Issue #224 - February 2024 |
|
|
Greetings, and welcome to Soul Songs, the official KaleidoSoul Newsletter, focusing on SoulCollage® ideas, resources and cards. Our intention is to fill each issue (and your life) with inspiration, soul-solace and delight.
Please feel free to forward this newsletter to any friends, colleagues, or family members who will enjoy it.
|
|
Hi! I'm Anne Marie, the creator of KaleidoSoul.com, and a SoulCollage® Facilitator in Massachusetts and worldwide online. |
The Lost Art of Letter Writing |
Back in the "old days," I was an avid letter writer. There was no such thing as email or texting back in the 70's when I was in high school and college. I had a few pen pals (one in England, one in Maine) and it was the highlight of my day when I'd receive a handwritten letter from one of them. Equally, I delighted in writing letters back to them. It became a hobby for me as writing letters in response was both a pleasure and an expressive outlet.
I’m talking real letters here, folks! Pretty stationery and colored pens, with stickers and quotes written in my somewhat-elegant handwriting on the backs of envelopes. Not just a few sentences either—sometimes I turned out extra pages that required additional postage.
Over the years, my passion for letter writing faded as email (and then texting) came into vogue. Don't get me wrong. I love my email accounts; my business wouldn't be as healthy and growing as it is without access to Gmail and Yahoo! I do send long, chatty missives sometimes to certain friends, and there is something lovely about the immediacy of email where I don’t have to wait for several days for a “real” letter to get to someone and then wait even more days for their letter to get to me.
In early 2021, a friend told me about a volunteer organization called Soldiers' Angels, and I immediately felt excited! Now, several times a month, I write real letters on real stationery to various deployed members of our Armed Forces. All volunteers get to know is the person's name and military address. We don't know exactly where they are deployed and we don't expect responses, but over the last few years, I have heard back from men and women deployed in Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Germany, and more.
The experience has been so rewarding that in one of my novels, Feathers in the Sand, I included a character who decides to join the Army and go through Basic Training. His mother (Tess) and sister (Eva) are left behind, bereft, and begin to write him "real" letters (as well as email and Facetime sessions).
While cleaning out the closet in my study last month, I came across a shoebox stuffed with letters that I’d saved, some of them dating back to high school! These, of course, were letters that I had received over the years from teachers, friends, students, and family members. It was a tender and joyful experience to open all those envelopes and read such encouraging, love-filled words from years past. It made me feel nostalgic, and a certain longing for the “good ol’ days” when communicating with someone across the miles meant sitting down at a desk and spending dedicated time focusing on them with pen and paper.
|
Anne Marie Bennett is a SoulCollage® Facilitator / Trainer, published author, website goddess, and two-time cancer survivor who was mentored directly by Seena Frost.Anne Marie lives in eastern Massachusetts with her middle-aged husband, one adolescent feline, and a treasury of birds, squirrels and chipmunks who keep them hopping. Her books about SoulCollage® are available here.
|
Infusing Grace Into Your Grief Journey
90-minute SoulCollage® Zoom with Facilitator
Patti Lockenbach from Florida
Date: Friday, February 9
Time: 1pm Eastern
FR*EE for our
Only $10 for non-members
Easily Accessible from Anywhere in the World!
|
Hobbies as
Identification Cards
There are unlimited pathways for understanding ourselves. SoulCollage® explores our many intricate parts and reveals how they fit together. Our Committee Suit reflects the facets of who we are and what we do. I recently used my SoulCollage deck to ponder the question What do our hobbies and interests reveal about us? After all, “hobbies and interests” are universal interview topics; they are commonly included on CVs and resumes. Perhaps they are windows to our authentic selves.
By hobbies and interests, I’m referring to activities we pursue in our “free” time or for which we “make” time. Those of us who read Soul Songs share at least one interest—a personal SoulCollage® practice. My deck includes a Committee card for my identity as a Facilitator (less hobby and more professional interest), two Community cards for my mentor, Seena Frost, and a card-in-progress for SoulCollager friends. My SoulCollage® practice feels anchored in the archetypes of Explorer and Healer; both are reflected among my Council cards.
|
My most constant hobbies are clearly represented in my Committee (shown above): Gardener, Reader, and Good Cook. Gardening and cooking are active and productive, while reading is more passive and receptive. I was glad to see this balance in my repertoire! Reflecting on these cards, I wondered how they related to each other and to other parts of me.
Well, I do eat some of what I grow, so my Gardener and Good Cook are particularly close comrades. All three interests began in childhood and never stopped. Interestingly, each card includes an image that is youthful (the decorated cookie reflects early adventures). However, I plan to further honor the little bookworm and school library enthusiast, with a card of her own.
Who influenced or taught me these hobbies? I’ll attribute my love of reading to my patient Granny, to some great elementary school teachers, and to the iconic headmaster who blew me away with World Literature in high school. Also, I must acknowledge the local libraries that continue to nourish me. Ah, some overdue cards that have been on my list for years! In contrast, my gardening and cooking mentors are well represented in my Community suit, with my mother, aunties, and grandparents. (I do owe the New York Times a card though. It informs my cooking as it offers much of my reading pleasure!)
|
Browsing my Council cards, I methodically selected three (shown above). The Creator is clearly linked to cooking and gardening (note that the image is planting something!). Creator energy also infuses my reading as it brings new perspectives. My Gardener card shows a young woman ready to do some serious pruning. It occurs to me that the archetypal Creator/Destroyer duo is inherently at play in all gardens. My Reader Neter also embraces that dichotomy, as old ways of thinking are often deconstructed by poetry or prose. My Goddess Neter “Academiana” required inclusion since I take a scholarly approach to almost everything. She advised “read all you want, but please experiment with a few plants and see how it goes.”
I didn’t expect a Companion Animal to relate to these hobbies, but Beaver proudly declared his ability to completely change the terrain—with one dam—to be “landscaping skills!”
Here are some explorations you might try:
1. Start with SoulCollage®. If you haven’t yet, create a Committee card that represents your SoulCollager or Facilitator self. Consider a Community card for Seena Frost, or honor others who have nourished your SoulCollage® journey.
2. Take inventory of your hobbies and interests, then browse your deck. Are any of these pursuits yet represented in your deck, directly or indirectly?
3. Your Committee suit is a great place to represent hobbies and passionate interests. Once you have identified or created some Neters, explore how they interrelate or complement each other. Any younger selves that strongly influenced a current interest/hobby?
4. Who influenced your hobbies/interests? These may be close family, friends, or people known from afar. Are they represented in your Community suit? What about places or groups that support or have supported your hobbies?
5. What archetypal energies compel or inspire your hobbies? Do you have Couuncil cards for those influential forces?
6. Do any of your Companion Animals influence or support your choice and pursuit of specific hobbies?
I hope you enjoy your discoveries. Here’s to a new hobby: “better understanding ourselves through our interests and hobbies!”
|
Dr. Michele Manos lives in Marin County, California and is the developer of SoulCollage® Card Games and Playing with a Full Deck Retreats. She trained as a Facilitator in 2008 with Seena Frost and has enthusiastically shared the magic of SoulCollage® ever since. Learn about her upcoming virtual gatherings and courses on her web page.
|
|
Here are some of our readers' Hobby cards: |
The Reader
Committee Suit
Natalie
Colorado
I am one who loves to read. I am one who learns much through books and articles on many topics every day. I am entertained, enlightened, and changed by what I read!
|
The Cook
Committee Suit
Dot
Pennsylvania
I am one who enjoys cooking. I am one who knows how to follow a recipe and also improvises on my own. I am one who thanks my mother, who was a home economics educator, for teaching me to cook, and for enrolling me in Girl Scouts and 4-H, where I also learned to cook. I am one who makes a tasty meatloaf and also my grandmother's depression era chocolate cake that uses no butter or eggs. almost as much as I enjoy eating!
|
My Baseball Card
Committee Suit
Christy
Ohio
I am one who loves all things baseball especially Badin Ram baseball! I honor my mother’s deep love for Badin Baseball by continuing to follow the teams. I am one who appreciates the game and the members of the baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY - and those who should be! I once walked on the grass at Crosley Field and held a big-league bat in my hand. I am one who is a connection between you and your mother and always will be. I am My Baseball Card.
|
Painter
Committee Suit
Dee
Wisconsin
I Am One Who sees the world in colors, light, shadows, sparkles, movement, and loves to paint. I am one who sees both with the eyes and with the heart. I am one who listens to my intuition and follows wherever it leads me. I want you to trust your mind's eye, see with your heart and allow your love to flow with the paint. Remember that boundless creativity and imagination are within you! Break out your brushes!
|
Info Junkie
Committee Suit
Sharyn
Washington
I am one who seeks information, whose goal is to learn something new every year. I am one who reads everything my eyes fall upon. I am one who asks what other people think. I am one who makes up my own mind.
|
Creativity
Committee Card
Penelope
Arizona
I am one who weaves a domestic web of life. I am one who masters the art of comfort and home. I am one who gets profound joy from color, texture, light and dark, diversity and innovation. I am one who becomes more as I age.
|
My Inner SoulCollager
Committee Suit
Dot
Pennsylvania
I am one who is a part of the world-wide community of SoulCollagers. I am one who found solace through making cards that represented my sister Sally’s life after she passed. I am one who discovers wisdom from my Deep Within every time I pull a single card and dialogue with it in my journal or do a reading with multiple cards. I am one who uses SoulCollage as my primary spiritual practice, welcoming me into the Deep Within, introducing me to SoulCollagers across the world, and nurturing my creative spirit. I am one who values my deck as one of my most significant treasures and is grateful to Seena Frost, who created this practice as a gift to the world.
|
Please feel free to submit one of your cards for a future issue by sending a reply email to this newsletter.
Future themes include:
March: Music
April: Crone
|
|
Online Series with Facilitator Kata Ritenburg
March – June 2024
|
|
Align with your own Cosmic Creatrix and archetypal energies
(Possibility, Potential, Purpose, Power, and Passion)
to make a change or start something new in your life
wherever you’ve been feeling blocked or stuck.
In this 4-month journey, Kata brings together SoulCollage®, art making, journaling, prompted inquiry, guided visualization, mindfulness exercises, and group coaching to support you wherever you are on your life's journey.
|
|
SoulCollage® Deck Tending:
Ministering to Our Authentic Selves
with Facilitator Michele Manos
4 quarterly Zoom sessions (3 hours each)
Magic happens when we listen and tend to our cards! Our Neters thrive when consulted and acknowledged. When they thrive, so do we. In four quarterly sessions, you’ll revive your unique relationships with your Neters. Consider what cards are seeking repurposing, revision, or perhaps retirement. Find pathways to manage, or even de-clutter, your deck to create a collaborative team of allies who are accessible and available for your deepest needs. In each unique 3-hour session, Michele will guide you to: explore new or unsettled cards; better understand a known Neter; connect multiple cards; explore with creative writing; identify Neters yet to come. There’s lots more info on this page.
Register before March 1, Save $20.00
|
|
Using SoulCollage® to Create Your Grief Toolbox
with Facilitator Patti Lockenbach
4-Session Zoom Series
February – May 2024
In this four-part series, you’ll be guided to create a toolbox that will provide grounding support when using the SoulCollage® process to explore Grief through the four suits. In the Community suit, we’ll use our cards to identify those who are able to walk with us on our grief journey. We will also use the Committee suit to discover the parts of our selves where grief shows up. The Companions suit will help us discern where grief lives in our bodies, and within the Council suit, we’ll explore the archetypal energy of Grief that touches everyone.
Our Kaleidosoul Kindred Spirits Members are saving $35.00 on this unique, beneficial SoulCollage® series. If you’re a Kindred Spirit, be sure to use your special coupon code. Not a Kindred Spirit yet but love SoulCollage®? Join us here.
|
|
MEXICO - 2 spaces left!
Treat Yourself Right with SoulCollage®
San Pancho, Nayarit Mexico
February 22 – March 1, 2024
Facilitator: Nancy Clingan
Enjoy the beauty and culture of the Pacific coast of Mexico! We’ll share SoulCollage® every day, stay at a beautiful hotel with ocean view and pool, enjoy the delicious foods of Mexico, do some bird watching, cook a Mexican dinner with professional chefs, receive an Ayurvedic facial, practice yin yoga with a stupendous ocean view, share sacred cacao ceremony and ecstatic dance, create Ojos de Dios (Eyes of God), and attend an optional music festival! Email Nancy for more information soon.
|
|
MASSACHUSETTS
In-Person SoulCollage® Facilitator Training
May 22-26, 2024
Westfield, Massachusetts
Trainer: Isabel Phillips
This is a four-night, four-day, in-person SoulCollage® Facilitator Training held in a beautiful retreat setting in western Massachusetts. Participants in this Training will develop the skills needed to share the powerful SoulCollage® process in the world: how to prepare and offer a variety of workshops, how to create brave space to empower participants, and how to adapt workshops to match the needs of different audiences. The Training covers business and ethical considerations, and new Facilitators will leave with the clarity, competence, and inspiration to become part of a global community of over 5,000 Facilitators serving the world! More information here.
|
|
ENGLAND
Return to Avalon Goddess Retreat and Pilgrimage
Glastonbury, England
May 9-17, 2024
Facilitator: Cat Caracelo
Travel to the place of myth and memories, where the landscape is a mirror of the Soul. Glastonbury, the ancient isle of Avalon is rich with sacred and ancient sites. Explore the earth-based, mystic energies; honor the Goddess in the bounty of Spring. Make inspired art with SoulCollage® and more as you deepen your story in this all-inclusive women's retreat! We will celebrate the lingering Spring with Beltane Energies still influencing our hearts. This is a special season that evokes soul growth and beauty.
|
|
Just look for whatever SoulCollage® topic you are interested in,
and read to your heart's content!
SoulCollage® is a trademarked process created by Seena B. Frost.
For more information about Seena and the origins of SoulCollage®,
SoulCollage® cards are made either from one's own art or from images found in materials which have been bought by or given to the SoulCollage® card maker. These collaged cards are used only for the cardmaker's own inner exploration. SoulCollage® cards are not sold, traded, bartered, or copied (except as a back-up for the cardmakers own use) as is stated in the "Principles of SoulCollage®."
Where SoulCollage® cards are available to be seen by others, it is for the purposes either of demonstrating the SoulCollage® process or of sharing the cardmakers' inner process in the context of community. SoulCollage® is grateful to the artists and photographers who make this deep awakening process possible and in all ways SoulCollage® seeks to be respectful of their rights.
|
|
All articles in SOUL SONGS are copyrighted 2024,
by Anne Marie Bennett, Cat Caracelo, Linda Woolfson,
Michaela Daystar, or Michele Manos.
Articles may be reprinted by permission only.
Image of singing birds Copyright: Kudryashka from Deposit Photos.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
