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.
Evolution of a Heart
The very first Animal Companion I discovered was "Little Brown Bird." I was listening to Seena Frost's guided meditation on finding an animal companion. Little brown bird was in my heart chakra area, sitting on a nest of eggs. That's it. Very simple. I didn't understand much about the chakras when I began SoulCollage®. But I did understand the heart chakra. And it felt "just right" to me that she was my heart chakra companion. You can see this SoulCollage® card and read my interpretations of it on my blog.
Over the years, I have felt Bird's movement in my heart. I have chatted with her about past loves, about current loves, about different kinds of love, about passion.
Last year, as often happens once we start to be aware of Animal energies, I began slowly noticing that Crow was making an appearance in my life. In our driveway, the back yard, tree tops, parking lots, and magazine images galore. Suddenly Crow was there everywhere I turned. Hmmm... I thought to myself. I wonder what this means. And I had to let go of the need to know what it meant, before the answer began to unfold.
Towards the end of last year, I began to have the idea that Little Brown Bird was no longer serving me in my Heart energy center, and that Crow was taking her place. This is still happening inside of me, on a deep soul level, and I haven't yet completely explored all of the meanings and messages that this heart transformation means for me.
And that's okay. One of the biggest lessons I've learned in my SoulCollage® practice is that I don't "need to know." I
can't control these inner changes. I don't have to control them. What I
can do is go with the flow of them. Notice them. Accept and embrace them. And then sit back and watch what happens next.
At this time, I still haven't made a card to honor Crow. I have some images gathered. It is continually in the back of my mind. And when the time is right, the card will come together on its own.
Resources to Support Your Work with the Companions Suit:
KaleidoSoul web page on Animal Totems
All Things Wise & Wonderful - Six week e-course focusing in-depth on the Companions Suit
Seena's Guided Meditation - to find an animal guide.
Seena's CD on the Companions Suit
Magical Inner Journeys CD: Animal Guides
- two guided meditations for working with and discovering your own animal companions, with Anne Marie Bennett.
Anne Marie Bennett is a freelance writer, self-taught artist, SoulCollage®
Facilitator and Facilitator Trainer who trained with Seena Frost. Her
background is elementary education, computer software training, writing, and
mixed media art. She lives, laughs, writes, and sings (and makes her own
SoulCollage® cards!) in Beverly, MA. More of Anne Marie's
cards/interpretations are available on her blog,
Inner Surprises.
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Our Next Tele-Class |
Eye of the Hawk
Guided SoulCollage® Card Reading,, with Mili Ballard
SoulCollage® Facilitator and Trainer in North Carolina.
If you're curious about how to do a SoulCollage® reading, then please join us for this fascinating tele-class. Mili will guide us through an "Eye of the Hawk" reading. We'll each choose one or more questions about our own life that we need answers for. Then Mili will talk us through the simple steps of mining the answers from the treasures in our own Decks. Please join us! You can call in from anywhere in the world. It's very simple. And you don't need to say a word... you can just listen in if you like. Please visit this KaleidoSoul page now for more information. .
Date: Thursday, February 25, 2010
Time:
7:00 pm Eastern, 6:00 pm Central,
5pm Mountain, 4pm Pacific,
2pm Hawaiian, Wednesday 12am in London,
Wednesday 11:00am in Melbourne Australia
and Wednesday 1pm in New Zealand
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Soul Symphonies with Karen |
My name is Karen Mann and I'm a SoulCollage®
facilitator from Melbourne, Australia. This column is for those of you who
have already made some cards & are ready to discover the symphony of voices
inside of you and around you.
Listening When Your Heart Chakra Speaks
My companion for my heart chakra is the butterfly. The butterfly has a great deal of symbolic significance for representing metamorphosis and transformation and is a symbol that appears regularly in my SoulCollage® cards, other artwork, jewelery and throughout my life. It is a symbol I am drawn to. That being said, the wisdom that this SoulCollage® card has shared with me was initially very unexpected.
After drawing this card in a reading one day I realised that I was having difficulty connecting with my card using the "I am the one who..." process as I couldn't stop noticing the smudgy marks and scratches on this card. When I was constructing my card, I had some issues with the gluing process and unfortunately (or fortunately- as I soon came to realize) ended up with some unintended marks on my card (eg. see bottom left corner on the hand and above it).
I initially tried to "get past" my fixation on these marks and "let go" of my inner perfectionist, but found that this was difficult. I then chose to follow my intuition and complete my "I am the one who..." exercise from the perspective of the part of the card that was "calling out" to me- which on this day was the scratchy smudgy marks. The message that resulted was:
"I am the one who is a perfectionist. I am learning to let go of needing everything to be perfect. I will be able to shine if I stop putting so much energy into needing to be perfect- I will instead be able to become more authentic and find freedom."
By trusting my intuition in this reading I received a more powerful and apt message than I would have gotten if I had continued to force myself to look at the images in the card, and ignore the messy bits. I am also so pleased that I had allowed myself to leave the "imperfections" on this card, and didn't try to fix the "mistake" during the card making process. By "trusting the process" and allowing whatever needed to happen to unfold, I learnt a great deal about myself.
I have not yet cured my perfectionist streak, but the process of allowing this "mistake" to speak to me has taught me a lot about "letting go." When I draw this card in a reading, it often still shares wisdom from the perspective of the "perfectionist" rather than the heart chakra or the butterfly, however my logical brain can see how they relate. The less I expend energy on needing to be "perfect," the more I can transform and change (like a caterpillar to a butterfly), and also the easier it is to live from a place of love and compassion, because I'm not judging myself or others.
Judith Campbell says "When your heart speaks, take good notes" and in this instance, the message that my heart chakra card has shared with me definitely feels noteworthy.
Karen Mann is an artist, art teacher, Lifestyle Coach, yoga and meditation
teacher, and SoulCollage®
facilitator. Karen has been working with SoulCollage® cards for
more than four years and facilitates a variety of SoulCollage®
Groups. Karen also runs SoulCollage® Facilitator Training
weekends. Karen offers regular workshops in Melbourne and Geelong,
Australia, and is also available to travel to other regions in Australia.
For more information, or to contact Karen, please visit her website,
Flying Colours Creativity.
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-
make your own game board
- make your own game pieces
- based on the Hero's Journey
- fun and exciting
- created and led by Barb Kobe
- non-competitive
- joyful experience
- inner awareness
- takes SoulCollage to a whole new dimension!
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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 2010,
by Anne Marie Bennett and Karen Mann.
Articles may be reprinted by permission only.
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