Soul
Singing with Anne Marie |
Hi! I'm
Anne Marie, the creator of KaleidoSoul.com, and a
SoulCollage® facilitator in Massachusetts. If you're just starting
to sing your song with SoulCollage®, this column is especially for
you.
The Changing of the Suits
I had been practicing SoulCollage® for less than a year when something strange happened during a journaling exercise with my Joyful Transition card. This was one of the first cards I had created and when I first worked with it, it was definitely a part of my Committee Suit of inner voices, also known as personality parts. I knew this for certain because it was speaking to me as if it were
inside of me, telling me a bit about what Seena calls my "local story," my personal history:
I Am the One Who is leaving something behind. I Am the One Who is excited about where I am going. I Am the One Who is all dressed up and celebrating this transition! I Am the One Who is moving into something new and exciting and different, and I Am the One Who can't wait to get there!
Then one day, several months later, I drew my Joyful Transition card in a daily reading and when I journaled with it, it was speaking very differently to me. Listen:
I Am the One Who leads you to new places and people and adventures. I Am the One Who safely guides you through the open doorways to your future. I Am the One Who wants you to follow me wherever I lead you, even if sometimes that means leaving colorful worlds behind for black-and-white territory.
Can you sense the difference in the two voices? For me, it was like the energy on this card was now a
guide of sorts. She was talking to me about the Larger Story of my life. I heard her telling me about many different transitions on my life's journey, not just the one I had been going through when I made the card. As I heard this, it occurred to me that this was now the voice of a Council card.
Then, of course, the part of me who likes things to be all wrapped up in neat little packages got very upset. "No, no, no!" she hollered. "That's not right. There's something wrong here. This was a Committee card. How can it all of a sudden be a Council card?"
It seems that I was still operating under the assumption that once I had a card labeled nice and neatly, it would be pigeon-holed forever as such.
It was such a relief when my friend Karen Mann told me that it was a normal occurrence for our cards to change suits now and then. She told me not to worry about it, to just go with the flow of it and to trust the process, to trust
myself. She said that not everything in SoulCollage® can be clearly categorized.
It so happened that when I created the Joyful Transition card, I was right on the edge of a major life transition out of a customer service job I'd held and loved for 10 years and into a life of creating my own business. When I first dialogued with this Neter, it was telling me about that particular transition. But several months later, I was already "through the door" of that transition and immersed in the middle of life on the other side of it. When I dialogued with her at that point, she made the shift away from my local personal story (Committee Suit) and over to the larger story of my life (Council Suit).
This event stands out clearly in my mind now as a huge turning point in my SoulCollage® journey. After the "changing of the suits" by this one card, I was much better able to enjoy the mystery of the process and to let my expectations go completely.
Sometimes the cards don't just change suits; they change what they are "about." This is because
we are continually changing and the landscapes of our lives are continually shifting. It follows easily that our Neters are also changing right along with us.
Anne Marie Bennett is a writer, self-taught artist,
website goddess, cancer survivor, and SoulCollage® Facilitator /
Trainer 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 Internet 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, an
elderly dog and two adolescent felines who keep them all young. You
can read more about how SoulCollage® assisted her on her cancer
journey on her website SOS Cancer
Journeys. Anne Marie's newest book, Through the Eyes of SoulCollage® is now available.
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OUR NEXT
TELE-CLASS |
Using SoulCollage® to Heal
Your Relationship with Money
60 minute SoulCollage® tele-class
with SoulCollage® Facilitator
Minette Riordan in California.
Saturday, February 6 2016
4 pm Eastern
Join SoulCollage® facilitator and creative business coach Dr. Minette Riordan for a 60-minute tele-class on healing your relationship with money. You will learn what your top 3 Sacred Money Archetypes are and how to align your spiritual and your financial success.
We all have money blind spots that are likely causing an "invisible ceiling" on our income. Surprisingly, this invisible ceiling exists at every income level. Breaking free from these blind spots will help to remove any limits on your financial freedom and inner worth.
Minette will share how we can use the intuitive process of SoulCollage® to work with our Sacred Money Archetypes so that we can transform our relationship with money, empower our voice when discussing money in any situation, discover key areas where we may be giving away our power with money, and identify steps we can take to own our value, with confidence and clarity.
To prepare for this class:
1. Take the Sacred Money Archetypes Quiz online
2. Then read through the descriptions of your top 3 archetypes.
3. Find three images that represent the energy of each of your top 3 Sacred Money Archetypes. If you have time to make cards for each one, that is wonderful but not required.
4. Please have a notebook and pen with you for the tele-class along with the descriptions of your top 3 archetypes and 3 images
5. It's perfectly okay to just call-in and listen if you don't have time to do the prep work beforehand, but the class will be more helpful to you if you can.
Easily Accessible from Anywhere in the
World!
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Guest
Columnist: Catherine Anderson |
My name is Catherine Anderson and I'm a SoulCollage®
Facilitator and Trainer from Charlotte, NC. I am delighted to be
adding my voice to Soul Songs and hope that my words inspire you to
look more deeply into your deck of SoulCollage® cards.
Crossing the Threshold
A threshold is a place of the spirit, uniting the mundane with the mysterious, and the commonplace with the awesome. ~ Maria Harris
My SoulCollage® cards often act as keys to opening doors to feelings that have been locked away for a long time. Sometimes it takes time to find the right key to unlock the door, and sometimes I'm too nervous to even put the key in the lock, but I always know I'm safe with SoulCollage®. The images never tell me more than I am ready to hear, but know how to encourage me to my learning edge, to the threshold of a new discovery, and to a new way of seeing.
Symbolically, doorways are portals into other worlds, invitations into new places, and openings to fresh views. Doors symbolize transition and change, rebirth and new beginnings. Doors themselves can signify protection - a place of safety and refuge. A locked door can also represent imprisonment and lack of freedom. At different times of life, doors can represent different things to us.
I've always been drawn to photographing doors in my travels around the world. So it was only natural that doorways would start finding their way on to my SoulCollage® cards, and into my visual journals. I particularly like adding open doors to my cards as they remind me that I have choices about whether to open or close the doors in my life. On my cards I do this by cutting the door image open and collaging in the space between the doorway.
When I'm working with a part of myself that I might not be ready to fully expose, or a part that is undergoing transformation and prefers to do that in the darkness, I often choose to place them behind doors. I can place guardians at the doorway as protectors, and then when I am ready to open the doors wide and let the light in, I can glue the doors open or even cut them off my card.
In essence our SoulCollage® cards can be both doorways and keys to more deeply getting to know the longings of our soul. Often what lies behind the door is unknown, but having the courage to open up to new possibilities allows us to grow.
Consider what you need to open to this year. Do you need to open to your courage or your trust? Do you need to open the door to your heart? When you are faced with a closed door, what choice will you make? Will you let the closed door stop you or will you keep knocking until it opens?
Clarissa Pinkola Estes confirms what SoulCollagers know about using our cards together with relevant questions when she says:
Asking the proper question is the central action of transformation ... Questions are the keys that cause the secret doors of the psyche to swing open.
See your SoulCollage® cards as doorways to your soul, and remember that they hold important information for you. To unlock their wisdom, all you have to do is regularly make time to sit with your cards and ask them the questions that will open the door.
Catherine Anderson is author of
The Creative Photographer,
Journaling the Labyrinth Path Doorways and Openings
and is a SoulCollage® Facilitator
Trainer. Catherine leads creative photography workshops in Italy, France and South Africa. Find out more at www.creativepilgrimage.com
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Upcoming SoulCollage®
Online Workshop
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What's going on in the inner theatre of
your mind?
Three Week Online Workshop
with Anne Marie Bennett
Starts
January 16, 2016.
Visit this page for more info.
Kindred Spirit Members Save $20
Use your special coupon code.
Lost it? Just send a reply to this email!
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KaleidoSoul Creations |
As promised, we are featuring
SoulCollage® cards from our readers in each issue.
Each card below is a card that represents Doorways from one SoulCollager's Deck.
Feeding the Babies
Committee Suit
Carrie
Wisconsin
I am the one who is reminding you that new projects are like babies. They must be fed and tended to and kept safe until they are ready to be fledged. Use your connection to nature to nurture your dreams until they are grown and strong enough to cross the threshold and fly into the world.
Mind's Doorway
Committee Suit
Denise
Texas
I am the one who travels the very limits of space through my imagination. I am the one who travels into the future and into the past. I am the one who opens to possibilities only I can imagine for myself. I am the one who uses my intelligence to connect across the world to places that I may never see for myself.
Through the Portal
Suit Unknown
Gail
Massachusetts
I am the one who seeks to pass through the portal, not knowing what I will find on the other side. I see that the doorway I once thought was stationary and stable, has actually shifted and is changing. What I once thought was, is no more, and so I realign my soul, shift my direction, and strive to accept what is. I step into the flow of change. Remember that everything that exists is part the flow. The tide is in a constant state of ebb and flow, changing, as are you. Remember.
On the Threshold of Freedom
Council Suit
Carol
New Hampshire
I am the one about to step into the dawn of my freedom. I am the one who has reclaimed herself - I am open to the big YES. There is no more need to be hiding from myself or the world. The memory of all that bound me drifts away...and I let it go. I stand on the threshold of my dreams, preparing to walk on water. I claim my whole self. I claim freedom. I claim YES.
Door Mouse
Committee Suit
Avis
Canada
I am the one who stands in the doorway, who has a story to tell, a story you need to hear. I am the one who speaks softly and cowers sometimes in the dark and yet I follow the breadcrumbs and find myself outside in a field of possibilities! I am the one who knows how to find the trail, even when you don't see the door. I am the one who knows how to follow her nose!
Guardian of the Depths
Council suit
Do Mi
Oregon
I am the one who guards the door. I am mystery. I am she who cannot be known here on the surface. The soft cloud, changing continuously as it moves, floats through. Through the door are the depths where light shines. You may come through with the deepest of breaths. I am the guardian of the Humming Ground. I want you to breathe, breathe, breathe.
There are even more "Door Cards" from SoulCollagers
on this page.
In this highly recommended book, author Joyce Rupp
brings new life to
the ageless spiritual image of the door, weaving insights from East and West
with the wisdom of contemporary spiritual writers, poets, and novelists in a
practical format that is just right for contemporary readers. Each essay
offers a thematic reflection, a guided meditation, an original prayer, and a
thoughtful question. Click on the image above for more info.
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: Sisterhood
March: Athletes (Committee, Community, Council)
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KaleidoSoul Notes
Noteworthy
resources for anyone interested in SoulCollage®
Facilitator
Trainings: Information about content and
dates/locations of upcoming trainings of SoulCollage®
Facilitators.
SoulCollage
website - Seena Frost created the process of
SoulCollage®, and this is her website.
KaleidoSoull -
Spinning the fragments of your world into wholeness and beauty
through SoulCollage®.
Kindred
Spirits Join our fast-growing worldwide
membership of people who put the "soul" in SoulCollage®!
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CONTACT US |
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New
Online Journey - 22 Weeks
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Join a
tribe of soulful women who will be taking a SoulCollage® Tarot
Journey through the Major Arcana, from Fool to World Dancer.
$99 for a 22-week online course that doesn't ask you to show up for
anything but yourself. This e-course will be deep, contemplative,
and creative with a secret place to share our archetypal images on
Facebook.
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Upcoming SoulCollage® Retreats
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ENGLAND
Facilitator Training Hawkwood College, Gloucestershire, England April 21-24, 2016
Facilitator: Linda Woolfson, MA, PhD
Visit
this page for more information.
ENGLAND
Return to Avalon Goddess Retreat Glastonbury,
England April 26-May 23, 2016
Facilitator: Cat Caracelo
We are gathering again for Beltane in Glastonbury, England for
eight days in a beautiful restored farmhouse compound with a
stunning view of rolling hills and the nearby Glastonbury Tor. We
will be a small circle of women celebrating the rising Spring
energies of this sacred place, tapping into mythic connections with
visits to local and nearby sacred sites while exploring the ancient
history, lore and our own mythic roots through journey work,
SoulCollage® and expressive arts in our private studio space. Very
limited space and six payment plans are available!
Visit
this page for more information now.
MASSACHUSETTS
Pieces of You: Fitting Your Life Together with SoulCollage® Westfield, MA May 7-8, 2016
Facilitator: Anne Marie Bennett, John Pacheco
Since 2009, SoulCollage® Facilitator Michele Manos has been creating and sharing meaningful ways to explore your SoulCollage® deck as a whole - honoring and integrating your ever-evolving aspects. These "Card Games" offer an understanding of the cards' intricate relationships. Ideas for new cards come forth, as do new perspectives on old ones. Through storytelling from her own deck, Michele will provide group and individual instruction - with ample time to explore your deck, journal, make cards and share. You'll learn new ways to utilize your deck as a supportive resource for embracing life's challenges and as a powerful tool for inner balance. This retreat is intended for Facilitators as well as for experienced SoulCollagers who have a lot of cards that are mostly categorized into suits.
Visit this page for more information now.
MASSACHUSETTS
Playing with a Full Deck: Deepening Your SoulCollage® Practice Westfield, MA September 2-3, 2016
Facilitator: Michele Manos
Since 2009, SoulCollage® Facilitator Michele Manos has been creating and sharing meaningful ways to explore your SoulCollage® deck as a whole - honoring and integrating your ever-evolving aspects. These "Card Games" offer an understanding of the cards' intricate relationships. Ideas for new cards come forth, as do new perspectives on old ones. Through storytelling from her own deck, Michele will provide group and individual instruction - with ample time to explore your deck, journal, make cards and share. You'll learn new ways to utilize your deck as a supportive resource for embracing life's challenges and as a powerful tool for inner balance. This retreat is intended for Facilitators as well as for experienced SoulCollagers who have a lot of cards that are mostly categorized into suits.
Visit this page for more information now.
PORTUGAL
Facilitator Training Hotel BaĆa, Cascais October 20-23, 2016
Facilitator: Linda Woolfson, MA, PhD
Visit
this page for more information now.
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CONTACT US
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Soul Songs
Back Issues - Read back issues of Soul Songs on this
KaleidoSoul page.
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®,
please visit her
website
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
2016,
by Anne Marie Bennett and
Catherine Anderson, Cat Caracelo,
Imelda Maguire, or Linda Woolfson.
Articles may be reprinted by permission
only.
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