The Mandorla is depicted in devotional art enveloping the Holy, resembling an almond formed from two colliding and overlapping circles. Reconciling, redeeming and sacralizing the conflict of opposites within existence the Mandorla radiates a healing aura of courage, equanimity and grace – embracing wellsprings of fecundity. 

Our judgments about good or bad, this or that, often emerge from shallow depths, remaining unexamined. We do not penetrate the present moment – let alone what may come. Playing at solace we pluck at the “good” and toss aside the “bad”, not seeing how the one can grow into its other, how getting what we want may sow a seed of some secret future ruin. Instead of hoping for heads and lamenting tails, be reminded that both are faces of the same flipping circle and demanding one is to also request its other. 

Humans are ignorance framed with limitations. This life can be a struggle. Because we are so little and brittle, we are often tangled between opposite elements in tension. Tugged on by the facts of existence and our desires at opposite poles, stretched thin within by our emotions, we choose between demands that compete from our inner arena out to the external environment. The symbol of the Mandorla hints that supposed opposites have a similar nature, that between in and out there may only be a mirror. When this is revealed the energy reserved for a battle in our life is no longer required. The opposing forces – once locked in struggle – suddenly lay down their arms and embrace. The Mandola illustrates that where on a lower level we witness only discord, brutal clashes between two bitter rivals, rising a level higher we see that it is in fact a dance. Where our lives are a tangled mess of contradictions, tensions, and stress the Mandorla lights a way towards unity. When these tensions bring us to the inevitable brink of our strength and sanity we may look to this sacred and ancient symbol as a guide to mend what is split. A secret synthesis may be discovered, creation may surface out of the depths of our struggles, order may be founded out of chaos. Where in our lives the collision of opposites is the most heated – where synthesis seems the most distant, even impossible – a hint of unity can begin to heal.

Evil provides soil for Goodness, darkness refines light, and salt punctuates sweetness – both poles work in tandem as frames of our experience. Take the fractured world and try to knit the beauty and terror of it together – the fragments may fit. Locate the hidden agreement locked in the core of conflict between two competitors. Discovering a Mandorla can be one of the most useful and profound moments we experience. Hunt for them in the tensions and fears that split us from each other and within ourselves. Collect and polish these, share them. The symbol of the Mandorla teaches us the mystical art of creating from conflict itself. 

Where conflict is avoided so is the opportunity to negotiate unity. Meaning and healing remain hidden as we serve our fear and indolence. Without conflict we lose access to the power that can be derived from tension, we lose energy. Pain and stress are two tools of life and where we forgo trials our decay begins long before our death. Whatever you believe, invite in its opposite, the interplay can only strengthen your position and point to where the truth resides. To censor and ignore your opponent, even in yourself, is easy; there is magic imbued in what is hard. Through the arduous task of descending into conflict and enduring it we prepare the way for the Mandorla to arise and envelop us, even a little. WIth a reconciliation of opposites a modicum of wholeness is won and can be shared with others. This is the path of the healer, redeeming the world through fitting together its fragments, through hard truths endured, integrated, illustrated. The healing embrace provided with these perceptions is small at first – but they emerge into something larger. We are all Mandorlas of flesh and thought, matter and spirit: two seemingly disparate forces swirled together, opposites colliding to form human beings. Hidden jewels of harmony and knowledge are tucked away in our lives. Often they are where we least want to look. Our fear may be the beacon guiding us to our courage. Indolence may be the gate to our power. All chasms may be bridged.  

The Mandorla teaches me that if two bitter extremes can come together to create, or perhaps, have been the same all along, maybe, as ignorant and limited as I am, I can discover growth and solace within my pain and stress; that all these things I try to avoid serve something more than I once thought. Maybe my own heart and mind house healing and beauty hidden among all the anger, yearning and sadness. The symbol of the Mandorla reveals how suffering can create sanctity, that where bitter conflict once reigned only peace may remain.  

Note: I am indebted to Robert A. Johnson and his book ‘Owning your own Shadow’ for his chapter on the Mandorla, without which I would have remained a little less healed and a little more ignorant.