Lotus of the Self (Committee Suit) by Anne Marie Bennett I Am One Who embraces who I am and dreams of who I will become.

Many people have visited this website because they entered the word COLLAGE into a web search. Some were artists already working with collage. Now many of these collagers are trained Facilitators and are sharing the process of SoulCollage® with others in various parts of the world. I thought I would speak to why, many years ago, I chose collage as the primary medium for this creative form of soul exploration.

Collage is a Simple, Accessible Sort of Medium

As in all attempts to speak about Soul and Spirit, explanations will range from practical to symbolic, or, in other words, from our local stories to the Larger Story. I'll start with the first. Picasso seems to have coined the word collage. Certainly, the etymological basis is the French word coller, meaning to paste or to glue, and that is exactly what collage is: The creative act of cutting out and pasting down pieces, usually of paper. What is cut out and pasted is, quite often, an image. This image is cut out of its original context and placed in a new context, one that the artist's imagination devises. Collage is a simple, accessible sort of medium; anyone can do it without years of training or expensive tools. Nonetheless, it can still provide a surprisingly effective outlet for our creative drive. This easy accessibility is one practical reason I chose it.

Collage is Easily Done in a Group Setting

A second reason is this: Collage is easily done in a group setting, as well as alone, and working in a group can be helpful and healing. Besides, many of us won't stick with a process that takes a length of time, unless we have a community of like-minded people to share with, and unless we also have regular times that we agree to meet. Thus, gathering to both create cards and to work with them is a good way to keep SoulCollage® going in one's life.

In SoulCollage® work, we emphasize that our cards are made for personal use only, and are not created to be sold, or even traded. This principle underlines their deep purpose:  self-understanding, healing, and just plain enjoyment. You can cut out and use any image that is particularly compelling for you. You can use just one image on a new background, or put several pieces on one card -- whatever is right for you. You can, of course, show your cards, explain them, and consult them with other people.

Collage is a Fundamental Creative Process of Daily Living

Moving Forward (Committee Suit) by Anne Marie Bennett I Am One Who strides forward with confidence, guided always by Love.

Now, let's think briefly about collage in a more symbolic sense. Notice how often in a day we collect pieces that exist in one context and arrange them in a new way. It is a fundamental creative process we, as humans, constantly use. We do it with ingredients in our recipes, with furniture in our rooms, with words in our writing and speaking. The imaginative part in us does this selecting and piecing together with a special eye, or ear, or feel. We want the pieces to fit together in some sort of unity, a new pattern, perhaps beautiful, perhaps tasty, and perhaps meaningful.

This creative imagining is so basic in our living that it may seem strange to lift it up as significant, and yet, if we do it consciously, we see it is a surprising and elegant activity that nourishes the soul. C.G. Jung, who spent much time with alchemy, noted that it was only by first taking a thing apart, getting to know these parts intimately, and then letting the parts come back together that
transformation occurs. In this way, a new and more precious element is created.

	In the Light of Indra's Net (Committee/Council Suits) by Anne Marie Bennett I Am one bright light of all the lights of Indra, separate yet all connected.

In like manner, our many pieces of soul can be consciously and imaginatively collaged into a new and more vital oneness of spirit. This is basically what we are about in the process called SoulCollage®. We select -- or are selected by -- images that are numinous to us personally, ones that are often mysterious, and we collage them onto a card.

Aesthetics are fine, but not our first priority, nor is being original. Even knowing what the image means to our life isn't the first priority.

This process is closely related to dream images. We collage a card as we might record a powerful and memorable dream, using imagination prior to analysis. Later, we can work mindfully with the images just as we would analyze a dream. This is a powerful way of letting what is hidden within our depths bubble up, sometimes from our personal unconscious, and sometimes from that deeper layer in us that Jung called the collective unconscious.

The intuitively selected images on our cards can reveal vital parts of ourselves that we may not have known were there. Perhaps we will be challenged by them, surprised by them, and even horrified by them. But now we can understand them, accept them, and integrate them into our whole psyche. Having the visual reminders in our deck of cards to revisit, and keeping records of our consultations with them, helps us track these exciting developments.

This is what Jung called the individuation process. We are a collection of opposites, shadow and light. Next to dreaming itself, using collage with found images is the best medium I know of to do the work of transformation through understanding and integrating both.

I have talked about why we use collage to create our decks of cards. Equally important is how we find ourselves doing the collaging. In " Collage is a Metaphor for Life," SoulCollage® Trainer Karen Mann talks about how the process of making a SoulCollage® card can "be quite revealing, mirroring back to me something about what's happening in my life."


Seena B. Frost, M.Div., M.A. (1932-2016) founded SoulCollage®, now used worldwide, and authored the award-winning book SoulCollage® Evolving: An Intuitive Collage Process for Self-Discovery & Community - now available in five languages. Seena felt that the process changed her from being an introverted writer with a strong competitive nature, to a person who loved creating without the need to win. She cherished sharing her creations in a growing community that is also creating and sharing, a community that laughs together and listens deeply to one another, one in which competition is at a minimum, and appreciation is freely given.

On January 13, 2016, at age 83, Seena died peacefully at home with her loving family around her. If your life has been touched by Seena through SoulCollage®, you can post photos and messages here . You can learn more in our memorial Facebook post , and view To Seena, With Love , a memorial video created by Trainer and Soul-cial™ Media Coordinator Sue Gelber.