| 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.
Coming Home to Our
Decks
One of my wisest teachers was an Episcopal priest named Randy. As a
priest, Randy would often have his Bible with him. Whether he was
giving a sermon, leading a Bible study, making a home visit, or
speaking to the parish women's group, his Bible (standard black,
worn cover, wispy thin pages, one long silken red page marker) was
nearly always in his hands, almost like an extension of his
body.
 I
remember being in awe of the ease with which he held his Bible open
on his lap, gently ruffling through its pages to find a certain
passage or highlighted note. It seemed to me that the Bible was a
part of him, patiently awaiting his personal applications of the
wisdom held within. There was such a sense of connection between
Randy and his Bible: a wondrous flow, a give and take, a
partnership. He seemed as at home with his Bible as his Bible
seemed with him.
At the time, I was filled with a gentle longing to be able to
handle my own Bible the same way, with such a calm sense of patient
authority and connection.
Today I notice that I seem to have transferred that longing to my
SoulCollage® Deck. As I hold my cards on my lap and in my hands, I
feel a deep archetypal connection to them that is similar to
Randy's passionate yet subtle connection to his well-worn
Bible.
I come home to myself every time I pick up a card, hold the
deck in my hands, do a reading.
Time for Reflection
Set aside half an hour this week and simply hold your cards
in silence. Gently flip through the cards, admiring them in
passing. Breathe in the beauty of your own soul.
Don't do anything with the cards. Don't initiate
conversations with any of them. Simply be with them in
silence, noticing each one, maybe sending sweet smiles of gratitude
towards them. Use this time to settle into your deck and . . .
come home to yourself in a new way.
Looking for lots of specific ways to work with your cards? Try our
Self-Study course:
Diving Deeper:
Doing Card Readings with Your Deck
50% off September 2018 only
with Coupon code STUDY50
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 VIDEO
CLASS |
SoulCollage® Card Making Tips & Tricks
PLUS Card Sharing
90
minute SoulCollage® Zoom video class
with SoulCollage® Facilitator
Dot Everhart from Pennsylvania
Join us for a unique 90-minute Zoom video sharing circle with
SoulCollagers around the world.
Dot and Anne Marie led a similar session a few years ago at one of
our KaleidoSoul SoulCollage® Retreats and it was a huge success.
Now, with the wide reach of the Zoom video platform, YOU will be
able to participate too! They will share a few of their own card
making tips and tricks, and then will invite others (perhaps YOU!)
to share one or more of your own ideas in the following categories:
card bases other than mat board, cutting tools, glue,
organization/storage, and miscellaneous.
Then we’ll invite people to briefly share 1 or 2 cards in any of
the following categories: Committee suit, Community Suit, Council
Suit, Companions Suit, Transpersonal cards, Unknown/Mystery
cards.
Please bring your journal and a pen so you can make notes on
any ideas you want to remember.
Also bring some cards to share, as well as any tips/tricks
YOU have in the above categories.
NOTE: Please remove the plastic sleeves from any cards
you’ll be sharing with the group.
We are counting on many of you sharing your own ideas and cards, so
please do consider what you’ll bring, if you can. If you’re very
new, please join us anyway!
Date: Thursday,
September 27, 2018
Easily Accessible from Anywhere in the
World!
|
| Guest
Columnist: Melissa Prinz |
SoulCollage®
Dioramas
Hello All! (Melissa prinz.jpg)
I'm Melissa Prinz, a relatively new facilitator in Austin, Texas.
My first experience with SoulCollage® was in February 2017, and
I've been diving deep in the process ever since. It's been a
surprisingly fun and profound way for all kinds of buried aspects
of myself to come out into the light and finally be acknowledged,
heard and honored. I use my cards quite frequently with daily draws
and 4-card readings as needed. Today I'm going to share about how
and why I make what I call “dioramas.”
You may have heard the term diorama if you've been to a
museum or helped a child with their school project – they are 3-D
models crafted to illustrate a scene or event. Sometimes they are
life-size; often they are miniature in scale.
Another type of diorama is what is made during Sandplay
therapy--where one creatively arranges a variety of figurines
in a tray of sand. These scenes often reflect a person's internal
world – how they perceive themselves, how they relate to others,
and their place in the larger world. I have found myself
instinctively doing something similar when working with my cards,
particularly when desiring to shift and heal a part of myself.
When I am struggling with an issue, I create or pull out cards of
the emotion, the belief, or the part of me being triggered. If it's
not easy to identify what is at the core, journaling helps to
inquire more deeply.
Then I ask which Neters (other aspects of my Committee, Community,
Companion or Council) would be best to help support and balance out
these parts of myself.
I lay the cards out in a way that makes sense to me for the issue
at hand - sometimes as a story-line based on chronology or perhaps
simply based on their relationships with each other. I may
intuitively add other cards (maybe placing directly underneath, on
top of, or beside them) to lend conscious supportive energy for
healing and transformation.
I'll augment the diorama, playing around and shifting cards until
it “feels right.” I like to leave the diorama out for a few days,
so that I can look at it and receive the full feeling of my insight
and support at a glance.
Here's one example from my real life to illustrate the concept.
Click on the image below and then click on it again to see it full
size for detail.
After a mid-life career change, I worked as a registered nurse for
three years, trying a couple of different fields. While I learned a
lot, something was missing that I couldn't quite put my finger on.
I've always loved being of service, but I wasn't feeling fulfilled,
and I had a strong yearning to do something creative. I was
beginning to question if nursing was even the right career for
me.
I decided to trust my inner whisperings and took an intentional
sabbatical for three months to unwind and play with my creativity.
Serendipitously, I discovered SoulCollage® and created card after
card of all these long buried aspects of myself. As time passed, I
kept extending my sabbatical over a year, working odd jobs, but had
to face the fact that I financially needed to work full time. I
kept getting the undesired message (from journaling, readings, and
intuitive feelings) to return to nursing, but I was resistant and
fearful of that idea for a whole mix of reasons.
One day I found myself attracted to an image of a nurse in her navy
scrubs, deep in a haze. She seemed to say she wasn't sure if she
should come out of the fog or recede into it. I started to journal
and work with her. My Fearful Self (woman fleeing on horse) was
being triggered, and my Inner Teenager who had been thrust into the
world, yet afraid to be a part of it, was quietly pleading for the
adult me to take care of it. Hesitantly, I began to look at job
postings, mostly uninspiring, until I saw one for a women's health
clinic that sent an unexpected thrill through me. Even though I
still felt some internal turmoil, I decided to apply for it and
work with my cards to support me.
My first (root) chakra Fox wanted to provide that soothing feeling
of security from a stable base of work and money. My third chakra
Falcon is there to light the way for stepping into my own power as
a nurse.
I had recently made the card with wrestler lady from the
GLOW TV show who just #%$! goes for it, who commits and
takes the leap!! With her flux of energy, and support from the
Nursing Lineage and my Grandparents, my Nurse self could celebrate
embodying the archetype of The Fool (being a beginner again in a
completely new field of nursing).
Throughout the application process, the hiring and training, and
the challenging first eight weeks of my new job, I kept these cards
out to remind me who I was doing it for, what support I had
internally and externally, the archetypal energy living through me,
and whom I was becoming more clearly. Since I was able to work
through my intense fear and resistance, I'm now experiencing the
most fulfilling livelihood I've ever had.
Making these dioramas brings our internal process into a symbolic
storyboard of sorts, one that we can viscerally manipulate, and
bear witness to. We can then leave it out as a visual touchstone
for as long as we desire.
I hope you too might be inspired to use your cards in new ways to
support you in your life.
|
|
|
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.
The Dance of the Chakras
Committee Suit
Michelle
Wisconsin
I am the one who embraces the chakra dance. The
dance of empowerment. The dance of freedom from within bringing
peace to my soul and all those I connect with.
Untitled
Committee Suit
Paula
Delaware
I am the one who is hiding my individuality, only showing it a
little bit at a time. I am the one who needs to show herself as she
truly feels and stop being afraid to show her true
colors.
Magical Child Crossing into Adolescence
Council Suit
Maxine
Massachusetts
IAOW is traversing from childhood to adolescence.
IAOW is eager for new and magical wisdom and experience, while also
hesitant, looking back on the comfortable and familiar. IAOW feels
the pull of lady moon, as my body comes under her spell. IAOW flies
towards new and mysterious colors, shapes and
textures.
Birthdays
Committee Suit
Karen
Ohio
I am the One who has celebrated decades of
birthdays and wonders how many more I have yet to come. I fondly
recall made-from-scratch birthday cakes my mother lovingly made for
my childhood parties. I anxiously notice the cakes diminishing into
nothingness at the vanishing point, just as I will one day. Know
that one day you will find yourself celebrating birthday #1 all
over again. Embrace your remaining birthdays and celebrate your age
and longevity.
Story Weaver
Committee Suit
Louise
U.K.
I am one who sits alone, patiently putting
together my story. I am one weaving together the threads of my life
and those of my ancestors. I am one who works slowly, as bit by bit
it intertwines and unfolds before me. A bittersweet labour of
love.
Shadow and Light, Dancing
Suit Unknown
Cheryl
Illinois
I Am the One Who is made whole in the Shadow and
the Light, and in the reconciliation of expressed and unexpressed
energies.
Author of My Own Story
Council Suit
Anne Marie
Massachusetts
I am the one who sits in the middle of the Writing
Road. I am the one who writes in the light of the SunFlower. I am
the one who guides you as you write. I am the one who writes as
Directed. I am the one who writes my own story and creates the
journey as I go.
Please feel free to submit one of your cards for a
future issue by sending a reply email to this
newsletter.
Future themes include:
October: Community Suit
November: Home
|
| |
 KaleidoSoul Notes
Noteworthy resources for
anyone interested in SoulCollage®
|
|
BLESSING BUNDLE WINNERS!
|
Congratulations to Our Winners!
Julie Abercrombie
from Idaho
Linda Rounds-Nichols
from New Mexico
Edie Evans
from North Carolina
each won a Blessing Bundle
for joining Kindred Spirits in
August.
Congratulations, and enjoy your membership!!
Winners were chosen using the Random Number Generator at random.org.
|
|
|
SOULCOLLAGE® SELF-STUDY COURSE
SAVE 50% THIS MONTH
|
50% Off This Month Only
Use coupon code STUDY50
Work at your own pace.
Expand your knowledge of all things SoulCollage®.
Deepen your work with your cards and with yourself.
Save more when you buy two or three or all seven!
More info
here.
|
|
Online Workshop
|
Once Upon a Time:
Tales of Tricksters and
Transformation
 An 8-week
SoulCollage® Journey Into the World of 4 Fairy Tales with
Facilitator Stephanie Anderson Ladd
September 9 – November 3, 2018
Join us as we set out on a new adventure to explore 4 Fairy Tales
over 8 weeks, and discover how these stories reflect our own inner
journey of individuation. In these fairy tales, which include The
Ugly Duckling, Sleeping Beauty, East O' the Sun and West O' the
Moon, and Rumpelstiltskin, we will be encountering the archetype of
the trickster--often a "threshold guardian" that Joseph Campbell
describes as part of the Hero's (or Heroine's) Journey. We'll also
see how a fairy tale character's transformation can be a blueprint
for our own. This will be a sojourn of the soul and what better way
to imagine our own metamorphosis than through SoulCollage®!
|
|
Online Workshop
|
QuestPath: A Year of Mythos
Journey
October 26, 2018 – October 26, 2019
with SoulCollage® Facilitator Cat
Caracelo
1 Global Circle
Mythic Journey Themes
Wheel of the Year
6 Virtual Retreat Days
12 Creative Gathering/Traveling Calls
and lots more!
Are you ready to create a rich experience and journey into new
inner territory?
Invite your deepest passion, potential and creative curiosity to
activate a new story, journeying with the brilliance and
richness of your life. Choose this potent season, as the veil
thins, to enter into the new QuestPath, joining others who love
SoulCollage®, art, depth, and discovery, to begin a yearlong
adventure!
QuestPath is a year-long journey that offers an integrative
approach for experiential process. Travel with a tribe of
like-minded women, moving through the seasons of one year, entering
the inner realm to experience powerful Mythos Journey themes that
are woven throughout.
There will be many options offered for creative connecting,
along with various ways to dip in, retreat and/or dive deep based
on energy and flow, as ideas and materials are shared within this
sacred circle.
Honor your rhythms and creative ways with QuestPath!
|
|
Online Workshop
|
 A Creative
Visual Map for Success:
The Right Brain Business Plan
with Chantel Zimmerman
who is an experienced SoulCollage® Facilitator/Trainer and a
Licensed Right Brain Business Plan Facilitator
September 10 - November
2, 2018
First live video conference: Wednesday September
12
All classes recorded... you don't need to attend "live."
Perfect for:
* developing a business plan
* visioning a new idea
* or breathing life into an existing business.
For SoulCollagers with an idea in mind
AND / OR for Facilitators or others
who are looking to build their business
Kindred Spirit
members, Save $100
Revive or start your creative business today
by
visiting this page for more info now.
|
|
Facilitator Training
|
FACILITATOR TRAINING
December 3-4, 2018
Scottsdale, Arizona
Dwell in your imagination and live alongside metaphor as you learn
about the nuts and bolts of facilitating MeCards4Kids®!
 This 2-day Training will introduce
SoulCollage® Facilitators to the unique features of MeCards4Kids®.
You will learn to facilitate this process in a variety of settings
with children at different developmental stages, and also with
vulnerable adult populations—including trauma survivors and frail
elders.
The Training will guide you through the theoretical framework, as
well as experiential activities, case discussions, and directive
strategies to develop a comprehensive understanding of this
creative process. These tools and techniques will empower you
utilize MeCards4Kids® in a variety of individual and group work
settings.
The Training will be led by Nancy Weiss, SoulCollage® Facilitator
since 2006 and author of the book, How to Make MeCards For Kids: Creative
Expression for Children and the Grownups in Their Lives
Interested? Want more info? Ready to register? Contact Nancy Weiss today!
Save 30.00! Tell Nancy that you saw this ad in Soul Songs.
|
|
Upcoming SoulCollage®
Retreats
|
MASSACHUSETTS
Dreaming the Shaman's
Journey with SoulCollage®
Westfield, Massachusetts
September 14-16, 2018
Facilitator: Anne Boedecker, Gail Byrnes
Awaken your spirit through shamanic journeying and SoulCollage®!
Join us for an intensive weekend retreat at the beautiful Genesis
Retreat Center. We will begin each session by creating sacred
space, and then you will be guided through the shamanic realms.
You'll take what you learn from your teachers and guides and give
it voice through SoulCollage® card making and journaling. Fee
includes two nights lodging + six meals. Register soon; space is
limited.
Visit this page
for more
information.
MASSACHUSETTS
ReWeave Your Life with
SoulCollage®
Kripalu Center for Yoga &
Health- Lenox, Massachusetts
September 16-21, 2018
Facilitators: Anne Marie Bennett, Jeanne Marie Merkel
Life’s transitions take many forms. We get laid off from work,
change our marital status, move to a new location, start a
business, watch our children go off to college, take on new
relationship roles, or just start wondering what our purpose is in
life. Being in transition can be unsettling—or it can be a time of
great peace, joy, and renewed purpose. SoulCollage® is an intuitive
process that can help us weave the many pieces of our lives
together into one beautiful whole, whether you are in transition or
not. Join us for 5 days card making, guided imagery, soul
journaling, and lots of inner discoveries as we open to the depths
of SoulCollage® in the beautiful Berkshire Mountains of
Massachusetts for an unforgettable retreat experience. Anne Marie
and Jeanne Marie have been leading retreats and workshops together
since 2006.
Visit this
page for more information.
CALIFORNIA
Fall Equinox Retreat:
Ancestral Dreaming & Soul Stories
Elsinore,
California
September 28-30, 2018
Facilitator: Cat Caracelo
Discover your soul stories through art-making, working with
SoulCollage®, mixed media and extended process. We will be mapping
the energies of this Equinox to the turning of the year, creating a
seasonal wheel in the round house, using art to expand the map of
life. Explore the power of depth work and map the path that is
calling to you now, using art as ritual, dreaming techniques and
ancestral connections to honor a new season of life.
Visit this
page for more information.
CANADA
Rituals and Personal
Practices based on the 4 Elements
Guelph,
Ontario, Canada
September 28-30, 2018
Facilitator: Mariabruna Sirabella
Rituals and ceremonies, as well as personal practices, are so
central to human identity, that we find them around the world, in
some form, in all societies and times. During this weekend retreat,
we will gather to experientially expand our understanding of their
value in our lives. We will enliven their presence with simple and
meaning practices based on the wisdom of the Four Elements. Perfect
to use in conjunction with your SoulCollage® practice and/or
workshops.
Visit this
page for more information.
COLORADO
Rainbow
Flow: A SoulCollage® Chakra Immersion
Retreat
Pagosa Springs, Colorado
October 9-13, 2018
Facilitator: Karen Aspin
Immerse yourself in music, sound, meditative journeys, color,
stones, and movement to flow with the rhythms of your inner
rainbow. Create beautiful, sacred, take-away tools to raise your
vibration and enliven your daily routines, including a beautiful
chakra mala. Reveal messages from the real “I” as you create/expand
your personally meaningful SoulCollage® card deck. $440, includes
shared room, materials, and a soothing hot soak at the Springs
Resort.
Visit this
page for more information.
ENGLAND
Spirit
& Place: A Women's SoulCollage®
Retreat
Rocknell, Devon, England
October 22-27, 2018
Facilitator: Sally Freed
SoulCollage® Sisters! We’ll stay at the beautiful Mill House
Retreats, a traditional centuries-old thatched farmhouse offering
all the comforts of a modern home in the heart of southwest
England. We will discover our own deep wisdom and intuition through
the simple, yet profound, creative process known as SoulCollage®,
as we explore our connection to both Spirit and Place. This retreat
will be an opportunity to create, reflect, explore and be restored.
We will share meals and laughter, song and silence, and offer space
for meditation, prayer and ritual. Your time at Mill House will
provide ample room to breathe on your own, as well as make
meaningful connections with others.
Visit
this page for more information.
CALIFORNIA
Annual
Winter SoulCollage® Retreat: Prayer
San Rafael, California
November 15-18, 2018
Facilitator: Mariabruna Sirabella
Prayer is a mysterious, sacred, universal, and powerful impulse of
the soul, compelled to reach for what is lovingly much larger than
itself - to find comfort, express joy and gratitude, or simply
converse with the divine. Join Mariabruna for this 4 day retreat as
we explore the unique ways that we experience prayer through
SoulCollage®, and other creative, meditative practices held in
times of rich, deep silence. The Santa Sabina Retreat Center
provides a tranquil and beautiful setting for sharing the amazing
field of prayer.
Visit this page for more information.
ITALY
La
Dolce Vita- Goddess Retreat in Italy
Tuscany, Italy
September 14-24, 2019
Facilitator: Cat Caracelo
Join Cat for Fall in Tuscany where we will stay in a beautiful
villa with a small circle of amazing visionary, artistic and
wholehearted women! Dance with La Dolce Vita and seek the wisdom of
the Goddess: Diana, Minerva, Melusina, whose ancient Etruscan names
and energies are held in the heart of this land. We will work with
SoulCollage®, mixed media and layered process as we connect with
the expression of the divine feminine. We will visit sacred
springs, mythic gardens, inspired environments and sultry seas,
beautiful places in Tuscany, as well as Florence and Siena - where
we will explore alchemical energy, artistry and vision as reflected
in the dreamscapes of the ancient, renaissance and modern
artists.
Visit
this page for more information.
|
|
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 2018,
by Anne Marie Bennett and
Cat Caracelo, Linda Woolfson, Marti Beddoe, or Michele Manos.
Articles may be reprinted by permission only.
|
|
Soul Songs
