What is SoulCollage®? SoulCollage® is a unique blend of spiritual practice and the fun of collage. It was created by Seena Frost in 1980 as she worked with friends and clients in her therapy practice in California.
Each card in a SoulCollage® deck represents and honors one of the following facets of my unique life: a voice that lives inside of me, a person who supports me, an animal that has special energy to give me, or a mythical figure which guides me.
Using very simple materials (scissors, glue, mat board, and magazine images), I create my cards and interpret them using journaling or other activities. I use my deck to help me find answers to the questions that arise in my life, and to access my own deep wisdom.
Falling In Love With Myself
I make cards for all of the voices within me... even the dark, shadowy ones. For example, here are some of the voices I honor with my SoulCollage® deck: the one who loses her temper, the one who weighs too much, the one who is lonely, the one who is impatient.
Of course, I also make cards for my inner voices which bring me light and joy: the one who is a teacher, the one who is nurturing, the one who creates, the carefree child. As I work with this amazing process, I find that I am more and more able to embrace every part of me, even the dark ones. It is in this embracing that I come to wholeness, and it is in this wholeness that I discover I am falling in love with myself, one SoulCollage® card at a time.
Please click here to see some examples of SoulCollage cards.
9 Steps To Your First SoulCollage™ Card
The most important thing to remember while you are making SoulCollage® cards is to honor your own process. Please keep in mind that these steps are only guidelines. Feel free to deviate from them at any time and in any way! And don’t forget to have fun!
1. Create sacred space by lighting a small candle and/or putting on some soft music that delights your soul.
2. Gather your materials and put them on the table in front of you. You should have the following: a piece of 5” x 8” mat board or cardboard, a pair of scissors, an acid-free glue stick or jar of rubber cement, and several magazines.
3. Spend a generous amount of time going through the magazines. Tear out any images that you like, that seem to appeal to you for ANY REASON. Don’t question WHY you might be drawn to the images. Simply rip them out!
4. Spread the images out around you. Gather them into smaller piles, sorting them by colors, energies, themes, or patterns. For instance, you might notice that you have lots of images of stairways, or windows, or birds, or people who are frowning, or... You might see several images that just seem to go together for some reason. You don’t need to verbalize a reason for grouping some images together.
5. When you have a few different piles sorted by theme, choose one of them.
6. Start playing around with the images that you have chosen. Lay them on top of one another, or beside each other. Arrange and rearrange them until you come to a layout that you like. Trust your intuition. You will know when it looks “right.”
7. Glue the images onto the 5" x 8" mat board or cardboard.
8. You have made your first SoulCollage® card!
9. Now it’s time to do the I am the one who… exercise with your card to deepen your experience with it, and to begin to integrate its meaning into your life. Detailed instructions for this part of the process can be found
here.
Anne Marie Bennett is a freelance writer and self-taught artist who enjoys playing with mixed-media collage, and all forms of color and words. She has a BS degree in Education from Southern Connecticut State University and has taught children, teens and adults throughout the East Coast. She is a breast cancer survivor and feels closest to her own soul when she is writing, creating art, teaching, and sharing the gift of SoulCollage® with others. She lives in Beverly with her husband Jeff and two highly cherished (and spoiled) feline companions named Sasha and Scooter. Please visit her website http://www.kaleidosoul.com for more information on SoulCollage and to see examples of SoulCollage cards.
Categories
