“Threshold”
“Threshold” - created July 29th, 2021
THE MANDALA PROJECT - How it came to life
If you know someone whose day would be brightened by this Mandala, please pass it along! Even more magical, with a love note from you!
The Mandala Project: #48
This was one of the most surprising mandalas to emerge, perhaps because of how simply it began.
I was taking Lily for a swim on a hot July day, and on our way into the car I noticed a dead butterfly on the roof rack. It must have collided with us on our way home from swimming the day before. I carefully peeled its body away from the hard metal, feeling a call to honour its life. A mandala seemed the most natural way so I gently placed it in my pocket and brought it along to the river with us.
The wind was gusting and swirling at the water’s edge while I was working on the mandala and the butterfly was lifted and carried away several times, but somehow I kept relocating it amongst the scattered stones of the shoreline. It was a strange experience—the wind animating this dead body while I was in the process of building an altar to mark its life.
There was no conscious intention to build a portal, but as I kept gathering the butterfly up and returning it to the centre of the design, it became clear I was creating a threshold through which this butterfly’s spirit, if it wished, could continue to move.
Sacred thresholds are powerful gateways that connect the ordinary to the extraordinary. They signify a shift away from the status quo and prompt the possibility of something new. The threshold of death itself is a reminder that mystery lies just beyond our perceived limits, inviting us to embrace the potential of the unknown.
When we trust change of any kind, we are actively participating in the transition from one experience to the next, moving in partnership with and carried along by the never-ending creativity of the cosmos.
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