By Linda Tenney
In these times of accelerated change, as cycles within cycles come to an end and new ones begin, uncertainty goes hand in hand with the many transitions and transformations we face. Since no one can predict the future with 100 percent certainty, it is difficult for many of us to see clearly the road ahead that awaits us. What will be gained, what will be lost, what will be relevant one year, two years, ten years from now?
What should we be working on within ourselves and adding to our “tool bags” for a very unpredictable future?
If our consciousness is expanding, and more of our inherent, heightened perceptive abilities are “coming online,” then we can probably be certain that at the very least, our imaginative faculties will play a huge part in the reality we co-create and experience in our future. Therefore, honing our abilities to intend, imagine, and intuit our visual perceptions will serve us well and we can look to tools such as SoulCollage® to create symbolic and metaphoric imagery that inspires our creativity, ignites imagination, and develops intuition.
This quote, attributed to Meister Eckhart, the 14th century Christian mystic, sums up the imaginative ability of the soul so eloquently:
“When the soul wishes to experience something, she throws an image of the experience before her and enters into her own image.”
This may be a more literal definition of the Universal Creative Process than we think!
SoulCollage is a psycho-spiritual framework and collage process that hones these creative and imaginative skills. In SoulCollage, which was developed by Seena B. Frost (soulcollage.com), cards are created by cutting and pasting images from magazines, catalogs, greeting cards, brochures, etc. and melding them together to represent one energy or concept per card. As various images are intuitively selected and arranged on mat board cards, we subconsciously express the voices and stories of our unique souls. This simple, yet powerful, technique awakens our creative inspiration and intuition.
Once a card is created, we journal or dialog out loud with our card using the “I am One Who…” exercise, where we enter into the card image, and imagine speaking to our self as the person, being, or energy of the card (a form of role-playing). It is an amazing, insightful experience to “hear” these parts of ourselves speak!
The psycho-spiritual aspect of SoulCollage includes the concept of “the One and the Many”—Source and our individual Soul Essences expressing ourselves and our many sub-personalities (for example, the Inner Child, Inner Critic, the Artist, etc.) and archetypes (the Seeker, the Creator, the Great Mother, the Wise One, etc.).
To help categorize cards and prevent oneself from creating the “same” card over and over again (energetically, that is), Seena devised four suits:
- Council (archetypes)
- Committee (inner personality, and soul parts)
- Community (actual people, pets, and other beings that have had a meaningful impact on us)
- Companions (power animals dwelling in our chakra energy centers).
These cards all have light and shadow sides and speak to us.
Finding Guidance
Many people benefit greatly from SoulCollage, and they create decks of numerous cards that they can then consult in readings by asking open-ended questions and drawing cards randomly to see who has guidance for them at that time.
For example, one SoulCollage creator recently shared a touching story about how her card “grew” in meaning and brought comfort to a grieving friend. “Wendy” had created a card featuring two young cancer patients (seen above) in a loving embrace, smiling broadly at one another, which she felt embodied her two well-loved brothers. She felt drawn to place one boy on a background of water, and the other on a background of rocks and autumn leaves. Unknown to her conscious self, she felt pulled to turn the rocky landscape on its side. In a workshop, I observed this as she was assembling the card and commented that it will be interesting to see what the card had to say about why it “chose” to be created that way.
When she spoke “as her card” in the group, this is what she said:
“We are brothers. We are the ones who will never be separated, even by death. Our love for each other is from our birth, perhaps even before. Our world’s been turned on its side. We are sharing an experience but we are in different places on the journey. Still, we are loving. Perhaps if our world had not been turned, we would not be sharing this moment…of pure joy.”
Several weeks later, Wendy was sharing her SoulCollage experience and her card with a friend whose husband was recently diagnosed with terminal cancer. When she shared her card’s message, her friend experienced a profound emotional release. Within her tears and sorrow, she realized they, too, were in different places on their journeys, but it was okay to still feel and experience love and joy with her dying husband.
In a later spontaneous art exercise, Wendy’s own brother emerged in a poem. She pulled out her SoulCollage card, and this time saw in the image how close she had been to him when they were very young and that their shared world had been “turned on its side” by parental alcoholism. She wept, remembering the love between herself and her brother, with whom she has made contact just in time for his 60th birthday.
Creating SoulCollage cards can be a relaxing, healing, creative, and meditative experience that draws us into the process to co-create with our soul. Our cards then introduce themselves to us and impart their sage wisdom, and we can consult with them to help guide our lives as we use our imaginative abilities to co-create our new world.
Linda Tenney is a SoulCollage® workshop facilitator, intuitive tarot consultant and teacher, and spiritual coach. For other workshops, SoulCollage events, or private consultations, you can reach Linda through The CreativiTree Center site at CreativiTreeCenter.com or email Linda@CreativiTreeCenter.com.