Ongoing SoulCollage® Journey

My journey with the SoulCollage® process continues......

It's a very, very rainy day here in Northern California. More of a winter than a spring.   It is a great time tolose myself in reverie and let Image, Imagination and Intuition reign.  Here are some of my most recent SoulCollage® cards, that I have made  during each one of my bi-monthly SoulCollage® groups..  I love the intuitive nature of this process. I am always astounded at what comes through.

I am the one who seeks the source,  the maiden self, journeying over hill and dale, carrying my baggage with me, however, by now i have learned to empty my basket, so I can renew and fill myself up when I arrive at the water's source. One part of me, often questions the journey, and has regrets for lost time, but the other part of me, revels in arriving at the deep healing springs, where I can wash the dust from my soul, and drink deeply of inspiration.  I am the seeker, the water bearer, the questioning one.

I am the old peasant wise woman, the sage, the bruja, the healer.  I have lived a long life, and seen many things.  I know the struggles of those here on this plane and have the remedies to help them.  I do not offer my services, but wait for the seekers to approach me.  I take the pain of life experiences and turn them into pearls of wisdom, that are food for the soul.

I am the one who walks with awareness, one foot after the other, in the moment with my breath.  I am the one who meditates through doing and making, and organizing the elements of life into beauty and pattern. I am the pattern maker, the calm one, who takes life's challenges with a grain of sand, and transforms matter into powerful pattern.  I am in alignment with myself and the universe.

I am the one who, honors the connection between the spirit realm and the world of matter.  I salute and welcome the ability to turn matter into gold.  I am the realm of the archetypes, connecting and making sense of the images that spin from my reveries into my conscious mind.  I drink to the beauty of images, I drink to the beauty of imagination.  I salute the magic of life.  

I am the Goddess of Intuition.  I link by the umbilical cord of life force ,to all those  who trust and open to the unconscious.  I stand on the connection, the cord or web that links me to the waters of the unconscious, and to the hearts and minds of the open ones. I am protected by beauty and power even though I hover over the edge.  I wait for the jewels of wisdom and magic to offer up their gifts and then link those gifts to the world.  I am one of the Wise Ones..  I am the Muse.

If you are intrigued, perhaps you might be interested in joining in one of my SoulCollage® groups here in Sonoma County, Northern CA.  ... or you can check www.soulcollage®.com for facilitators near where you live.

Until next time..  ciao.

Life - Death - Grief and healing through SoulCollage®

As some of you  who read my blog  and know me personally may know, for the past 8 weeks I have been witnessing, holding heart and been totally engaged in the ongoing illness and recent death of my good friend, and co-partner in the Creative Arts Studio and my work as a Mandala Faciltator, Patrica Waters.  This process has been heartbreaking and heart opening, transformational and healing, all put together in one powerful period of time.  Art has helped me to self-soothe and cope with this loss on many levels.  As a SoulCollage® facilitator and at times addict, creating cards in my groups has helped me on many levels to diaglogue, understand, and release sorrow and attachment through these trying times.  

Early on during this journey, I created this SoulCollage® card for my friend Patricia, to integrate her into my inner Community, and honor her presence in my life.  I added in a photograph of her actual hands drawing a mandala, since we worked together for over 20 years, facilitating Illuminated Mandala Workshops.  When we decorated the cardboard coffin she will travel into the cauldron in, on her last physical journey, I glued 8 prismacolor pencils and black canson mi tientes paper cut into a circle, onto the outside of  her coffin, so she can draw in the after life.  This card really brings me closer to her essence now that she is gone.   While she was ill, I made a large color copy of this card to put on the wall next to her bedside as a reminder to her of her strong and vibrant self. 

This card,  the Gateway card, came through for me, during a period when it appeared that Patricia was having a difficult time letting go of this life.  It gave me an image of the Gateway that we must all journey through as we transition from this life to another.  Whether it helped her unconscious or not is another story, but it allowed me to have an image to hold onto, that actually comforted me and gave me a grounding as the Gatekeeper role that I had found myself in. 

Gaia is the Goddess of All is aone of the most recent cards I made, using a photocopy of one of Patricia's drawings, and adding all the animals that she loved and nourished in this life.  Interestingly, the day that I printed it off of her computer , it was  raining out and when I carried it to my car, the rain, dripped on the ink jet print and formed tears.  It set the stage for this card, and how deeply she loved the earth and grieved for it as well. I created this card, on the day that she passed.  Which seems so appropriate to me now. 

The Path.   I created this card as well on last Friday, and although at the time, it related to my finding a new path and direction that calls to me, as I add it to his series, it really fits into her journey as well, being called to the light.  But for me personally, it speaks to paying attention to what flutters in my heart and sings to me as how to know which path to take.

Holding Heart -  This whole experience, has opened my heart so deeply, that I had to honor the heart space, as I held heart for Patricia, for myself, and for all of those who come to my studio and work on those deep inner images that live in the heart space.  It also helped that this was February, the month of holding heart on so  many levels.

This is the last card of the series, which is the Grief card, letting go and looking forward, contemplating what is next, and reflecting on my life, her impact on it, and all the edges of grief death and release.

I hesitate in adding my first person words to this series, offering a process oriented narrative.  During this whole journey I have been the facilitator of a helping hands website, offering updates on Patricia's journey, which is one of the many reasons why I haven't posted here very often. This process has also given me a sense of a new voice that is emerging for me through my writing, which is another door that is opening.  Thank you all for viewing this, and reading this.  Namaste.
Caterina

Open to Unknown Blessings

Give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way.  

~ Native American Saying~

Happy Thanks Giving!

SoulCollage® Facilitator Training...whew!

So I am now a SoulCollage® Facilitator, along with all the other many hats I wear.  I am still integrating everything that occurred this past weekend.  This is such an exciting process, integrating everything I have been doing all these years into a organic, alive, syncronistic structure that allows people to play in the field of image and creativity, while diving deep and contacting their inner guidance.  

To say the readings were amazing, doesn't do the experience justice. More on that and the process later.  For now, I am going to post  images of the process participants cards  and the ones that I created during  the weekend training. 

IMAGE, IMAGINATION AND INTUITION are the guiding words in this process.

 The Circle and our cards being shared.

 As we  walked around the circle witnessing, I photographed some of the cards that participants in the training made.

People  attended from all over the world and it was fascinating to see what emerged in their imagery

Seena Frost, who is the creator of this wonderful process of SoulCollage®,  created this beautiful piece from her wedding gown and a fishing net.  Each

time she trains facilitators, they add a bead to the net, to become part of the whole energy of this work.  The One and the Many.

 Our final Ceremony, with everyone's cards forming this visual feat of an Image Mandala.

 Seena Frost, dancing opening to the group energy in the center of the circle of images.


These last images are the cards I did at the training and right before I got there.

 I Am The One Who finds grounding in creativity, who slows down and finds my center and patience in working with my hands, who sinks deep roots into the earth as I am creative.

 I Am The One Who plays in the field of fools who comes through when you spend time with your dog.

 I Am The One Who finds balance and heart in the center of the thistle, who can do this despite the fears and challenges that circle around me.

 I Am The One Who had deconstructed my old beliefs about money and abundance, who plays in the field of light and beauty as I create money and abundance through sharing creative play. Who cuts away what isn't necessary as I manifest a new way of working in the world.

  I Am The One Who peers into the wellsprings of the unconscious, pulling up the blessings and insight that live within it.

I Am The One Who gives you the energy you need to move forward in the world and do your work with others. 

I Am The One Who reminds you to be happy, be in the moment and move into the forest of the soul.
Blessings to all who read this and see these images.  Ciao. Caterina