| 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.
Kripalu
is My Sacred Place
It may
surprise some of you to know that we place cards representing
sacred places in the Community Suit. Usually, we think of the
Community Suit as being full of people we have known and loved
through the years, as well as beloved pets who have touched our
lives. I recently asked Seena Frost, creator of SoulCollage® and
author of SoulCollage Evolving,
and here is what she said:Early in my
collecting of ideas for the Neter Card suits (that was before the
name became the SoulCollage® process) I was at a favorite place of
mine, Tassajara Hot Springs. I realized I wanted a card for this
sacred place, and not just for the Buddhist teachers there. So,
where should such places go in a deck? A suit of their own? This
could get unwieldy. No, best to put them in with special people,
the Community suit. In a way, they have special energies much like
a person. And I could put a person on the card too, but mainly
the place is the Neter.
The very first "sacred place" card I made is for Kripalu, yoga
retreat center in western Massachusetts (see above). I first
attended a retreat there in the 80’s and have been going there for
rest, renewal and inspiration ever since. I don’t know how to
explain it, but from the very first time I stepped through the front
doors, I felt at home there. I still feel that way, thirty years
later, even though the buildings have undergone many changes and
renovations, and the leadership has changed several times as well.
I have experienced much spiritual and personal inner growth within Kripalu’s walls and my heart simply sings whenever I plan another
visit!
I invite you this month to take some quiet time and look back on
your own life. Identify some of your sacred places over the
years; listen to what wisdom they have to share with you. Make a
card to identify at least one of them.
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.
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| OUR NEXT
TELE-CLASS |
Creative Mapping with SoulCollage® & JourneyCircles™
60 minute SoulCollage® tele-class
with SoulCollage® Facilitator
Cat Caracelo in California
Thursday -
March 12, 2015
7 pm Eastern
The process
of JourneyCircles™ provides a visual template that you
can collage on and use to explore creative mapping with your art,
including SoulCollage®, mixed media, process painting and writing.
JourneyCircles™ offers four distinctive card sizes and
types, each with important symbolic and energetic patterns. These
mandalas include the Spiral Path, Transformation, Spectrum and
Compass cards. This process is a wonderful companion to
SoulCollage® and you can sign up
here for your very own "sample kit" to start playing with
before the call.
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.
Places of the Heart
 What are
Sacred Places? They are places of inspiration, enlightenment and
healing. They can be pilgrimage sites visited by thousands of
people each day, and they can be special places in nature that have
meaning for you alone. You will know a sacred place by the feeling
of expansion you feel when you are there, the feeling that you are
part of something larger than yourself. I believe that we ourselves
can invest a place that has special meaning for us with a sense of
the sacred through our intentions and our prayers.
Sacred places are often places of natural beauty. Ancient
communities who were connected to the subtle energies of a place
were able to detect the invisible fields of energy in the earth,
and used these places for healing ceremonies. These places of power
became places for worship and often temples were built where these
healing ceremonies had taken place. Over many years the focused
prayers and intentions of pilgrims have endowed these places with a
sacred energy that draws others to the place. Sacred places feel
like places where we can access the energy of transformation and
illumination.
Some of the Sacred Place cards in my SoulCollage® community suit
are places that were an important part of my life, which will
always be embedded in my soul. They are places where I feel more
closely connected to my SoulEssence. Your sacred places might be a
tree in your yard, a park where you walk, or it may be one of the
well-known destinations around the world like Glastonbury or the
red rocks of Sedona. If we can endow a place with a feeling of
sacredness, you might consider your own home as a sacred place.
Might this change the way you feel about it?
Many well-known places call to me. I have been fortunate enough to
visit a number of them, and I have made cards for both Lourdes and
Chartres in France.
But the places that are embedded in my soul as most sacred to me
personally are places of memory, places whose names are unfamiliar
to most. One of these is Tongaat Beach, South Africa, a place where
I spent many happy hours playing with my young children in the sand
and listening to the sound of the Indian Ocean. It is the place I
return to in my mind when I am looking for calm.
Very different from this is the city of Chartres which calls me
back again and again. Here I feel connected to an ancient wisdom. I
am visiting Chartres for the fifth time this year. It is not only
the labyrinth in the ancient Cathedral that seems to magnetize me
back each time, but the place itself. You can see my SoulCollage®
card for Chartres above.
What places call out to you? Where do you feel an expansion of
spirit? Is it among ancient ruins, towering cathedrals, redwood
forests, open fields and skies? Where are your sacred places? I
highly encourage you to make SoulCollage® cards to represent those
places that touch your soul, as places have the power to alter the
way you see your life and connect you to the wider world.
Catherine Anderson is author of
The Creative Photographer,
Collage Imagery,
Journaling the Labyrinth Path and is a SoulCollage® Facilitator
Trainer, and an advanced Labyrinth Facilitator. In addition to
teaching in the USA, Catherine leads creative pilgrimages to Italy,
France and Ireland. Catherine's website is catherineandersonstudio.com.
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ONLINE CLASS WITH ANNE MARIE
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Join Anne
Marie and other women around the world
for a 5 week journey from body criticism to body compassion.
You'll be supported and encouraged every step of the way AND you'll
learn lots of new ways to use the SoulCollage® process.
Visit
this page for more info now.
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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 Community Suit - Sacred
Places from one SoulCollager's Deck.
Santa Fe
Community Suit
Bee
Colorado
I am one who smells of sage and burning piñon pine. I
offer creative comfort and renewal. I am a place of sun and healing
waters, I restore your balance.
Love in Monument Valley
Community Suit
Kat
Arizona
I am the one who is the iconic image of the American
West. I stand here to remind you of the hundreds of millions of
years that it has taken to create me. I am sacred land not only to
the Navajo Nation, but to all who visit me. I astound and inspire
with my majestic beauty.
Avalon
Community Suit
Karen
Ohio
I am the mystical Isle of Avalon, where a Mother
Goddess cult once thrived, before being lost in the mists of time
to a masculine worldview. Some say Avalon never existed, but your
pagan soul knows otherwise. Haunting legends of the storied
characters that walked its sacred paths still reverberate in you.
Your mind’s eye sees Priestess Morgaine, purple-garbed and
crescent-crowned, guiding her silent barge to and from Avalon’s
shore, her path illumined by the Goddess’ eternal flame. The gifts
of Avalon—feminine wisdom, healing, secrets of an ancient
matriarchy, Goddess energy—await you here. The Goddess calls you to
bring her back to awareness.
Sacred Temple
Community Suit
Karen
California
I am One who is the Sacred Temple. All is peace here. The temple
holds no answers, it walks among you, offering healing. Open to my
healing, and be transformed.
Genesis Retreat Center
Community Suit
Dot
Pennsylvania
I am the one who welcomes people of all faiths to
come here and discover more about who they are as a unique person
and creation of the Divine Spirit. I am the one who provides sacred
space for safe exploration and discovery. I am the one who has
created a place of beauty and joy and peace, providing places and
spaces for nourishing body, mind and spirit. I am the one who has
devoted my life to serving others as a representative of Divine
Love and Welcome.
HAIKU:
Sacred place welcomes;
Providing space to create:
Self discovery.
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: Wholeness
May: Community Suit- Teachers
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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.
KaleidoSoul -
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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JOURNEYCIRCLES™ FACILITATOR TRAINING
with Cat Caracelo
|
JourneyCircles™ Licensed Facilitator Training is a
comprehensive and exciting offering that will be of great benefit
to your personal and professional practice.
JourneyCircles™ is a creative process, expressive arts
modality and a dynamic coaching tool. Each element
within the process is symbolic, potent and valuable. Four
distinctive card types: Spiral Path, Transformation,
Spectrum and Compass cards, can be used independently or
in combination enhancing depth work in unique and dynamic
ways.
JourneyCircles™ Licensed Facilitator Training is a straight
forward, well-designed module training with audio, video and
written instruction, based in experiential and applied learning.
The JourneyCircles™ process is a beautiful companion for
practitioners, healers and facilitators that can be stand alone
or easily combined with SoulCollage®, Art Journaling, Process
Painting, mytho-poetics and other expressive arts forms.
We learn from our art, we grow and change through our art.
JourneyCircles™ Facilitator Training provides techniques that
are invaluable to your personal and professional work in the
world. JourneyCircles™ are currently being used to support
clinical, intuitive, conscious, movement and coaching based healing
and visioning.
What will YOU do with JourneyCircles™?
Read about Cat Caracelo
here.
For more information, visit this page now.
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JOIN MEMBERSHIP - WIN A BLESSING
BUNDLE!
|
Join the affordable and inspiring
Kindred Spirits Membership
anytime in March
and you'll have a chance to win
one of THREE (3) Blessing Bundles!
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Upcoming SoulCollage® Retreats
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UNITED KINGDOM
SoulCollage® Facilitator Training
Stroud,
Gloucestershire, UK
March 13-15, 2015
Facilitators: Linda Woolfson
Visit this
page for more information.
MASSACHUSETTS
Mirrors & Windows: Using SoulCollage® to Explore
Relationships
Westfield, MA
May 2-3,
2015
Facilitators: Brother/Sister Team:
Anne Marie Bennett & John Pacheco, LICSW
This retreat will be helpful for you if:
- you want to give yourself
some calming time and space to get away
- you are longing to
connect with others of like mind and spirit
- you want to learn how to
strengthen relationships with yourself, others, and
Spirit
Early Bird Pricing & Easy
Pay Plan Available
Visit this
page for more information.
CALIFORNIA
SummerQuest Mythos Journey Retreat
Sonoma,
CA
July 7-10, 2015
Facilitator: Cat Caracelo
This all inclusive creative retreat is offered in a lush Sonoma
Retreat space nestled in the oaks, surrounded by gardens, water,
trees and sacred space where you can travel into the dance of life
as you explore the many faces of your creative wild. Seek
archetypal energies of your muse and find the language of your
soul's path through SoulCollage®, mixed media and assemblage. Find
enchantment and delight as you gather your gypsy stories and
connect to your mythic self in the Valley of the Moon. Pay in four
smaller payments if you like.
Visit this
page for more information.
WISCONSIN
Finding Your Inner Compass with SoulCollage®
and Musical Soul Journeying
Willard,
WI
July 24-26, 2015
Facilitator: Audrey Chowdhury
If you are feeling lost during these times of great transition…This
is your chance to stop, reflect, and recover your inner wisdom.This
retreat is designed to help you reconnect with your heart's desire.
You will have the opportunity to:
- journey through the realm
of the soul through Integrative Breathwork, or musical soul
journeying
- create SoulCollage®
cards
- create mandalas (circle
drawings using pastels)
- share with kindred
spirits
- walk in the beautiful
wooded grounds
- eat delicious, organic,
nutritious meals
- meditate in the exquisite
chapel
The Christine Center is
such a spiritual place. I immediately felt calm and centered when I
arrived….Audrey's skill at facilitating a workshop and making
everyone feel inclusive is outstanding. -- Sherida W., participant
in 2013
Visit this page for more information.
PORTUGAL
SoulCollage® Facilitator Training
Cascais,
Portugal
October 8-11, 2015
Facilitators: Linda Woolfson
Visit this
page for more information.
MASSACHUSETTS
Autumn Transformation: Learning to Let Go
Westfield, MA
October 22-25, 2015
Facilitators: Anne Marie Bennett, Anne Boedecker, Jeanne Marie
Merkel
The card making tables will be set up ‘round the clock all three
days, so you can make SoulCollage® cards while the optional
breakout sessions are going on, in the middle of the night, or in
your jammies by the light of the moon if you want!
The focus of this retreat will be on using the process of
SoulCollage® to help us let go of anything we are holding onto too
tightly. This could be a loved one, a lifetime pattern or way of
thinking, old memories that no longer serve us, or even clutter in
our homes.
Visit
this page for more information.
PUERTO RICO
SoulCollage® in the Caribbean!
Vieques, Puerto
Rico
December 5-12, 2015
Facilitator: Kat Kirby
Spend your mornings making SoulCollage® cards, doing readings,
journaling, sharing and deepening your relationship with your deck.
Then… spend the afternoons exploring various unspoiled beaches,
nature preserves, markets, restaurants, and more. Join Kat on the
island of Vieques, off the coast of Puerto Rico, for a week of
SoulCollage®. We will stay at a small compound of cottages
surrounding a swimming pool, and will have the place to ourselves
for a whole week! Please contact me for more information.
Please email Kat Kirby for
more information.
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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
2015,
by Anne Marie Bennett and
Cat Caracelo, Imelda Maguire,
Kat Kirby, or Catherine Anderson.
Articles may be reprinted by permission
only.
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Soul Songs
