Mandalas and Such

One day, while looking for something else online, I came across a blog called Mandala Madness. Even though it's a bit on the "fluffy" side for my taste, I still like it because I think Mandalas are really cool.

Check out one of the mandalas featured on the blog (Titled Peace, by an artist named Shirley Gibson):

Wow. That's just cool. Here's another one:




As a bonus, they also have stuff on labyrinths, which I also really like. (In fact, there's a labyrinth in the book I wrote.) Here's a few neat labyrinth pictures from the blog:

Rock Valley Labyrinth near Tintagel

Land's End Labyrinth near San Francisco

Chartres Cathedral Labyrinth, created around 1200 AD

Boston College Memorial Labyrinth, created in memory of those from BCM who died in the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Many claim that creating mandalas is psychologically healing and soothing. I don't know how scientifically based that is, but I know it's been really calming whenever I've tried it. There's no one right way to make a mandala. Here are some examples of mandalas created by regular people (not by an artist, as in the ones above):

A mandala can be detailed:




Or loose:







Basically, you start with a circle (or the intent of a circle) and go from there. You never know what you're going to get, which is half the fun. Here are a few of my own:





I haven't done this in years, but after finding this site, I'm itching to do it again. Since I don't have the patience for creating super detailed mandalas, I'm thinking of "cheating" and using one of the Mandala Madness coloring pages for that. Should be fun. :)