In the Round (Wild Mandalas)

Any single path truly taken leads to all the others. Even then, you will find that outward and inward become the same direction. The centre of the wheel is everywhere.
Robin Morgan

Truth is the perfect circle. Its center is everywhere; its circumference stretches into infinite space. The land on which we stand is sacred, no matter where we stand.
Surya Das

Nature (the Old Wild Mother) loves perfectly drawn circles and indeed all rounded shapes, mandalas, wheels and spirals - she must love them as there are so many of them about on the natural plane - the shape of a rose, the pearled spiral of the nautilus shell, flowers and lupin leaves, spider webs after the rain, the perfect curved lustre of a bird's freckled egg in spring. We construct such forms ourselves, and we study them endlessly, but we are merely emulating (and rather badly) natural creations of perfect form, colour, texture and symmetry. The great universe around us, existence and time — all seem to be circular, or at least gloriously curved.

It began with the slow thoughtful meandering through MERA's Cretan labyrinth on Saturday morning, and it continued on from there. I came out of the labyrinth speckled with bits of willow, annointed by thyme, still hearing crow songs and pondering circular forms — there were circles, mandalas, wheels and spirals everywhere I went in my Sunday ramble through the woods. The brilliant curved colours of summer foliage and flowers were present in riotous profusion, and they are entrancing, even when they fade.