Perhaps the most recurrent piece of advice present in both Western and Eastern 
philosophy is "Know Thyself."  From Pluto, the Greek Classical philosopher, to 
the Tibetan "Book of Living and Dying," this dictum echoes throughout.
Certainly, many schools of psychology view self-knowledge as basic to a 
healthy psychology.

	Paul Heussestamm has found his artistic home in artwork that seeks and
accomplishes this objective.The specific composition which has facilitated his
exploration of the spirit is the ancient form of the mandala. A mandala is a 
complex form that begins with concentric circles.  These layers are filled with 
specific symbolsand patterns with symbolic representations.  That fact that the 
overall composition is circular is meaningful, as the circle symbolized the 
infinite, completion, as well as continuum.

	Carl Jung, the eminent psychologist and mandala painter, both rediscovered
and introduced the mandala to the West.  He felt that the most powerful religious 
form within the mandala was the circle, and particularly the circle manifest as the 
rounded square.  The circle is one of the great primordial images of mankind, and in 
this consideration of the circle, we are analyzing the self.  Jung felt that a 
personal mandala symbolizes various levels of awareness within the individual as well 
as the energy that unifies and heals.  So great was his faith in the healing power 
of mandalas, that he employed them frequently as a therapy technique.  On mandala 
symbolism, Jung writes,, "There is no linear evolution; the is only circumambulation 
of the self.  Uniform development exists, at most, only at the beginning, later, 
everything points to a center.  This insight gave me stability, and gradually my 
inner peace returned.  I knew that in finding the mandala as an expression of the 
self I had attained what was, for me, the ultimate.  Perhaps someone else knows more, 
but not I."

	Brugh Joy, Heussestamm's spiritual teacher of fifteen years, has stated that the
mandala is another eye of God. Or Goddess.  It is the mystery of the totality that 
moves outside of time and space.  It can be experienced in all dimensions, and we 
can catch a glimpse of the deity itself, whether the mandala is personal or 
collective. Heussentamm mandalas are a way to sense the key forces of (of life), 
combined with his intense understanding and capacity to represent the divine center 
in such variations is extraordinary.

	Joseph Campbell, in his "Power of Myth" series, stated that the mandala indicates
the cosmic images that are operating in our lives.  A mandala reveals the center 
that coordinates an individual's circle with the cosmic circle.  It is the center 
from which we all come, and to which we shall return, the alpha and the omega.

	Some time ago, after exploring various forms of artistic expression, Heussentamm
recognized himself as uniquely sensitive to the spirit of others, and the mandala 
was uniquely expressive of the quality of those spirits.  He has done, and continues 
to do, workshops as well as readings of other's souls.  After using his intuitive 
capacity to remove the veils of the superficial, he is able to produce a "map" of 
the psyche.  By studying this map, the subject is able to see further into his/her 
own life, their relationships, and their motivations.  He teaches and inspires his 
students to create revealing, personal soul mandalas.

	"First, we have to talk a little bit about the soul.  All of us believe that we
have a soul.  We have faith in it.  But do we really understand how the soul is a 
part of our lives?  That is what I have dedicated my life to, and what I have 
discovered in the mandala is a way to see the soul, and create a direct relationship
with your soul," says Heussentamm

	Continuing, Heussentamm states, "In my life, I left a 27-year professional career
to pursue teaching and sharing this perspective.  Nothing is as valuable as the 
relationship I have discovered with my soul.  That is what my paintings are about 
-the soul - and its language.  However, you first have to be aware that there is a 
soul that lives in you and is active in your life.  But how do we begin to see its language?"

	When I first started painting mandalas, I didn't know any of this.  This is all
self-taught, all self-discovery.  I began to see things I couldn't see before.  I 
began feeling things I couldn't feel before.  My awareness expanded greatly.  I 
started when I was painting and then began looking at people and different cultures.  
I began to see that there is a whole invisible world that we in the West usually see.  
If you study Aborigines, Native Americans, Tibetan cultures, they know this language, 
we don't.  We are learning, although we don't have many soul teachers in this culture.  
I began to feel and see the "soul" in painting and then began to see it in people.  
The soul does not work in the same realm that we work and live in.  We have to 
understand its language.  What do I mean by that?

	We live in a world of time and space, day-to-day, where everything is linear and
logical.  That is not the world of the soul. The soul sees differently.  The soul 
I discovered in my experience is in the body, it's in the Earth, it's in the Mother.  
It was as though new eyes had opened for me to see with.  In Tibetan painting, they 
add extra eyes in places other than just on the forehead.

	"The key is to discover ways to access the soul.  There are vision quests, some
people take drugs, yet I don't recommend that avenue.  The mandala is a portal, a 
door and entry point, a way to access the soul and reveal its language.  The way to 
contact the soul is to begin to learn its language, we begin to see the living soul 
or what I see as the Divine.

	"The mandala, for me, more than any other teacher in my lifetime, has opened the
doorway into the symbolic language of the soul.  Once this language is known, once 
the doorway into the unconscious has been opened, once the dynamism of the intuitive 
pattern reading is known, changes suddenly and dramatically."

	Inspirations for Heussentamm work range from Gaugin, Van Gogh, Cezanne, O'Keefe,
and Kahlo, to the Tibetan masters and Native Americans.  These artists all share 
the ability to capture a raw, primal truth about the human character, and to open 
deep motivational centers (within the individual).  The Tibetans and Native Americans 
are know for their devotion to a higher being, and to higher values.  Their object is 
that of the sacred.  Together, humanity is reflected in both of its aspect, as a 
physical being and as a spiritual being, and through the mandala, these aspects become one.

	Paul Heussenstamm is an artist yet offers much more.  He is a teacher and healer. 
His art, although decorative, can be used as therapy, in other cases, guidance toward 
self-realization, and in all cases, a sharing.  To be sure, each mandala is a portrait 
of the psyche of its creator.  The object is to help others progress to a stage that 
Heussenstamm has experienced, to inspire them to "find the spark that moves them deep 
into their own creative universe."

	Heussentamm operates and works from his studio in Laguna Beach where he conducts
workshops on Discovering Your Soul Mandala.  This weekend (2-days) introduction to 
the inner artist is an opportunity to creatively explore the mystery the soul and 
the mandala.  Each individual finishes and completes a wondrously colorful mandala 
as a symbol to live with, study and begin a process of learning, growing, healing 
and artistic development.