Transcendent Harmony

Transcendent Harmony (Exploring the Mystery) © Sue O'Kieffe 2011
source image - hydrangeas

I think our minds respond to things beyond this world. Take beauty: it’s a very mysterious thing, isn’t it?  I think it’s a response in our minds to perfection. It’s too bad, people not realizing that their minds expand beyond this world. ~ Agnes Martin

Infinite Peace Mandala

Infinite Peace Mandala (Crystal Vibrations Series) © Sue O'Kieffe 2011

source image: auralite 23 crystal

The stones of the Earth are singing peace, dear ones. Can you feel their song echoing in your stone-bones? Can you feel the peace they sing?

 ~ Message from Gaia via Tracie Nichols 
 

I am honored to be working with these new forms of amethyst coming out of the earth in Ontario, Canada. I am posting this mandala and its source image, a slice of auralite 23 crystal, as a means of introduction to this 1.1 billion year old crystal. My friend Doug Schwarzenberger, geologist and teacher of geology, physics and chemistry at the high school honors level (his website will be up soon), has been directly involved with the mining of these stones as well in the identification of the 23 mineral inclusions contained within. 

I am also pleased to share with you Tracie Nichols' Message from Gaia to accompany this mandala. Tracie helps women who love the earth and are on a spiritual or healing path to partner with Gaia, discover their soul's purpose and bring that purpose out in the world. You can learn more about Tracie and receive her daily Gaia messages by going to her website, Alchemy for the Earth.

As always, I would love to hear your response to this mandala. I feel alot of strength and softness in this stone when I wear it and feel its encompassing loving energy translated well into this mandala, which I imagine as a portal to another dimension.

~Sue O'Kieffe

Sacred Circle Mandalas

Freedom Flowering Mandala

Freedom Flowering Mandala (Circles of Transformation) © Sue O'Kieffe 2011

source image: gerbera daisy

Gerbera daisies seem like one of nature's firework flowers, and so I chose this photograph to create a mandala to honor this day of spiritual blossoming.

The following words, part of a larger prayer spoken by intuitive abundance coach and spiritual teacher Sage Taylor Kingsley-Goddard, seemed like a perfect accompaniment to this mandala.

Let Your infinite divine heavenly radiance come flowing and flowering

Flowing and blooming and blossoming into the crowns

Of each and everyone of us

So that we can receive Your golden light

The light of abundance, the light of truth,

The light of love, the light of healing, the light of joy…

Bring the truth of who we are fully home into our feet

And all the way home into Mother Earth, fully grounding us, fully anchoring us,

Fully plugging us in, fully attaching us.

And yet, even though we are fully corded to Mother Earth,

We are free to float and to fly with Father Sky.

We are strongly tethered and yet free. 

~Sage Taylor Kingsley-Goddard

You can learn more about Sage's programs and other offerings at her website, Love and Spirit.

SAGE is an intuitive abundance coach and spiritual teacher, Archangel Michael channel, hypnotherapist and Omnidimensional Energy Healer known as the Transformation and Manifestation Catalyst. Also a Reiki Master Teacher, interfaith minister, speaker and author, SAGE specializes in self-love and awakening. She helps conscious creators align with their passionate life purpose, manifest prosperity, attract lasting soulmate love and create the life of their dreams.

(In the spirit of full disclosure: I am  part of Sage's affiliate program)

Infinite Light of Heaven and Earth Mandala

Infinite Light of Heaven and Earth (Circle of Transformation) © Sue O'Kieffe 2011

source image: artichoke

Both abundance and lack exist simultaneously in our lives, as parallel realities. It is always our conscious choice which secret garden we will tend...when we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance that's present/love, health, family, friends, work, the joys of nature and personal pursuits that brings us pleasure/the wasteland of illusion falls away and we experience heaven on earth ~ Sarah Ban Breathnach

Aside from the fact that I do believe artichokes are one of those culinary delights that are indeed a little bit of heaven on earth, I also like the transformation that occurred in this mandala image, suggesting roots digging deep in the earth while receiving heaven's golden brilliance.

Some technical details: For this mandala, I experimented some more using the Mehdi Kaleidoscope Plug-In for Photoshop along with Paint the Moon's Illuminate actions that Annie was giving away a while back on Facebook.

These days I experience mandala creation more and more as a transmission. Writing about what these mandalas mean to me is not nearly as important as how you receive and experience them. This is the communication between you and me. I may bring them through, but you bring them to life.

I'd love to hear your comments/response.

~Sue O'Kieffe
Sacred Circle Mandalas

Garden Spirit Mandala

Garden Spirit Mandala (Circles of Transformation series) © Sue O'Kieffe 2011

source image: red alstroemeria

Where you believe there is magic, you will find it ~ Unknown


Come faeries, take me out of this dull world, for I would ride with you upon the wind and dance upon the moutain like a flame ~ Yeats


There are fairies at the bottom of our garden ~ Rose Fyleman

Cosmic Wisdom Mandala

Cosmic Wisdom Mandala (Circle of Transformation) © Sue O'Kieffe 2011

source image: garden sage

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere ~

We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and by the depth of our answers ~

 In the last few millennia we have made the most astonishing and unexpected discoveries about the Cosmos and our place within it, explorations that are exhilarating to consider. They remind us that humans have evolved to wonder, that understanding is a joy, that knowledge is prerequisite to survival. I believe our future depends on how well we know this Cosmos in which we float like a mote of dust in the morning sky ~

All quotes are from Carl Sagan

Thanks to my new friend Kate and time spent tending her beautiful garden where I experienced the Oneness of Everything over and over again. 

Wake Up Mandala

Wake Up Mandala (Circles of Transformation) © Sue O'Kieffe 2011
source image: rose

Your journey never ends. Life has a way of changing things in incredible ways ~ Alexander Volkov

Sometimes in your life you will go on a journey. It will be the longest journey you have ever taken. It is the journey to find yourself ~ Katherine Sharp


The great awareness comes slowly, piece by piece. The path of spiritual growth is a path of lifelong learning. The experience of spiritual power is basically a joyful one ~ M. Scott Peck  

 

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY: SUMMER DANCE

Summer Dance Mandala (Circles of Summer 2011) © Sue O'Kieffe 2011

source image: nasturtium

Courage Mandala

Courage Mandala (Circles of Transformation) © Sue O'Kieffe 2011
source image: red yarrow

It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power ~ Alan Cohen

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I would love to hear your response to this mandala. How do you feel when you take in this image? 

I am the conduit. You bring the mandalas to life. 

Thank you.

~Sue O'Kieffe

Sacred Circle Mandalas

Crown of Heaven Mandala

Crown of Heaven Mandala (May Day Healing Series)© Sue O'Kieffe 2011

source image: ceanothus

Crown of Heaven is the next in my series of  mandalas for my May Day Healing Series. I wanted to create an image with the higher vibrational  blues, indigos and violets for the 5th, 6th and 7th chakras.

The day that I captured this photo of the ceanothus I used as the source image, I was struck by the energetic freshness of the bush, which I think had just recently been planted on the Arcata Plaza. It wow'd me.

I would love to hear your impressions of this mandala image. How does it feel in your body when you gaze on it? What messages does it offer to you? Many times I had a sense of this sphere tumbling and spinning through the Universe.

May we expand our healing to clear out the blocks that prevent us from speaking our truth and saying what we mean, may we open our eyes wide and  trust our intuition, may we allow the messages of the Universe to clearly flow through us. May it be so.

~Sue O'Kieffe
Sacred Circle Mandalas

House of Stars Mandala

House of Stars Mandala (May Day Healing Series) © Sue O'Kieffe 2011 

Source image: blackberry leaves

This is the second in a series of mandala images I've created since the events in Pakistan on May 1st. As time has moved on, I have found that I want to focus less on the events of that day, and instead respond to the intuitive responses I received from folks on Facebook who answered my original question: dear fb friends assist me in creating a mandala for today ~ i feel the need to do something ~ send me names of colors, numbers, symbols, whatever speaks to you in the moment! let's synergistically bring forth a healing pattern. leave it in my comments. i feel such a need to create art around this event.

Doreen requested green for the heart, for compassion; Kaia requested green for relaxation.  I love the texture and patterns of the blackberry leaves I chose for this mandala. May we find a way to remove the thorns that we feel we need to protect our hearts. 

Debi suggested adding the power of light, as in a star, and so I felt drawn to create a five pointed mandala. As the mandala began to take shape, I saw a star inside a house sitting in the center of the image. Aren't we all perfect stars of love and light, spiritual beings housed in our human bodies?

Our light continues to grow and expand ever outward.

My mandala art primarily focuses on individual growth. I am not so comfortable writing about world politics and will leave that for those who do it so much better than I do. My hope and dream is that we may all embrace our love and light and find ways to share it with the world, to be kind with each other. My star sees the reflection of you as a star when I look into your eyes.

Be love.

Sue O'Kieffe
Sacred Circle Mandalas

Blossoming Heart Mandala

Blossoming Heart Mandala (May Day Healing series) © Sue O'Kieffe 2011

source image: eriogonum

"I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that." -- Martin Luther King, Jr.

After the the death of Osama bin Laden, I felt a need deep inside to create some healing images around this event. I called on my Facebook friends here  to assist me .

I received 17 responses to my request, and this project has now taken on a life of its own, (which is how synergy works in my experience.) I received more than one response for the color pink, so that is where I started. Sage of Love, Spirit & Success suggested using the mystical number 7.

I will continue to work on this project because I still feel the calling to do so.

‎

It is my prayer that those who suffered loss after the tragic events of 911 can now find closure, and that we as a nation and a planet can continue to transform and blossom into beings of healing and light within ourselves. We are all One. We are all Connected. We are all Love and Light.

May it be so.

~Sue O'Kieffe
Sacred Circle Mandalas

Opening with Love

Opening with Love (Circle of Love series) © Sue O'Kieffe 2011

source image  - currently unidentified

After a  lovely Facebook convo with the very wise Julie Bernstein Englemann, who suggested I ask the spirit of Mandala how it would like to be created, I tuned in and did just that. The response I felt was that she would like to be created with the more traditional four-points. I realized, once I began creating again,  that I have been craving the expansiveness of this configuration. I love the harkening to the four directions and the four guardians who sit at the corners of the central diamond. I see angels. I feel the burst of spring.  As of this writing, I do not know the name of the plant used for the source image, but I am sure it is related to Queen Anne's lace and cow parsnip. If anyone out there can identify it, I would be grateful to know.

The thing is, I have been feeling stuck, unworthy, constricted. I haven't felt like this for a long time, but I recognized the feeling. This was the feeling of giving up, and it scared me. A lot.

I have decided to share my heartspace with you all here, because I know we all have those feelings from time to time. But they sure aren't a stopping point. I wanted to work myself out of this funk I would much rather live in a place of excitement and joy. Joy trumps funk any old day. And as the entity known as Abraham points out  The best thing you could do for anyone that you love, is be happy! I'm pretty sure that translates to our art as well.

So  I have decided  to create a series of these four pointed mandalas, and then morph them into new iterations using the mehdi Photoshop plug-in as I described on this blog posting.

 

Opening with Love 5x5 (5x5 series) © Sue O'Kieffe 2011

source image - Opening with Love Mandala, Circle of Love series

The creation of art is a reflection of our inner landscape. My inner landscape was feeling a little ouchy and needed to be treated with kindness and love. I hope this is reflected in these mandalas as well.

I'm looking forward to this meditation on Love and the Four Directions.

Bright blessings!

~Sue O'Kieffe

Sacred Circle Mandalas

5x5 Mandalas

 

All is Well © Sue O'Kieffe 2011

Fairy Ring © Sue O'Kieffe 2011

Revelry © Sue O'Kieffe 2011

Recently I began experimenting with other approaches to mandala making using a kaleidoscope filter plug-in from Mehdi. I call them 5x5's because that's the size of the file.

This filter works with Photoshop, ( I am unclear if it works with Photoshop Elements) Jasc PaintShopPro and Corel Photo Paint, and is  only compatible with Windows O/S. This is another easy way to create mandalas ( and I will attest that it's fun and a bit addictive.)

I'm not sure yet what how I might use these images, but for now I'm just having fun with them. I debuted one  first  on Saturday's post (Karutetto - scroll to the bottom), and I'm sure I will be adding more in the future.

If you decide to add the filter to your image software program, I hope you have lots of fun.

~Sue O'Kieffe

Sacred Circle Mandalas

We Are Opening/Karutetto

We Are Opening (Circle of Healing 2011) © Sue O'Kieffe 2011

source image: plum blossoms

I felt the call of creation  while listening to this chant:

We are opening up in sweet surrender
To the luminous lovelight of the One.
We are opening up in sweet surrender
To the luminous lovelight of the One.

We are opening
We are opening
We are opening
We are opening

Then, as I have been doing lately, I took the mandala through a second iteration.

 

Karutetto (5x5 series) © Sue O'Kieffe 2011

source image: We Are Opening Mandala

I felt an immediate connection to Japan when this image appeared before my eyes and titled it Karutetto (which Google Translate tells me means 'Quartet' in Japanese.)

It is another way to send light and love out to that part of the world and to honor their evolution at this challenging time.

~Sue O'Kieffe
Sacred Circle Mandalas

Starlight Mandala

Starlight Mandala (Circles of Light 2011) © Sue O'Kieffe 2011

source image: pieris japonica -  captured on the North Coast of California

We are the vessels

Holding our starlight

Together we bring  light

Out to the world.

Let us all shine

Let us all shine

Let us all shine

Out in the world.

Cups overflowing

With starlight beaming

All of us shining

Out in the world.

~Sue O'Kieffe
Sacred Circle Mandalas

Royal Light Mandala

Regal Light Mandala (Circles of Light 2011) © Sue O'Kieffe 2011

source image: German Ivy flowers

It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power  ~ Alan Cohen

It takes courage to be who we are, to live from the love that resides in our hearts and to act from the strength that resides at our core. Every moment presents us with an opportunity to love and accept ourselves just as we are.

I created this mandala more than two weeks ago. When I realized the message it contained was about courage, I admit that I froze and could not write. Last night I received another prompting from my guidance telling me that it was time to finish writing this blog post and to let the mandala be seen.

So here it is.

I am offering up this mandala with its golden circle of tiny flowers for all of us today. Imagine, if you will, that all the stories that may have served us in the past are what is contained in the background of the circle, now  fading away.

Be lion-hearted. Be strong. Be of great courage!

~Sue O'Kieffe
Sacred Circle Mandalas

Crystal Blossoms Mandala

Crystal Blossoms Mandala (Circles of Winter 2011) © Sue O'Kieffe 2011
source image: hail frozen on car

The first fall of snow is not only an event, it is a magical event ~Anonymous

Living on the North Coast of California, sometimes I get smug in winter. I try not to scoff when the east and mid west are buried in snow, and we are enjoying first sightings of plum and magnolia blossoms. And really, I do enjoy posting photos of our first signs of spring to offer hope to you bundled up like the Michelin man, shovel in hand, wishing your eye glasses would defog and your nose would stop running, just for a minute or two. Well, just like the rest of the U.S., we had our come uppance the past couple of days and were blasted with cold winds, rain, and what?...is that really snow?Yes, it was, and hail and sleet, and all manners of other cold  frozen particles falling from the sky.
I woke up to stuff frozen on my car this morning, ran out and took a quick close up of it all. And then I went searching for the beauty and this is what was revealed to me!

Spread Your Wings Mandala

 

Spread Your Wings Mandala (Power Shield Series) © Sue O'Kieffe 2011

source image: turkey feather

 

And the voice said,

Step into the circle. 

Breathe into your heart space.

Feel your Love.

Always Love.

You are Love.

Rejoice!

Hold hands.

Look each other in the eye.

Feel your Love.

Always Love.

You are Love.

Rejoice!

Spread your wings.

Feel the power of the wind

Supporting you.

Be uplifted. You are One.

Feel your Love

Always Love.

You are Love!

Rejoice!

Sue O'Kieffe
Sacred Circle Mandalas

Wordless Wednesday: Angel Wings Mandala

Angel Wings Mandala (Circles of Healing 2011) © Sue O'Kieffe 2011
source image: white hydrangeas