"Whether we are saints or sinners, whether we seek fame or wealth or spiritual wisdom, whether we live responsibly or irresponsibly, we are inevitably drawn to God as to our final end. The mountain of encounter, union with the divine, is written into our souls; there is, if you will, a picture, an icon, of this 'place' in our hearts, and we follow it whether we want to or not."
Thomas Aquinas, Spiritual Master - Robert Barron
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| SPIRIT OF THE WORLD |
| MANY VOICES / ONE TRUTH |
| Gathered and organized and introduced by
JoAnn Kite
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| Take a few minutes to click through and explore this revealing masterpiece of visionary spiritual synopsis |
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CIRCLE
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"God fashioned the sphere of light round himself. 'God is an intelligible sphere whose centre is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere'(cf. St. Bonaventure, Itinerarium, 5). The point symbolizes light and fire, also the Godhead in so far as light is an 'image of God' or an 'exemplar of the Deity.' This spherical light modelled on the point is also the shining or illuminating body that dwells in the heart of man."
Collected Works
(Carl Jung)
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"The mandala embraces both directions, which is why it is the consummate archetype of East and West alike. As the 'alpha and omega', the center is a union of opposites – a reflection of the true higher Self." ." Michael Flanagin, Ph.D., 'The Mandala in Jungian Psychotherapy'
Mandala, Luminous Symbols for Healing
(Judith Cornell, Ph.D.)
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"The mandla fulfils its function as an aid to man in his efforts to regroup all that is dispersed around a single axis."
A Dictionary of Symbols
(J. E. Cirlot)
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"The natural image to depict the Infinite's inclusiveness is a circle, an all-including circle that encompasses our finite universe and out of which it is impossible to fall. 'In Him we live and move and have our being', Paul tells us, and Augustine added, 'God is a circle whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere.'"
The Soul of Christianity: Restoring the Great Tradition
(Huston Smith)
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"You might think of the mandala as reflecting back to us the harmony and beauty of our nonmaterial reality."
Mandala, Luminous Symbols for Healing
(Judith Cornell, Ph.D.)
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"The universe is a mandalic mirror – a sacred art and science of divine creative processes."
Mandala, Luminous Symbols for Healing
(Judith Cornell, Ph.D.)
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"It is the Mandala that can burst the fetters of man's internal bondage and conflict by leading him to a viewpoint from which the various polarities may be harmonized."
Mandala
(Jose and Miriam Arguelles)
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| 8 |
"The mandala is a symbol which combines both the journey and its destination, the ideas of differentiation and the oneness of all things, the 'unus mundus'. Examples still persist from Paleolithic times as, for instance, in Rhodesian rock engravings. Such images, when they occur in modern dreams, are thus spontaneous re-creations of the most basic religious symbol known to humanity."
Ariadne's Clue, A Guide to the Symbols of Humankind
(Anthony Stevens)
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"Jung, in his studies of the mandala geometric designs which arise from the depths of the unconscious, came to the conclusion that in these mandalas one can find the expression of the Anthropos, or 'complete man.'"
The Gnostic Jung and the Seven Sermons to the Dead
(Stephan A. Hoeller)
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"Symbolically, in the infinite ocean of light, with centre everywhere and with circumference nowhere, there arises a full-orbed sphere of living light, a Logos, and the surface of the sphere is His will to limit Himself that He may become manifest, His veil in which He incloses Himself that within it a universe may take form."
The Ancient Wisdom
(Annie Besant)
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“Caesarius of Heisterbach says that the soul has a ‘spherical nature.’”
Collected Works
(Carl Jung)
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"We are embedded in communities, circles within circles of communities, both small and large, focused and abstract. Holding up the ideal of unity, we strive to break down the walls which separate us from others – not only other nations and peoples, but other species and the natural world."
Spiritual Literacy, Reading the Sacred in Everyday Life
(Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat)
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"Circles are archetypal images, representing the self."
Symbols, Guiding Lights Along the Journey of Life
(Kathleen R. Prata)
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"There is a simple self-moving power directing all things to mingle as one; it starts out from the Good, reaches down to the lowliest creation, returns then in due order through all the stages back to the Good, and thus turns from itself and through itself and upon itself and toward itself in an everlasting circle."
Pseudo-Dionysius, The Complete Works
(John Farina, Editor-in-Chief)
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"The soul is a spiritual substance of spherical nature, like the globe of the moon, or like a glass vessel that is furnished before and behind with eyes and sees the whole universe." Caesarius of Heisterbach, medieval Alchemist, 'Dialogus miraculorum', Dist. IV, ch. xxxix
Collected Works
(Carl Jung)
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"In its most elevated form, the sacred circle mirrors an illumined state of consciousness through a symbolic pattern – making the invisible visible. It is meant to draw both creator and viewer into an encounter with animating sources of numinous energy."
Mandala, Luminous Symbols for Healing
(Judith Cornell, Ph.D.)
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"The centre of a circle is regarded as the indivisible source of all the radii extending from it;…pre-existing in God are all the inner essences of created things." St. Maximos the Confessor, 'Second Century on Theology'
The Philokalia, volume 2
(various authors, compiled by St. Nikodimos of the Holy Mountain)
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"If we study the introspective method of medieval natural philosophy, we find that it repeatedly used the circle, and in most cases the circle divided into four parts, to symbolize the central principle."
Collected Works
(Carl Jung)
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| 19 |
“All the radii of a circle are brought together in the unity of the center which contains all the straight lines brought together within itself. These are linked one to another because of this single point of origin and they are completely unified at this center.”
Pseudo-Dionysius, The Complete Works
(John Farina, Editor-in-Chief)
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"The idea of rotation is the keystone of most transcendent symbols: of the mediaeval 'Rota'; of the Wheel of Buddhist transformations; of the zodiacal cycle; of the myth of the Gemini; and of the 'opus' [work] of the alchemists. The idea of the world as a labyrinth or of life as a pilgrimage leads to the idea of the 'centre' as a symbol of the absolute goal of Man – Paradise regained….Pictorially, this central point is sometimes identified with the geometric centre of the symbolic circle."
A Dictionary of Symbols
(J. E. Cirlot)
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| 21 |
"Concentric circles, with one circle inside another, represents the cosmos."
Symbols, Guiding Lights Along the Journey of Life
(Kathleen R. Prata)
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| 22 |
"Everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the power of the world always works in circles, and everything tries to be round." Black Elk (1863-1950), Native American elder
A Beginner's Guide to Constructing the Universe: The Mathematical Archetypes of Nature, Art & Science
(Michael S. Schneider)
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| 23 |
"The inner eye of the soul perceives life with the spherical vision of the mind of God."
The Human Aura
(Kuthumi and Djwal Kul)
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"Deity and the cosmos may be likened to a circle or sphere whose circumference is nowhere – hence boundless – but those center is everywhere. And each monad is such a divine, immortal, preexistent center." Editors
Reincarnation: The Phoenix Fire Mystery
(Cranston/Head, editors)
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"There are times when doubts over me steal, but I know Thou are there and awake. Thou art – and art – and I feel no surging of aeons can shake Thee – Life is a ring, I have found – I am child, boy, man, more – I learn the circle is rich, the full round complete in its perfect return." Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926), German poet
The Choice Is Always Ours
(Dorothy B. Phillips, Chief Editor)
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We are gathering together the primary insights of spirituality and bringing them together into one place.
This archive contains 11,754 quotes, taken from 635 references,
organized in terms of 39 primary categories. Quotes are randomized and appear in a different way at every click.
Explore the navigation options to review these insights.
We include
- All major spiritual and religious traditions, from all cultures, and all historical epochs
- Major psychologists, philosophers, writers, scholars and leading religious personalities
- Sources in classical religion as well as voices from new consciousness, esotericism and mysticism
- Choices are guided by the spirit of oneness, love, kindness, inclusion and community
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