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This is the entry I drew for DeviantArt's "The Holi Mandala Contest". 🏵️✨ I was inspired by the three following things to draw this mandala:

👉My indigenous heritage: My great-great-grandmother, Petrona, was a descendant of indigenous people. She wore her hair in an ankle-length braid and used to tie it over her head to smuggle things across the border, lol. She liked to smoke chala leaf tobacco and her great-grandchildren say she was extremely serious, silent, and that I'm very much like her in appearance. 😊

👉Some of my favorite tarot cards: My paternal grandmother used to read them when I was little and I continue the family tradition since then. 🔮 The cards featured in this mandala are: The World, The Wheel of Fortune, The Sun, The Moon, The Devil, The Magician, The Star, and Death.

👉My meditative practices: I've been meditating for about 20 years and the color palette I picked for this mandala corresponds to the colors of the human Chakra/Energy Centers. 🌈 The Hindu prayer mala beads that appear on it were also inspired by my own set of mala beads, which first belonged to a tibetan monk, and that I was gifted by a kind Tumblr user many years ago. 📿

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I've been drawing mandalas since I was a teenager because I've always been fascinated by Hindu culture (the best meditative techniques I've learned come from Hindu and Tibetan cultures) and mandalas are also super relaxing to create and decorate. 🌼

Mandalas are used as a tool for contemplation and meditation, so here's a little explanation of the meaning behind each symbol drawn in the different "gates" (circles/sections) of this one:

🕉️1st Gate (center): The World Card. The Universe. The third eye chakra. The eye that perceives the universe so it can exist. Throat chakra. The power of speech and thought. I think, therefore I am. The chakra at the top of the head. The connection to the whole. The separate individual. Identity. The Self.

🕉️2nd Gate: The Wheel of Fortune Card. Time. Seasons. Inevitable changes. Growth. Movement. The solar system. The Gods of my ancestors. Emotions. Luck. Opposites coexisting as part of a whole.

🕉️3rd Gate: The cards waiting to be turned over. Destiny. The future. What is hidden.

🕉️4th Gate: The flames of Spirit. Creativity. Inspiration. Creation. Destruction. Purification. The sparkle of life.

🕉️5th Gate: My ancestors. The Devil Card. Protection. Strength. Support. Slaves who break their chains and raise their hands from the abyss, setting fire to the darkness. Survival instinct. Determination. The will to carry on.

🕉️6th Gate: The Magician card. The Star card. As above, so below. Manifestation. The morning star appearing in the sky at sunrise and sunset. Liminal spaces. Healing. Miracles. Achieving the impossible. Guides pointing the right way.

🕉️7th Gate: Feathers symbolizing freedom (flying high like a bird) of the mind and spirit (indigo and blue) and feathers symbolizing freedom of the body (red and orange).

🕉️8th Gate: Death Card. Material world/physical plane. Inevitability of change. Transformation. Humanity. The planet earth. Unity. Equality. Connection. We're different, yet we're all the same.

🕉️9th Gate: The laws of nature. Balance. Nothing can exist in the absence of its opposite. Cosmic protection and order. Containment. Harmony between instinct and reason. The Hindu prayer mala beads start the universe in the tassel section and end it when it completes its turn. Ouroboros, the snake that bites its own tail. The cycle of reincarnation. The beyond.

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🎨Materials used: Sheet of plain paper, black needlepoint rollerball pen, and "Caran d'Ache" + "Faber-Castell" watercolor coloring pencils.

⏳Drawing & coloring time: 28 hours.