The Alchemical Mandala

Book excerpt: Mandalas have long been recognized in Eastern spiritual traditions as important tools for focusing meditation. Though various Western traditions possess such contemplative tools, they have not often been recognized as such. McLean remedies this by presenting, and analyzing in great depth, over forty beautiful engravings, reproduced as full-page illustrations, from alchemical, kabbalistic, magical, Rosicrucian, and Hermetic sources. This second edition of the first book exclusively dedicated to the mandala tradition in the West is an extremely valuable sourcework for its illustrations and commentaries. Not only is it a comprehensive guide to reading the cosmological and spiritual symbolism of alchemical engravings, it also outlines three ways for working with these mandalas as spiritual exercises.