Soul Singing with Anne Marie |
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.
Diamond in the Darkness
Twenty years ago, in a Twelve Step Meeting, a man named Steve shared something that has vividly remained with me all these years. He believed that inside every one of us, at our deepest core center, lives a clear, pure, unsullied, bright jewel-of-a-thing, and that this jewel reflects us exactly as God intended when He/She created us. I loved that image so much that in my quiet-time meditations then (and since) I have been led to visualize a large, perfect diamond nestled in a tray of soft purple velvet, and presented on a crystal pedestal in a tiny room several floors beneath the surface in my own personal (imaginary) Inner Sanctuary. That diamond represents the real me, the true me, the most authentic core of my being. It is precious, valuable, and perfect exactly as it is.
Over the years, my inner Diamond became dirtied and seemingly flawed with the fears and insecurities that I inherited from my parents and from our media-influenced culture. I wasn't taught to value its worth, so I turned off the lights and locked it away in that small, dark room beneath the surface of my soul. I didn't even
want to open the door and look at it because that room was so filled with emotional trash and garbage from my past: memories that had not healed, emotions that had never truly been felt, beliefs that were archaic and misused.
As the years went by, however, my healing journey continued with the help of many more Twelve Step Meetings and my church community. Little by little, I was able to venture down into that special room, turn on the lights, and clear away some of the inner mess, until I was able to recognize that Diamond again as my own true center.
When I heard Seena talking about the SoulEssence card several years ago, I remembered this story about my own personal Diamond in the Darkness and realized that I knew exactly what she was saying. My own SoulEssence card (see left) has been through several incarnations and now this is one feels “just right,” giving image to that part of me that is that part of the Divine within me that will live on even after my body dies.
And guess what? You have a precious diamond inside of you too! Everyone has this brilliant spark of divine energy within them. Since immersing myself in the world of SoulCollage®, I have come to call this diamond, my SoulEssence.
Try This
In her online class, Unveiling the Three Faces of Silence in the Transpersonal
Cards, Mariabruna Sirabella recommends writing a letter to your SoulEssence. While we do not speak
from our Transpersonal cards, (ie using “I Am the One Who...”) we can build a relationship with these energies by writing
to them.
If you’d like to try writing a letter to your SoulEssence energy, you might want to write about:
- Your soul’s desires
- Any yearning to find meaning & purpose in your life
- Gratitude, love, doubts, spiritual longings... and so on
- Or whatever you feel led to share
This is a valuable opportunity to start to become more intimate with your own beautiful spark of the Divine within you, your SoulEssence.
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. Anne
Marie's newest book, Through the Eyes of
SoulCollage® is now available.
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OUR NEXT
TELE-CLASS |
Unlocking the Treasure Chest of Guided Imagery
as a Companion to SoulCollage®
60 minute
SoulCollage® video class
with SoulCollage® Facilitator
Glenda Cedarleaf in North Carolina
In this tele-class with Guided Imagery Practitioner and Hypnotherapist Glenda Cedarleaf, we will cover the basics about Guided Imagery and some of its applications. We will explore how Guided Imagery and SoulCollage® complement one another. Glenda will offer insights and tips gleaned over the years on ways to integrate Guided Imagery into your personal practice. She will then lead an experiential guided journey. We will also allocate time for questions and reflections.
Sunday September 10, 2017
4 pm
Eastern
Easily Accessible from Anywhere in the
World!
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Guest
Columnist: Catherine Anderson |
My
name is Catherine Anderson and I'm a SoulCollage® Facilitator and Trainer
from Charlotte, NC. I am delighted to be adding my voice to Soul Songs and
hope that my words inspire you to look more deeply into your deck of
SoulCollage® cards.
SoulEssence: Your Unique Fingerprint of Soul
SoulEssence is one of my favorite concepts in the SoulCollage® process. I love that each of us has “holy potential” embedded within our Soul, just as the acorn has the potential of the oak tree embedded within it. I love that each of us has a uniqueness embedded in us that only we can birth into the world. Knowing this, there is no need to compare myself to anyone else, but merely to focus on bringing into being that which is looking to come through me.
Martha Graham in a conversation with Agnes De Mille expressed SoulEssence in a way that has clarified it for me with the words,
“There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. If you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and be lost. The world will not have it. It is not yours to determine how good it is; nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep the channel open.”
And yet keeping the channel open as we search for what it is we are here to be can be confusing. There are so many choices, so many paths. We are pulled in so many different directions by family and by the need to earn a living that often we find ourselves in a place where we no longer recognize ourselves. Fortunately, Seena Frost reminds us that: “Our SoulEssence is a gift that we can never lose no matter how covered over and hidden it becomes.” (SoulCollage® Evolving, p.28)
Over the years, my Neters have guided me and helped me to clean some of the layers of dirt that had covered my SoulEssence. They have allowed me to let go of many of the “shoulds” that concealed the light of my SoulEssence. My Inner Critic has, paradoxically, been the one Neter who has shown me how I was functioning from a place where I was continually throwing dirt over my SoulEssence and has taught me to be kinder and gentler with myself. And as I allowed my Inner Supporter Neter to have more of a voice, my SoulEssence was enticed out of hiding.
For a long time I did not know what my special potential, my unique spark of Source, was. I thought I had to go looking for it. But a line in the Artist’s Creed by Jan Phillips gave me a suggestion. This line reads: “What I am here to do will make itself known when I have made myself ready.” And so my daily practice became to make myself ready rather than to search for something still unknown. I followed my joy and paid attention to the voice of my Soul using my deck of SoulCollage® cards.
And the seed within started to grow where the light shone through.
Which of your Neters can support your SoulEssence as it grows from potentiality to actuality? Do you have any cards in your deck that advocate and support your SoulEssence or show where you are keeping your SoulEssence locked up? What cards can support your SoulEssence as it grows and blossoms.
Catherine Anderson is author of
The Creative Photographer,
Collage Imagery,
Journaling the Labyrinth Path and is a SoulCollage® Facilitator
Trainer. Catherine leads creative pilgrimages to Italy, France and Ireland
and is a teacher in the
2015 Spectrum
Holistic Creativity series. Catherine's website is
catherineandersonstudio.com.
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ONLINE SERIES with ANNE MARIE:
Building a SoulCollage® Deck:
4 Suits + Transpersonal Cards
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September 6 –
October 4, 2017
Curious about how to create an actual SoulCollage® deck?
Wondering about the 4 suits and what each one means?
Want to experience more fully the "transpersonal cards?"
In need of a refresher course on any of these topics?
If so, this is the class series for you!
It’s not too late to join us! The first class was September 6 BUT register soon and we’ll send you the audio and handouts from Class 1 so you can catch right up.
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UPCOMING SOULCOLLAGE® ONLINE
WORKSHOP
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QuestPath: A Year of Mythos Journey
October 27, 2017 – October 27, 2018
with SoulCollage® Facilitator Cat Caracelo
1 Global Circle
Mythic Journey Themes
Wheel of the Year
6 Virtual Retreat Days
12 Creative Gathering/Traveling Calls
and lots more!
Are you ready to create a rich experience and journey into new inner territory?
Invite your deepest passion, potential and creative curiosity to activate a new story, journeying with the brilliance and richness of your life. Choose this potent season, as the veil thins, to enter into the new QuestPath, joining others who love SoulCollage®, art, depth, and discovery, to begin a yearlong adventure!
QuestPath is a year-long journey that offers an integrative approach for experiential process. Travel with a tribe of like-minded women, moving through the seasons of one year, entering the inner realm to experience powerful Mythos Journey themes that are woven throughout.
There will be many options offered for creative connecting, along with various ways to dip in, retreat and/or dive deep based on energy and flow, as ideas and materials are shared within this sacred circle.
Honor your rhythms and creative ways with QuestPath!
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Upcoming SoulCollage® Retreats
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NEW
MEXICO
SoulCollage® Soul
Journey
Taos, New Mexico
September 20-24, 2017
Facilitator: Deborah Milosevich
During this Soul Journey SoulCollage® retreat, participants will be
led through several unique and creative processes that will be fun,
develop a greater self-awareness, and access inner sources of
wisdom. There will be time for making lots of SoulCollage® cards
and sharing their insights as well. The workshop atmosphere is fun
and relaxing, and the process itself requires no artistic
background or skills. We will also be roaming the streets of
magical Taos where we will do some seeing and drawing. This part of
the workshop will consist of simple, approachable drawing exercises
designed to enhance any skill level.
Visit
this page for more info.
CONNECTICUT
SoulCollage® by the
Sea
Mystic, Connecticut
October 6-8, 2017
Facilitator: Debbie Mitchell
Join other Kindred SoulCollagers for a weekend of making cards,
relaxing, leaving your daily routine behind, and connecting with
your inner self! This retreat is for you if you have never made
even one card or for you if you have 100 cards! At this retreat you
can expect: plenty of time for creating cards that you’ll cherish,
lots of images, surprises, journaling, card reading, a private room
with shared bath (two nights), five wholesome, delicious meals,
plenty of time for YOU, creating cards late into the night (if
you’re a night owl), meeting new friends, connecting with your
inner self, walks among the dahlia gardens and readings by the sea
(weather permitting).
Visit this page for more info.
ENGLAND
Goddess
Retreat 2018
Glastonbury & Cornwall, UK
April 26 - May 7, 2018
Facilitator: Cat Caracelo
Follow the ancient pathways to a place where myth and memory
connect, where the landscape is a mirror of the soul. Join a small
circle of women to journey to sacred sites, engage with the lands,
explore the earth-based energies, honor the Goddess and reflect
experience with expressive and expansive art, SoulCollage® and
more. Twelve-day all-inclusive retreat offers two extraordinary
homes, with grounds, spa, chef-prepared dinners, sacred sites and
dedicated creative space. Payment plan is available.
Visit
this page for more info.
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CONTACT US
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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 2017,
by Anne Marie Bennett and
Catherine Anderson, Cat Caracelo, or Linda Woolfson.
Articles may be reprinted by permission only.
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