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Highlights of this issue:
 Quotation of the Week
For me a true poem is on the way when I begin to feel haunted, when it seems as if I were being asked an inescapable question by an angel with whom I must wrestle to get at the answer.
--- May Sarton
Soul Friends The Voice of a Different Kindred Spirit Each Week  Diane Kern Downeast Maine As for so many good things in my life, I came to SoulCollage by accident. Well I guess there are really no accidents. I was experiencing a stressful time in my life and was in search of a creative outlet to ease the stress. A friend sent me an article from Michele Lessirard's New Moon Journal two and a half years ago, and I noticed the link for a monthly challenge creating a SoulCollage card for the new moon energies. I took the challenge thinking it would be a one time thing. But once I started I was hooked. My first card so surprised me that I could not stop. I had to know more and sought out Seena Frost's website, bought her book, and CDs. I was on my way. SoulCollage allows me to relax, reflect and redirect my life. I enjoy sharing my work with other collagers as well as those who have never heard of the process. Insights from other people often help to clarify the meaning of what I have created. Seeing how other people create and interpret their cards and how the images they use come together is amazing. The commonality of some images is truly interesting. My best advice to other SoulCollagers is to have fun! There is no right or wrong way to create a SoulCollage card. In fact, experimenting with different ways is half the fun! Create without expectation and be amazed at the result. Once in a while I make a card purposefully for an issue I am dealing with or for someone I want to honor. More often the feeling to create a new card creeps over me. I pull out my boxes of clippings and start pulling images that speak to me with no particular theme in mind. When I have gathered 6-12 images I let them flow together and they start to form a theme. Then I start pasting my images on 8 ½ x 11 paper. If I am not using a full size background image I tend towards colored paper to add life to the empty spaces. When the card is finished I scan it and print a 4 x 6 card and a mini travel size as well. The scan takes out the cut lines and gives a more painterly finish which I prefer. Occasionally I create a digital card. Usually I let the card sit on the table for a day or two before interviewing it and developing the I Am the One Who... statements or poem. Lately I have started to post my cards on my Facebook page as well as my blog to share them with more people. Come visit, comment and let me know where you post your cards. Here are two of Diane's SoulCollage cards:  THE SHY ONE Committee Suit I am the shy one, the wall flower happy to stay in the background. I am the one who is second in command but never stands in the spotlight. I am the one who picks up the pieces of other people's mistakes but doesn't take credit. I am the one who hides her light afraid that someone may recognize her. I am the one who fears rejection. I am the one who blooms in silence.  I AM THE ONE WHO WEAVES MAGICCommittee Suit I am the one who weaves magic. I am the one who, though chained to this world, still manages to fly. I am the one whose eyes see beyond the solid and constant into the realms of vapor between worlds. I am the one whose flames of desire create realities from emptiness.  SoulCollage® ExpressionsIdeas and Challenges to Spice Up Your SoulCollage® Practice Idea of the Week Random Drawing Choose a card randomly from your Deck and ask it, “What is your most cherished dream?”
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Our Next Tele-Class Power Animals, with Michele Lessirard Shamanic teacher/practitioner and SoulCollage® Facilitator in Florida.  Last evening, just before dusk,
I (Michele) looked out our family room window to see two great
horned owls dancing on the ground by our palm tree. Owls rarely come
down out of the trees to such a vulnerable place. What does the Owl
dance mean? How would you work with the Owl's message? There are two main types of helping allies that shamans consult and work with in their journeys: power animals, also known as guardian spirits, and teachers in human form. In this teleclass we'll explore SoulCollage® and the relationship of power animals beyond the body chakras. In building relationship with our helping allies we come to know our true essence; from this place of power we feel more connected and grounded, better able to move out into the world in service to our family and community. During the teleclass we'll explore Nature, power animals and the SoulCollage® process. Michele will talk about power loss, power animals and the soul retrieval process using your SoulCollage® cards. Attend this Power Animal tele-class and you have a chance to win a copy of Sandra Ingerman's book Shamanic Journeying: A Beginner's Guide 
, from Sounds True. The book includes a drumming CD for shamanic
journeying. If you have any animal companion cards in your SoulCollage® Deck, please bring them with you to the call, along with your journal and a pen. Date: Sunday August 16, 2009 This class is this coming Sunday. Phone number to call: 1-218-936-4700 Access code: 79334 Time: 4:00 pm Eastern, 3:00 pm Central, 2:00 pm Mountain, 1:00 pm Pacific, 11 a.m. Hawaiian, 9 pm in London, 11 pm. in Rome, Monday 6 a.m. in Melbourne Australia and Monday 8 a.m. in New Zealand Upcoming Tele-Classes and Presenters: Sunday, September 20, 2009 - 7pm EST - Movement and SoulCollage®: Blossoming Your Inner Dancer, with Lisa Thornbury-Clark, SoulCollage® Facilitator in Ohio. Your body is a powerful vessel of your wisdom, your life journey and your own unique expression of the Divine. Add movement and dance to your SoulCollage® practice, and you'll create a multi-sensory journey which will deepen your experience. Join us as we explore playful and sacred ways to connect your inner-dancer to your card-maker self. This tele-class will include experiential movement activities as well as discussion. That's right, we'll be moving instead of just sitting and listening! You'll learn creative ways to add movement and dance prior to card making as well as ideas and suggestions for conducting solo and group movement and dance "readings" with your SoulCollage® deck. Please attend this call in a room where you have some space to move freely and safely, and use a phone with speaker-phone capability if possible. It would be helpful to have a yoga mat or blanket for the session as well as your SoulCollage® cards nearby. No previous movement or dance experience necessary. Invite your inner-dancer to come out and play! October 4, 2009 (Sunday, 2 pm Eastern) - SoulCollage® Through the Chakras, with Jenni Holloway, SoulCollage® Facilitator in California. In this tele-class, Jenni will introduce you to the Chakra Energy system, providing you with information on where each chakra is located and how they influence your body, emotions, actions, relationships, belief systems and relationship to the Divine. Jenni will highlight ways you can create SoulCollage cards using the Chakra System as a powerful organizing principle. Jenni Holloway leads yoga, SoulCollage® and chakra workshops in the San Diego area. Her specialty of combining yoga philosophy & chakra energy healing with contemporary models of developmental psychology & expressive healing arts create sacred experiences of self-discovery & transformation. November 17, 2009 (Tuesday, 7 pm Eastern) - SoulCollage® as Prayer, with Catherine Anderson, SoulCollage® Facilitator in North Carolina. In this tele-class, Catherine will guide you through simple exercises that will enable you to hear and record the prayers you have already captured in visual form in some of your SoulCollage cards. Using SoulCollage cards you have already made, you will create prayers that allow you to become more aware of the blessings in your life as well as prayers asking for help from your Higher Power. Catherine Anderson has been a SoulCollage facilitator since June, 2004. She lives in Charlotte, North Carolina where she teaches SoulCollage, Creativity and Photography workshops. She is also a partner in the business Whole Brain Consulting, an organization whose mission is to bring creativity and intuition into the business world. More information is available on www.catherineandersonstudio.com or www.wholebrainconsulting.com New England SoulCollage® Facilitator Training October 9-11, 2009 in Chester, Connecticut  If you've been longing to take your
SoulCollage® practice out into the world by becoming an "official"
Facilitator, then please join us for a beautiful fall weekend at
The Guest House
(so named for
Rumi's famous poem).Training participants make cards, share cards, and use their own processes as teaching examples for the group in learning how to facilitate SoulCollage® work. You'll learn how to facilitate "readings" which use our own intuition to deepen self-knowledge. You'll learn creative applications and how to adapt the SoulCollage® process to different populations. We'll work towards constructing a plan that fits each participant's intended uses of the technique. No degree or other credentialing is needed to register for this course. Enthusiasm for the p rocess and its use in one's own life are the chief criteria for participation in the training To make this Training more accessible and affordable, we've added an option for you to pay in two smaller payments. There's more information on this KaleidoSoul page. |
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, by Barbara Brown Taylor. From simple practices like walking, working and getting lost, to deep meditations on topics like prayer and pronouncing blessings, Barbara shows us concrete ways to discover the sacred in the small things we do and see. A thoroughly satisfying and lovely book for anyone on a spiritual journey. 
, by Elaine St. James, author of the national best-seller,
. St. James takes the same principles she used in her best-seller and applies them to our inner lives, showing us how to reduce our soul’s clutter so we can live our lives as simply and fully as possible. This little book contains 100 inspiring new ideas on how to get in touch with your creativity, live more spontaneously, re-think old/outdated childhood beliefs, ignore the skeptics, and live simply so you can simply live.
