(continued from Mystery Part 1)
When I viewed an aerial photograph of Stonehenge, I was reminded of a tray that a preadolescent female client had created. The tray consisted of a circle of red stones, in the center of the tray, with an opening at one end. A torii gate (similar to a portal dolmen) had been placed at the entrance to the circle. A pathway lined with candles led up to the portal. Heavenly symbols such as angels, doves, and a Virgin Mary figure were also in the tray. At the center of the circle, the client placed a large cut crystal paperweight, then stood back and called the scene a “gateway to heaven.”
To understand the symbolism of the circle in the tray, it is helpful to remember where the client was developmentally, both physically and psychologically. Does the circle represent the self, preparation for the next developmental stage of adolescence, and the energy needed for transformation? Was the tray revealing the psychological process related to the manifestation of change? If circles have been symbolic of energy and cyclical time, is the circle in this tray symbolizing the stimulation of the process of becoming and moving into adolescence, which for females begins with cycles and rites of passage related to biological rhythms?
Circles are also understood as transmitters of the concentrated divine. The miniatures included in the tray and the client’s statement regarding the “gateway to heaven” may represent a relationship to the divine. Is the connection between ancient stone circles, ceremonies, and rituals and the energy activated during the sandplay process explained by the concept of the collective unconscious?
Therein lies the mystery. It is not what we know, but what we do not know that engages us.