Issue #196 - October 2021 |
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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. Whether you are new to SoulCollage®, or already immersed in the creation of your deck, Soul Songs is for you!
Please feel free to forward this newsletter to any friends, colleagues, or family members who will enjoy it.
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Hi! I'm Anne Marie, the creator of KaleidoSoul.com, and a SoulCollage® Facilitator in Massachusetts and worldwide online. This column is all about presenting ways to get your soul singing with the deep, wide, wonder-full process that is SoulCollage®.
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Anne Marie was on vacation in Maine when this issue was going to press, so she kindly defers to Cat Caracelo’s column (see below) on this fascinating topic. |
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.
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From Shame & Regret to Forgiveness:
Healing through SoulCollage®
with SoulCollage® Facilitator
Debrah Gai Lewis from Australia
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Date: Friday, October 15, 2021
Time:6 pm Eastern
Easily Accessible from Anywhere in the World!
$10 for non-members
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I am Cat Caracelo, M.A., a SoulCollage® facilitator, depth coach and artist recently moved from Petaluma, California to Austin, Texas where I am offering my work individually and in global teaching forums. This column is for all of you who are exploring your creativity and are ready to discover more depth in your SoulCollage® journey. |
Re-storying the Energy of Martyr |
For years, I rejected that I was a Martyr.
For years, I also unconsciously exercised being a Martyr.
It was a shock to my system when I saw this side of myself and let myself move closer to acknowledging it—and over time—to owning it.
There are a few specific ways I grew into this energy that became the self-imposed chains of martyr, and here is where it began:
For me, being a Martyr began with love.
The Martyr in me was also influenced and fueled by other experiences, but in the beginning it was Mother energy that informed Martyr the most.
The day my first child was born I held a new truth like a jewel in my heart. This mother love said to me, “I will sacrifice my life for her.” The unspoken commitment to love, and placing another into the position of valued beyond measure, caused a seismic event in my soul.
Martyr energy is perfect prima materia to explore pain, desire and underlying unmet needs that are often asking for attention and affection.
Have you ever heard these words- Don't be a martyr! Or equally dismissive- My little violin is playing a sad song for you. Many times, these words are given and received in jest, but there is something deeper to discover in Martyr energy. Such words can minimize one’s pain, shame, or shadow, all important areas to explore within creative process.
Let’s explore more.
We are all psychologically complex creatures, living in human form. Each of us will respond or react to the world around us through the lens of our own experiences and stories. Some of those stories we know, but some are hidden from view: not recognized or understood.
A simple way to explore our own knowing is to release the chains of terminology and embrace the complexity of our own human story. The Martyr can be experienced through the energy of pain, fear, love, shame, control, duty, expectation, and more. When Martyr energy shows up, it has important information to reveal.
Let’s unpack this.
Simply defined, a martyr is someone who suffers or who exaggerates suffering in order to get praise or sympathy. The archetypal source of Martyr is activated through different experiences. The word martyr often has a negative connotation, even though it actually meets a need, however indirect it might be.
The word martyr comes from the Greek word for witness. Despite the risk of injury or sacrifice, the Martyr archetype is committed to showing up even if there is suffering and unpleasantness attached to their desire to meet needs or inspire change.
Martyr energy is giving. It serves, sometimes at one’s own expense. Giving—both for the sake of serving and also to get accolades for their value—this energy can be tiring to navigate.
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When living inside of martyr energy, one might catch oneself doing for others what they can do for themselves, and then judging them for their lack of contribution, and follow through. A martyr may also do or give in order to receive, to feel important—or ironically—to get what they “don’t know” is missing or underrepresented in their life.
Needing, wanting, and not being conscious of it is a marker for the martyr. A martyr may also be devoted to duty, have a strong loyalty, and feel deeply committed on many levels to the well-being of another or others. This energy and reasoning can be misplaced and become overwrought—leading to sadness, misery, frustration, exhaustion, complaining, judging or feeling underappreciated.
The motivation of the martyr will dictate whether it shows up as a hero/heroine, advocate, or victim.
Historically, a martyr is someone who chooses to sacrifice their life or face pain and suffering for the sake of something they hold sacred. Today, the term is regularly used to describe someone who seems to always be suffering in one way or another. Do you know someone who is quick to share about their latest woe or a sacrifice they’ve made for someone else? They might even exaggerate to get sympathy or evoke guilt in others.
Martyr energy can feel confining, trapping, and claustrophobic, while Victim/Martyr energy can feel exhausting, sad, and scary. Content to seek or cycle through situations that hold trauma and drama is common. It is hard to find a neutral space for something that feels so tainted, but these energies are common, complex and human. Rather than negative or positive, perhaps they simply are telling a story.
What is most often held in Martyr energy is a hidden or unspoken truth, a secret or unknown story. Often that layer of knowing wants to be exposed, expressed and released, but has been trapped so it doesn’t know how to be seen. Once the Martyr can open or find enough distance from certain behaviors to see the patterns that are active, the deeper story will offer a mirror to illuminate what is missing or needs attention.
For me, being a Martyr was birthed in Mother, but became amplified by duty and care for another. It was hard to see and find because I was married (literally and figuratively) to the source of my strongest Martyr energy and patterns. Sincere desire to support and express love became duty and obligation. Giving, caring, and providing support in relationship was ultimately juxtaposed to my desire to be fully in reciprocal, loving relationship.
Martyr energy shines light on where one’s needs have gone unmet, where aspects of self will require tending and re-calibration. What the martyr needs most perhaps, is a safe space to tell the truth… the whole truth.
Martyr and Victim can show up together, although they are separate. There is value in exploring both to see how these archetypal patterns are offering you insight and support. If you can, offer the deeper layers of Martyr some space to be revealed, thus holding possibility for new knowledge and healing with non-judgement.
The Martyr who sees, claims and knows,
can release, change and shed the patterns
that hold them captive.
From here, the assets of this archetype are available to us
in ways that nurture us and others.
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Explore Your Deck for Martyr Energy |
Scan through your cards to seek a story that is connected to Martyr energy.
Is there a place in your life where you can find the Martyr? If so, pull some images and tear them to expose the raw edges of truth. Be curious! Notice what story comes through this emotional space.
Is the Martyr energy/pattern something you can see and claim, or is there another person you know who holds that pattern? Create a card that is a mirror - useful to hold to the Self in times of distress and challenge.
Where can you find, create, or see a part of yourself who is suffering with over-giving, unnecessary sacrifice, or unmet needs?
Be gentle with all of this and know that you too—just in reading this, and moreover through creative exploration—are offering so much to yourself and this world by uncovering pain, thus discovering the sources of real and lasting change.
Cat Caracelo, M.A. is a Depth Coach and SoulCollage® Facilitator since 2007. Working with Jungian Depth, archetypal awareness, expressive arts and transformative process she guides individual and group process internationally. Cat is the founder of JourneyPath® Institute. Her dynamic eCourses, Trainings, Programs and Retreats offer art as process and mythic themes to explore and develop personal experience that guides choice, possibility and aligned transformation. Please visit Cat’s website to find articles and information about coaching, classes and more:
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Here are some of our readers' cards on the theme of Martyr Archetype. |
Martyr
Committee Suit
Kathy
Oregon
I am the one who will take all the arrows. I am the one who will stand in front of the tank and Tiananmen Square. I am the one who will hang on the cross hoping it will help someone. I am the one who stands up as the tallest tree and takes all the lightning strikes. I am the one who knows that being a martyr is no fun. I am the one who hopes to learn that there are more quiet ways to influence change.
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Sacrificing Mother
Committee Suit
Michaela
California
I am one who lays it all on the line for my children. I am one who gives of myself, choosing to go without so that they may have, over and over, pouring love and effort and life-force into my progeny. When in balance, I am a strong and stable rock, a deep pool of resources from which my children draw. When out of balance, I am either absent (withdrawing into selfish indulgence) or in excess (pouring out all I have, sacrificing all of me until I am subsumed).
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Joan of Arc
Community Suit
Dot
Pennsylvania
I am one who disguised myself as a boy and then as a man to be able to do what I felt called to do. I am one who was willing to die for what I believed was right and true. I am one who would not surrender to what the dogmatic Church wanted me to say I believed. I am one who challenges all to follow the dictates of their hearts and souls no matter the cost.
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Ten of Swords
Council Suit
Tarot Subsuit
Karen
Ohio
I am the one ruined, defeated, brought low, victimized by my own mind. I’ve fallen on my sword, hung on the cross of my thoughts, wondered “why me?” Having reached rock bottom, I have nowhere to go but up. I see dawn on the horizon, a symbol of transformation in flight. Accepting responsibility for my dismal situation, I am liberated in consciousness, opening my mind to new possibilities. I am the Martyr, finally letting go of old self-destructive behaviors and thoughts and ready to begin my ascension.
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Martyr
Committee Suit
Norma
Australia
I am the one who commands you to stop sacrificing your time and energy for people and situations that drain you. I am the one who screams that it’s time to peel back the layers of conditioning and misguided beliefs. I am the one who casts away your mask and awakens you to an authentic life.
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Please feel free to submit one of your cards for a future issue by sending a reply email to this newsletter.
Future themes include:
November: Journeys
December: Saftey
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Noteworthy resources for anyone interested in SoulCollage®
KaleidoSoul - Spinning the fragments of your world into wholeness and beauty through SoulCollage®.
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KaleidoSoul
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NEW * FREE * SOULCOLLAGE® ONLINE SERIES * |
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FRE*E MASTERCLASS:
FOUNDATIONS OF DEPTH
with Cat Caracelo
November 4-9, 2021
Calling all seekers, deep thinkers and dreamers - intuitive, esoteric creatives who love to dive deep and explore - creatives, healers, educators, activators, alchemists and edge walkers ready to take a leap.
Learn how creative depth techniques and tools offer insight, healing, wisdom and resources that will support your life, work and creative connections. Discover ways to use your art as a catalyst for healing, releasing and redefining life.
Explore daily topics like Deep Diving in Challenging Times, Intuitive Path, Alchemy of Art, with bonus Creative Play sessions, Interviews and Q+A call!
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* RECOMMENDED ONLINE SOULCOLLAGE® CLASS *
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Using SoulCollage®
to Find the Gold in the Shadow
with Facilitators Jessica Snow and Somsara Rielly from California
November 13, 2021. Join us for some redemption and reclamation! In modern thinking, when we contemplate “shadow,” we tend to focus on the “bad” or “unhelpful” parts of us that we’ve hidden away. But guess what? We’ve also put a lot of excellent aspects of ourselves in there because at some point, we got the message those aspects were unacceptable, so we hid that gold in our shadow! Join Somsara Rielly and Jessica Snow (ART-x-MAGIC.com) for an inspirational online workshop, including meditation and card making, so we can find that excellence – that gold – and bring it back home into our daily lives.
Kindred Spirits save $10 on this class! Use your special coupon code.
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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.
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All articles in SOUL SONGS are copyrighted 2021,
by Anne Marie Bennett, Cat Caracelo, Linda Woolfson,
Marti Beddoe, or Michele Manos.
Articles may be reprinted by permission only.
Image of singing birds Copyright: Kudryashka from Deposit Photos.
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