10 Dec SoulCollage ® – The Community Suit
All the images in the “Seena Frost” SoulCollage ® Card are Public Domain, Copyright-Free images[divider pre_color=”red” type=”solid” width=”100%” height=”1px” hex_color=””]
[info_bg pre_bg_color=”red” pre_text_color=”white” width=”100%” text_align=”left” hex_bg_color=”” hex_text_color=””]SoulCollage ® is a magically creative process of making beautiful collaged cards from found images that can serve as little windows into your soul. By creating your own deck of SoulCollage ® cards that serve as your personal visual journal you will have an intuitive means of self-exploration and self-acceptance. SoulCollage ® participants, “SoulCollagers,” come to know and accept themselves at a deeper level.
All of you is worthy and worth knowing better. ™[/info_bg]
“All the external adoration, respect and adulation in the word, can’t drown out the internal voices that tell us, we are not good enough and unworthy of; happiness, love and an abundant life. When we need others to tell us were amazing, worthy and lovable, in order to feel good about ourselves, it is never enough. It goes into the bottomless pit where our inherent self-worth should be. It may feel like we are reaching out to receive love, but in actuality, we are seeking external noise to help drown out our negative core beliefs.
Love blossoms from the inside out. That is why it is so important to do the work necessary to heal our emotional wounds, to love ourselves and stand strong in who we are. Only then, are we truly free to give and receive love, unconditionally and in abundance.”
― Jaeda DeWalt
SoulCollage ® Cards are made by tearing or clipping images (often from magazines) and then combining them into a collaged card. Most SoulCollage ® decks consists of four “suits”:
- The Committee Suit is made up of cards that represent aspects of our own personality and life experiences.
- The Community Suit cards represent friends, family, pets, figures, and even very special places that are influential in our lives.
- The Companion Suit consists of the one card per major Chakra that is partnered with a specific animal “companion” through guided meditation.
- The Council Suit is made up of cards representing archetypal energies that are significant in our personal journey.
While, Committee and Council cards are often made quickly and intuitively, Community and Companion cards are generally created intentionally.
[info_border pre_border_color=”red” width=”100%” text_align=”left” hex_border_color=”” hex_text_color=””]The intention of SoulCollage®: to offer a creative practice for exploring, healing and evolving our many-faceted Souls so every Soul is able to manifest its unique SoulEssence in increasingly balanced and joy-filled forms.
SoulCollage® originated in a program led by Jean Houston from 1987 to 1989. It was a time when I was immersed in world myths and archetypal psychology, and also I was exploring various spiritual paths. I was also practicing psychotherapy in my professional practice. The card-making process evolved over time with the aid of many women in my therapy groups. As they made their powerful, personal cards, shared them with each other and consulted them, we discovered the transforming possibilities of these images. In the SoulCollage® book, I pass on to you what we discovered. ~ Seena Frost [/info_border]
JJ Creates SoulCollage® Community Suit
SoulCollage ® Cards in the Community Suit
The SoulCollage® cards in the Community Suit represent the people, pets, or places that hold a particularly strong charge in our lives. We can choose to honor friends, family, ancestors, teachers, and pets as well as special places, animals, plants, or objects that are special to us. These cards hold the energy of aspects that are external and tangible. By consulting a Community card we can channel the unique perspective it represents. While our Committee Cards represent the totally unique aspects of ourselves, our Community Cards may represent people, places or things that others interact with as well. Our Community Cards are a visual representation of our individual experience of what/who we are honoring on our card. So, while Gandhi is someone we can all have an experience of, your Community Card of Gandhi will be a representation of how you interpret the influence of Gandi in your life.
Getting Started with the Community Suit in Your SoulCollage ® Deck
Our Community Suit will be as unique as we are. These SoulCollage ® Cards represent all the people, places and things that have made a significant impact in our lives. Your Community Suit may contain:
- family
- friends
- teachers
- guides
- pets
- celebrities, authors, politicians, religious leaders
- historical figures
- fictional characters
- as well as animals and places important to you
When contemplating what to include in your Community Suit, you can consider the following questions:
- What historical figure would you like to consult with?
- What is a place you have visited that continues to inspire you?
- What musicians do you seek out during particular periods of life?
- What animal have you always been connected to?
- What artist’s work always moves you?
- Who do you call when you want to go on an adventure?
- Who do you lean on in times of need?
- Who cooked you your most favorite meal?
On including challenging individuals in our cards:
Seena Frost taught that anyone in your life who has been of some benefit can be in your deck. This can include people who have been challenging or wounding to you. These people may have been the catalyst you needed to grow and can offer helpful feedback in a reading of their card.
DO NOT include someone who’s card will be continually toxic. If the only energy and feedback this person has to offer is painful and poisonous, there is nothing helpful they will ever be able to offer and it is better leave them out of your deck.
You can also “retire” a community card that is no longer serving you. If there is a member of Community Suit that doesn’t hold a charge for you (either positive or negative) and is not offering useful insight in a reading of their card, you can create a separate, sacred space to hold these retired cards. Most SoulCollagers are opposed to destroying cards, but if you feel moved to do so, it’s your deck, your cards, your way.
What Images to use in the Community Suit:
Most often, Community Cards include photos of the person, place or thing that the card represents. However, this is not an absolute rule. Cards in the Community Suit are only meant to represent the experience and feelings connected to who/what we are creating the card for. If your grandmother lived in a blue house, made the most amazing bread and always smelled of roses, you don’t have to include a picture of her, your card may only contain pictures of blue houses, fresh bread and roses.
Gallery of Example Community Cards Images for SoulCollage ® Decks
*all images are copyright-free, public domain images. Feel free to save and use in your SoulCollage Cards. Cards made with these images can be photographed and shared online and in social media.
[divider pre_color=”red” type=”solid” width=”100%” height=”1px” hex_color=””]Making SoulCollage® Council Cards
There are two types of SoulCollage® cards, those that you approach and create with a purpose to represent a predetermined aspect and those that you make with no pre-planning – allowing the images to come to you and the card to manifest from your intuition and unconsciousness.
Intentional: Making cards intentionally means consciously choosing what the card will represent. Creating a card intentionally would mean choosing to make a card that held a specific aspect and finding the specific images you want to use in the card. Community Cards, like a card for your childhood pet and Council Cards, like a card for “Birth” are most often created intentionally.
Intuitive: When you simply shift through your gathered images and find a handful that you are drawn to in the moment and then use those images to make a card, you are making that care intuitively. Most Committee Cards can be made intuitively as well. They often identify themselves as “I am the one who is your Playful Child” versus “I am “The Child” which can be helpful in identifying an intuitive card as a Committee Card.
[info_bg pre_bg_color=”” pre_text_color=”black” width=”100%” text_align=”left” hex_bg_color=”#ade1da” hex_text_color=””]Want to dive deeper into SoulCollage® and all the Suits in your deck? My Intro to SoulCollage® course offers a comprehensive introduction with step by step instructions, easy to use resources, and gentle & nurturing guidance so you can begin or further your SoulCollage® right from home today.[/info_bg]