This post is a brief summary of some thoughts I plan to expand upon later, with further research. It explores some of the findings of Agent V and myself as we have explored UFOs deeply as a magical paradigm. In particular it relates to the UFO as a mandala symbol, and the implications of this in terms of magically understanding the abduction experience.

Carl Jung and the Mandala

Research from Agent V found that in his book, ‘Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Sky’, Jung compares the circular discs to the idea of a mandala. The mandala then we might see as a symbol of unity, and therefore of the monad.

In Qaballah the monad appears as the sephirot Keter, which means Crown. It sits at the top of the tree of life. In the Zohar it is said that it is “the most hidden of all hidden things”, and that it is both invisible and incomprehensible. The crown sits on our head, which symbolizes that it is beyond the capability of our mind to comprehend. It is also called ‘the hidden light’.

In Tantric mysticism, the crown chakra, Sahasrara, is symbolised by a thousand petalled lotus that floats a little above the head, with a downwards pointing triangle in its centre. Its powers include detachment from illusion and the realization that all is one and one is all.

Many flying saucer type UFO craft are described as having triangles in their centre or lights in triangular formation. Others have been said to have left markings in the ground in perfect equilateral triangle formation. Some, such as those seen in the famous Belgian Wave, also had triangular form.

Joseph Campbell, the Mandala and Leviathan

In Gnosticism, the demiurge was sometimes symbolised by a crowned serpent, biting its tail, the ouroborus Leviathan. This was called by Hermetic alchemists hen to pan, which means ‘One the All’. By comparing the Hermetic ouroborus with Plato’s concept of the mind as Demiurge, or imperfect creator attempting to construct a world from pre-existing material, the Gnostics were saying they saw the concepts as equivalent. We find a similar creator of illusion in Hindu mythology in the form of Maya, often depicted holding a mandala, representing Samsara, the false creation (of the mind).

So we see no surprise that in contrast to Jung, comparative mythologist Joseph Campbell saw the mandala as negative. Rather than celebrate oneness, Campbell saw the mandala as representing societal conformity. In other words it represented the right hand path trap of enslaving the individual to consensus reality.

In discussing this with Agent V we determined that a sizable number of teenagers rebel against their dominant ‘mandala’ societies in some way. They often do this via strong identification with a subculture. However, subcultures themselves form their own mandalas, so many retreat back to the main mandala of their culture. Some more adventurous young people explore many such cultures, and in so doing start to build their own individual identity.

A while back we listened to an interview on ‘Coast to coast’ with Thunder Strikes on the subject of shadow people. Thunder Strikes belongs to a Native American group called the Twisted Hairs. This group has an interesting history in that it is said to have formed from members of different tribes that each had in common that they had learned the mysteries of their own tribe but were hungry for more, so they travelled from tribe to tribe learning what they could from each. Of course in this way they eventually came across each other and formed their own school.

Said to have originally formed over three thousand years ago as the ‘Rattlesnake school of Turtle Island’, this group braids their hair together to represent knowledge taken from many sources to form ‘braids of truth’. Of course such a blending could itself form a new mandala, but the idea of receptivity to new knowledge may offer some resistance to this trend.  We may see parallels to the Twisted Hairs in Western mystical and magical traditions to various degrees, such as the new age movement, Chaos magic and eclectic paganism.  We might also see it in KIA and in Free Illuminism.

The common symbol of Chaos magic, Moorcock’s sigil of chaos, seems a particularly good representation of breaking free from the mandala, showing as it does eight arrows escaping from a circle.

To contact or not to contact

So how can the awakening of the crown chakra symbolise the shattering of illusion when its very image is a representation of that illusion? Perhaps because it represents the group mind or societal egregores that we have inadvertently become part of. By fully activating this chakra we bring the invisible light of this realm into our awareness and see the illusion of our cultural conditioning exposed for what it is, to whatever degree we can comprehend this incomprehensible message.

Therefore whilst the UFO may then seem a symbol of the very unity that traps us in illusion, seeing it also represents the very awaking that helps us break free. Imagine for a moment how boarding an extraterrestrial or ultraterrestrial craft and flying amongst the stars or to another dimension with alien beings would impact your sense of normality.

Keter is in Malkuth

The abduction experience may then represent an involuntary mystical visionary experience of the oneness of all things, and therefore the seeing through the illusion of our societies blinkered world view. But please note that we are not saying that no physical UFOs exist and that physical abductions don’t happen. We have no way of knowing that short of experiencing it for ourselves or remembering clearly that it already did.

What we are saying, is that regardless of whether the experiences happen as a result of misidentification, hallucination, optical illusion, mystical awakening, visionary experience or contact with actual physical craft and beings, the effect on our conscious perception of reality may prove equally shaken.

Being taken on board a physical craft may not be exactly the same as the mystical experience of absorption into the monad, but we may liken the experience in some ways to the Keter in Malkuth, the ultimate physical ritual reenactment of the monad experience on the material plane.

Credit

Big thanks to Agent V. A lot of the above is based on her wider reading on this subject and what she has told me, or read out to me, concerning Jung’s and Campbell’s ideas on the Mandala. I hope to read them for myself shortly. For the record, the relevant book by Campbell is ‘Flight of the Wild Gander’, in particular the essay ‘The symbol without meaning’ contained therein.