Issue #223 - January 2024 |
|
Theme: Indra's Net/Connections |
|
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. |
Connections Within Indra’s Net |
Seena Frost, the birth mother of SoulCollage®, loved to tell the story of Indra’s Net when she taught about the Community suit. In this story, which is based on a tale from ancient India, there is a brilliant holographic jewel at the intersection of each strand of a mammoth, universal net that stretches into infinity. Each gem reflects each of the other jewels. Also, because of the interweaving of the strands of this Net, each precious stone is connected to each of the others via the intricate network of Spirit.
In the cards we make for our Community suit, we include family members, friends and pets, each of whom are special, unique parts of the “nettedness” that unites the Many into One. Also included are people whom we have never met but to whom we feel irrevocably connected: authors, artists, teachers, musicians, actors, comedians, politicians, and religious figures. Each one is represented on Indra’s net with an irreplaceable, multifaceted jewel and it’s equally lovely and fascinating to know that we are indeed connected to them in this way.
This connection is also true of those who are no longer with us on the earthly plane. My parents, grandparents, four beloved felines, friends and other relations are sorely missed by my body, mind and spirit because I can no longer see or touch them. To understand that we are still connected even though I can no longer see them, is a true blessing and comfort.
|
When my father died in 1993, I was part of an Episcopal church where the rector (Randy) was also my spiritual director. The day after my dad’s funeral, I vividly remember my anguish as I sat with Randy and wept. “Where is he?” I beseeched, over and over. “I saw them put his body into the ground, but where is he?”
I will never forget Randy’s compassionate answer. “Your father is not here with you, but in many ways he is closer to you now than he was when he was alive.”
To be perfectly honest, I didn’t find that answer very comforting at the time, only confusing! But I felt inside of me the vivid truth of it, and I held onto it until I could better comprehend the meaning.
The story of Indra’s Net via the SoulCollage® process allows me to understand Randy’s answer more clearly. My father is still connected to me because Death does not break the connections of Indra’s Net. And he is even closer to me than when he was alive because there is less to get in the way between us.
Resources:
|
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.
|
Ministering to Your Deck: A Soul Tending Practice
90-minute SoulCollage® Zoom with Facilitator Michele Manos from California
Date: Sunday,
January 28
Time: 3pm Eastern
FR*EE for our
Only $10 for non-members
Easily Accessible from Anywhere in the World!
|
Sensing and Embodying Interconnection
“Healing is remembering the wholeness of your True Self.”
When I first heard my Reiki teacher, Frans Stiene, describe healing from the perspective of Reiki’s Japanese Buddhist origins, my body tingled with warm recognition and excitement. After three years of studying western forms of Reiki (a meditation-based energy healing practice originating in Japan), I began to search for the deeper ground water of Reiki’s origins. I found a world view and a definition of healing that centered in a very different place: Interconnection, Wholeness, and the Integration of the many parts of ourselves with each other and with the wider Web of Life.
Perhaps, Dear Reader, you have already guessed the reason for that tingle of recognition when I first opened to this new way of understanding the practice of Reiki. The mystery of Interconnection—the paradox of the One in the Many, and the Many in the One—was already part of my spiritual world view, a pathway of understanding that Life had opened to me years earlier through SoulCollage®.
In her book, SoulCollage® Evolving, Seena Frost invite us to consider that, “In separating out all our parts, we become whole.” The process invites us to look inward, to name and image the many parts of ourselves, befriend and listen to them in an elegant process of “remembering the wholeness of our True Selves.” We, as One being made up of many parts, can turn our attention to the World, and see ourselves as one point on the Web of Life, interconnected with all, part of the Many that make up the Oneness of Life.
|
To help us understand this, Seena borrowed the metaphor of Indra’s Jeweled Net from Vedic and Mahayana Buddhist tradition. Rajiv Malhotra, in his article The Vedic Metaphor of Indra’s Net, explains it this way:
“[The metaphor] likens the world to a net woven by the great deity Shakra or Indra. The net is said to be infinite, and to spread in all directions with no beginning or end. At each node of the net is a jewel, so arranged that every jewel reflects all the other jewels. No jewel exists by itself independently of the rest. Everything is related to everything else; nothing is isolated.”
SoulCollage® invites us, through a lens of psychology and imagination, to consider our internal landscape as a form of Indra’s Net: all parts of our vast psyche interconnected with all the others.
Further, we’re invited to view ourselves as an interconnected jewel on the Net, reflecting and being reflected by all other expressions of Life and Form in existence. The system of Reiki, from its Buddhist origins, invites a similar contemplation, through the lens of embodiment-based meditations wherein the many parts of our internal landscape are approached through sanmitsu, or the three mysteries of our Body, Mind and Energy/Breath/Voice. In both systems of practice, integration within and between us is the key to our sense of Self, and our ability to take compassionate, courageous action in the world.
At a certain point, the question may arise, “What does this have to do with my life?” It is a question I return to when teaching both Reiki and SoulCollage®. After ten years of practicing and teaching these elegant, evocative practices, I’ve distilled my answer to this question into the following: It matters that we spend time in practices that help us sense and embody Interconnection because we become:
|
• Rooted: Feeling our connection to our bodies and to the Earth, able to release the persistent anxiety that can come from an un-grounded mind.
• Spacious: Releasing constriction, to develop a sense of spaciousness inside ourselves, our interior expanding to hold our many and often contradicting feelings.
• Connected: Releasing feelings of isolation, gaining an embodied sense that we are not alone, and that we are resourced beyond what we can currently see.
Because these outcomes are so intimately tied to our personal experience and at the same time transcend it, I have come to relate to my Indra’s Net card (shown at the top of this column) as a Transpersonal card which moves beyond the four suits and into the space that is both us and beyond us at the same time.
|
Michaela Daystar trained as a SoulCollage® Facilitator in 2013 with Mariabruna Sirabella and Seena Frost, and has brought SoulCollage® into myriad spaces, from college classrooms to government agencies. She is trained in the Japanese origins of the system of Reiki through the International House of Reiki, and teaches all levels of Reiki at her wellness studio in Davis, California, as well as on-line. Visit Michaela at her website, HeartScapes.
|
The Great Big SoulCollage®
Companions Suit Celebration of 2024
STARTS THIS SATURDAY!
A magical, informative, experiential deep dive
into the mysterious realm of Animal energies + our physical energies
via the SoulCollage® Companions Suit,
aka “The Suit of Many Colors”
7 Months * 7 Facilitators *
** Many Animal Companions **.
You can pay in full or make 7 small monthly pays.
Scholarships available!
|
|
Here are some of our readers' Indra's Net/Connections cards: |
Indra’s Web
Council Suit
Dot
Pennsylvania
We Are Ones Who are connected by the interwoven warp and woof of the fabric of SoulCollage®. Our images and stories that are woven together and shared become a rich tapestry that inspires and informs. (Committee: I am one who became a jewel on Indra's Web when I attended a Facilitator's Conference years ago with Seena Frost.)
|
Weaver
Committee Suit
Michele
California
I am one who creates connections with intention and intuition. Bringing various talents and dreams together, magical and multidisciplinary alliances come forth. Sometimes unseen, I enjoy watching what unfolds on the mysterious scaffold of life.
|
Held in Community
Committee Suit
Michaela
California
I am one who is held in the safety and vibrance of community, my Joy & Grief connected to yours.
|
Untitled
Suit Unknown
Cheryl
Illinois
I am one who reaches out to others. I am one who reflects on the Oneness, the Unity of Life. I am one who is a compassionate giver and gracious receiver; we are one. I am one who knows that what I give, I've already given to myself; giving-and-receiving is one move. I am one who is always present, beyond space & time.
|
Indra’s Net
Council Suit
Julie
Arizona
We are the one and the many. We are big, small, all shapes, sizes and colors. We are infinitely connected to the whole.
|
Connected
Committee Suit
Anne Marie
Massachusetts
I am the one who, even when I am alone, knows that I am connected to others and this gives me great comfort.
|
Staff Carrier
Suit Unknown
Bethany
Wisconsin
I am one who is carrying the staff for my ancestors. I observe the threads and connecting points of the Web of Wyrd, also called Indra’s Net. The web spreads in every direction throughout all time. I strengthen connections, repair breaks, and trim the cords that no longer serve. This work helps to heal and fortify peace.
|
The Weaver
Council
Michele
California
I am one who weaves the strands of interconnections, creating a firm but flexible web of support. I create unexpected alliances and surprising collaborations.
|
Connected and Held
Committee Suit
Anne Marie
Massachusetts
I am the one who is connected to the wider community of SoulCollagers and creatives and the Divine. I am the one who is held in this intricate web of Being.
|
Compassion
Council Suit
Michaela
California
I am one who can be with pain and joy, yours and mine.
|
Please feel free to submit one of your cards for a future issue by sending a reply email to this newsletter.
Future themes include:
February: Hobbies / Pleasurable Pasttimes
March: Music
|
|
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.
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
