Rangoli

Photos by Racquel G. Smith

Editor’s note: These photos were taken by Racquel G. Smith in the Gokulam neighborhood of Mysore, India, where the householders make beautiful mandalas in front of their houses. This ritual is called Rangoli, and the mandalas are believed to bring good luck and prosperity and welcome the gods. While this has been a traditionally female spiritual practice, it is now practiced by all genders.

These echo the mandalas we make as part of our breathwork experiences, talismans that encode our experiences in the transpersonal.