Pysanka’s Eastern relative

Mandalas are a sacred image used for religious practices in Buddhism. It embodies a model of the Universe and is traditionally depicted as a circle with a square inside of it with its corners directed towards the four cardinal points.

Lately the interest in mandalas as to the Eastern theme in general has noticeably increased in our country: such images adorn the walls of Ukrainian apartments more and more often, on the Internet there are numerous offers to participate in master classes on painting those sacred symbols. Moreover, mandalas became the usual thing not only among the followers of Buddhism and Eastern culture fans but are gradually striking roots in our national culture: for example, our crafts women have already mastered the technique of cross embroidering the Eastern symbols.

Ukrainians got interested in the symbols not by accident because, despite its Eastern origin, mandalas, according to Olena Ratushniak, artist and psychologist from Kyiv, have many common features with Slavic sacred world. Thus, according to the artist, they have many elements that resemble Trypillian patterns and designs of Ukrainian Easter eggs.

“The similarity between them is not random because these symbols have common origin and common historical roots,” thinks Stepan NALYVAIKO, indologist and author of many books on this topic. “In the ancient times there existed two ‘Indias’ on the territory of Ukraine. A lot of relics, myths, and ideas were preserved in our folklore since that time, particularly in koliadkas (Christmas carols) and in folk symbolism.”

Ratushniak has been painting mandalas for 10 years already. The artist created nearly 50 paintings during this time.

“At the beginning, when I worked on my first paintings I even didn’t know what I was painting until one day a friend of mine, who had been to Tibet, told me that Tibetan lamas create the same kind of paintings. This is how I got on to this path and began to learn more about this topic. It is the intuitive painting, special inspiration, as if somebody is painting with your hand.”

According to Ratushniak, there are no strict requirements in painting mandalas. One should only follow the basic symbolism, symmetry, and harmony in the image. And the main condition is to “turn off” your mind, give freedom to senses and “grasp the images that are being created in the Universe.”

The process of painting is kind of a meditation. While creating mandala a person can understand his problems, find answers to difficult questions, relieve stress and tension after a hard working day because this process “sifts” all the negative emotions and helps to calm down and bring thoughts in order.

Psychologists say that looking at such pictures is equally useful, after all, in Buddhism such pictures are used primarily for meditation and concentration of thoughts. By the way, the famous psychologist Carl Gustav Jung once got interested in this cultural phenomenon. While developing his theory of archetypes the prominent psychoanalyst wrote that a mandala is a “symbol of human perfection.” Since that time it has been actively used in psychotherapy and psychodiagnostics. The experts think that by analyzing a mandala drawing you can make certain conclusions about the mental state of its author. According to Ratushniak, both content and geometric shapes created by a person are important for the analysis. Among such aspects there are: where a person makes the center of his painting and whether the painting goes outside a circle. All of that can help to understand where there is a problem and what issues need to be addressed.

And the meditative and psychological effect of our pysankas are still need to be studied by experts.