Curriculum – The ACADEMY for MANDALA ARTS

The Academy of Mandala Arts is omni-versal and uni-oriented.

College of Mandala Making

The College of Mandala Making is the flagship of the Academy, where young and elderly comingle and have fun, spontaneously expressing themselves, splashing colors and dancing… Both online and in real-life locations…
Based on Aya’s life-long experience with the StarWheel mandalas. Class manual: The Mandala Maker Creative Companion (published by AMA / GG). Managed & monitored by Aya & staff.

Through the various hands-on DIY programs offered here, we:

Share presentations & discussions about Sacred Geometry and its practical applications and techniques in designing mandalas.
Unfold the long and rich history of mandalas around the world and their many types and uses. There will be book reviews assignments and videos / movies watching…
Learn how to yield the sacred tool of all times and all traditions: a pair of compasses that eventually become a second pair of eyes. Using a Golden Ratio compass helps the beginner to internalize the spatial harmonics of Sacred Geometry. There are small and large compasses… and a human being is a walking pair of compasses.
Focus on specific mandala types: Personal Wheel-of-Life mandalas (Intro program), Universal Mandalas (Intermediate program) and Special-purpose Mandalas (Advanced program).
Learn how to visualize and draw basic geometric grids using grid paper, compasses, rulers and drafting tools… Mandala templates are reviewed and re-created by participants for their own use.
Play with various designs and coloring techniques, from colored pens to airbrush. Learning stenciling.
Learn how to create a Labyrinth big enough to walk it. (Based on Volume 18 of Encyclopedia of SG). Trace the basic Cretan 7-rings laby and see how it can never be forgotten. Experience together how a Labyrinth is a full pilgrimage to the Self and a complete meditation.
Enjoy the fun and excitement of co-creating group and collective mandalas. Send your kids to a Mandala creation class to hone their artistic skills. Invite your entire family to a tribal mandala making party and re-discover hidden facets of each other…
Play with Cymatic equipment to create sand mandalas responding to sound frequencies and chants.
Play with Photoshop techniques to open new vistas & universes of mandala renditions.
Organize visits (in real life or online) to mandala events such as Navajo Sand Paintings, Tibetan Monks Sand Mandalas or Sufi Dervishes Whirling Dances, Zen Enso Circles…
Observe ourselves progressively becoming walking & dancing mandalas and realizing we live inside a gigantic mandala-being. Start a daily mandala making practice. Discover the silent healing power of mandalas. Draw an auspicious mandala design on the threshold of your home. Share celebrative multi-media events with projected mandalas… Organize your life and affairs with a new awareness of the Center and the Periphery…

**Retouching SW #51 “Spiral Goddess”. Santa Fe, 1993.**

College of Sacred Geometry

Sacred Geometry is the hidden jewel of the cosmos and key to dancing it. SG is the essential knowledge & wisdom underlying all life, all nature, all consciousness… and the beauty of the arts. When Aya had to release his art studio while creating the StarWheel series 10, he turned his attention to create the Encyclopedia of Sacred Geometry as a foundation course – the goal is to inspire and contribute to the current re-discovery of SG in all fields of life, from science to the arts.

Originally conceived as the PHI Science Institute, the College of Sacred Geometry functions as a school but also as a global networking hub for SG researchers, an interactive repository for SG resources (libraries, SG estates, databases, prototypes & models…) and an Exploratorium Space (exhibits, festivals, new technologies)… as well as nurturing an expanded family of friends.

The reference class-book is the Encyclopedia of SG in 18 volumes (so far). Formats, duration and depth of involvement are flexible and respond to demand: classes, seminars, hands-on workshops and one-time presentations…

The classic 7-Weeks Sacred Geometry Seminar covers: 1. History & Traditions of SG. 2. The Golden Ratio, Pentagon n& Classic Figures. 3. Music, Harmonics & Cymatics. 4. SG in 3D. 5. SG in Nature & the Human Body. 6. SG in Science: Fractals, Quasicrystals & Fullerenes. 7. Completion, Review & SG Blessings. Note: homework, a SG Journal, study of assigned readings and DIY drawings are required.
Zometool Playshops. This is a favorite for children & kids. Re-awakens the playfulness of grown-ups. Invented by Steve Baer in the 1960s, the Zometool “toys” have been called an “embodiment of quantum math”. Centered around a mini-hub and pluggable struts of golden ratio lengths, the Zometool system allows everyone to build and see the shapes of numbers & of 3D geometries and to directly experience the harmonic beauty of nature and the universe.
The Platonic Solids Zometool Playshop is Galactic Education 101.
Zometool.com explains: “The Zometool will empower you and your pupils to become secret weapons of democracy… because the Zometool encourages your pupils (and you!) to learn by following THEIR AMAZINGLY ACTIVE imagination, into a universe of infinite possibilities… and to believe their own eyes and hands and brains (and not some human authority).”
Sacred Geometry Origami Workshop. A fun-filled scissors-and-paper space flight.
The 5 Platonic Solids Workshop. From ancient history & world culture all the way to nanotechnology, an intro to each of the 5 Platonic Solids, the quintessential building blocks of the universe.
We meet and play with Fold-out Nets, the Jitterbug, Platonic Nesting, Metatron’s Cube, Tetrahedral Physics, the Star-Tetrahedron & Merkaba, the Tetra-Helix, Platonic Solids in nature, Dodeca-Icosa coupling, Earth Grid, Crop Circles, the Golden Frame and more…
Sacred Geometry DIY Bubble Immersion. Immersing geometric structures in soap water is great fun + great science. Soap reduces the surface tension of water. Bubbles are minimum surfaces – they are the most efficient way to link balls & struts. An experience in ephemerous & diaphanous Beauty.
The Sacred Geometry of the Vesica Piscis. A full journey through the history, symbolism and mysticism of the almond-shaped “Womb of Creation”. A DIY drawing and collage workshop.
The Geodesic Dome & Buckminster Fuller Workshop. A 20^th century genius on par with Da Vinci, “Bucky” Fuller (1895-1983) had an epiphany at age 32: he decided to find out “what a single individual could contribute to changing the world and benefiting all humanity.”Father of the geodesic dome, Bucky became famous in 1985 (he died in 1983 after predicting it) with the discovery of the C60 Buckminsterfullerene (”Buckyball’) molecule. The Buckyball has a 5-fold rotational symmetry based on the pentagon golden ratio geometry. “If it does not look beautiful to me, I know I have failed”.

College of Music, Dance & Ceremonials.

The Sacred Geometry of Music. A classical saying attributed to Pythagoras states: “There is Geometry in the humming of the strings and Music in the Spacing of the Spheres.” Introduction to the Nada Brahma universe as made out of musical proportion. Demonstrations on the traditional Monochord that Music is the Sacred Geometry of harmonic chords & overtone progressions.
The lost Art of Chanting Overtones. The Harmonic or OvertoneSeries corresponds to the natural vibrational frequencies coming off a resonant body. In the West, overtone singing was well alive in antiquity all the way to Gregorian Chant. In Oriental cultures, it has been maintained as a spiritual technology. There is now a new global culture of overtone singing re-discovered as a harmonic ladder to infinity. Online exposure, direct practice of techniques for overtone “sound yoga” and guest teachers.
Vowel Chanting, Toning and Mantras. In all gnostic & esoteric traditions, the vowel sounds (the softer, feminine aspects of speaking) are tonal bridges to Spirit. When chanting & toning vowels, we are entering the realms of harmony, number ratios and frequency resonance at the source of the universe.
We will practice the 5, 7 and 8 vowel sets, with excursions into more complex vowel systems which imperceptibly merge vowels into each other – just as musical pitches do.
Toning and OM modulation practices as personal attunement as well as Global Harmonization.
The Cymatics & Tonoscope Workshop. Hans Jenny (1904-1972) was a scientist & artist who pioneered the study of sound frequencies on powders & fluids and greatly expanded the work of Ernst Chladni who discovered the phenomenon in the18th century. Magnificent mandala patterns prove to youngsters that sonic frequencies create material forms. We will play with simple metal plates vibrated by violin bows, as well as DIY tonoscopes. Cymatics in water containers is also explored. The College is slated to acquire a scientific “Cymascope”, heralded as a “sonoscope” to rival the microscope and the telescope. The Cymascope is an exceptional tool of education, exploration and discovery about the harmonic geometries of the universe.
Musical Instruments Making. Bamboo flutes, drums, didjeridoo… A peek at many imaginative creations… Intro to Photosonics of Jacques Dudon. Guest teachers… You as a cosmic flute…
Learning, practicing and adapting mandala rituals & ceremonies from around the world.
This is both an on-going ethnographic projectrequiring field work to discover & retrieve traditional knowledge, and a hands-on experimentation with known (or improvised) mandala ceremonies.
Cyma-Therapy and Sound Healing. In the 1950s, Dr Peter Guy Manners developed instruments to apply specific sound frequencies for healing. This is cyma-therapy, now a scientific modality harnessing DNA sound frequencies… Sound Healing is also Light Healing through natural sono-luminescence.
Crystal & Tibetan Bowls Healing Baths. This is now a popular yet potent “healing entertainment”.
Playing and Making Bells. Bells have a very ancient history. Their shape is symbolic: a hollow sphere brought in resonance by shaking its axis. We will visit China, Pythagoras, Christian Churches, vibraphones, handbells, cymbals, Tibetan Ghantas & Tingshas and the Balinese Angklung…
History & Practice of the American Indian Medicine Wheel. On-the-land practice.
An Exploration of Whistling and Whistles. Remember whistling when kids? Time to be kids again…
Drum Making and Drum Circles. Drums are vibrating mandala skins and we can be totally enveloped within these skins… Intro to drum making & improvising… Basic beats & rhythms…… Drum mandalas…
The Art and Power of Mudras. A Mudra is a tantric technology to draw forth the inner spiritual bliss. Mudras constitute a whole language of awareness activation. Using special configurations of the fingers, hands, feet, eyes or head, Mudras create non-verbal, primordial connections between brain, energy flows and energy centers (chakras). We offer a basic intro into these “producers of joy”.
The Art and Power of Mantras & Kirtan Chanting. A Mantra is a signature sound of transformation based on Sanskrit root-sounds (bija) or ancient Vedic chants. We will learn some basic bija sounds and Hindu mantras. And proceed to practice Kirtan or call-and-response chanting from ancient Vedic texts.
Indian Classical Music. A gigantic universe, best entered in the womb. Intro to Indian Ragas…
Indian Sacred Dances. Life-long discipline accessing an ancient & sophisticated gesture-language.
Yoga as a Mandala Dance. Leaving behind the square-angled usual mat, we will unfold our yoga practice on a round mandala mat – and learn how to expand in a spherical dimension to radiate out the compassionate & blissful way of yoga. Through the Pulse-Mandalas of Pranayama, we will activate the Fields of Light.

College of StarWheel Mandalas.

On-Going Re-Visiting of the entire SW Collection with Aya, one/two SW at a time. Iconic weekly program that would stretch over 1 year…
A unique chance to share with Aya the immediacy of a one-time family reunion and bring to present awareness many hidden facets of the StarWheels, as well as preview future possibilities. We will date one or two SW at a time (possibly a SW Series 10 coupled with a SW Series1), looking afresh, retrospectively and projectively, and applying many different perspectives (including new technologies). We will co-create a free flow, spontaneous interaction and allow an intimate relationship to take place with the SW… Details, overall design, dreamtime associations, motion dynamics, real-life applications, new insights, 3D perspective navigation, spherization, coloring schemes, healing potential, symbolism, musical & vocal transpositions, higher-dimensional origins, visualizations, correspondences, gazing & trataka modes, body & mudra expression, ceremonial dances, yoga postures… This is an exercise in the Yoga of Perception and a practice in creating a Love Mandala Loop with a partner as “another yourself”…
Discussion Forum about the StarWheel Meta-Mandala.
As explained on StarWheelFoundation.org, “The entire SW Collection offers a meta-system referencing a much vaster resonance & cosmic significance than any individual piece. The SWs mutually inter-act and inter-be with each other, in super-coherent and super-radiant ways.” The guidance to keep the SW Collection together (as opposed to selling the pieces left & right) is based on this simple and humbling fact: currently, we have no understanding of the potential meanings and applications of the StarWheel Meta-Mandala.
Many questions follow. The Discussion Forum is an online space to address new insights, share experimentations with 2D & 3D groupings & arrangements, to offer suggestions about superpositions and rotational layering… and any other contributions to this meta-quest.
The StarWheel Tarot Readings. Over time, friends of the StarWheels have pointed to the use of the SW Collection as a Tarot Deck. Safter creating a sacred space, the readee is asked to shuffle the 108 SW cards and to spread them around in a circle, following their inner guidance. The reading can address the current moment, future expansions or specific issues. Together the readee and the facilitator will seek guidance from the arrangement, position and meaning of the SW cards.
This is an entire field of education, healing and counseling open to innovation…
The StarWheel Correspondences. Presently, each SW painting is coupled with a Number, a Name, a Keyword, a Sutra and a Picto-Koan. Eventually, each SW will be found to organically belong to a SW constellation, a larger cluster of associated stars or friendly, harmonic, symbolic associations with other, related petals of the same flower. This query stems from the awareness of the living holographic Oneness of the cosmos where a flower creates herself to be a star and a star constellation descends on the landscape… Where gods & goddesses appear in human bodies and humans discover their infinite vastitude… Where a StarWheel being can touch the resonant strings of a musically inclined human… and a starry-eye child can disappear in the center of a StarWheel…
It is great creative and imaginative fun to look for the perfumes, the sounds, the dances, the thoughts, the feelings & emotions, the genealogy… and the smiles of the StarWheel beings.

“Nature is a temple with living pillars…
Man passes there through forests of symbols
Which look at him with familiar eyes.
Like prolonged echoes merging in the distance
In a deep and dark unity,
Vast like the night and vast like the light,
Perfumes, sounds and colors correspond.”
Charles Baudelaire