Making Mandalas with Family Members

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Shoko Yatabe brought her two kids Rintaro, 14, and Kanoko, 13, to celebrate her birthday at my home studio with this mandala drawing session. As you can see, brother and sister are polar opposites. Daughter is clearly like mother. A bright, observant perfectionist. And son? He expresses in this art a willful rebelliousness. How out of control can he make his mandala? How wild? He is not like his mother! Or his sister? But where is he in the mandala? Where is his light? His Inspiration Card offered a clue. Where was the green? THe nature? I suggested to Rintaro that he put nature into his art. Here you see him making the adjustment. This beautiful attractive green caught his mother’s attention. I proposed that it would be easier for her to absorb his energy into her mandala than vice versa. With that fresh green paint, she joyfully added Rintaro in brisk rays around her core.

Tip: When families make mandalas together, afterwards look carefully at the smallest detail in order to find linkages or connections. Try to approach the finished mandala as if you were interviewing it’s content. This process of speaking to your mandala help decode what the unconscious is saying to you through art. Dwell on the correlations and celebrate what you are feeling.

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