A mandala of alchemical change : It shows the eternal spirit or consciousness surrounded by the yin/yang of opposites that determine our outer world. As emotions and reactions are transformed or sublimated, the chalice of the chakras where all growth takes place, is transformed. The seed self or essential self is held in the chrysalis of change.We give birth to ourselves daily.

Here is an excerpt on the subject of mandala as a tool of transformation from my upcoming book, " Phoenix Descending"

Jung describes the mandala as a pictorial representation of the Self. The center of the mandala radiates with the essence of our being while the periphery contains the dynamic of our story of maturation. Like the plant that moves through its various stages of growth to its final flowering, we too, observe our lives striving toward the release of our authentic spirit. Although in the mandala this spirit emanates from the center, all the other components that are held within the circle must find their resolution for that center to be freed. And so we find ourselves in struggle or in process in life with all of those variables of our nature and circumstance, moving toward creating balance and inner truth.

The mandala is a mirror, a pictorial representation of the contents of our life drama at that moment in symbolic form. Not unlike the dream, the mandala seems to create itself out of the symbols and archetypes of the unconscious, with an intention or movement toward resolution of the opposites that naturally arise in our life. Thus the mandala is understood to be healing, a healing device through which greater integration of the disparate parts of our being can take place.

Mythic symbols constitute one of the great keys unlocking the preconscious reservoir of the mind. Where ideas are expressed in symbols, they serve as doorways into the inner courts of understanding.

From Strong Eye of Shamanism Robert Ryan