The Dogon medicine men of Mali draw patterns in the sand and later read the paw prints left in the night by the desert fox to divine the future. Tibetan Buddhist monks spend weeks creating the Kalachakra sand mandala which is used for contemplation and initiation into Tantric practices. Donald Sandner, in Nava ho Symbols of Healing, wrote about the Navaho sand painting ceremonies in which images of world order are created to invoke the healing powers that bring the psyche of the people back into harmony with the universe. Upon the completion of all these ritual s the sand is brushed away and dispersed. Whether the makers of these sand creations are children, healers, or priests, potent and ineffable energies can be stirred on an intuitive, non-rational level.
Sand opens the door to the unconscious world.
In western European folklore, the sandman puts children to sleep by sprinkling sand into their eyes. The sand particles, created by the disintegration of the earth's r ocks, are ideal for pouring and shaping into an image of the symbolic world. So it's not surprising that psychotherapists as contemporary healers stumbled upon playing in the sand as a therapeutic method. Margaret Lowenfeld, a pioneering child psychoanalyst during the 30's, was the first therapist to put sand into trays with wa ter and figures nearby in her consulting room. Dora Kalff was initially influenced by Emma and Carl Jung and her immersion in Tibetan Buddhism.