Ā 

Inner Surprises Blog

SoulCollage® Suits

By Anne Marie Bennett

Subscribe to updates

SoulCollage® Suits

Fear and Fearless

by
Inner Fears

FEAR

At a workshop a while ago I made this card (to the left) intentionally to honor the place that Fear has taken in my life.

Who are you?
We are the ones who are hiding out behind the windows and doors of your psyche. We are the ones (and there are many of us) who are afraid, who huddle together in your mind and whisper fears to you as you sleep and while you are awake.

We are the ones who have been with you since childhood. You inherited us from your mother. We were her fears too.

We speak to you of powerlessness and joylessness. We paralyze you with our scary stories that are mostly false.

What Do You Have To Give Me?
We give you a sense of ancestral lineage… we give you a closeness to your mother that you never felt while she was alive.Ā  We give you something to think about and focus on besides joy. We give you huge distraction from the present moment.Ā  Sometimes, when the fear is valid, we give you time and a way to prepare, a way to meet the fearful thing or person.

What Do You Want From Me?
We want you to buy into our stories. We want you to believe that you are powerless to change what makes you afraid. We want you to always be afraid, because this way everything will stay the same. We don’t want things to change. We want you to continue to hold yourself tight in your fears and try to keep yourself safe that way.

Is There Anything Else You Want to Tell Me Today?
We are telling you that we have much power in your life and we are afraid that being aware of us will make you send us away. We are just now peeking out of our well-walled fortress and smelling the fresh air. Others have actually made their way down to the street and are on their way to freedom.Ā  We have been with you so long, we are not sure what to do if you set us free.

FEARLESS

Fearless

At the same workshop, I made this card intuitively, not thinking about what it was all about. I was drawn to these images, and they seemed to fit together perfectly. When I worked with this card later, I realized that it is my Fearless Neter!

Who Are You?
I am the one who breathes fire, who plunges forward without looking. I am the one who bravely flies through the air, knowing and trusting that I will be caught.Ā  I am the one whose body is strong and tall and who stands and moves proudly through life.

What Do You Have To Give Me?
I give you strength and I give you courage. I give you fearless energy to move through your life. I give you joy in the moving forward.

What Do You Want From Me?
I want you to not hold back. I want you to JUST DO IT!Ā  I want you to move forward with trust and strength. I want you to leave your fears behind. I want you to know that you can do whatever you set your mind and body to.

This whole adventure with these two cards was really eye opening for me!Ā  It was a powerful example of how things are “at work” inside of us during this process even though we’re not aware of it!

Hestia- Goddess of the Hearth

by

I madeĀ  this card years ago and always thought of it as my “sacred space” Neter, but then I listened to Kathryn Costa’s Kindred Spirits class on goddess archetypes and learned quite a bit about them.

I took the Goddess Quiz on the site that she recommended, and discovered that my own top three personal goddess archetypes, expressing themselves in my life right now are: Persephone, Artemis, and Hestia.

After reading more about Hestia (Goddess of the Hearth) on the recommended site, I suddenly realized that I already have a SoulCollageĀ® card for her, and this is it!

Who are you?
I am the one who loves to stay home. I am the one who turns away from drama and turns instead to the sanctuary of my inner life. I am the one who creates and operates from my own inner sacred space. I am the one whose inner fire burns brightly and warms my soul.

What do you have to give me?
My gift for you is the intuitive ability to create a homey atmosphere of warmth and sacredness wherever you go.Ā  I give you the knowing that your inner life is paramount.

 

 

High Priest of Hiding

by

I made this card intuitively, finding myself drawn to these random images of white masks and the people wearing them. And they all seemed to fit quite naturally in front of the cosmos.

When I began working with it, the powerful voice came from the large white moon-masked figure.

Who are you?
I am the one who oversees the masks that you wear. I am the one who knows that sometimes masks keep you safe AND sometimes they keep good people away from the real you.

What gift do you have for me?
My message for you today is this- if you are ever in doubt about when to leave the mask on or when to take it off, just come to me and ask. I am the one who knows the difference and I know who can safely receive what is behind the mask and who cannot.

I love that this archetypal energy behind my metaphorical mask wearing is present for me whenever I ask.

After I worked with this Neter several times, I noticed something interesting. NOT ALL of the people on this card are wearing masks. In the lower left quadrant, there is a person whose mask is lifted… and there’s even an ARROW pointing directly to him! I had a good laugh when I saw this. It’s a good reminder to me that this Neter is not just about hiding, but also about unmasking.

Surrounded by Color

by

This Neter came to me last year and I made her completely intuitively, not knowing how the images would come together, only that they belonged together somehow.

Here is what she says to me today:

Who are you?

I am the one with blue hair … and I am the one with flowers in my hair.

We are the ones who are surrounded by color.

I am the one who is poised.

We are not shy about being creative, about being myself.

We are the ones who are looking you in the eye and daring you to be who you are.

We are daring you to be more colorful, to bring more COLOR into your life!

 

What gift do you bring me?

We give you permission to be colorful and creative.

We give you permission to draw, to write, to color, and to get out your art journals again.

We give you color… all the colors of the world!

We gift you with playfulness.

 

What do you need from me?

We need you to play in your art journal again. You did a few pages last week, and then you stopped.

We need you to bring more ART into your life!

 

 

 

The Fool Brings Change

by

Fool is an archetypal energy that brings CHANGE with it. Some of this change is minor, like when you get a haircut and it comes out all wrong; and some of this change is huge, like what the coronavirus has brought to us.

Seena Frost, the founder of SoulCollageĀ®, taught that there are two archetypes that touch ALL of our lives, no matter where we are. One is Death; the other is The Fool.

This is my second Fool card. I made this while leading a retreat where we focused on the 3 S’s of SoulCollage:
Sacredness, Surprise, and Synchronicity

It feels appropriate to share it with you now that we are still in the midst of COVID-19 and all the surprising life changes that this virus has brought to us.Ā  And I’ve learned, if I really get comfortable with and welcome The Fool’s changes into my life, I also can (most of the time) recognize the sacredness and synchronicity of these changes.

Who are you?

I am the one who is all about surprises.

I am the one who changes things around and switches things up when you least expect it.

What do you have to say to me today?

My message for you today is this: do not fear all these changes, dear one. I urge you to find a way to look forward to them… to welcome them, and delight in them if you can.Ā  My appearance in your life can bring joy and new perspectives too.Ā 

Notice that even the ugly old fire hydrant has flourishing green leaves growing on it!