As you may know, when we listen to and work with a SoulCollage® card—no matter what the suit is—we speak from the voice of the image(s) on the card. This is fairly straightforward (although it takes practice) when working with every suit BUT the Community suit!

Why? Because when we make cards to honor the people and animals and sacred places in our lives, it can be difficult (at first) to speak from the voice of those beloved persons, pets, and places instead of from our own voice looking at them.

Here's an example:

This is a card I made to honor a sacred place in my own life—Kripalu, a yoga retreat center in western Massachusetts. My first inclination when I look at this card is to say:

But… If you read it again, you will become aware that that is ME talking ABOUT the sacred place.

Now listen to this. I wrote this after I said “Who are you?” to Kripalu, then closed my eyes and imagined what Kripalu was saying to me:

I am the one who was built on holy ground. I am the one who is full of sacred space and wild, unreserved beauty. I am the one who is open and yielding, who is here for you whenever you need me. I am the one who is a restful place on your journey. I give you rest and healing and sanctuary. I give you a place to stop, to remember who you are.

Here’s another example. This card honors another Community suit member—my beloved cat, Seymour, who died one year ago this week.

If I look at this card without pausing to switch my thoughts to Seymour’s thoughts, I might say this:

Don’t get me wrong! There is nothing wrong about expressing myself this way.

But . . . I have found that if I can take some time and let myself imagine what Seymour might be saying to me, then I am able to tap into something more powerful and helpful. Listen to this, as I speak from Seymour’s voice instead of my own:

I hope that you can see, hear, and feel the difference that comes from speaking FROM the voice of the Community Neter instead of from your own voice looking at the Neter.

Please note that the journaling with all of the example cards shared by our readers are written from the voice of the sacred place itself, not from the person who appreciates the sacred place (except for Kas's card which represents a part of her inner Committee).

Choose one of your Community cards and ask it:

“Who are you?”

Then listen carefully to its voice, to its words.

Enter that person, pet, or place with your imagination.

What do you hear?

Anne Marie Bennett is a SoulCollage® Facilitator / Trainer, published author, website goddess, and two-time cancer survivor who was mentored directly by Seena Frost. In 2005, she fell in love with SoulCollage® and was inspired to use her professional experience along with web technology as a means to serve the world by putting SoulCollage® "out there" in a really big way with KaleidoSoul. 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 other books about SoulCollage® are available here.

Date: Thursday, May 12, 2022

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If you were to make a list of your top ten sacred places, which places would be on your list? Mount Sinai? Chartres Cathedral? Angkor Wat? Sedona? Glastonbury Tor? I wonder how many on your list are world-renowned sites and how many might be more personal, perhaps known only to you. The connections we co-create with our personal sacred places can be as varied as those we weave with the humans and animals we love and are inspired by.

Since way back in time people have sensed the powerful effect of our environment on our lives. For many past cultures, and for some indigenous people today, everything, including places, is infused with the sacred life-force of which we are a part. In the ancient cultures of Greece and Rome, they believed that every person, thing, concept or place had its own in-dwelling spark of the divine. They called this the “genius.” For the Romans, each place had its “genius loci” – the divine spark inherent to a particular place. For Linda Lappin (author, The Soul of Place), the modern equivalent of sensing the “genius loci” is “a form of intelligence operating within the environment in synergy with human beings.” In other words, the sacred nature of a place lies in the relationship we build with it. 

We SoulCollagers are blessed with a fantastic space for exploring our relationships to places – the Community suit in our SoulCollage® deck. Seena Frost (beloved founder of SoulCollage®) highly recommends that we bring into our Community suit not just cards for people and pets, but also some “place cards.” The places Seena mentions are highly personal: a bench we like to visit, our childhood room, or a vacation spot that has precious memories.

As someone who leads a dual-based life between Portugal and the UK, creating and connecting with my place cards is a valuable tool in my repertoire of ways to settle down and feel fully present when I’ve changed countries. Reconnecting with my special places is a sacred process for me. When I arrive in Portugal, like a homing pigeon I return to a place in the countryside about a kilometer from where we live. Among rolling hills overlooking the sea, at some times of year half-hidden among the wildflowers, olive trees and gorse bushes, are some Roman ruins. For over twenty years now I’ve walked through and sat in this spot. We carried our dog Bonnie there he day before she passed away. To me, this apparently undistinguished place – it’s not in the guidebooks - emanates a sacred energy of peace and kindness:

Creating a Community suit card for “my” Roman ruins has deepened my experience of this sacred spot and continues to enhance my visits.

Another special place for me is the River Nene, which flows right outside our apartment. During the pandemic—when I stayed in the UK for almost two years—the River Nene invited me to walk along its banks every day, infusing me with a life-enhancing sense of flow on a more-than-human level:

I am grateful to Seena for expressing how unique our relationships to our special places can be. If you haven’t yet delved into this aspect of the Community suit, you might enjoy browsing through the photos you’ve already taken of the places you love, printing some out and creating a SoulCollage® card or two. You may well discover that making and connecting with your “place cards” deepens your connection with these places.

Here are some themes you might explore in place cards you already have:

I wish you creative joy as you make and connect with your personal sacred places.

Linda Woolfson, MA, PhD is a SoulCollage® Facilitator and Trainer, writer, translator and creativity catalyst. After spending her childhood in South Africa, she lived and studied in several different countries. She now enjoys a dual-based life between the United Kingdom and Portugal, running SoulCollage® and creativity workshops, SoulCollage® Trainings, and retreats in both countries. She trained with Seena Frost as a SoulCollage® Facilitator in 2010 and has been a SoulCollage® Trainer since 2014. To find out more about Linda’s workshops, SoulCollage® Facilitator Trainings and retreats visit http://www.collageyourlife.co.uk

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