CD-Embracing Change: The Art of Making Mándorle

Using experiential exercises to deepen work with your SoulCollage® Cards

This CD offers three guided journeys, based on Mariabruna Sirabella's long study of yoga and shamanic practice, to invite us into transforming conflict into positive change. She talks about each exercise and method and leads us through it.

The first journey: Our SoulCollage® cards often represent conflicting parts of ourselves and Mariabruna offers a process called "Weaving" in which we can find ways for two conflicting cards to produce a new image, new resolution.

The second journey: Mariabruna drums at the particular rate which induces a deep and creative state of consciousness.

The third journey: A detailed guided journey in yoga nidra, yogic sleep, which is designed to develop the part of the brain that works with images.

SoulCollage products are purchased directly from Hanford Mead Publishers, Inc. through its secure online store. Any order of five items entitles you to a 20% discount. CLICK HERE TO ORDER.

From the author: What is Mándorle?

In art the “Mandorla” (The Almond) is the name given to the segment that appears when two circles partly overlap. The Mandorla is widely found in medieval iconography symbolizing the desire of the human Spirit to heal the fragmentation inherent in duality. We experience this fragmentation more intensely when we are caught between inner opposites, when we feel pulled in two different directions and when conflict interferes with our inner balance. Fear, confusion, angst dominate over balance, clarity and contentment. We so deeply long in those moments for the reconciliation of heaven and earth! Yet, often reconciliation doesn’t occur through choosing, but rather by stepping into the middle ground of the Mandorla. This idea profoundly resonate with SoulCollage’s fundamental concept of the “One and the Many” which invites us not to be polarized by definitions of good and evil, light and darkness, acceptable and unacceptable, and elect instead the exploration of both. Whenever we step into the Mandorla we experience in the least a glimpse of wholeness, receive the gift of synthesis, and sense more intensely our connection to all living things. We may struggle in the beginning, especially if we are facing a long standing dichotomy, but in time the overlap grows larger and what is becoming more whole also becomes holy. We have opportunities to make Mandorle every day and regale ourselves and those around us not only a restorative psychological experience, but also a taste of sacredness. Whenever we make Mandorle in our lives we make peace.

The three ‘exercises’ in this CD are an invitation to make Mandorle, to befriend change and transform conflict into an opportunity for expansion.

Author's Acknowledgments

To Seena Frost for being a source of inspiration, support and playfulness and for being an unrelenting seeker.
To my graduate school teacher at CSUS who taught me the alchemical NLP exercise.
To Jeff Chambers for constructing my drum and tuning in so intuitively into my personal energy.
To the Spirit of the Horse who donated the skin for my drum: you are Here and There.
To the Tuvan Shaman Ai-Chu-Rek for her teachings and encouragement.
To all the Yoga Teachers that have enriched my path, specifically to Gilda Tissino and to Swami Satyananda Saraswati for the trainings in Yoga Nidra.
To Robert A. Johnson for introducing the concept of Mandorla to a wide audience.

Author, Mariabruna Sirabella

Mariabruna Sirabella, MS, LMFT has a private practice in Watsonville, CA, and is Adjunct Faculty at JFK University in Campbell, CA. She has a background in Anthropology, Yoga and Art and in Cross Cultural Studies. She has clinically applied and taught SoulCollage since 1996 and is a trained SoulCollage® Facilitator and Trainer who offers workshops and trainings in the USA and Italy.

She can be reached at 831-768-1442; by email; and through her website: www.sirarte.com

SoulCollage products are purchased directly from Hanford Mead Publishers, Inc. through its secure online store. Any order of five items entitles you to a 20% discount. CLICK HERE TO ORDER.

Cautions and Recommendations

Do not listen to this CD while driving or operating machinery as the exercises are designed to induce deep states of consciousness.

It is recommended that the exercises not be done one after the other, or even in the same day, in order to allow time and space for integration. These exercises may be a useful adjunct to your morning practice or whenever you set time aside to create or read your SoulCollage® cards.