Hello! I'm Imelda Maguire, SoulCollage® facilitator from Donegal, Ireland. Also a counselor and poet, my joy is in working with others in healing and creativity. This column is for those of you who have already made some cards & are ready to discover the symphony of voices inside of you and around you.


My Dr. Seuss Community Card

I have more authors than family members in my community suit! It surprised me to find this, but there they are: poets, spiritual writers, novelists, and a special favourite, one who brings a smile to my heart whenever I see it: Dr. Seuss. I never owned a Dr. Seuss book as a child, but I loved getting the chance to explore them in our classroom library.


As I write, I do not yet know which authors appear frequently in the decks of SoulCollagers around the world, but I suspect that he is one of the most universally loved and known children's authors. Dr. Seuss tells me that I am one who is allowed to be silly, to speak in my own way, to exaggerate and enjoy language and words, and he tells me that there are many ways to make people listen to a serious message.

There are favourite authors missing from my deck, including one who was far more important in my childhood than Dr. Seuss - Enid Blyton. I have no picture of her, and never needed to know what she looked like to allow her voice to create worlds of adventure and wonder in my mind. Hers were the first books I owned and treasured. In fact, there are many writers for whom I have no photo with which to create a card - so often the picture that accompanies a review or interview will be the cover of their latest book, rather than an author photo.

Of course, that doesn't matter, since images that conjure the spirit of the person or their work will often create a more real SoulCollage® than a photo of the person. I've also found that favourite authors do appear in cards in the other suits of my deck. For example, the card that depicts Male creative energy/animus in my committee suit features quite a few male authors, and likewise, my Writer-self committee card has Toni Morrison and Carson McCullers in there.

What draws me to want to include authors in my community suit is simply the sense that my Community is a group of people who support, encourage or inspire me, who are there when I need a word that reminds me where I come from, that tells me that I am understood, that I am fine, that I am not alone. Of course there will be authors in there, along with friends and family.

Where would I be without Julia Cameron? Her book, The Artist's Way led me "home" to a world of creative expression. She holds my hand through the beginnings and bumpy patches of many a project. I can turn to her at any time - at 4 a.m., or when everyone else in my life is busy with something else. So where is my card for her? In the list of cards I'd like to get to sometime!

While I am not a Buddhist, Thich Nhat Hanh and Pema Chodron both feature among my cards. To draw either of them in a reading reminds me to ponder a line or two of their writings, to return to their books... often to simply breathe or to be compassionate with myself as well as others.

This is, I think, the great value of portraying authors who have inspired us, who have introduced us to ideas that elevate us above the mundane world, who have comforted us and befriended us, who have expressed the things we ourselves have not found the words to express. To have that card offers me a chance to consider and to express what the essential message of that person might be for me, through the use of that timeless, endlessly deep, and beautifully simple phrase "I Am one Who ..."

If you do not yet have cards for favourite authors in your deck, consider what they might look like if you did. What images would conjure the spirit of their writings for you; and if they could speak to you, what would they say?

Just as we thank the artists and photographers who inspire us and whose work forms our SoulCollage® cards, I think it is wonderful and fitting also to thank and honour the authors who have shared so much with us.

Who is on your list of "Authors I would like to honour with a SoulCollage® card?"



Imelda Maguire is a SoulCollage® facilitator and trainer from Donegal, Ireland. A counsellor, poet, Bach Flower Remedy practitioner, and creative-writing facilitator, her joy is in working with others, in witnessing a-ha moments and experiences of healing. She has been sharing SoulCollage® with groups since 2003, when she first discovered the process, and delights in others' excitement on meeting their Neters for the first time.