Many / One

A database of 11,000+ illuminated guiding quotations in 40 categories from 600+ inspired books by our most brilliant and influential authors.
Compiled by JoAnn Kite

HIDE detailed search and navigation | Quotes | References | JoAnn


From this author

From this reference

In this category
Search "Circle" category only?
Show at most this many (found 186)

One | Circle | Center | Opposites | Archetypes | Good | Ethics | Living Wholeness | Random

Circle
Click to randomize

1 "Psychoanalysts have noted that the joining of the square with the circle (in such forms as the star, the rose, the lotus, concentric circles, the circle with a visible central point, etc.) is symbolic of the final stage in the process of individuation, or, in other words, of that phase of spiritual development when imperfections (irregular shapes) have been eliminated…for the sake of concentrating upon the achievement of Oneness." A Dictionary of Symbols (J. E. Cirlot)

2 "The circle is ever open, ever unbroken. May the Goddess awaken in each of our hearts." The Spiral Dance, A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess (Starhawk (Miriam Simos))

3 "I have found that the eye which sees the whole circle expresses our soul simply and perfectly." Nikos Kazantzakis The Way of The Earth, Encounters with Nature in Ancient and Contemporary Thought (T. C. McLuhan)

4 "In a world that is split, divided by the 'Civil War of Man', healing is needed to make whole. Mandala is a whole-ing technique; it is the alchemy of opposites reuniting, a blueprint that can be placed upon anything, or any man or being." Mandala (Jose and Miriam Arguelles)

5 "Even a pebble or a tiny insect is gathered up in the sacred hoop." Leonard Crow Dog (Sioux Native American), American Indian Myths and Legends (Richard Erdoes and Alfonso Ortiz, editors)

6 "When I began drawing mandalas, I saw that everything, all the paths I had been following, all the steps I had taken, were leading back to a single point – namely, to the mid-point. It became increasingly plain to me that the mandala is the center. It is the exponent of all paths. It is the path to the center, to individuation." Memories, Dreams, Reflections (Carl Jung (edited by Aniela Jaffe))

7 "The mandala…portrays an autonomous psychic fact, characterized by a phenomenology which is always repeating itself and is everywhere the same. It seems to be a sort of atomic nucleus." Collected Works (Carl Jung)

8 "One by one you take your place in the mandala of saints and bodhisattvas." Quietly Comes the Buddha: Awakening Your Inner Buddha Nature (Elizabeth Clare Prophet)

9 "The mandala is, above all, a map of the cosmos. It is the whole universe in its essential plan, in its process of emanation and of reabsorption…..the universe not only in its inert spatial expanse, but as temporal revolution and both as a vital process which develops from an essential principle and rotates round a central axis." G. Tucci Mandala (Jose and Miriam Arguelles)

10 "We are the countless centres of one and the same sphere." Writings in Time of War (Pierre Teilhard deChardin)

11 "Well, there is something magical about a circle. For one thing, geometrically it encompasses more space than any other shape. But this is just a mathematical beginning. The circle is also profoundly symbolic, for a circle travels without leave-taking. So it combines journeying with returning. It's powerful in bringing the two together." The Way Things Are (Huston Smith, edited by Phil Cousineau)

12 "The mandala emphasizes the process of spiritual growth, of the mind's evolution echoing the evolution of the universe." Breaking the Mind Barrier (Todd Siler)

13 "The One is the midpoint of the circle." Collected Works (Carl Jung)

14 "The circle has ever been considered symbolical of the Deity; for as a circle appears to have neither beginning nor end, it may be justly considered a type [archetype] of God, without either beginning of days or ending of years." A Dictionary of Freemasonry (Robert Macoy)

15 "In the cyclic system of the ancients, birth and death merged in a circular continuum." The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets (Barbara G. Walker)

16 "Stay at the centre of the circle and let all things take their course." Lao-Tzu Revelations: The Wisdom of the Ages (Paul Roland)

17 "God created the empyrean or highest heaven as a pure and simple radiance encircling and enclosing all the heavens and every corporeal and material thing which he ever created." John Ruysbroeck (1293-1381), Heaven, A History (Colleen McDannell & Bernhard Lang)

18 "According to Jung, the mandala is an image of unity and totality existing a priori and in potentia within the human mind. It represents the inner orderedness of the cosmic source, the foundation of beauty and harmony in a sacred cosmos, divinity unfolding in cosmos, nature, and mind." The Strong Eye of Shamanism, A Journey Into the Caves of Consciousness (Robert E. Ryan, Ph.D.)

19 "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)

20 "The Mandala is the Mother of symbols." Mandala (Jose and Miriam Arguelles)

21 "A circle [is] the traditional symbol of heaven, wholeness, and unity." A Beginner's Guide to Constructing the Universe: The Mathematical Archetypes of Nature, Art & Science (Michael S. Schneider)

22 "In the state of consciousness natural to the field within the mandala – that of Self-realization, or nonduality – such opposites as inner and outer, or subjective and objective, male or female, matter and spirit, are all grasped as connected, married, ultimately unified." Michael Flanagin, Ph.D., 'The Mandala in Jungian Psychotherapy' Mandala, Luminous Symbols for Healing (Judith Cornell, Ph.D.)

23 "The world snake, 'ouroboros', swallowing its own tail, expresses the essence of Gnostic esotericism. It is a representation of the cosmos, the circle of eternal becoming, often seen with the words "One is the All.'" Gnosticism: The Path of Inner Knowledge (Martin Seymour-Smith)

24 "We connect with Her [Goddess] through the moon, the stars, the ocean, the earth, through trees, animals, through other human beings, through ourselves. She is here. She is within us all. She is the full circle." The Spiral Dance, A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess (Starhawk (Miriam Simos))

25 "In one sense, all sacred religious structures partake of the Mandala principle: the Egyptian and Mexican pyramids; the temples of India, Buddhist stupas; Islamic mosques; the pagodas of China and Japan; and the tipis and kivas of North America; in the churches and cathedrals of Christianity." Mandala (Jose and Miriam Arguelles)

This body of quotes compiled by JoAnn Kite