We are a community of healing arts practitioners, students, and teachers who recognize the imperative of re~turning the soul to psychotherapy and re~membering the divine Self. We embrace non-authoritarian, non-linear, symbolic and inner-world directed approaches to learning, healing, transformation, and growth. We honor the Feminine Principle of receptivity, empathy, compassion, nurturing, creativity, intuition, imagination, and communion that occurs beneath, between, and beyond words. We strive to encourage whole-istic practices and to offer tools, techniques, and companioning for practitioners and individuals who wish to enrich and expand their other-than-conscious ways of knowing, communicating, and creating.

We honor the wisdom of the circle and its transformational power in our lives and the lives of those whom we serve.

We are not journeying into wholeness, we are awakening to the wholeness that we have always been. Within the core of our being, underneath all the personality trappings, the physiological enhancements, and the mental abstractions, distortions, and distrations of our illusory “self,” we are WHOLE, COMPLETE, PERFECT and joined to all others in an indelible, irrevocable, ineffable bond.

The circle is the most important symbol of our wholeness, representative of the Self with a capital S designating it as Higher Self, Spirit/Source/Force which exists beyond the confines of mind or lower ego driven ‘self’. The circle is also a symbol for God ~ the Creator ~ Divinity ~ the Holy of Holies, THAT WHICH IS everywhere equally present and timeless with no beginning and no end. Everything within the space delimited by the circle is SACRED. Therefore, it follows: the Self is both whole and sacred.

Engaging with the circle, with clear Light as its center and an attitude of openness to possibilities, something is called forth within us. We may not yet fully understand what will emerge, but the calling, the pull from the wisdom of the circle to the work is clear and is guided by the quantum light of our “hundreds of millions of stars.”

The marigold is a humble flower, yet rich in symbolic meaning and medicine, both literally and metaphorically. Connected to the Divine Mother, early Christians named the flower “Mary’s Gold” and placed it at the foot of statues of the Blessed Mother in lieu of gold coins. The marigold is often used as a token of veneration and praise in festivities honoring Mary and is offered on the Feast Day of the Annunciation (March 25th), celebrating the conception of the Divine Mother.

The marigold is a heliotrope and represents companionship, mentoring, protection, and encouragement. The name marigold is equivalent to the number 7 in numerology, signifying deep understanding. Combined with the solar qualities of the sun, the marigold also represents a coniunctio or sacred marriage of the divine energies of spirit with the earthly energies of matter. The mandala of the marigold symbolizes passion, courage, and creativity, and represents a perennial challenge to new adventures of mind and spirit in service to the Divine

Marigold flowers are used as sacred offerings in many cultures including Hindu, Christian, Buddhist, Aztec, and Pagan religions and are recognized as a symbol of resurrection and connection to the spirits of those who have crossed over. The Welsh believed that rubbing marigold water on the eyelids would induce psychic visions of spirits and fairies.

Marigolds are one of the most easily recognizable symbols of Dia de los Muertos or Day of the Dead which is celebrated from October 31st to November 1st in Mexico and other places populated by peoples of Mexican descent. It is believed that at this time the souls of loved ones and friends who have passed on to spirit visit the living and that the scent and bright blooms of the marigold, known colloquially as “the flower of the dead”, help to guide the spirits to their respective family altars or ofrendas.

One of the great Indian mystics of the last century, ‘Mother’ (Mirra Richards) said that the marigold signified ‘Plasticity’. Describing the spiritual significance of Plasticity, she explained: “When you come to the Divine, you must abandon all mental conceptions. The only true attitude for a Yogi is to be plastic and ready to obey the Divine command, whatever it may be.” Mirra Richards believed that if peoples and nations could achieve the spirit of the Divine Mother whom this flower commemorates, all life would take on new meaning and purpose.

Medieval physicians listed the marigold as a medicinal plant. Boiled with sugar, it was used both internally and externally. A medical book dated 1578 declared, “The conserve that is made of the floures of Mary-goleds cureth the trembling of the harte.”. It was also recommended for sprains, wounds and skin maladies. Marigolds are antiseptic and antibacterial and are known for their wound healing properties. One can also make a poultice out to the flowers of the marigold for bee stings, burns, and skin infections. Since it is also useful in easing circulation disorders, marigold compresses can be applied to treat varicose veins. When its leaves are taken in as vegetables, they also prove to be medicinal as a remedy in treating tuberculosis of the lymphatic glands. (Wikipedia)

The silent message of the marigold flower is to heal and shine, mind, body and soul ~ to know spirit ~ and to blossom by sharing the divine beauty you have inside of you with the world.

Gold is a malleable, flexible, unbreakable precious metal. Because of its physical characteristics and its beauty, gold has become a symbol of wholeness, brilliance, perfection, enlightenment, eternity, the Divine. The color of gold also symbolizes masculine/yang energy, consciousness, the sun’s power to enliven, generate, and create. Gold is associated with the life Force and the highest stage of spiritual development. In the 12 chakra system, the 9th energy center is represented by gold. Referred to as the “seat of the soul” this chakra allows access to the soul’s code or higher purpose.

Gold is an archetypal symbol of the transition of the soul from the finite physical realm to union with the Divine. The goal of the metaphorical process of alchemy is to transmute and transform the inner world of the psyche which is reflected outwardly as an trifold being (body, soul and spirit). This is the process of individuation offered by engaging in the integral “creative cooking” within the alembic of becoming by which base matter is trans-formed into the gold of the wHoly realized Self.

Gold is the magnum Opus, the Great Work; it is the journey, the way to our center ~ the Self, where we realize once and for all, we are home—we are whole. This connected-knowing enables one to align properly with ego in service to Higher Self, thereby ennobling our ability to walk in the world as unperturbed, fearless beacons of Compassion and Wisdom.

There is no end point to the Great Gold Spiral of Creation. This is the S/Hero’s journey along the “yellow brick road” ~ the golden spiral path of individuation. The goal IS the process – the journey itself rather than any product or destination.

Karla Hankes, Ph.D., is the founder of Marigold Methods®, creator of Basin Way Synchronic Sandplay®, the Enso Experience®, the Mosaic Re-storative Method®, The Wheel of Wholeness®, Museum of the Soul®, The Whale’s Library®, Portal Process Journeys®, and other dynamic, and compelling processes for engaging with wholeness via symbolic language and trans-conscious ways of knowing and communicating.

Dr. Hankes completed her doctoral degree in Transformative Education at the California Institute of Integral Studies where her research focused on synchronicity and the alchemical process of grief in Jungian Sandplay Therapy. She is a certified thanatologist with the Association for Death Education and Counseling, a Jungian Sandplay therapist, and Grief Recovery Method® Specialist. For her master’s thesis in clinical counseling in 1997, she proposed the use of circular sand trays citing rational from Jung’s theoretical work with mandalas and comparative anthropology. She earned an advanced diploma in Trauma, Abuse and Deprivation, and as a clinician she has incorporated expressive therapies and mandala work with numerous populations including severely mentally ill adults, juvenile offenders, and grieving children and teens. Dr. Hankes has been using the “essence container” of the drawn mandala therapeutically since discovering the work of Susanne Fincher and The Great Round of Joan Kellogg in 1991.

Dr. Hankes has been facilitating MARI® since 2012 and offers live and online MARI trainings and review, individual and group consultation, supervision, MARI Enrichment presentations, and other-than-conscious translations of mandalas, artwork and sand trays. Passionate about bridging the worlds of Sandplay Therapy and MARI Process, Dr. Hankes offers Basin Way Sandplay Training and Consultation to MARI Practitioners.

Maria Danilina

Maria is a psychologist and psychotherapist currently teaching in the Tver Department of Moscow University of Humanities and Economics. She has developed courses in Art Therapy and specializes in the use of the mandala as a therapeutic instrument. As a Certified MARI Instructor, Maria has trained over 50 practitioners in Russia, Spain, Czech, Australia, Thailand, Japan, and Kazakhstan. She is also a professional graphic artist, member of the Art Union of Russia, Certified Art Therapist, Emotional-Imaginative Therapist, and head of MARICreativeResources in Russia.

Cheers to all you magnificent Imaginal Cells!