SoulCollage® Community Update
November 2017
Giving It All a Voice with SoulCollage®
by Carol Merwin


Lone Wolf 
(Committee Suit) 
by Carol Merwin

I Am One Who is willing to go into the deep hole, not knowing what's down there, willing to feel afraid and go anyway. There is only going into that hole alone. At the deepest point there is layer upon layer of beauty to be revealed.

On March 18, 2017, I took my first SoulCollage® class and was immediately hooked. Art and handwork in myriad forms, and spiritual practice (personal transformation and deep inner work) are as essential to me as water and air. Their convergence in SoulCollage® instantly resonated. Lone Wolf is the first card I made.

At first, I was simply curious about SoulCollage®. It was exciting to take a pause, learn something new, and create art small enough to complete in one sitting. It quickly became a sacred intuitive-healing practice with new SoulCollage® cards resting on my altar, creating an opening for Self-love, compassion, forgiveness, care, and awareness.

A few days after that first class, my mom went into the hospital, then to a rehabilitation facility. Our dad didn't want to live alone, so my sister and I helped him move into an apartment in a senior living community, where Mom later joined him. My sister and I were left with massive tasks: to prepare and sell the family home of sixty years and to deal with my parents' continuing decline.

Darkness Just Over My Shoulder (Committee Suit)
by Carol Merwin
 
I Am One Who feels oppressed, caught between layers of darkness, whose joy is overshadowed by a dark and dispiriting presence - fear, shame, egotism, sadness. It lurks, it menaces, it overshadows my joyful, optimistic, purposeful path of service and love.
Sorting through boxes forced me to relive past family trauma -- the suicides of my brother and my uncle and the deaths of my beloved grandparents. Too often I was the lightning rod for the grief, pain, exhaustion, confusion, anger, frustration, impatience, and overwhelm within the family.

The 100 cards I have made give a voice to everything inside, including anger, bitterness, pain, grief, resentment. Talking, or thinking, about the situation kept me stuck in my figuring-it-out-brain, worrying the same thought over and over during sleepless nights. Collaging the cards expressed those difficult feelings in a safe way and helped me integrate them, showing me new and liberating versions of the story I was telling myself about the experience. And it brought forward the truth of who I truly am - a Divine being, Love and Light, a gift bearer, a warrior, an artist, a grateful parent, a happy child, a multi-faceted and evolving woman. Like everyone, I am on a spiritual journey; I am going through experiences that are changing who I am and helping me grow.

When I consult them, the cards remind me that the old me is dying in this transition, and I am being reborn with a new voice, a new resolve, and more passionate commitment to living my dreams. What came forward in the cards kept me honest, awake and aware; a positive alternative to a blanket, wine, and Netflix (though I did that too).

Ultimately I came to realize I would only sell my parents' house one time. It is an opportunity to heal my past on another level - and it is truly a gift to mine the richness of the experience in all its light and shadow.

Luminous
(Committee Suit)
by Carol Merwin

I Am One Who lets my light shine brightly into the world .
Fifth Chakra Snake
(Companions Suit)
by Carol Merwin

I Am One Who tells you something beautiful and new is unfolding, that you are shedding your old life and attachments, opening to something extraordinary.

































Other themes than those I've named here emerged when related images showed up in multiple cards: 

Swimming in Rough Waters
Wild Abandon and Fearlessness
Sources of Power -
nature, sisterhood, new perspectives, family, spiritual beliefs
A Lifelong Identity as an Artist
Carrying a Gift
Finding My Voice
Making a Splash

As the family situation evolves, I continue to consult my SoulCollage® cards on how to shift the energy. The same card may carry a different message or interpretation on different days.

Inner Critic and Judge
(Committee Suit)
by Carol Merwin
   
I Am One Who believes that if I do something wrong, I will be judged and I will suffer.

Recently, I wanted to try a new way of relating to my family, but hesitated. When I consulted the Inner Critic part of me, it surprised me with:

I Am One Who in the past needed the vigilant watching, to be careful and cautious. Now I can approach life with curiosity rather than caution, with an attitude of "I wonder" instead of "I better not." Might there be something comical in an experiment gone wrong? Could you be less melodramatic about the risks?

When life gives so much material to work with, it is a blessing to have a tool to decipher the meanings -- some entirely unexpected -- of the experience in its many layers. I feel grateful for this tool that keeps me grounded and in balance through the conflict, the loneliness, the judgment, the struggle. It has helped me embrace the challenging aspects of the journey with more acceptance, a stronger and more open heart, a more sanguine attitude, more grace. SoulCollage® brought this forward with clarity, and that was the gift in the process -- giving that a voice.

I think the archetype guiding me through this challenging time is the Mystic - someone who strongly experiences the spiritual within the material, day-to-day human experience. Someone who might identify as being at heart 'a spiritual being having a human experience.'

Mystery of Divine Illumination (Committee Suit) by Carol Merwin

I Am One Who is drawn to the mystery, who is surrounded, protected and filled with pure white Light as I journey on the raw edge of darkness. The Light is in me and all around me.

I would like to express my profound and heart-felt gratitude to Marianne LaBarre and Marcie Benne, the two SoulCollage® Facilitators I have worked with. The safe space and community they create, the compelling images they offer, their gentle manner in bringing the concepts of SoulCollage® alive, and their support and guidance in doing this work have nurtured my heart and soul.

Carol Merwin, MA, holds degrees in computer science, addiction counseling, and spiritual psychology. She is a coach, having managed corporate information-technology teams, taught recovery skills in a prison, and volunteered for Hospice and non-profit boards. www.carolmerwin.com.


An award winning book, SoulCollage® Evolving gives the basic instructions for how to make and do readings with SoulCollage® cards, and describes how individuals and groups are using this intuitive collage process with various groups. It is newly available also on Kindle at amazon.com.


It's so convenient to have your cards at the ready and on your phone or iPad. No matter where you are, you can pull cards, do readings and save your readings with notes for future reference.


This Precision SoulCollage® Tool Set from Fiskars includes a precision knife and blade, an extra pack of 5 blades, and tweezers for exact placement of your finer collage pieces.

 From the SCU Archives 

Read Seena's article from November, 2012 SCU:

Holidays and SoulCollage®


Want to take the Facilitator Training?
Purchase and download this recorded video course - - Fundamentals of SoulCollage® with Kat Kirby - - to start your SoulCollage® deck or to prepare for the Facilitator's Training.

You will receive an overview of SoulCollage®: the Suits, Transpersonal Cards, history of the process, and examples and discussions. A 16-page handout to be used for your own SoulCollage® practice is included as well as two videos and two audio files of the interactive course. The Fundamentals of SoulCollage® course is a pre-requisite for the SoulCollage® Training.

November 9-12, 2017 - Catherine Anderson
USA  North Carolina (Charlotte) Catherine Anderson StudioINFO & REGISTRATION 
January 25-28, 2018  - Catherine Anderson
USA  North Carolina (Charlotte) in English - INFO & REGISTRATION
January 27-30, 2018 - Lucy Schaaphok
THE NETHERLANDS  (Groesbeek) - in Dutch  CLICK HERE FOR INFO
March 24-27, 2018 -  Lucy Schaaphok
BELGIUM  Kapelle op den Bos  in Dutch    - CLICK HERE FOR INFO   
April 5-8, 2018 - Mariabruna Sirabella 
USA   California (San Juan Bautista-St. Francis Retreat Center) -  in English  INFO & REGISTRATION
April 12-15, 2018 - Mariabruna Sirabella
BRAZIL  (Pernambuco) in English and Portuguese CLICK HERE FOR INFO
April 19-22, 2018 - Kat Kirby, M.Ed., ATR-BC
USA Arizona (Prescott)  2KatStudios in English  - CLICK HERE FOR INFO


*No degrees or certificates are required to attend the SoulCollage® Training. The purpose of the Training is to prepare people to share SoulCollage® with others.  The pre-requisites for  the SoulCollage® Facilitator Training are your own active practice of SoulCollage® and your enthusiasm for sharing it with others, as well as taking at least one introductory SoulCollage® course, reading SoulCollage® Evolving by Seena B. Frost and listening to her CDs: Introduction to SoulCollage® and  Facilitating SoulCollage® in Groups.


INFORMATION FOR THERAPISTS

CEUs (up to 24) may be available
 for the SoulCollage® Facilitator Training 

Information on SoulCollage® as a therapeutic method:


Some SoulCollage® Facilitator Training events may be able to award CEUs to LMFTs, MSWs, LPCs, nurses and psychologists  in many states (but if so, only by pre-arrangement with your SoulCollage® Trainer.) Please inquire about the availability of CEUs for a particular Training or a particular license or a particular state by writing to your Trainer. 
Before attending a Training, we want you to read SoulCollage® Evolving by Seena B. Frost, to have a SoulCollage® basic workshop experience with a trained SoulCollage® Facilitator or listen to a recorded class  Fundamentals of SoulCollage®, make some cards, do the exercise, " I Am One Who...", with your cards and do some SoulCollage® Readings, letting your cards answer at least one of your questions.