The title of this article is the SoulCollage® motto. It expresses beautifully the essence of the SoulCollage® process. I've been developing and practicing it myself every day for 30 years, and I hear daily from SoulCollage® Facilitators (now over 2300 in 39 countries) and from our 13 Trainers, about their transformative experiences when reading from their cards.

The SoulCollage® process starts simply. We cut out and collage images that have called to us and glue them onto 8 by 5-inch mat board cards, and then, over time, we dialogue with these images as if they were conscious beings. Through these "readings" we often receive deep and surprising answers to our life questions. Every step of the process helps us be in touch with feelings, beliefs, intuitions, and wisdom. All are valuable things we might not know are in us until we hear the words coming out of our own mouths, or until we feel the emotions well up from inside. This is the discovery part of the SoulCollage® process, and it deepens over years.

When we keep practicing this process, we may come to accept ourselves more fully and see value in feelings we previously avoided. We may find ourselves making wiser decisions and believing more consciously in our life purposes. We may step forward more boldly and speak up more clearly; we may enjoy life more and feel greater peace. Also, we may contribute to the lives of others, especially as we share this process and the wisdom it brings. The SoulCollage® community is growing as we keep connecting through our newsletters and affinity groups around the US and the globe.

SoulCollage® has been nourished by the ideas of many well-known teachers, as well as friends and group participants who have, over years, surprised and inspired us. For example, SoulCollage® thrives on the element of synchronicity that C. G. Jung described: two events, seemingly unrelated, occurring side by side in a way that is surprising and has vital meaning. We pick cards in our readings, sight unseen, avoiding conscious choice, and very often we are surprised by the synchronistic wisdom that the images on the cards reveal in relation to our question.

Spoof, by Seena Frost

In January 2014, my monthly newsletter column for trained SoulCollage® Facilitators was about the wisdom of surprise, humor, and a light heart. I displayed several "clown chakra" cards (animals with the requisite red bulbous nose), and I quoted my transcendental-humorist friend Swami Beyondananda: "Life is like photography: you use the negative to develop."

I've often written about experiences with my mentor Jean Houston and her staff in the 1980s, where we were encouraged to role-play wisdom figures from various spiritual traditions and speak, spontaneously, from their energies, to our life questions. I created cards for some of these archetypal beings who seemed special to me, and these became the basis of the Council Suit in the SoulCollage® deck. The Council consists of those archetypes (universal patterns in human experience) that seem to influence each individual card-maker most often.

Although not usually seen as wisdom figures, images from the Committee Suit (our inner personality parts), Community Suit (people and animals in our lives who touch and teach us), and Companions Suit (the beings, usually imagined as animals, that we discover in our seven energy centers) all also may have wise perspectives. As SoulCollage® Trainer Audrey Chowdhury puts it, the first two suits represent your connection to life here and now, and we see them often embodying gifts from the Companion and Council Suits. These last two suits, the "Larger Story" suits, express a "conduit to your inspiring, encouraging, motivating higher/larger self and to qualities of your essence." ( "Unlocking the Power of Suits in your SoulCollage® Deck" Teleclass)

	Female Creator, by Seena Frost

Another source of wisdom in one's personal SoulCollage® deck are cards representing shadow energies in ourselves, or in the world at large. We don't like drawing these darker cards, as they remind us of inner parts we are ashamed of or even consider evil. However, as they speak to our life questions, we may be alerted to their power, and often we are given positive alternatives that can help us achieve a goal. Shadow work is a central aspect of the SoulCollage® process.

Here's an example: A pacifist, keen to explore her shadow (as C. G. Jung and others have called this dark side of the psyche), made a SoulCollage® card from an image that sickened her: a hunter, smiling in triumph, holds up the bleary-eyed, dead head of a deer, shot for his antlers. Two years later, she lent her cards to a friend who was seeking guidance about an upcoming personal choice. The friend drew this card, by chance, in her own reading, and the image said to the friend these encouraging words: "Be proud of your achievements! Go for what you want!" She went on to score a big success that harmed no one and benefited those around her. Unexpected wise words, helping the card reader's life change for the better. 

The opinions expressed in the SoulCollage® Community Update are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent SoulCollage Inc. Authors retain the copyright to their individual articles. Please send feedback and questions to info@soulcollage.com.