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.
|
|
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®.
|
Hawaiian Shaman Hank Wesselman teaches that every child who is born into this world has a bowl of perfect light within him/her. If the child lives from their center and honors this light, then he/she grows in strength, ability, and wisdom. However, if they do things against their light’s true nature, or if they allow feelings like hate, fear, or judgement to rule them, then a metaphorical stone is dropped into their bowl of light.
Every stone that is dropped into their bowl obscures some of the light in their bowl. If enough stones fall into that bowl, the light will eventually go out.
However, when the child is ready, all he or she needs to do is to practice Kalana, which means forgiveness of self and others. This practice (and it is a practice!) enables us to turn our bowls upside down and allow the stones to fall out, one by one—and sometimes all at once!
In her book, Girls Rising, Urana Jackson says that in the course of a human life, some experiences and events will inevitably lead us away from our highest nature. It is important to remember, however, that the core essence of who we are is exquisite and whole. Perhaps just knowing this is one of the essential ways of bringing us back to our own bowl of light.
In the northern hemisphere, we are approaching the season of Spring. The light is starting earlier in the morning and lasting a bit later in the evening. However, any time of year is fitting for looking into our metaphorical bowls and inquiring of ourselves what—if any—stones are in the way of our own intended light.
You could also think of this bowl of light as your SoulEssence. Each living being has this spark of the divine Source within them, including YOU. Kalana can become a simple daily practice to remove any stones that hold judgement of others, or any stones that represent events we need to forgive in ourselves or others.
Putting It Into Practice
In your journal, explore these questions, or any others that arise:
1. Am I carrying stones in my own bowl of light?
2. Can I name some of these stones right now?
3. What would my life look like if I let go of some of these stones?
4. What does my bowl of light look like?
Consider making a SoulCollage® card for your own bowl of light. Or make a card to honor one of the “stones” that you’ve let go of.
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 and two adolescent felines who keep them hopping. Anne Marie’s books about SoulCollage® are available here.
|
75-minute SoulCollage® Zoom
with SoulCollage® Facilitator
Kat Kirby from Arizona
|
Date: Monday, March 15, 2021
Time: 2pm Eastern
Easily Accessible from Anywhere in the World!
|
I’m Linda Woolfson, MA, PhD, SoulCollage® Trainer/Facilitator, writer, translator and creativity catalyst. I love and appreciate how SoulCollage® invites us to tune in more fully to experiencing our everyday life. Springtime is a great time of year to and explore and celebrate the presence of light in our lives.
|
Enlightenment Inside
Your SoulCollage® Deck
What’s the very first thing you notice when you wake up in the morning, before you even open your eyes? Behind your closed lids, do you find yourself absorbing the quality of the light? As all life on Earth revolves around the core rhythm of light and darkness, this first intuitive sensing of the day may be something we share with many species of living beings as well as other humans.
The invention of electricity radically changed the rhythm of human life, shifting our relationship with light. Yet while we flood our environment with artificial light at any time of the day or night, we can see that many people suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), brought on by sunlight deficiency in northern winters. While we may not consciously be aware of it minute by minute, the quality of light is still central to our lives: the spring sunshine tends to raise our energy level, calling us to greater exuberance. We tend to be more inward-looking during the shorter days and longer nights of winter.
Poets, artists and other creatives (such as you!) can bring our sensitivity to the qualities of light into the foreground. Here’s Emily Dickinson on the winter light of the northeast United States:
There’s a certain Slant of light,
Winter Afternoons –
That oppresses, like the Heft
Of Cathedral Tunes –
And here she observes the tentative arrival of springtime:
A Light exists in Spring
Not present on the Year
At any other period —
When March is scarcely here
A Color stands abroad
On Solitary Fields
That Science cannot overtake
But Human Nature feels.
How beautifully she reminds us of our intuitive, often unconscious relationship with seasonal changes “That science cannot overtake/But Human Nature feels.”
SoulCollage® can be a fabulous process for tuning in to your unique relationship with light. Here are my suggestions for some light-oriented SoulCollage® activities:
1. Start by spreading all your cards around you. Notice how light is already a presence in your deck. It may help you to begin your inquiry by answering some of these questions: Are most of your cards “set” in the daytime? What time of day? How does night-time appear in your deck? Which season(s) of the year do you tend to favor? Do some of your cards have a source of light in them? Pick out one card and imagine it onstage in a theatre: how is your card lit? From the front? From the side? From the back? Is the lighting in your card harsh or subdued, strong or subtle? White or mixed?
2. Once you’ve done this, try speaking from or through the light in your cards, as if the light were the Neter of the card – rather like Emily Dickinson does. Here is one such “light-reading” from my own deck:
|
Embrace Your Brilliance (Council Suit)
I am the strong, clear light of a summer high noon in southern Europe – Greece perhaps, Portugal or Spain. I am clear and confident. I stream out the light of audacity, abundance, ease and grace. I am poised at the center, so high in the sky I cast almost no shadow. Like a fully open eye, I see you clearly. I see the best in you. I say to you: reach for your higher Self. Go for it!
Having explored in these ways, how about making a quick list of anything concerning light which you’ve noticed as being absent in your deck? How about a Lighthouse card? A campfire maybe? Or some awe-inspiring light effects – the Northern Lights? A Rainbow card? Or perhaps some highpoints of the year - the Summer and Winter Solstices? Cards for special times of day such as dawn or dusk?
Here’s a card in my deck celebrating our global connection with rituals and traditions involving light:
|
Keeper of the Flame (Committee Suit)
I am one who is of the long lineage of the Light Keepers. Quietly I light the candles, content to play my part in the sequence of generations. I am one who pays homage to the light.
I hope you enjoy following your curiosity and discovering lots of wonderful new ways to bring more light into your deck and into your life.
Linda Woolfson, MA, PhD is a SoulCollage® Facilitator and Trainer, writer, translator and creativity catalyst. Of South African origin, she usually enjoys living a dual-based life between the United Kingdom and Portugal, running SoulCollage® and creativity workshops, SoulCollage® Trainings, and retreats in both countries. For the duration of the pandemic she is in the UK, where she is exploring the intriguing experience of dwelling in one place for more than a few months at a time. She trained with Seena Frost as a Facilitator in 2010 and has been delving with enthusiasm into the depths of SoulCollage® and introducing others to this empowering process ever since. Learn more about Linda’s workshops, SoulCollage® Facilitator Trainings and retreats here.
|
|
We always feature SoulCollage® cards from our readers. Here are some of our readers' cards that represents light.
|
Child of Light
Committee Suit
Cari
Tennessee
I am the one who feels the light on my face and in my heart. When you see me, remember that the light is always there, even if you can’t see it. Use me to practice visualization, which is such a challenge for you.
|
Fireflies
Committee Suit
Karen
Ohio
I am the one chasing fireflies. I marvel at their dancing, blinking lights and want to capture that light for myself. I am always looking for the light. Firefly reminds me that chasing lights outside of me does not turn mine on; it’s a futile effort. Trying to capture and bottle their light only ends in darkness. I must generate my own inner light and let it beam out to the world. I am a firefly too, illuminating the world in my own unique and magical way.
|
Light Seeker
Committee Suit
Shawn
Indiana
I am one who follows the light into the unknown discovering a world of treasure hidden on my journey.
|
Drawn to the Light
Committee Suit
Natalie
Colorado
I am one who is drawn by the Light, by Spirit. I feel the outpouring of Universal Love and am being pulled inside.
|
Lightness of Being
Suit Unknown
Jennifer
Canada
I am one who seeks to manifest lightness of being, light in my heart this year. I am one who feels my inner child had this light inside her, and I know I can find it again. I am one who is willing to release the inner parts of striving, duty, obligation and my Inner Taskmaster, who push so hard to achieve things at any cost. I invite my inner lightness of being to bring me Joy.
|
Surrendering
to the Divine
Council Suit
Dee
Wisconsin
I am one who is pulled toward the light. I am one who longs for that incredible lightness of being, that state of consciousness and connection to God that one ascends into from time to time.
|
Light
Suit Unknown
Anne
Wisconsin
I am the one who sees the light and in the light I find hope. As gaze at the divine light my spirit soars. I gain wisdom from its infinite wisdom. And with that wisdom come the belief that the light will illuminate the world and all of our hearts.
|
Light Bearer
Council Suit
Anne Marie
Massachusetts
I am the one who lights my flame from the Larger Flame and shares it with 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:
April: Community Suit Pets
May: Story
|
Noteworthy resources for anyone interested in SoulCollage®
KaleidoSoul - Spinning the fragments of your world into wholeness and beauty through SoulCollage®.
|
|
Become a Creative Depth Coach and develop
a deeper connection to art as process
as you activate your work in the world!
This is a ten-month program for teachers, artists, guides, healers and SoulCollage® Facilitators offering Jungian based depth psychology training through art as process, narrative coaching, and experiential practice.
The training begins on March 28, 2021 and moves through monthly modules over the course of ten months. The program is offered over three distinctive trimesters - Self as Client, Coach as Bridge and Applied Process.
This advanced depth coach training is a powerful program for you as a SoulCollage® artist, Facilitator and professional, inviting you to advance or shift the direction of your practice, build dynamic coaching skills, and take your personal and professional expression to the next level!
Creative Depth Coach Certification is ICF Approved and Accredited.
be sure to let Cat know so you can access your discount!.
|
|
Other Online Experiences You Might Enjoy
|
|
Exploring Wonder and Enchantment
with SoulCollage®
4 Zoom workshops, Fridays 3-4:30 Eastern
with Facilitator Dee Relyea from Wisconsin
April 9-30, 2021 Are you longing to open up your curiosity, imagination and creativity? Add dimension to your deck? Explore fantasy story themes that may be playing out in your life? Come visit the enchanted forest, frolic in fields of fairies and fireflies, and journey through magical doorways where fantasy and myths come alive. Meet some magical beings of folklore, the furred, fanged, finned and flying. . . and find what messages they may have for you. Bring your wide-eyed inner child full of wonder and let’s have an adventure! Kindred Spirit Members, be sure to use your coupon code for your generous discount!
|
|
Journey Through the Signs with SoulCollage®
with Facilitators Patricia Selmo & Char Tarashanti
Starts April 7, 2021 The signs of the zodiac have been recognized as powerful archetypes in our lives and in the world for thousands of years. They provide us with information regarding life needs such as emotional security, accomplishment, financial stability and knowledge. Exploration of the astrological signs of the zodiac will enhance your understanding of their influence in your life. Each month we will connect with the energy of one sign, exploring its energy – through dialogue, ritual, journaling, meditation and other modalities. You will be invited to create a piece of art for each zodiac sign using the SoulCollage® format or other artistic expression. Kindred Spirit Members, be sure to use your coupon code for your generous discount!
|
|
April SoulCollage® Open Studio: To Begin Anew
with Facilitator Susan Nutting from NH
April 11, 2021 Every morning when we wake up, we should be able to be aware that a new day is offered to us, to live. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh Every 24 hours, a new day begins. We are given a new start. If you find yourself at a crossroads, or being challenged by events in your life, please join us as we consult our SoulCollage® cards using a three card reading method based on the Tarot. $10 USD gratefully accepted.
|
|
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 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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|