Balancing the Chakras by Drawing Mandalas

Reading “Memories, dreams, reflections” (German: Erinnerungen, Träume, Gedanken), the partially autobiographical book by the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung, I first learned about mandalas. I found it fascinating that he – a serious psychologist – had drawn so many mandalas. Jung suggested that the mandala is an autonomous psychic reality, offering a “safe refuge of inner reconciliation and wholeness” and providing a sacred space into which we can invite the Self. He also noticed that creating mandalas had a calming, focusing effect on his patients’ psychological states. I’ve personally observed this to be true as I’ve drawn and colored my own mandalas. Jung also wrote, “The mandala is an archetypal image whose presence is attested over the millennia. It signifies the fullness of the Self. This circular image represents the fullness of the human psyche, that is, in mystical terms, the divinity embodied in man.”

Mircea Eliade, the Romanian historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago, believed that the mandala is an objective symbol, rather an “imago mundi” (an image of the world) than a projection of the mind.

The states in which they drew and painted the mandalas were somehow meditative states. So when I started drawing my own mandalas, I discovered that, apart from the state of relaxation that they bring, they are like corridors that can take me where my subconscious mind needs me to be – to a place, to a person, within myself. And it may sound weird, but when you draw a place you’ve never seen and you describe it very well, when you look at a person and draw what he or she has in mind and you receive a confirmation… you just keep being curious, fascinated.

Mandalas are graphic representations known since antiquity for their powers, especially in balancing and harmonizing energies. You can see them on walls, floors, or windows, in churches, temples, palaces, and historical sites. Mandalas are sacred symbols of healing, harmony, union, integration, and totality. Their name is derived from Sanskrit and means Holy Circle. They are symbols representing the universe, God and the creator, the human being, the number zero, and life. They represent the sacred geometry or the language of the cosmos.

The mandala is generally used to accelerate the inner transformation and gives direct access to spiritual knowledge. Mandala helps increase creativity and perception of consciousness. One of the main goals is to unlock stagnant energy.

What can we include in the mandala code?

The numerological code behind the mandala can be:

• date of birth – the primary determining vibration for a person. This is the main number expressing its essence. The numbers of the date of birth indicate what the individual harmony of the three bodies of a person is built on: physical, astral, and mental.
• birthday – the vibrational number of the day, which is used for harmonization physical body.
• date of month of birth – this is the number of the astral body, used to harmonize our energy and emotions.
• the number of the year of birth – the number of the mental body, thoughts – the most subtle spiritual plan available to us in awareness and control at the level of everyday life.
• name number – this number shows the number of egregor to which the person is connected. Egregor is an independently developing object in the subtle world. It arises when a certain group of people begins to think in the same way and the mental matter allocated by them reaches a certain size. The life of an egregore is supported by the energies that arise during the performance of certain rituals and customs by people.
• words that we want to resonate with – love, forgiveness, friendship, etc.

Balancing the chakras with the help of mandalas

If we continue to draw, look at or meditate with mandalas, the energy contained in the mandalas will interact with ours and we will harmonize those aspects. In addition, the free drawing of the mandala will offer us multiple possibilities of analysis, which can be interpreted even by the one who draws them, through the colors used and the geometric figures or symbols included in the drawing. The main “function” of a mandala is to harmonize, align energies, and balance emotions. Through its own presence, a mandala surrounds us with energy and helps us become more harmonized, more relaxed, and more at peace with ourselves.

If we also use meditation on a mandala, then the effects are amplified. Our cerebral hemispheres are balanced, yin/yang energies are balanced, our subtle bodies are harmonized, we become more connected to our inner self and thereby awaken in us the latent abilities, bringing to consciousness information about what we truly are, as beings of light, multidimensional beings. The messages of the chakras transposed behind the numerical codes of the mandala reach our subconscious mind faster and the connection with our Self will be reflected in both our inner and outer worlds, thus leading to chakra balancing.

How to create your chakra balancing mandala?

Mandalas can be drawn using any word or phrase, more precisely anything can be translated into words and then transformed into numbers, reducing it to 6-8 digits, so as not to spend an eternity calculating the mandala.

To proceed with this, you will need a few simple things:

• printed mandala template
• colored pencils
• markers
• crayons

Historically, mandalas have always featured a wide range of bright colors. So, the more colors you have, the better.

The finer the drawing tool, the more refined and detailed your mandala will be. Crayons give a much cruder appearance than fine markers.

To represent a word, the letters are transformed into numbers.

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I
J	K	L	M	N	O	P	Q	R
S	T	U	V	W	X	Y	Z

To create your own chakra balancing mandala, follow the steps below:

Step 1

Choose the chakra you want to approach in the mandala. I will exemplify for the Root chakra.

Step 2

Calculate the number for the chosen chakra. Which name or phrase you will use is your choice, there is no right or wrong method: Root chakra or Muladhara or Muladhara chakra, Sacral chakra or Swadhisthana or Swadhisthana chakra, Solar Plexus chakra or Manipura or Manipura chakra, Heart chakra or Anahata or Anahata chakra, Throat chakra or Vishuddha or Vishuddha chakra, Third-Eye chakra or Ajna or Ajna chakra, Crown chakra or Sahasrara or Sahasrara chakra…

Example:
Root chakra = 9 + 6 + 6 + 2 + 3 + 8 + 1 + 2 + 9 + 1 = 47 => 4 + 7 = 11 => 2
Muladhara = 4 + 3 + 3 + 1 + 4 + 8 + 1 + 9 + 1 = 34 => 3 + 4 = 7 => 7
Muladhara chakra = 4 + 3 + 3 + 1 + 4 + 8 + 1 + 9 + 1 + 3 + 8 + 1 + 2 + 9 + 1 = 58 => 5 + 8 = 13 => 1 + 3 = 4 => 4

Step 3

Write on a piece of paper all the words/phrases that come to mind about the chakra you want to approach.

Example: withstand challenges, foundation, grounding, independence, survival instinct, basic needs, protection

Step 4

Choose from the list of words/phrases the ones you want to harmonize in your work rituals with the mandala.

Example: withstand challenges, foundation, grounding, independence

Step 5

Calculate the number of each chosen word.

Example:
withstand challenges = 5+9+2+8+1+2+1+5+4+3+8+1+3+3+5+5+7+5+1 = 78 => 7 + 8 = 15 => 1 + 5 = 6 => 6
foundation = 6+6+3+5+4+1+2+9+6+5 = 47 => 4 + 7 = 11 => 1 + 1 = 2 => 2
grounding = 7+9+6+3+5+4+9+5+7 = 55 => 5 + 5 = 10 => 1 + 1 =2 => 2
independence = 9+5+4+5+7+5+5+4+5+5+3+5 = 62 => 6 + 2 = 8 => 8

Step 6

Write down on a piece of paper all the numbers that you will encode in your mandala.

Example:
Muladhara chakra = 4
withstand challenges = 6
foundation = 2
grounding = 2
independence = 8
That is: 4 6 2 2 8

Step 7

Write the numbers on the printed mandala template (square or other geometric shapes) on the row with enough places for the string to be repeated two times in each of the 6 sections of the circle, once in the order from above and once in the mirror.

Example: In my case, I need to start on the row which has 10 places for numbers on the row.

Step 8

Add every two consecutive numbers in the row and write the result in the appropriate space in the below row of the mandala. If the result is above 10, add the digits of the number once again, to obtain a one-digit number.

Example:
Row 1: 4 6 2 2 8 8 2 2 6 4
Row 2: 1 8 4 1 7 1 4 8 1

Row 2 is obtained as follows:
4 + 6 = 10 => 1 + 0 = 1
6 + 2 = 8 => 8
2 + 2 = 4 => 4
2 + 8 = 10 => 1 + 0 = 1 => 1
8 + 8 = 16 => 1 + 6 = 7 => 7
8 + 2 = 10 => 1 + 0 = 1 => 1
2 + 2 = 4 => 4
2 + 6 = 8 => 8
6 + 4 = 10 => 1 + 0 = 1

Repeat step 8 until you reduce the string to a single number. Fill the entire empty mandala template with the numbers obtained.

Step 9

Using a stronger marker, mark from the multitude of numbers in the mandala template the numbers from the coded words sheet (their marked place should be visible on the other side of the sheet to identify their position).

Step 10

After marking all the relevant numbers in your balancing code, turn the sheet over and let your intuition identify geometric shapes and connections between the marked points. Add fine details within the shapes. At this point, you’ve drawn all the shapes that you need for your mandala, but you can make your design even more intricate by looking for extra details inside your shapes. Try looking for small circles, or leaves, or patterns like diagonal lines inside some of your shapes.

Step 11

Using a pencil or marker, delimit the shapes and connections. Draw lightly with a pencil so you can erase it if you make a mistake. Important: make sure you include all the points marked in your drawings! Trace over your design in pen if you drew it in pencil. As you trace, experiment with making thinner and thicker lines. Varying the line weight can add visual interest and a sense of depth to your mandala. You can switch to a different pen with a heavier weight of ink, or just press down harder, depending on your pen.

Step 12

Erase your pencil markings once you’ve inked your mandala. Now that you’ve finished drawing your mandala design in ink, it’s time to get rid of the template of circles you drew at the beginning in pencil. Make sure that the ink has dried before you start erasing so that you don’t smudge the ink. Gently wipe away your eraser shavings so that they don’t get stuck to your paper.

You may want to photocopy your mandala before you color it in, so that you can color it different several times, or give copies to your friends to color.

Step 13

Add any other shapes, lines, or details you feel to your drawing. Do not overthink things, just let your intuition guide you.

Step 14

Intuitively color the mandala. Try not to think or worry too hard about what you’re doing, and get into a calm, creative flow. Focus on your breathing and your in-the-moment feeling of coloring a mandala.

Mandala-making can be a very centering exercise if you approach it in a relaxed way. There is no such thing as a mistake in a mandala, there is just the unexpected.

After you scan the mandala, you can work on it and edit it with any simple application, to improve it before printing.

How can you use the chakra balancing mandala?

In meditation. Look at the mandala. Stay as relaxed as possible and look carefully at the center of the mandala, which is known to be the “gate” through which you enter the spiritual world. Then, gradually, focus on other areas of the mandala. Enjoy all the shapes you find and focus your thoughts on the mandala in front of your eyes. Don’t let your mind go elsewhere, but try to be present. At first, meditate with the mandala for 10-15 minutes a day, and then, as time goes on, set aside more time for meditation.

Printed on objects. Depending on the words encoded in the mandala, you can print the mandala on various objects, to emprint the frequency of its energy: cups, T-shirts, pillowcases. E.g:

• a mandala with the Root chakra, dedicated to the family, with protection, privacy, and security role, which you can print on the mailbox or on the front door, to stand at the foundation of your family
• a mandala with the Sacral chakra amplifying the feminine energy, which you can print on your cosmetics box/bag
• a mandala with the Solar Plexus chakra that amplifies the vibration of the inner power, printed on the diary, to enhance your ability to be confident and in control of your life
• a mandala with the Heart chakra containing words of self-love, printed on the pajama blouse, to internalize the frequency of self-love during sleep
• a mandala with the Throat chakra, with the role of unlocking it, which you can print on a cup, so that every time you drink from it, the liquid will have the frequency of the mandala code
• a mandala with the Third Eye chakra, printed on the lampshade, to amplify the power of the intuition and inner intelligence of the people bathed by its light
• a mandala with the Crown chakra, containing numerological codes of words related to divinity and connection with divinity, printed on the yoga mat, for a better state of mindfulness

Other mandalas, created by my teacher in this technique, Magdalena Abrasu:

Article by Patricia Lidia

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Patricia Lidia is a corporate engineer, writer, blogger, and coach on creativity and emotional balance. She is passionate about reading and writing, alternative therapies, and spirituality. She is a Reiki master teacher with over ten years of experience. Her aim is to help women find their emotional balance and create the life they’ve always wanted.
She resides in Timisoara, Romania. You can find her at patricialidia.ro/ or patricialidiaemotionalhealing