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 #122   August 2015 Theme:  Healing
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.

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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.


The Katrina Trees

At first glance, the image that you see here might appear to be just a beautiful wooden carving of herons. But take a closer look. In reality, these birds were created from a dead oak tree in Biloxi, Mississippi. The oak tree was one of hundreds of saltwater casualties that resulted from Hurricane Katrina along the Biloxi coastline in 2005.

This sculpture is actually a wonderful tribute to the fact that when devastation occurs, possibilities, and healing still exist.

Biloxi's Katrina sculpture project began in 2007 when Mayor A.J. Holloway spoke with Mississippi "chainsaw artist" Dayton Scoggins about sculpting marine-related figures from the dozens of standing dead trees in the median of Beach Boulevard in Biloxi.

After work crews "topped" the dead trees, Scoggins made the first of two sculpting visits to Biloxi, creating egrets, seagulls, pelicans and dolphins from a collection of trees just west of the Biloxi Lighthouse.

Scoggins's initial five sculptures inspired Florida sculptor Marlin Miller to approach the city about donating his time and talent to sculpting more standing dead trees in the center medians in Biloxi. Miller, who exhibits sculptures at shows nationally, wanted to leave his mark on Biloxi and return the favor of Biloxians who had helped his community recover after Hurricane Ivan a couple years earlier.

There are now 20 such works of art in Biloxi, and you can see many of them in this short slideshow.

I first read about these Katrina Trees in a wonderful novel (see the Resources section, below). I was moved to tears reading about them and how they came to be. Like you, I am no stranger to devastation. And the lesson that artists Scoggins and Miller give to us through these beautiful carvings is simply this: no matter what has happened to us in our lives, no matter what has "brought us down," beautiful possibilities still remain.

It is up to us, it is always up to us, to pick ourselves up after the hurricanes of our lives have abated. And not only to pick ourselves up, but to seek ways to create beauty and healing from the damage.

In my own life, SoulCollage® is one way that I can create wholeness and healing from any dark devastating events that have affected my days. When I give image to my personal hurricanes and converse with them, they show me their beauty. They empower me to transform any "dead trees" in my own life into beautiful, whole works of art for all the world to see.

 
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.
 
OUR NEXT TELE-CLASS



60 minute SoulCollage® tele-class
with SoulCollage® Facilitator
Anne Marie Bennett in Massachusetts

Sunday August 23 , 2015
4 pm Eastern
 
Join us for a beautiful guided meditation written by Facilitator Alison Mackay, SoulCollage® facilitator in Byron Bay, Australia (used with her permission). The meditation is based on the fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty and the 13 fairies who blessed her at birth. There will be time for you to discover and journal with your own gifts from birth. Watch out for some lovely surprises!
Easily Accessible from Anywhere in the World!

Visit this page for more info now.
 
Guest Columnist: Cat Caracelo

I am Cat Caracelo, M.A., a SoulCollage® facilitator, depth coach and artist from Petaluma, California, offering my work individually and in global teaching forums. This column is for all of you who are exploring your creative and ready to discover more depth your SoulCollage® journey.


Archetypal Energies of the Healer

Exploring the qualities and energies of The Healer as a universal archetype is like embarking on a very long sea voyage, an odyssey that moves us past the edges of oceans, through time and space, into a flickering cosmos of moving images where life, light and darkness swirl. Like spiral galaxies gathering all of the energy of healing that has ever been held, experienced and activated, this is the vast and sometimes overwhelming field of energy that the Healer can access.

The Archetype of Healer exists in many forms and is among the oldest of the archetypal energies. It often feels like serious energy, and it is ancient and powerful. The Healer holds the energy of shamans, medicine people, heretics, herbalists and keepers of ancient ways; all those who are serving the wounded or hurting.

Distilling that vast swirling energy field down into the language of here and now, the Healer is a single point of light that offers guidance and assistance. The Healer often guides those who are navigating the journey of pain, challenge, loss or fragmentation.

Healing is the active, moving energy that slowly turns us toward a new wholeness. Healing is a journey that moves us through the threshold of initiation to another experience that offers integration. Healing seeks the pathway of relief, release and movement.

Healing does not hold the same motive as curing, it does not serve to repair but to mend. Instead of returning one to "how it was," healing moves us beyond the edge of "how it has been" to a new place of understanding and possibility. The Applied Healer is one who is willing to sit with pain, be with pain, work with, understand and touch pain without being undone by it. Pain is its own storyteller, a journey that guides us on the edge of a sword.

Healing may not be so much about getting better as about letting go of everything that isn’t you – all of the expectations, all of the beliefs – and becoming who you are. Not a better you, but a ‘realer’ you. People can heal and live, and people can heal and die. Healing is different from curing. Healing is a process we’re all involved in all the time. Healing is the leading forth of wholeness... ~ Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D.

The archetype of the Wounded Healer is expressed in one who is aware that their journey with pain and challenge is a co-active agent of transformation, growth and change. This awareness and wisdom impacts their ability to connect, listen, discern, extend empathy and guide healing based on experience and training. Wounded Healer is a reflection of energetic patterns that are common to healers and helpers of all kinds. The name was inspired by the myth of Chiron, a centaur born with dual natures (horse and man) whose mother refused and rejected her baby upon his birth. The original wound of abandonment was the first that the wise and gentle Chiron endured, layers of pain were to become part of his living experience. Mistakenly shot with a poisoned arrow, Chiron suffered a deep wound that would not heal. Despite his constant pain and open wound, Chiron became a great teacher and healer. He is gifted with self-knowledge, innate abilities, perspective and willingness to have his pain act as a journey guide for self and other. He is a point of light and learning.

Sensitive-Intuitive Healers can be profoundly impacted by the experiences of others. Pain is ever active in the world, collective pain and energetic wounding is residual by nature. If fatigued or vulnerable, the Healer may be overwhelmed, plummeted into disintegration, or experience reactive triggering of their wound. The Healer must learn to balance and apply healing, nurturing and sacred care to the self as they extend outward, offering care and healing to others.

Healers may be originally self-identified as seekers, but when healing a deep wound Healers will grow beyond seeking and find sources of knowing, becoming more conscious. An archetypal growth pattern toward the expression of the Healed Healer is activated by the unconscious yearning of the wounded self to become more and more conscious, to heal into wholeness. The Sufi mystic and poet Rumi shares a potent invitation to explore the place of wounding to find the source of healing. "If you desire healing, let yourself fall ill, let yourself fall ill."

Unique abilities may include the energy of expressive and applied art-making as a form of healing. The energy of the archetypal Artist Healer is activated in small moments, internally and externally. The Artist Healer pays close attention to places that are wounded and fragmented, providing support and space for healing through active expression. Connecting to the wound itself, asking the pain to share its story, is healing in action. This connection moves energies that have been stuck and unexpressed. Artist Healers can tend to their pain stories to provide the structure, guidance and direction that activate their healing stories.

Healing can at times take on varied and necessary energies, such as the Warrior Healer and the Shaman Healer, who may apply a fierce and fiery energy that burns through pain and suffering like a knife, transforming it into something new. The Contemplative Healer may apply prayer and energy work to their healing practice.

All of the expressions and archetypal energies of the Healer know, without question, that Healing happens. It is an unfolding experience that does not like to be rushed. Conscious healing is an ever-unfolding journey process, not a designed destination. To journey with the Healer is to have awareness of our truth and pain stories in equal measure, and a willingness to continue to journey deep into the wound even when it is painful. The Healer inspires us to experience healing from a journey perspective, that healing is an ever present process of illumination and discovery.

With art and inquiry explore these questions:
How are you working with the Healer?
How is your healing expressed and experienced?
Where are you in reaction, triggered or responding to the healing journey?


Cat Caracelo, M.A. is a Depth Coach, Artist and a SoulCollage® Facilitator, trained in 2007. Cat guides and mentors individuals and groups worldwide, incorporating expressive arts and transformative process into all facets of her offerings. Cat is the author of Gathering Wholeness: The Art of Identifying and Exploring Parts of Self and the creator of JourneyCircles™ Process and Training. Her dynamic eCourse offerings and destination retreats combine thematic journeywork and art-as-process to explore personal myth. Finding Gypsy: Healing with She-Stories eCourse is starting in early Fall. Please visit Cat’s website for information about coaching, classes and retreats: www.catcaracelo.com
 

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September 13 - October 4, 2015

Calling all novice or experienced writers!

This is a brand-new online series
facilitated by Nancy Norbeck,
SoulCollage® Facilitator,
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and published novelist.

Lots more info here.

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

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




The Seal Magician
Council Suit
Iris
Finland

I am the One Who sees magic in the unfolding of the secrets of the Universe. I am the One Who looks through the portal of the stars into the house of your Heart. I am the One Who brings the mystery and magic of the seal into your life through The healing power of creativity, imagination and lucid dreaming. I am the One Who plants the seeds of creativity that grow like mushrooms in your everyday life and work.




Beloved Patients
Community Suit
Michele
Arizona

We are the ones you touched and tended to. An awestruck healer-in-training, each day you thanked us for healing you. As you developed your animal senses, we watched you shine. We are the proud team of teachers behind your license to heal. Return to us to heal thyself.




The Inner Healer
Council Suit
Bee
Colorado

I am one who heals your body, your mind and your spirit. I am always with you to guide you to find your own Personal Healing Path. Ask me to share my Wisdom when you need healing and health and I will take your hand and show you the way.




Healer Compassion
Council Suit
Leeann
Pennsylvania

I am the one who holds life in my hands. I am the one who heals by touching and holding those close that are in need of a hug. I am the one who understands we are stronger through compassion and being there for each other.




Healer
Council Suit
Rene
Minnesota

I am One Who Heals through the hands of others. My golden fingerprint is on the fingers of all who touch others with love and comfort. From the time you are an infant, with feet that haven't yet touched the ground, to the time a young hand touches your older one, I am there. My touch during your sleep heals your anxious, whirling mind. When your wounds are hidden with bandages, sometimes hidden even from your own sight, I send healing through all who love you. My golden fingerprint sends energy through you, and you will be healed every time you heal another.




Nurse Self
Committee Suit
Rene
Minnesota

I am one who cares for the tiny ones. I am one who helps young, frightened girls realize that they are mothers. I am one who nurtures the little humans who are born too soon. I am one who is confident in my work and who is supported by others. The Light of Healing passes through me and I am only the instrument.





Helping-Healing Hands
Council Suit
Debrah
Victoria, Australia

I am the one who holds you in my hands and in my open arms. I am the one who loves you unconditionally. I am the one who is always there for you. I am the one who helps and heals you. I am the one who says "Rest with Me in Deep Peace”.




Health
Suit Unknown
Etty
Netherlands

I am the one who needs to be at times on my own and in my own energy. That is the core for me to stay in balance.




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

Future themes include:

September: Perfectionist
October: Addiction
 

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®!
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Upcoming SoulCollage® Retreats

NORTH CAROLINA

A River Runs Through Us:
A SoulCollage® Women's Weekend Retreat

New Bern, North Carolina
September 25-27, 2015
Facilitators: Glenda Cedarleaf and Stephanie Anderson-Ladd

Please join us as we explore all 4 suits through presentation, imagery, ritual and movement. We will make cards and share readings. We will go on a chartered sunset cruise down the Neuse River, share lovely lakefront villas and most of all delight in the connection with kindred spirits as we flow into the divine feminine energy of the river.
Bring a Friend Discount:
$525 per person through August 1.

Please visit this page for more information now.


WEST VIRGINIA

Spiral Journeys: Finding Ourselves on the Labyrinth of Life

Marlinton (Frost), West Virginia
September 4-7, 2015
Facilitator: Catherine Anderson

Using SoulCollage®, photography, storytelling and the labyrinth, you will connect to your inner wisdom and the rhythm of the natural world of which you are an integral part, as you are guided on the next steps of your journey of life.

Please visit this page for more information now.


COLORADO

Art of Self SoulCollage® Retreat

Lyons, CO
October 8-11, 2015
Facilitator: Christiane Olivo

Located in the inspiring Rocky Mountains, the Art of Self Retreat combines SoulCollage® with the Equine Gestalt Coaching method®, facilitated by Jennifer West of Capriole Coaching. Working with horses will offer you a completely new, unique and exciting way to deepen your SoulCollage® practice. With SoulCollage® workshops complementing work with the horses and a 24-hour open studio, there will be plenty of time to make new cards. The retreat is designed for all levels of experience with SoulCollage®--from beginner to facilitator. No experience with horses is required. Space is limited to 10 participants. Register by July 15th and save!

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.


IRELAND

Exploring Inner and Outer Landscapes

Mulranny, Ireland
October 11-17, 2015
Facilitator: Catherine Anderson & Lynda Griebenow

Using SoulCollage® and creative photography we will spend seven days and six nights exploring our interior landscape. We will develop "new ways of seeing" through reflection and connection to the mystery and the wisdom of the land. Through guided meditation, mindful photography practices, SoulCollage® and focused time in nature we will immerse ourselves in creative process - nurturing our imagination and spirit, sharing insights and the emerging wisdom in sacred circle.

Visit this page for more information now.


ENGLAND

Return to Avalon Goddess Retreat

Glastonbury, England
April 26-May 23, 2016
Facilitator: Cat Caracelo

We are gathering again for Beltane in Glastonbury, England for eight days in a beautiful restored farmhouse compound with a stunning view of rolling hills and the nearby Glastonbury Tor. We will be a small circle of women celebrating the rising Spring energies of this sacred place, tapping into mythic connections with visits to local and nearby sacred sites while exploring the ancient history, lore and our own mythic roots through journey work, SoulCollage® and expressive arts in our private studio space. Very limited space and six payment plans are available!

Visit this page for more information now.
 
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
Catherine Anderson, Cat Caracelo,
Imelda Maguire, or Linda Woolfson.
Articles may be reprinted by permission only.