Day 16

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Although D-I-V-O-R-C-E and I Don't Want to Play House still surprise me sometimes, almost twenty years after deciding to be a single parent, I really don't think the local radio station is the source of my current melancholy. In my defense, I can say that I was not the only teary-eyed person haunted by Tammy Wynette in the shampoo & toothpaste aisle today.

 In any case, I believe there is a seasonal melancholy evident in this mandala.

Once a typical "winter baby," I loved the crisp fall air that signaled the change of the seasons. The branches blazed with color around me until the magic of the glistening snow cast its spell over me. But now, I am missing the warm weather and sunlight already.

"Three may announce the commencement of heroic journey into the darkness, there to encounter teachings of wisdom through dreams, stories, or surprising discoveries about yourself." ~Fincher

After summarizing her interpretation of colors, Fincher clarifies that hers is but one point of view for evaluating the meaning of colors (& symbols) and that one must also take into consideration the associations of colors. The relationship of the colors to each other may have as much significance as the individual color choices that we make.

Although these "professional" definitions or identifiers are intriguing, I have to admit that my own personal color vocabulary invariably affects how much of that outcome I am willing to accept, how much I set aside for later evaluation, or simply reject outright. Our personal color vocabulary is an equally important indicator of the meaning of the mandala. Somewhere around the tender, influential age of eight I am pretty sure I wore out my midnight blue crayon. Preferences and associations change with time and experience. Around age twenty-four, I couldn't keep any consistent supply of orange/yellow paint in stock. As I learn more about the meaning of mandalas and ways to use them for personal healing, it occurs to me that there may be some personal, developmental significance to this transition to an "opposite" color. It may inform my own interpretive mandala vocabulary. 

Fincher goes on to describe other traditional color systems (i.e. the color wheel, the Native American Medicine Wheel, Kundalini Yoga color values, Goethe's hierarchy of colors, as well as alchemical color symbolism) which might provide rich insight into the interpretation of the mandalas we create. This may seem like a great deal of information to process, however the parallels between the interpretations of colors across systems makes it easier to digest and apply. Throughout the text there are references to the psychological implications and applications of color symbolism. All of which is provided as a means to approach the colors and symbols we use in our mandalas. I appreciate that the ideology here is never presented as the only "true" meaning for the colors we find in our mandalas.