Altadena Healing Mandala

The Eaton Fire burned almost 10,000 homes in Altadena, 9400 homes by count. There were numerous people I know In Ojai who were grieving these losses. I learned that Altadena has a special history and that the community, though part of greater Los Angeles, was like a small town. I realized that bringing community mandala painting there would be beneficial for the people who were grieving losses from the fire. I was looking to connect with a group there that would understand my vision and sponsor me to bring the Mandala Medicine Movement. I decided that I would ask people I met if they knew of any group in Altadena that would be interested.

At home in Ojai, we had recently lost a beloved Indigenous elder in our circle. We were on our way to her memorial service and I received a call from Juliette Hoffman, wanting to order a bag. She and Eileen had found my store in downtown Ojai a couple of decades earlier and since then had used nothing but my bags. Eileen’s bag had a broken zipper and she would not take the time to order a new one.

Juliette and I happily greeted each other and she told me she was from Altadena. We said goodbye and when she called me the following day I told her about the Mandala Medicine Movement, MMM, and my intent to bring it to Altadena. Right away she excitedly said, “Us, us, here” and when we finished our discussion she called Dr. Kenny, Eileen. I received a call from Eileen shortly after and within 15 minutes the project was fully funded and we had a date for the painting. About 6 weeks away, the weekend of June 13-15, 2025.

That was Sunday and the following Thursday I drove to Altadena for my first in-person meeting with the group. Eileen gave the role of project manager to Asthik Lalabekyan and she and I smoothly worked out the details needed to start and to go forward. It was a joy to have a project manager, someone who was taking notes and making sure that the many details necessary were discussed, noted, and shared between me, Dr. Kenny and the group. Communication was easy and Asthik was thorough throughout.

When I arrived at the Healing Arts Center of Altadena, HACA, I was warmly greeted and we set up the room for a circle of about 13 people. I guided the circle and talked about what we there to do together. Dr. Kenny expressed her intention to bring another type of healing experience to the community. This is what she wrote for us to share:

“The Healing Arts Center of Altadena has provided alternative healing modalities for 30 years.  Chiropractic, acupuncture, homeopathy, cranial sacral, trauma and family systems therapies are offered.  It has been an evolving community of healers offering care for the mind, body and spirit.

The Eaton Canyon fire created trauma on so many levels for our community. Now each day we meet the many dimensions of trauma with presence and resources. 

The mandala project offers us a unique opportunity to come together to heal.  We are addressing our collective pain and loss with creativity, relatedness and intuition. The mutual creation of shapes, forms and color represents an energetic pattern of healing and wholeness. The HACA Mandala is a holistic way of restoring balance and positive intention to the community of Altadena and the land that supports this heart based community.

Join us as we move into a new vision.

-Dr. Eileen Kenny”

With the great losses Altadena is a changed city in ways that continue to be revealed. In our circle we had a few people who had lost their homes and they talked about their losses and expressed their grief in our first circle. For some, the heavy grief was too difficult for them them to join in the project directly.

In the meeting someone said “I have something to share but I’m afraid it might be too Woo Woo. I responded, “We are in a group of Healers here, there is no such thing as being too Woo.” We walked through this doorway of perception together and this became foundational to our work. Our design meetings started and ended in a sacred circle, breathing together, coming into quiet resonance with each other and talking about the project. Zoom meetings did not diminish this experience at all. The HACA community are experienced healers of different modalities and were open to being guided into this co-creation.

In our design meetings we talked about symbols and stories that were connected to the place and each person’s experience. I explained that themes arise through our feelings and would guide our design. These statements came through the group:

“The land is calling for a symbolic act.”

“Our roots run deep.”

“Tears as rain.”

“Nature as a chalice.”

(The chalice metaphor, representing the human capacity to

hold experiences and emotions, symbolically expressed

our raison d’etre.)

“T.R.A.U.M.A. backwards (A.M.U.A.R.T)- A Miracle Unfolds And Reveals Truth.” “H.E.A.L.I.N.G. - Hope Emerges And Love Is Now Growing.”

“You are possessed of a resilience, that comes from an untouchable part of you.”

The story of the three cypress trees that had been removed were part of the HACA story. Three old, dry majestic cypress trees had to be removed from the land earlier that year. During the fire, which came to the border of the property, they would have caught flying embers and HACA would have been burned. In retrospect this was a sacrifice that provided divine protection. Our first sketch prominently featured the cypresses.

We talked about the center of the mandala being a healing vortex. A place where we focused our group intention to connecting down to the center of the Earth, back up through the person standing in the middle, up through them to the moon, the sun, the galaxy, our universe, to the universes beyond the known and bringing that energy back again, opening to a greater healing flow.

Since the parking lot did not allow for a very large mandala we designed three mandalas.  We had a larger 22’-D central mandala  flanked by two smaller 11’-D mandalas. The middle of the larger central mandala was designed and sketched by Monica Ley with a deep well of universal connection, cool and watery, bordered by 12 interconnected circles. The water representing the well of tears, as well as deep restorative waters. She designed 12 interconnected circles around the well, representing unity, connection, healing, wholeness, etc.

Around that we had 12 arched windows for pictorials, a curved background pattern holding it all together and a border representing the San Gabriel Mountains in the four seasons, with night and day, sunrise and sunset.

On Friday the 13th the 12 interconnected circles in the center became 13. There are 13 practitioners at HACA.Thirteen represents female cycles synchronized with the13 moons, our deep connection to the natural world.

One of the smaller mandalas I designed with 4 hummingbirds, a theme that came from the group, beaks coming together in a central red flower, and 4 radiant circles, representing healing rippling out into the community. It’s design influenced by my study of cymatics.

The Hummingbird Mandala’s four circles representing differing healing modalities were painted with: Mala beads, all 108 beads painstakingly painted, representing Eastern spiritual practices such as meditation and yoga, a lotus flower representing spiritual awakening, hearts with wings representing love, hope and freedom and three figures representing body, mind and spirit.

We chalked a grid for the third mandala but did not have a design for it. Evergreen Hericks, Mandala Maven from Ojai, came to paint with us and she started improvising. Hannah Drumright, Ojai Mandala protégé, and I joined in as it was taking shape. Someone said it looked like a turtle, which in indigenous creation tales, represents the earth. I added a head and four feet and Evergreen drew the tail. The Turtle Mandala was fancifully painted with a central spiral, the phases of the moon, cocoons and paisleys. Paisley designs represent fertility and strength. Cocoons are where caterpillars are dissolved to be re-formed into winged creatures, symbolizing grief’s trajectory. The spiral representing the cyclical nature of life, growth and evolution.

The pictorials that were painted in the large mandala included these:

A mother and her teen daughter painted their home which was lost to the fire, with a huge rainbow emanating from the roof.

A teacher painted the schoolhouse she had taught at for decades, which was lost to the fire

A snake shedding its skin.

Energy flow painted by a chi gong teacher.

The 3 cypresses with a peacock, known to wander the area.

A bear representing the bear that co-habited with a man on his burned property after the fire.

The All-Seeing Heart.

A butterfly.

Leaves, flowers and bees.

A glowing tree with a rainbow snake.

Healing hands and candles.

The full Moon, clouds and rain with a doorway going in

and out of the life that was left, painted by a

15 year old and his grandmother

When working the way we do we have parts of the design that are static, they provide a framework for the pictorials. Some of what was painted in the pictorials was intentional and some symbols were painted intuitively. Together they make a story that is about the people, the time and place of the mandala’s making.

We painted an umbilicus upon the Earth, connecting to our Earth Mother, the Elementals, each other and the land. The colors and forms around us, those we were drawing and painting together, were our gift. The gift that we both gave and continue to receive as we co-created the magic carpet of the Altadena Community Healing Mandala.