Here we are standing in the kingdom,
Malkuth, looking up into the Tree of Life. Malkuth is the sephiroth within the Qabalah system associated with the realm of earthly matter. It is the world of our day to day life, the physical realm, Earth.
Many of the mandalas I've worked on always seem to have the intimation of a circle of entities or people around the outer edges. The same holds true with this one. I can see what looks like a group of bearded men. Some are wearing large turbans, others seem to be in dark robes of some sort wearing crowns or headpieces. They seem to be singing or chanting. They each hold a cup or a chalice.
The men emerged as an image and were present through most of the process of making this mandala. At one point I tried to eliminate them as I like to keep the mandalas mostly abstract, letting the viewer's eyes determine what is seen. I'm kind of glad they're still in there...or maybe they aren't really there at all and they're just what
I'm seeing and bringing to the piece. :-)
{Digital Images manipulated in Photoshop}