Mandala’s are a spiritual teaching tool coming out of the Hindu and Buddhist traditions. Mandala is the Sanskrit word for ‘circle’ or ‘completion’. Drawing, or even just contemplating Mandala’s develops concentration and encourages the subconscious to be made conscious. This is an ancient tool that has been used right up till modern times to access the psyche, most notably by Carl Jung. Mandala’s are also considered tools for humans (the microcosm) to map and express symbolically the Universe (Macrocosm).
Jaqueline Roon has been drawing Mandala’s for twenty-five years. For the first five years she drew circular art pieces but it wasn’t until five years later when she took a workshop on Mandala’s that she realized what she had been drawing. In the workshop she learned the technique of making an emulsion from pigments, egg whites, egg yolk, and essential oils as her medium. The essential oil can be of anything, it preserves the emulsion and makes the paint smell good as you are painting.
In 2012 Jacqueline came to Ibiza for the first time to visit a friend. The minute she stepped off the plane she could feel it was very special. She says she stood on the steps of the plane, awed by, despite being in an airport, the quality of stillness, of silence. The energy felt good.
Jacqueline lives on a small Dutch Island called Schouwen- Duiveland. The clay of the Island is gray and black, which for her, as a deeply visual being creates a feeling of density, of tightness and darkness. When she gets desperate for a shot of colour she heads off to a local shop that sells brightly coloured clothes and things to surround herself with light for a short time.
Arriving in Ibiza for the first time, she was amazed by the varieties in the colours of the earth. Ibiza has a light, bright energy that many people comment on. For Jacqueline, this energetic quality of lightness starts in the colourful earth, then moves into the flowers, the bright sea and the blue sky.
Deeply inspired by her two weeks in Ibiza Jacqueline created, for the first time, her own pigments from earth on the island. She painted ‘The White Tara’, a symbol in Tibetan Buddhism of the motherly aspect of compassion, using these three paints. The white is from the Atzaro area, the yellow is from Benirras and the red is from the area around Sant Mateu.
BODY: Painting Mandala’s creates an instant awareness of how you feel in your own body as you shut out external busy-ness and tune into the internal.
MIND: Painting Mandala’s initially creates a deep focus and concentration which is soothing to the mind but eventually the practice becomes more of a meditation, a healing state of mind.
SOUL: The process of painting allows us to become more conscious of things that are hidden. The subconscious can speak. While painting, Jacqueline says, she is not necessarily aware that what she is drawing has any significance but afterwards meanings can arise from the paintings that may help her or anyone who paints a Mandala to move through unbeknownst sadness, anger or trauma. The process is very healing as the Unknown becomes the Known and then you can work with what has arisen.
Jacqueline is giving a two hour Mandala workshop in Ibiza on September 18th. To learn more about her visit www.jrmandala.nl or to contact her for workshop details e-mail her at Jacqueline Roon, prien1@zeelandnet.nl
Maili Dinim is a Yoga Instructor and Natural Food Chef. She can be contacted via MailiDinim.com
