Summer Solstice Mandala Drawing Day...

I am so remiss in posting this, but better late then never. 

Here are photos from the most recent Illuminated Mandala class that I led.

Our focus was on acknowledging  the Summer Solstice thru creating mandalas that reflect the four elements.

We always begin with blessing our materials...setting intention for the season.

Creating scale of light drawings using, white prismacolor pencils on black paper.  Allow the light of spirit and illuminated vision to emerge from the creative ground of the paper.

Everyone always takes off through Intention and syncronicity, creating exactly a perfect mirror for the moment in their mandalas.  Our focus is a jumping off point,

By the afternoon, color begins to emerge....growing out of the light while being illuminated by it.

Slowly but surely the mandalas come into their own....

I always feel so honored to witness the creation of these mandalas.

Expressing beauty, uniqueness and a personal vision, while acting as a map for inner balance .

This final mandala is the one I created that day, that I recently completed.  

May you have a summer filled with expansive joy, and the grounded balance of being with and 

present to the earth.

Ciao. 

Caterina

Magical Band Of Allies - My Inner Support Team

The following series of SoulCollage® cards are the last five in the series that I created as healing tools, prior to my recent surgery.  

Each one of them were images that moved into my inner family of allies and assisted me on an imaginal level, to develop confidence, resilience and an ability to enhance my bodies natural healing attributes in the positive outcome and ease in recovery that I have had. 

 I am posting them here just as images, because a picture is worth a thousand words, so to speak.  Letting them go out into the world and do their work on a different level.   Until next time. Ciao... 

Ongoing SoulCollage® journey - Imaginal healing- Preparing for surgery thru Artmaking

The next time my group met I wanted to continue with using the process of SoulCollage® to help support my preparing for surgery.    I realized that I needed an image that represented the process of healing on a deep level  These wonderful hands presented themselves to me,  and represented the hard work  that awaited me  ahead, of going from being in pain to walking without pain.     

I am the one who does the hard work of diving in deeply to the process of healing.  Allowing all parts of myself to connect with the life force of bone growth, cellular transformation and sprouting of new life.  I am in alignment with this natural healing process on all levels.  

I also instinctively knew that in order to do this inner work, and to be aligned with the healing process, I had to acknowledge and release the burden and weight of the pain that I had been carrying around for years.

This woman carrying  the weight on her head of organic waste really resonated with me perfectly, and I used my white paint pen to visually support  the release of not only the pain, but the belief systems that have held me back from moving forward in my life.  She came as a gift of release.

I am the one who is ready to let go of old beliefs, pain and resistance to change and growth.  I embrace the flowering of my life and hope for a new way of being and moving in the world.  I am ready.

This is the last card that I made in group that day.  It puzzled me, and I had a hard time opening to its offering.  But over time I came to see it as the part of me that uses active imagination, visualization and the healing power of art, to envision health and to support a way to move into this surgery with a positive attitude.  

I am the one who takes my life and my healing into my own hands, taping into the universal unconscious, imagining all parts of this process to proceed effortlessly, supported by healing imagery and my imagination.  I am an active partner in my healing, along with the doctors, and all my allies in health.  

And so more to come as I share with whoever is intrigued with art and healing, about my journey.
I am grateful.  Ciao  Caterina

Soul Collage® Working in Series

This is the final card in my New Years Intention Series.

Realizing that I  needed to have an image to move toward, that expressed how I imagined myself healed and moving forward in my life, I focused on that vision in my last card in this beginning part of my healing series.

This  is the image that came forth for me.  
I set myself the intention of taking myself to Hawaii, after these surgeries and visioned myself able to move without pain, and be free in my body and flexibility.

Two of the places that I am drawn to in my life are Hawaii and the Southwest.
Although improbable in life, to walk  out a doorway in  a New Mexico garden onto a beautiful beach, this card makes the improbable probable.  Which is how I felt about tackling two knee replacements and walking with ease.

If I can imagine this then I can revision my life and imagine health, vitality and be pain free.  The perfect card to begin this journey.  


I am the one who can transform the improbable to the possible.  I exalt in my physical abilities to move without pain and experience life to the fullest.  I am ready to walk through the door to a life filled with actualizing my dreams.

More to come in this series. 

Invocation- Art Healing and the Imaginal realm

This is the second of 3 cards that I created as intention cards for the new year.

 I knew instinctively that 

in order to dive into this journey I needed assistance and she evolved from
the piles of images on my studio tables....

She has  been a comfort and a reminder to me, a call to prayer, 

an invocation to open and beseech the divine to bring me the strength

 to go the long haul and open to transformation on all levels.

Writing about these images right now, and sharing them with the world, assists me as I sometimes slip into a funk from long days of  rest and long nights of throbbing  discomfort that I have what it takes within to be patient and endure for the sake of a life fully lived.

I am the one who invokes the divine source, to bring the transformation of  my life from one of limitedness to expansive health, flexibility and the joy of transformation and actualization of my dream to walk with out pain, and do the work in the world I am meant to do.  Namaste.

The Journey- Imagery and Healing- SoulCollage® as a healing modality

Imagery and imagination have been recongnized forms of complementary therapy that have the capacity to produce positve physical  changes int he body enhance resilience, and cope with life's difficult moments." Cahty Malchiodi  The Soul's Palette.


I approached this  new year ready to  undertake the journey of having one of my knees replaced, with the second on the horizon.   S0, as the holidays approached I knew it was time to cross the bridge to having a surgery that was, the next step in my healing journey.

During the past 3 months, I created a series of cards in my SoulCollage® groups, that have supported guided and clarified my healing journey, and given me the strength and feedback to move forward and have the surgery which I have been resisting.

As the New Year began I made this card in one of my groups as an intention card for the new year. Setting the stage for new year and a new journey with a  destination in the  distance.  

The year of the horse offered me  an ally with the energy and strength to guide and accompany me as I crossed the bridge into an unknown future.  The horse came spontaneously as did all the images in this collage, where I envision and actualize the beginning of this healing journey.  

I am in  the garden of my imagination approaching the bridge that leads to change.  I am accompanied on all sides by allies offering vision, growth and insight.   I am both witnessed and witnessing myself on this journey.

                                         The Bridge

I am the one who is ready to walk across the bridge leading  to a new way of living and moving forward to do what is necessary to bring health vitality and physical healing to my life.  I am accompanied by a magical band of allies and helpers, who support me and help me to flower and grow as I approach the unknown in front of me.  

I am mid stream in this journey now and feel called to share here, my reflections on this process  and the images in this series  that have presented themselves to me, through my SoulCollage® practice.  I plan on doing this day by day, as my energy allows.  All responses and offerings are greatly appreciated.  

I feel blessed by my helpers.  More to come.  

Caterina