“Pick six cards you like and one you don’t like,” the psychologist said to me.

I looked at the thirty-nine cards that were spread out on the white table before me. Each card, about the size of a playing card, was clear plastic with a different black symbol printed on it.

I seemed drawn to some symbols rather than others -and after a couple minutes, felt comfortable with my selections. I put the six symbol cards I liked and the one I didn’t to the side.

She then asked to me think of an issue. “You don’t have to tell me what it is. Just think about it and look at the cards again, and allow yourself to be drawn to two cards that seem to represent guidance for your issue.”

Almost immediately my issue came to mind. I had been thinking for months about going back to school. At the same time, I felt guilty. Our three children, who were two, four and five years old, were still young. I had been so grateful that I could stay home with them -until recently, when I had started wanting more. I wasn’t ready to work full time, but I had been thinking about going back to get my master’s degree. It would take at least three years, going part-time. And, worse, it would cost several thousand dollars each year. For months I had been going back and forth in my mind. I knew that if I went back to school, I would be able to get a job that paid better when I finally did go back to work. At the same time, I not only worried about the money, I also wondered how I would ever be able to find the time to study. I wished I had a crystal ball that would tell me what to do.

Then she took all the symbol cards away and spread out a rainbow of color cards in front of me handed me about the same number of color cards. The range of colors seemed to be present, from primaries and pastels to darker shades and even sparkle cards.

“Now, find the color that “goes with” with each of the symbols you have chosen, including the one you don’t like and the two you chose as guidance,” she said. She showed me how a color card could be put behind a symbol card so that the color showed through the symbol in various ways.

This was harder than I thought it would be. Colors that I thought I liked, just didn’t seem to go with certain symbols. I really pondered with my choices until finally I felt satisfied.

She then placed the six symbol cards and colors pairs I liked and the pair I didn’t like on a large board called the Great Round. It had twelve stages arranged in a circle, as well as one stage in the middle, which represented the developmental stages of life. What was revealed was almost like a picture of my psyche.

Then, she began to tell me about myself.

It was amazing!

She immediately picked up that I was beginning something new. She also picked up on the struggle -and many other things that made so much sense.

I confirmed that she was absolutely right -especially about the issue I was struggling with.

“I just don’t know what to do.” The words just poured out of me. “I keep going back and forth. I wish I knew what to do.”

“Well, actually you do……..” she said, as she placed the guidance cards, that I had chosen earlier, on the Great Round.

“Your guidance cards indicate that you feel intuitively that you should start something new that involves learning. A part of you already sees yourself in the world as a thinker, using your mind. There is energy and will and assertiveness to do this new thing you are thinking about. Does that make sense to you?” she asked, as she showed me where my guidance cards fit on the Great Round. “The guidance cards seem to indicate a new beginning around learning. Does this seem to speak to your issue?” I hadn’t told her anything about my issue.

I was amazed -and relieved. In one hour she had not only identified exactly what I was struggling with, she had provided a solution!

She laughed when I told her this. “This isn’t my solution -it’s yours! This solution came right from your own intuitive guidance. That’s why you can trust it.”

The MARI (Mandala Assessment Research Instrument) is a creative instrument that uses symbols and colors to reveal a picture of consciousness. It is based on the concept of the mandala , made popular by Carl Jung.

A mandala is a pencil drawn circle on a piece of paper. The directions for completing it are “Surprise yourself.” Using pastels or colored pencils, a person just fills in the space.

Art therapists have long known that drawn mandalas are “pictures” that can be read. There is a direct connection between the symbols, colors and placement one chooses in a drawn mandala and what is going on in their life at the time.

We respond intuitively to symbols and colors. Symbols predate language, culture and even time, and are so basic to our perceptions that we rarely respond to them consciously.

For example, people who are beginning or ending something, feeling a need to defend themselves, or functioning at full consciousness typically draw symbols that reflect those stages.

The MARI reveals at least five levels of information from one’s psyche -both conscious and other-than-conscious.

Each stage of the MARI equates to a developmental stage in human consciousness -both personally and collectively. Joan Kellogg was the art therapist who made the brilliant connection between drawn mandalas and the developmental stages of life. In essence, after combining her intuitive insight with years of studying mandalas from all over the world, she developed a way to systematize mandalas. Since her discovery, the fields of evolutionary biology and psychology have confirmed that her intuition and knowledge were “right on.”

There are three symbols at each stage -each representing a variation of that stage. For example, the three symbols at the stage of Beginnings can reveal whether or not the person is literally ‘ready to go,’ whether they need support to begin or are passively waiting to be helped. In addition,  issues around pregnancy, parenting or even a new idea will show up at the Beginning stage.

Color further enlivens and informs each symbol by adding additional meaning relative to the cognitive, emotional, physical and spiritual aspects to that stage.

The full synthesis of the interpretation is revealed in the way that all the symbols and colors relate to each other.

The guidance cards provide the intuitive guidance of the subject relative to an issue in his or her life. Because the intuitive guidance comes directly from the client, short-term therapy a very real and viable possibility.

The MARI is vital, flexible and synergistic assessment tool that is as unlimited as the people who take it. It provides immediate and multi-leveled information about adolescent and adult clients in almost any therapeutic setting. Its non-verbal format is non-threatening, and even enjoyable for the client. It can be used by anyone who works with others or wishes to better understand themselves.

Importantly, it is the only instrument that can identify and address the deepest mystical and spiritual states.