Soul Songs: Your SoulCollage NewsletterSoul Songs
Your SoulCollage® Newsletter

Enabling us to sing the songs
we were born to sing
through the practice
of SoulCollage®
Issue #133   July 2016 Theme:  Joy
Welcome!

Greetings, and welcome to Soul Songs, the official KaleidoSoul Newsletter, and the only monthly newsletter that focuses exclusively on SoulCollage® ideas, resources and artists.

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.

View this newsletter as a web page with complete color and graphics.

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Read back issues of Soul Songs on this KaleidoSoul page.


Soul Singing with Anne Marie
Anne Marie, the creator of KaleidoSoul.com
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.


A Map for Joy

When I first learned about SoulCollage®, I was reading a book called A Map for Joy, by Teri Johnson. She presented 16 tenets that would promote joyful living on a consistent basis. These included:
  • Accept Yourself Unconditionally
  • Letting Go of Grievances
  • Connecting to the Divine
  • Letting Creativity Flow
  • Honoring Your Values
  • Expressing Gratitude
  • Cultivating the Spirit of Generosity
There were nine others and you can take a peek at them by looking at the book on Amazon and choosing the “Look Inside” feature.

As I was just beginning my card making journey, I decided to make one card for each of the 16 tenets that were A Map for Joy. I did exactly that, over the course of several months, and I kept them in their very own “Map for Joy” suit. When I did a reading, I chose one card from each of the four suits plus this one, and received some deeply enriching responses to my questions.

After a while, though, I was able to integrate the cards into the other suits of my deck, dividing them into Committee and Council cards, depending on what I was feeling at the time.

I share my I Am the One Who honors my values card here because in 2005 the experience of actually sitting down and naming my values was a powerful experience for me. Of course, by that time I was almost 50, and if you asked me if I had values, I would say that I definitely had them. But if you had asked me to prioritize them and choose the Top 5, I would have been clueless.

Once I went through the simple process of scanning and choosing, I felt ripples of pleasure shoot through me. So many things were clearer once I realized what my Top 5 values were: Spirituality, Creativity, Solitude, Self-Acceptance, and Generosity. There were a couple of relationships that I was struggling with at that time in my life, and this clarity made a world of difference in how I perceived the other people, as I realized that their values were very (very!) different from my own.

I created this card to capture my Top 5 values (and there are a few of my other top values here as well).

When I draw this card in a reading, it reminds me to get clear about what is going on in my life, in relation to these values. It speaks to me about being true to my very core, or SoulEssence. And very often, it sets me back on the path to authenticity. Once I am back in alignment with my core values, I always feel more centered, grounded, and yes… full of JOY!

If you’re curious about naming your own Top 5 values, this is the best article I’ve found, complete with a set of simple suggestions for how do it, and a long list of values to choose from. Once you have clarified your own core values, go ahead and make a SoulCollage® card to honor each or all of them!

Suggested reading on the theme of joy:

Happiness is an Inside Job: Practicing for a Joyful Life, by Sylvia Boorstein.

How Much Joy Can You Stand? by Suzanne Falter-Barns.


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.

 
OUR NEXT TELE-CLASS

 
60 minute SoulCollage®
tele-class with SoulCollage® Facilitator
Gail M. Syring in Connecticut.


Tuesday, July 26, 2016
7 pm Eastern
 
Living as a person with a chronic illness can have a powerful impact on every aspect of your life and identity. Whether you have a recent diagnosis or have a deep familiarity with this way of life, SoulCollage® can be a powerful tool for integrating your experiences. In this tele-class, Gail will guide us in exploring our relationships with our bodies, our senses of self, and the wisdom within each of us that reminds us that we are whole, no matter what our health might be.

Easily Accessible from Anywhere in the World!

Visit this page for more info now.
 
Guest Columnist: Linda Woolfson


I'm Linda Woolfson, MA, PhD, a SoulCollage® Facilitator & Trainer, writer, translator and creativity catalyst with a particular passion for bringing words and images together to fire our imagination and enhance our lives. This column explores  how you can use SoulCollage® to deepen your experience of the summertime.


Joyful Exuberance

Exuberance, Delight, Gaiety, Bliss, Jubilance, Elation…Joy. Joy is one emotion in the range of intensely pleasurable peak states we human beings can experience. As well as subtly overlapping each other, these glorious feelings have much in common. They are all intense by nature, like the Biblical cup full to the brim which “runneth over.” They are also inherently surprising, flooding us suddenly with immeasurable sweetness.

Joy is different from happiness which can be a more settled state. Joy is by nature dynamic. To explore what joy is for you, go quickly through your SoulCollage® deck and pick out two or three cards with a joyful energy. Do you have an image in your deck of pure joy? One childhood memory still conjures up for me the quintessence of joy: going off with my mother and my sister Tricia to buy hula hoops - see bottom left of my Happy Child card (above). Oh the thrill of those new hula-hoops! Plus the delight of getting the knack of hula-ing!

As children, we experience joy with ease. Once we grow up, our relationship with joy changes. As Kay Redfield Jamison reminds us in her wonderful book Exuberance, “Our greatest sorrows and our greatest joys ripen on the same vine.” For adults, at least in our society, joy tends to become elusive. So aware are we of its fleeting nature that the pain of its transience can cause us to tamp down our capacity to feel it.

SoulCollage® can help us to explore the subtle and transitory emotional states which infuse our lives with color and vitality. I made my card “Let Go” (see left) when my then 22-year-old daughter Jessica was about to leave Europe to spend a year in Australia. The starting point was the pain of parting. Yet creating the card generated an unexpected moment of joy: suddenly I saw that not only could I contemplate letting go of my daughter, but I could maybe even celebrate her adventurous spirit and enjoy hearing about her travels!

In his poem “Eternity”, William Blake gives deceptively simple expression to the paradoxical nature of joy:

He who binds to himself a joy
Does the winged life destroy;
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity's sun rise.

The imagery of flying in these lovely lines expresses another facet of joy: its vital connection with freedom. If we are not free to express ourselves and to let our creativity unfurl, life is indeed joyless. There is nothing more joyless than a caged bird. Perhaps this is why we tend to associate joy with childhood, that time before we clamped down on the joyful creativity of self-belief. If so, then allowing ourselves to play may let more joy into our lives. The sparkle-filled bears in my card “Cosmic Play” (see left) seem to emanate the joy of unfettered, playful freedom.

When we start to explore Joy, we realize that its unstoppable flow far transcends the personal nature of our “local story.” It is beyond everything a uniting force, something we all instinctively recognize and which brings us together, just as Beethoven expressed in his Ode to Joy. Watch the expressions on everyone’s faces in this short video and give yourself permission to both laugh and cry with Joy!
 

Linda Woolfson, MA, PhD is a SoulCollage® Facilitator and Trainer, writer, translator and creativity catalyst. Of South African origin, she now enjoys living a dual-based life between the United Kingdom and Portugal, running SoulCollage® and creativity workshops, retreats & Facilitator Trainings in both countries. Linda has been exploring the creative process for many years and working with SoulCollage® since 2009. You can find out more about her activities on her SoulCollage® website and on her Facebook page.
 

BOOKS by ANNE MARIE BENNETT


 
KaleidoSoul Creations
As promised, we are featuring SoulCollage® cards from our readers in each issue.

Each card below is a card from one SoulCollager's Deck that represents Joy.

 


Joyful
Committee Suit
Karen
Ohio


I am One infused with the spirit of Joy. I leap into the light and airy energies surrounding me, having erased all heaviness from my mind and body. I am “in the pink.” Joy is my birthright. My gift is soothing green energy to heal you, soft pink petals to lift your spirit, and white doves of peace to soar with. I help you recognize joy as it whispers softly to your soul. Look forward to each new day. Welcome each turn of the kaleidoscope, recognizing the fragile essence of joy. Breathe joyfully into whatever comes your way.





Joy
Suit Unknown
Francene
Connecticut

I am one who is a sponge. I soak up the beauty, color and light that surrounds me. Joy flows into me and out of me. My heart sparkles with delight.





Joy
Committee Suit
Emilie
Texas


I am the one for whom joy bubbles over into belly laughing frequently. I am the one who surrounds herself with sweetness and companionship and color to live in Joy. I am the one who has, at times, been resented and not trusted when I allow my Joy to flow. I am the one who decides to live in Joy even when my colors and loudness and giggling seem to shine out too much. I am the one who feels fully alive when Joy overflows into life from within.





Joy
Council Suit
Emilie
Texas


I am the one who is eternally young and innocent and filled with Joy. I am the one who follows and grows toward the sun Light. I am the one who lives with child-like wonder and Joy. I am the one who fills your life with De-Light and invigorates your Being.





Joy
Committee Suit
Connie
California


I am one who is literally jumping for joy. I delight in the glorious colors of the cosmos/both small and large. I am one who can freely express myself through my body, moving with grace and strength.





Joy!
Council Suit
Dot
Pennsylvania


I am one who transforms life with positive energy bubbling up from deep within. I am one who can appear at any time, day or night, to set your feet to dancing and to prompt a jump for joy or a happy face or deep belly laugh. I am one who invites you to walk the rainbow path, using the compass of my positive energy as the True North by which you guide your life.

Dance for Joy:
Smile, bloom and dance!
Feel the Laughing Buddha deep within.
Be on the Rainbow Path of Joy
Morning, noon, or night.




Please feel free to submit one of your cards for a future issue by sending a reply email to this newsletter.

Future themes include:
August: Seasons
September: Astrology
 
 
KaleidoSoul Notes
KaleidoSoul Notes

Noteworthy resources for anyone interested in SoulCollage®

 
Facilitator TrainingsFacilitator Trainings: Information about content and dates/locations of upcoming trainings of SoulCollage® Facilitators.

SoulCollage websiteSoulCollage 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®!

ONLINE SOULCOLLAGE® WORKSHOP
with Anne Marie Bennett

Write Now!  Journaling with Your SoulCollage® Cards

Facilitated by Anne Marie Bennett, who has been journaling with her cards for 11 years.

July 17 - August 14, 2016

 *** 3 tele-classes ***
*** recordings of all classes ***
*** handouts for each class ***
*** lots of new ideas ***
*** connection with other SoulCollagers ***
*** FUN ***
*** optional online group to share your insights and discoveries ***
*** Individual guidance from Anne Marie ***

To register or for more information,
please visit this page.
 
Upcoming SoulCollage® Retreats

OHIO


Facilitator Training
Columbus, Ohio

August 12-14, 2016
Facilitator: Diane Jacobson Born


More info here.
Contact form for even more info.



MASSACHUSETTS

Creating with SoulCollage®
Byfield, MA

July 28-30, 2016
Facilitator: Mooydeen Frees


Creating SoulCollage® cards provides a gentle and playful way to explore our life journeys. Through a contemplative process of selecting, cutting, and pasting images from magazines and books, participants can quiet their thinking minds and get in touch with their own inner wisdom. Intuition and the work of the spirit are allowed to have a voice. We will practice using SoulCollage® cards to access personal wisdom and provide guidance for life's questions. All supplies are provided to make several personal cards and begin (or continue) to build your own SoulCollage® deck.

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.


PENNSYLVANIA


Beginnings, Endings and that Place In-Between:
A Women's SoulCollage® Weekend Retreat

Bangor, PA

September 30 - October 2, 2016
Facilitator: Laurie Smith, M.Div. and Sally Freed, M.A.


At this weekend retreat at Kirkridge Retreat center, we'll explore the blessings and challenges we often experience in times of change and transition. Through conversation, reflection and ritual, we'll embark upon a creative journey which honors and celebrates where we've been, where we may be going, and the gifts of the present moment. SoulCollage® will allow deepening of our understanding of our own transition times, and how we can support the gestation, uncertainty or renewal that is stirring in our lives. No artistic experience necessary! Come, nourish yourself at Kirkridge, a place of openness, spirit, hospitality and creativity.

Visit this page for more information.


PORTUGAL

Facilitator Training

Hotel Baía, Cascais

October 20-23, 2016
Facilitator: Linda Woolfson, MA, PhD


Please email Linda for more info.


OREGON

Facilitator Training

Portland, Oregon

October 13-16, 2016
Facilitator: Diane Jacobson Born


More info here.
Contact form for even more info.

 

MASSACHUSETTS

The Wholeness of SoulCollage®
Lenox, MA

November 27 – December 2, 2016
Facilitator: Anne Marie Bennett, Jeanne Marie Merkel


At this 5-night retreat, we’ll spend luxurious amounts of time making the cards, plus we’ll dive deeper into our own authentic selves as we work with the cards through journaling, sacred ceremony, modified movement, readings, and small group activities that are as fun as they are meaningful.

If you’re feeling stressed, overwhelmed, or unsure of your next steps, SoulCollage® will bring you back home to yourself and give you permission to fully express yourself in a safe environment. If you’re already feeling balanced, this workshop will light up your life in a new, playful manner. Either way, you’ll receive an exciting new tool for opening more fully to your life’s possibilities.

Investment varies based on room choice (dormitory, double, or single). Your fee includes all card making materials, handouts, nutritious meals from the highly-acclaimed Kripalu kitchen, morning and afternoon yoga classes, YogaDance at noon, and evening activities (except for our Wednesday night group session).

We will gather daily from 8:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. and 1:45 - 3:45 p.m. as well as Wednesday evening from 7:30 – 9 p.m. All other times are free time for you to enjoy the Kripalu grounds and other offerings (including the hot tub!).

For new AND experienced SoulCollagers. All materials provided.

Visit this page for more information now.



ITALY

La Dolce Vita- Goddess Retreat
Tuscany, Italy

September 24 - October 3, 2017
Facilitator: Cat Caracelo


Journey with a small circle of visionary, artistic and whole-hearted women, for 11 days in our own private villa near Florence! Enter into the mythic and living landscape of Italy, make art with SoulCollage® and mixed media as you explore La Dolce Vita. We will seek the wisdom of the Goddesses and explore mythic landscapes, sacred gardens, the dreamscapes of the Renaissance that influenced Il Sacro Bosco, and Niki St Phalle's magnificent Tarot Garden, as we make art and explore energies that will inspire the sweet life.

Visit this page for more information now.

 

CONTACT US
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,
Karen Regina or Linda Woolfson.
Articles may be reprinted by permission only.