Creating Mandalas

Rating:
Summary: A Fun & Excellent Resource!
Review: I bought this book AFTER I had done several mandalas in an art therapy class. I was amazed by the insight of the author into art (and mandalas) as a healing & exploratory tool, and by the extra dimensions Fincher's writing helped me to find in my art work. Using her book as a guide, I'm continuing to create mandalas... and am using her research to augment the interpretation of my OTHER artworks as well. I highly reccommend this book -- especially to folks who want to access and improve upon the instinctive, artistic side of their nature but fear that they "don't know how to draw". You'll find, using Fincher's book, that sometimes simply WHERE you put a blob of color on a piece of paper, and WHAT color you're using is far more important than whether or not you've drawn something that looks "perfect" or "realistic". If you want to learn more about YOURSELF, buy this book. It's a fabulous and fun tool!

Rating:
Summary: Opening the door to your inner life
Review: I met Suzanne Fincher at a conference sponsored by Journey into Wholeness some fifteen years ago. I did not know it but I was in the first round of a fight for life: midlife crisis. My old life was crumbling before my eyes, and I went to Suzanne's workshop on making mandalas. We drew a circle and used crayons to just let things happen. Somehow, again without my knowing it until later, all the floating pieces of my life found a place within this circle called a mandala. It gave me a profound sense of peace, AND as I learned from Suzanne's teaching and this book, about how to work with my mandalas, they have provided me - throughout the years - a powerful vision for what is happening within me. I have shared this book with small groups and classes and people seeking wholeness and healing for many years with great blessing to each person who worked with it, and I continue to recommend it as the best single resource for mandalas, and a pivotal resource for sensing the moves of the Spirit within us. Suzanne's other book, Coloring Mandalas, is a delightful coloring book that offers many diverse models of mandalas representing places on the great round of the mandala.

One of the encouraging dimensions of regular creation of mandalas is the opportunity to see "progress" or movement within our lives when we are going through changes. I remember encouraging a friend to draw mandalas one time when they felt very alone and lost. After a couple of weeks when she thought she was going nowhere and learning nothing we sat down and compared her creations with the great round of the mandala and she and I could see her movement around the cycle, charting in a most beautiful way the progress/growth/movement within her life that she could not otherwise see, It provided a deep sense of peace and encouragement on her path.

Through the years innumerable folks have found a similar vision of their inner life through mandalas. May Suzanne's book help you start on that path! A small candle, some peaceful music, some crayons or colored pencils, and a piece or paper are all you need to begin.

Rating:
Summary: Opening the door to your inner life
Review: I met Suzanne Fincher at a conference sponsored by Journey into Wholeness some fifteen years ago. I did not know it but I was in the first round of a fight for life: midlife crisis. My old life was crumbling before my eyes, and I went to Suzanne's workshop on making mandalas. We drew a circle and used crayons to just let things happen. Somehow, again without my knowing it until later, all the floating pieces of my life found a place within this circle called a mandala. It gave me a profound sense of peace, AND as I learned from Suzanne's teaching and this book, about how to work with my mandalas, they have provided me - throughout the years - a powerful vision for what is happening within me. I have shared this book with small groups and classes and people seeking wholeness and healing for many years with great blessing to each person who worked with it, and I continue to recommend it as the best single resource for mandalas, and a pivotal resource for sensing the moves of the Spirit within us. Suzanne's other book, Coloring Mandalas, is a delightful coloring book that offers many diverse models of mandalas representing places on the great round of the mandala.

One of the encouraging dimensions of regular creation of mandalas is the opportunity to see "progress" or movement within our lives when we are going through changes. I remember encouraging a friend to draw mandalas one time when they felt very alone and lost. After a couple of weeks when she thought she was going nowhere and learning nothing we sat down and compared her creations with the great round of the mandala and she and I could see her movement around the cycle, charting in a most beautiful way the progress/growth/movement within her life that she could not otherwise see, It provided a deep sense of peace and encouragement on her path.

Through the years innumerable folks have found a similar vision of their inner life through mandalas. May Suzanne's book help you start on that path! A small candle, some peaceful music, some crayons or colored pencils, and a piece or paper are all you need to begin.

Rating:
Summary: Mandalas and Their Meanings in Your Life. Excellent Book!
Review: Susanne Fincher brings you a wonderful, comprehensive and easy to understand book on creating Mandalas and the meaning behind them. This gem of a book explains how to create a Mandala as a reflection of yourself; Creating and Interpreting the meaning behind your Mandala; What each color means in the Mandala; Using numbers and forms. In the section on "The Great Round of Mandala Forms" there is a wonderful paragraph that will better help you understand how much this form of art therapy can help you heal, it states: "A healthy connection between the ego and Self is very important if one is to be a fully functioning person. It is this linkage that is forged by the individuation process."

In this wonderful book's preface, Susanne shares that Mandalas are widely used by cultures around the world, such as Tibetan Buddhism, and Native American cultures. She genuinely shares how creating her own Mandala helped her to feel better while suffering through the death of a child. She shares how she uses Mandalas with individuals and groups in art therapy.

On a personal note, I learned that if you create a Mandala with the wish or intention for something in your life to come about, and look at it every day, it WILL manifest in your life. I actually tried this, and much to my delightful surprise, what I wanted did come about within a week.

Whether you want to create Mandalas for fun, healing, manifesting, art therapy, or just the joy of creative self-expression, this is one of the best books I have found on the subject.

Highly recommended! Barbara Rose, author of, 'Individual Power' and 'If God Was Like Man'

Rating:
Summary: How to understand Mandalas
Review: this book gives an overview on how to understand mandalas. I was looking for a book on creating them and teach students how to create them. This book is all words no pictures so if you are a teacher and want to teach students how to develop them this is not the book. If you want to understand mandalas and how they are used, this is the right book.