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The Voice of a Different Kindred Spirit Each Week

Imelda Maguire
Donegal, Ireland

My SoulCollage Journey

As a SoulCollage facilitator, I have only been offering open workshops during the past few months, but one practice I began at the first one and continue at each workshop is the lighting of a candle at the beginning to honour Seena, Kylea and my colleague who first introduced me to SoulCollage. I visualize the little flame being carried on, and offer it to participants to visualize for themselves, carrying the flame back into their own lives, to share with others if they wish.

I first "caught the spark" when a counseling colleague returned from Breathwork training in the US during 2003, and shared the SoulCollage process with a small group in the Women's Centre where I volunteer. I was hooked and immediately ordered the book online and started gathering images and making cards at home during the next few weeks.

While my deck now numbers close on 100 cards, my first cards continue to have meaning for me. My very first card, which is in the SoulCollage.com gallery, whispered to me quite recently that it is probably my SoulEssence card. This feels right as it's always been a puzzle, always felt special, but never quite fit properly.

My practice of SoulCollage was far from consistent during the first 2 years. I'd make 5 cards one weekend, and then none for months. I gathered 3 or 4 friends in my kitchen a few times to spend a Sunday afternoon making cards, and I really loved the feeling of community - and the buzz of excitement about the process that was building among my friends. I have come to think that there is a timing that is right for each person, and that we need to integrate and process each layer of the work that we come to in our own time, so while I was eager for more regular activity, I found it difficult to set that up. The Kaleidosoul community was such a gift to me - feedback, association, stimulation, encouragement.

My decision to go toCalifornia for the May 2006 facilitator training was spontaneous in ways, and in some other ways, it seemed like it was meant to be from my first encounter with SoulCollage. Indeed, I had had a dream inviting me to "come" - and the voice in the dream was so like Seena's that when I did hear her voice on one of her tapes, I had a shock of recognition!

My deck is growing and is showing itself as ever-evolving. I have chosen to modify a few cards, or to replace the "official" version with something that feels closer to the soul-song of that neter in recent times. I blog (occasionally) about my Soulcollage process at my blog, SoulFragments.

When I felt ready in March of this year to begin to offer monthly workshops, I wasn't really prepared for the grace there would be for me in being the conduit for SoulCollage. It is such an honour to be the one to pass on the flame, and each workshop brings some moments of magic, awe, and deep, deep connection within the participants.

What I have learnt to trust is that I don't need to do a whole lot. The process itself acts in mysterious ways to touch and heal, and I only need to create the space and be as present as I can be to the people that come.

I have been journeying, over these past 4 years from "married" to "separated", from "mother-at-home" to mother of a grown, flown, independent son; I've become a university graduate, and now a real member of the (paid) workforce. My life has changed, many parts of me have moved, shifted, grown, emerged, and having SoulCollage as a way of companioning myself through these transitions has been immeasurably supportive. The bones I have been gathering, as in the La Loba story, are taking flesh. I can feel the muscles flex beneath the skin, and the woman that I am is getting ready to run with the wolves.