It’s an interesting word, it means almond in Italian. I sometimes think I’d like to find a different word for it. The ancient symbol with its profound meaning, also called the Vesicus Piscis. And that means fishes bladder…even stranger!  So in my work I just think of that place in the middle. The place where polarities meet, where we stand in the tension between opposites and life happens, vibration happens and we feel probably more  deeply than at any other time in our lives!

Being a middle child I always knew a little of this place, also being born on the solstice, a place between dark and light. Born in the Midlands was another dimension and from those moments of a deeper understanding many other experiences and places from the middle territory of my life story began to emerge. I am the mother of three sons and three daughters, this teaches me of the masculine and feminine, not just of them but how it sits in my own body and psyche. I was sent to a catholic convent and yet I was brought up church of england. I lived in the countryside, and yet loved to visit the inner city where my father worked in the factories. So many worlds of opposites.

And the opposites or conflicts within me, the parts that longed to be seen and the parts that wanted to hide away. The voice that was silent and the voice that could speak out. The inner and the outer of all I experienced. What was really going on when these two areas of my life met?

I became fascinated with this world of polarity, both within the bigger picture of it as well as in the small moments in each day where two opposites might cross, I would need to stop, reflect, what was that energy I was in? Feeling it and seeing how it made me respond to things, how did I react? Did I try to fix things, change things or make difficult decisions that could not really be made?

It all led me to create a body of work from this experience, which I then called ‘Middle Earth Medicine’ and I looked for the ways in which to offer this to others. I recognised a map and how my life of creativity had led me on a journey to find it. I knew then that this was part of my own sovereign offering and the bigger picture of my life-story. To give back to communities what it had given to me. I put this map into a design which I called The Wheel Of Souls Return, the very map that had brought me back to my own innate soul and the fulfillment of who I really was.

The mandorla teaches us to stretch beyond our normal existence, to reach into the depths of ourselves and shine a light in the dark places, and yet, to unveil the gold that lies within the shadows, that same gold we have buried away for a life time. As we reveal the gold we begin to identify all that we can become when we are brave enough to BE those opposing forces that exist within us.

They exist and we cannot escape them.

I have discovered that energy time and time again, struggled with it, resisted it and pushed it aside. But it always comes back, either biting my arse or seducing me into its lull of familiarity. For it is the essence of who I am and I cannot fight it.

I feel absolutely sure that we have all felt the pain and profundity of the ‘power of polarities’ within us at some point in our lives, whether through a conflict with others or within ourselves. And when we do, how do we react to it? As humans our tendency is to do what we can to move away from its discomfort, but in this work I invite you, with resources and safety, to enter into that zone and meet with the innate and exceptionally powerful part of yourself, we call The Sovereign.

Within this process I adopted a particular dance, that I would now call medicine, a dance of acceptance, the true essence of my soul, the power and the humility that bares me to the bone, the same one that tears at my heart, yet re-boots it to a greater strength. Dancing with this process now called The Magic of Mandorla we discover the stance of freedom, for the warrior within us awakens and is in no doubt about the truth. It might shake us as we dance in its wave, it may frighten us when we shed these old skins that enforce a structure too old to be taken seriously any more. And it might shine the greatest light from our core, into the world where there is no escape, but to be seen.

Taking the Mandorla into our journey, into our heart, creating a totally new awareness of who we are, is a courageous step to take.

If you are called to dance with the Mandorla’s energy and discover your absolute potential from the deepest part of your inner being, I invite you to come and explore with us, to discover for yourself the profound nature of mandorlas magic, to create within its light and to marry together the soul and the ego so that you can once more live in harmony with your whole being.

“Sometimes within our individual self and within the self of our worn-out society, there is no answer to conflict. There is, however, a way to stand within the center of the opposing forces. Conflict creates tremendous energy. If we leave out judgement then that ‘energy’ can become a vibration of light. Not always just a single light but many lights, sending out a vibration that is LOVE!”  —

Caroline Carey