As a previous student of psychology, I am quite familiar with Jung and his theories of the self and consciousness; as a person following an Earth-based spirituality, I am comfortable and feel quite at home in his ideas, identifying more closely with Jung than some of the other psychological theorists. When reading about the Mandala of Wholeness, I realized that I had essentially come up with my own mandala during my discussion of the Settling of the Manor of Tara, which included the elements of air, earth, water, and fire, with spirituality as the central focus. I find this interesting because many times when one is mastering concepts of a specific subject matter, one can pick up on ideas seemingly almost before they are taught, creating a very logical sort of “learning map” for future concepts. The idea of many mandalas being used throughout this course makes sense to me, just as the use of various mandalas as we make our way through life is also logical. Both the Irish and the Jungian mandalas, in their similarities and differences, have a place in my heart. To me, the Irish variation is rooted in more of the physical attributes while predictably, the Jungian model is more rooted in the psychological. Summed up another way, the Irish, like the Earth, is something we can see and touch while the Jungian model is more of a sensational model, something that is more unconscious and felt rather than seen.
The prosperity section in the East is more concerned with spiritual prosperity than literal. Generosity is a central concept here, and to me this means less the giving of physical gifts and more the anticipation of one’s needs and the willingness to go the distance to help someone in need with the understanding that you may get nothing out of it other than the satisfaction of being able to help. I try to make a difference in this way whenever possible, whether it is a simple matter or something more complex, no matter how far out of my way it takes me. Practicality also comes into play here, and is my lifestyle. I am a no-frills logical person by nature and I revel in the simple things. By this I mean not only the physically simple but the emotionally and psychologically simple as well. I try to see things at face value and don’t really like things that I have to interpret. I think the phrase “say what you mean and mean what you say” is very appropriate when discussing the Eastern part of the mandala. Traditionally, the East is also a farming Province, and this fits well in both the Irish and the Jungian model as sensation is the knowledge that something is there and thus, it is rooted in the physical presence as well as the practicality that exists at the heart of the farm.
In the South is the music section, but this term has less to do with actual music than a description word for the idea of creativity and inspiration. I believe creativity is at the heart of who we are and it comes into play in everything we do, whether it is actually part of a fine arts activity such as music, theatre, or poetry or whether we are looking to complete a more practical task. We use creativity in our daily lives whether we are at work and looking for ways to problem solve an issue, or whether we are at home raising children. Even simple everyday tasks like sweeping the floor requires creativity. I believe that from the beginning of time we have used creativity as a way of both solving problems as well as evolving and changing humanity into what it is today. In Jung’s model, creativity and feeling go hand in hand as both can be seen as our “rhythm of life”.
Knowledge in the West and battle in the North seem a bit obscure to me, and it almost seems like either these two should be swapped in the Irish model or perhaps in Jung’s model the ideas of thinking in the North and intuition in the West should be moved. Battle in the Irish model deals more with the ego and the relationship of the soul and thus would seem a little more intuitive to me. Even though the book says the two concepts should be separate, I disagree to a certain extent: I believe they can be seen as both separate entities but also combined into one, as thinking is intuitive and intuition is also a part of the thinking process. For this reason, I have symbolically combined them within the same paragraph. With that said, I am a firm believer in the idea that “knowledge is power” and that we should continually strive to learn throughout our lives. I am also a very intuitive person in that, when psychologically pulled in a certain direction, I think it is important to listen to that message. Basic instinct is a part of intuition but there is also a less logical part that doesn’t seem to follow a pattern, it just exists as almost an animalistic need that should at the very least, be acknowledged. I find that when I listen to the animal in me I can do no wrong and that if it feels right, it probably is.
When considering both the Irish and the Jungian models, all four directions work together for wholeness. Prosperity, music, knowledge and battle come together to create the sovereignty of wholeness, just as in the Jungian model where sensation, feeling, intuition, and thinking combine to create the individuality of wholeness. However, despite the fact that the central functions in each model can be seen as separate ideas, the general concept is of putting the four directions together like pieces of a pie to combine them into one, and then labelling it. Thus, we can see the individual pieces plus the “whole”, which I think could be summed up in both a simpler and more complex description of wholeness, called Earth.
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