I recently started a new creative outlet: SoulCollage®.
It was Lucy, a trained SoulCollage® facilitator, who put me on to this new form of self-expression and I’m finding it extraordinarily helpful.
What is SoulCollage®
You can read about it on the website. This is an extract:
Imagine learning to make your own personal deck of divinatory cards and then learning to consult them! You can do it! One by one you can create lovely cards by selecting images, cutting them out and pasting them on to pieces of matboard. Each SoulCollage® card you make will reflect one facet of your Self and or Soul, while the evolving deck will reflect the whole panorama which is “you” as a whole Being – your SoulCollage. I guarantee you will cherish your cards as if you were holding yourself in your hands. Bit by bit, you will be making them, fanning them out, putting this and that into perspective in your life, and overall, discovering your inner wisdom.
The process
It isn’t just cutting out a bunch of images and sticking them on a card… and yet it is just cutting out a bunch of images and sticking them on a card!
It’s a reflective process of finding images that really call to you and fitting them together. There’s a discipline to it: you cut the cardstock to a certain size (I use 7.5″ by 5.5″); there are four “suits”, each representing elements of the self; there are questions to ask yourself as you discover what each card represents for you.
The first suit is made up of the Committee cards, the psychological dimension, where parts of the personality are identified, named and imaged.
My first cards
I’ve made four cards so far and I’ve found the journey incredibly interesting on all kinds of levels. Most surprising for me was that my first two cards – the images to which I was most immediately drawn – were inner child dimensions of me. Surprising because I tend to be a bit cynical and dismissive about references to the inner child. It shows you can’t suppress forever! Here they are:
The Frightened Child Committee. The part of me that cannot be rational about the monsters under the bed – because there are sometimes monsters under the bed.
This was the very first card I made, at a time when I actually was not consciously feeling frightened. And yet this little girl and the other images yelled for attention.
Making the card was a very helpful experience of discovering that yes, actually I was afraid, and I was able to identify what I was afraid of.
The Joyful Child Committee, made the next day, was a much lighter experience. So full of freedom and, yes, joy.
She showed me very graphically how possible it is to hold both joy and fear together, and that joy can overcome fear.
This really is an amazingly interesting and therapeutic process. I’m finding it really helpful, and what I love about it is that you don’t really know what’s coming out of your emerging image until it is complete.
Click on the images to see them larger
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Therese, I am fascinated by colourful, mystical creatures, including dragons. The one in your card draws a most loving response from me. But I must confess that having met a real female dragon recently, and terribly frightened, I ran away. A real female dragon is an enlightened being. I am still afraid a little, but since she has not harmed me, I am able to stand about 50 feet back from her radiant presence and tentatively hold my ground. But don’t come any closer please.
Ok, that’s it. I have heard multiple people speak about Soul Collage, then ready about Lucy’s workshops and now your own personal experience! I am putting it on my list. : )
Thanks for sharing your beautiful card. Just one question, while I have some magazine pages and pictures, I feel intimidated about how to gather all of them. Does the book give guidance?
Love….
@Tenar, given your love of words, I’m sure you can speak the language of dragons!
@rebecca: goodie, glad it’s on your list! The book advises: “Making a deck…involves both right and left brain activity. First, you sift through magazines almost in a light trance, letting images leap out and grab you. You do this for quite a while, tearing out pages as you go, thinking very little about what the images mean. Later comes the left brain activity when you make a clear connection and cut it out.” As to storing them afterwards, I have a large, shallow rigid plastic lidded box, and although most of the images are just in there flat and loose, I sifted out those that seem most important to me and put them in one folder, and another folder contains possible backgrounds. This is probably more information than you want to know!!
i can see you are well on your way to becoming an official SoulCollage facilitator! i am delighted you are engaging in the process and clearly it is having a profound impact. yesterday, i sat with my sister and sister-in-law and we did a little “workshop.” they looked at me sideways and finally i said, “just do it.” then the ooh’s, aah’s and surprises began to happen for ALL of us.
you have done a lovely job here of explaining a lot in very few words. congratulations! there is also a CD by Seena Frost (see website) where she succinctly talks about the process/overview in about 30 minutes.
keep collaging!!! xoxoxo
Hi Lucy, thank you – you are my guru in this!! Yes, I saw the Seena Frost CD, and will be sending off for it. I really love this process. I enjoy the relative smallness of the cards – it provides focus.
Tess,
Under Lucy’s light facilitation, I’ve made two of these beautiful little cards and cannot believe what they pulled out of my subconscious.
Love your first two cards!!!!!
xoxox
I’ve thought about collaging a deck for a while now, but was not familiar with the SoulCollage system. I’ve been using collage for years as a form of self-discovery and expression. I’m always amazed by how I’ll choose seemingly random images but once the whole thing is put together I see meaning and narrative that I didn’t consciously intend. Often there’s a prophetic element, too.
SS: so pleased Lucy’s “light facilitation” was instrumental in this lovely process for you.
Pollinatrix: a prophetic element eh? That’s very interesting. I agree with you about the randomness turning into patterns.