulls, and oyster catchers that were all nearby enjoyed it too.

Salal, however, is well known to me. It grows in abundance up and down the west coast. This is another shrub that has a fairylike quality. The flowers remind me of little bells and I will tell you the bees just love them. It made me really happy to see those buzzers gathering up pollen and flying away happy drunk on nectar.

The mandala that I made using the top photograph as source image feels a little dreamy and romantic on the one hand, yet the vibrant lime green background has a revitalizing quality. The 6-rayed mandala is also one of my favorite formations. The number 6 has a vibration of equilibrium and completion, of creativity, beauty, the union of sexual opposites.The Pythagoreans referred to 6 as "the Mother," the Chinese endow the number 6 with the passive receptive qualities of yin (cit. Susanne Fincher Creating Mandalas). For myself, the 6 rayed mandala just makes me go ahhhhhh.

Those ahhh moments speak to me of a peaceful life, open and loving, vibrant, rich, juicy, sustaining, expanding, heartfelt and sharing. This is what I want for myself. This is what I envision for others.

When do you feel the most peaceful inside? What do you feel looking at this mandala? I would love to hear your answers to both questions.

Namaste.

~Sue O'Kieffe
Sacred Circle Mandalas

1.

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

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

DANCING IN THE LIGHT

I am a member of the Eureka Photoshop User's Group. This is the our website. We are having our second group show this Saturday during Eureka's monthly Arts Alive, an artistic event of monthly openings in local shops and galleries. We have a rather eclectic group -- lots of nature photographers;others have a more artistic bent.

Dancing in the Light Mandala -(Circles of Healing series) - © Sue O'Kieffe 2006

This is the piece that I am hanging in the show. Created originally as a birthday gift for an online friend in my social blogging network on Xanga, (where I am known as Dancing Sun), this particular image has proven to be a favorite. I use it on my greeting cards, and I have licensed it to a local energy worker for her logo. I love the feeling of play, community, and light, a circle of friends gathering together to dance and hold hands with one another, a vision of peace and mutual cooperation that I hold as a possibility for all of us.

Please leave a comment. I would love to hear from you.