Postcards from Paradise - SoulCollage(R)

Freedom 

is the expanse 

within

As I stand on my own

in the vastness

which is I

The clutter of the mind

dissolves

All ties unfurl

the echo of

emotional noise

recedes 

Freeing me

into 

Love

which is you and I

On this cold Sunday afternoon, with snow still on the peaks of the mountains, the scent of the first jasmine blossoms wafting in through the window, I share my SoulCollage(R) card with you and others

as Postcards from Paradise at Recuerda mi Corazon.  I invite you to play along and visit other Postcards from Paradise.

blessings

Postcards from Paradise

The last of the Harvest

in my summer garden

the Harvest Moon

announced herself

and we are in the wonderful time of Mabon

a time of stillness

a balance between dark and light

Please join in Postcards from Paradise

and play along with SoulSongs

as I celebrate with the creating of a SoulCollage card,

in preparation of the dark mother's return during Winter

Hestia, the Keeper of the Sacred Hearth

'My most sacred place is my innermost Self'

Hestia : Goddess of the Hearth and Temple, Wise Woman

Symbols:  Altar, priestess, home, circular hearth, living flame

Modern archetype : a woman on a spiritual path

 (Hestia in the Greek Pantheon and Vesta in the Roman.) She is one of the oldest Olympian Goddesses and greatly honoured – not by myths but by fire and fire rituals.  The Vestal Virgins kept alight the perpetual flame that symbolized the mystic heart of the Roman Empire.  Vesta and the hearth symbolized the center of the world and innermost mysteries.

If you find this image intriguing, read here more about SoulSongs

and

you may want to join in below.

If you want to learn more about Hestia, go here

Blessings

Hettienne

Soul Songs

Artemis

Orbits lit, a match to shine upon the twilit sky

Her flow defines - she is Artemis, sister to the sun

She glimmers as the last sunset ray upon the sea

An abstruse gambol, the bands 'round my soul untie

And freed my life anew, a boundless journey just begun

A veiled companion, my passage's potpourri

She is Artemis - a hunter of renown and skill

She doth take aim, and to my knees I fall

Struck by an arrow naught villainous, but of euphoric frame

I am the quail, the huntress' target, bent now to her will

Forever pursuing as a cherub forced me to enthrall

She is Artemis the hunter and I beg to be her game 

Beach Leanbh

This is my Artemis SoulCollage card.  Other than being a Greek goddess, she is one of my dominant goddesses, that is according to Jungian philosophy.  Soul Collage cards is a wonderful tool for inner knowledge and understanding, as well as a form of art.  I have come to love it and have found that all my knowledge of other therapies and tools gathered over the years, all meld into Soul Collage.

Jean Shinoda Bolen have written quite a comprehensive book on the seven alchemical goddesses in Jungian philosophy :  Goddess in Everywoman.  Also, God in Everywoman.

My SoulCollage card of Artemis is based on her work with some personal added symbols, such as the owl.  Artemis is the one within that loves the garden.  She loves her pets, all animals, the birds in the garden and the rights of all animals.  She creates, she sculpts, she loves working with her hands.  She is guided by the moon, both within and wthout;  In the Roman pantheon she is known as Diana, Lady of the Hunt.  She is a virgin goddess, which means that she a woman unto herself;  independent in herself.

Next week I will share my interpretation of Hestea with you!  I invite you to play along.  You can make and share any collage - you do not have to stick to my weekly theme.

I link up with Postcards from Paradise.  Visit here and see other beautiful postcards.

blessings

Hettienne

SoulSongs - Change, the Eternal Spring

love
Hettienne

Soul Songs

The lake of your eyes reflects the ripples of my heart.  I melt and dissolve beyond the crashing of the waves, the ebb and flow of life.  No longer becoming, leaving, embodying, or expanding into love.  Now stretched into wise skin with eyes that have known all along.  It is Love and only Love.

Soul Songs

Songs of the Soul

Collage of feeling,

vision,

intuition.

Open the door,

make the Unseen

Seen

enter the Sacred,

sing the Soul's Song.

Please come and play along.

Through the work of Seena  B Frost's SoulCollage I have discovered a wonderful medium of playing, creating and uncovering!  SoulCollage is a structured technique with certain ground rules.  It is ideal for self-reflection and group work and it is facilitated by trained SoulCollage Facilitators (which I am not).  I started playing with soul collages, based on her book and I have become completely hooked onto collage cards.    Then they started appearing in my dreams and in my art.  Previously I would try to reproduce all my visions and insights onto canvas, but it took so long that my sketch journal just became thicker and thicker and I could not paint fast enough.  However, making collage cards are simple and quick and they are beautiful!

And now I invite you to play along with myself in Soul Songs every Sunday here on The Path of Divine Love.

I invite you to create a collage card making the invisible in yourself visible.  You create the card from the soft focus of your right brain and you set the intent that that which is hidden, be unveiled through its coming together.  I use an A5 board card to glue the images onto.  I mainly use magazine clippings and paper images from my folder of collected images. I find many old magazines at local charity stores.  Old magazines, especially the old National Geographics, have wonderful 'new' images. Digital artists probably have a digital folder filled with images - this will work wonderfully! You can continue to add to your image collection over time and allow your intuitive self to lead you.  Do not plan too much.  Maybe at times of change or insight, you may want to create a specific collage card honouring that stage in your life, or facilitating the change or transformation or to support a new resolution.  Decide on the subject only and allow your eye to guide you to the images.  Play around for a while with the images, but do not apply your art rules to the collage - there are no rules - that is the fun of it!  You will be amazed to discover how your Inner Artist puts together a powerful and evocative image;  one that gives you a deeper look into the sacred.  

Once you have collated the card, you want to find the Song of your Soul that is held in the inner chamber of this card.  We are part of the infinite and we have many many songs just waiting to be heard!

You can link up below.

Also, please visit Postcard from Paradise here on The Path of Divine Love, and Untie the Strong Woman, on Her Grace by Devata.

love
Hettienne

Soul Songs - Holy Fool

The words of Richard Rohr epitomises for me the medicine of SoulCollage :

'If we don't learn to mythologize our lives,

inevitably we will pathologize them'

This Soul Song today is called the Holy Fool.  That which cannot be named.

Rumi captures the essence of the Holy Fool in his words

Out beyond ideas of wrong-doing and right-doing,

there is a field. 

I'll meet you there. 

When the soul lies down in that grass,

the world is too full to talk about.

Ideas, language, even the phrase

each other

doesn't make any sense.

I invite you to play along.  If you want to learn more, click below

love

Hettienne

Soul Songs - The Swan

The Swan Card - Community Suit

I am the One who takes you on a safe passage through the transitions.  I offer you sacred companionship; the promise that I will never abandon you and the reminder that you always belong to the community of your Soul and of Spirit.

Every Sunday, here in this sacred space, we play

Soul Songs.

These collages are powerful, simple, easy to make,

and, when used with conscious awareness,

they are wonderful guardians and guides on

the journey within the Self.

I am currently on a journey of transition,

changing over, crossing a bridge,

transformation,

going through a new doorway,

entering another part of the sacred garden within.

And I have been using my SoulCollage tool to reflect the mirror of Soul

for me.

I would like to share the process of making a SoulCollage card with you so that you may 

join in with the weekly SoulSongs and see what fun it is!

I have been aware of being drawn to images of a boat, a small boat crossing a lake;  even cruise liners!!

So I started looking for images that resonate with me right now and I immediately chose swans.

Years ago, when I did some Jungian studies, I had many visions and dreams of swans and I have painted quite a few iconic and mythological images of swans.  Then they meant something completely different to me.  The one thing that remained a constant, though, is that they represent Soul or Spirit.  

As I gathered these image, I learnt a few things about swans.

They are hardly ever seen by themselves.  They are usually in pairs, or as a family unit.  I know that swans mate for life.

Swans carry their chicks on their backs.  How absolutely beautiful is that!!

I keep a notebook, writing down my insights during the process of making a card.  These insights are invaluable and very pertinent to one's inner journey.  You may pick up other things that are specific to your history and circumstances.

Some more pertinent insights about swans :

the colour white which represents purity, purification, initiation, Spirit;

the throat area is emphasised by its long neck :  throat chakra, called Vissudhi in sanskrit; Vissudhi means purification.

So, a process of letting go is of importance here. 

They swim across the waters.  Waters represent the emotions, the world of the Soul.  So, again, transitions, journeys to new horizons.

And this is the card that I made :

As part of the SoulCollage process, you 'climb' into the card, mentally and emotionally, and you let the neter (the archetype) of the card speak to you.  You always start the process with "I am the One who ....'

I am the One who takes you on a safe passage through the transitions.  I offer you sacred companionship; 

the promise that I will never abandon you.  I am the one who reminds you that you always belong to the community of your Soul and Spirit.

The gifts of this card is sacred communion.

The shadow of the Swan is the stressful times of transition that can take you back into childhood memories of being the Ugly Duckling!

To play along with Soul Songs, you only need make a card.  It is then up to you what you want to share, if anything!

I will be back on Sunday with my SoulSong.

I invite you to join in then.

blessings

Hettienne

Song of my Soul

Woman of courage,

reminder that the heart demands boldness,

brave steps into the unknown

in order for the inner garden to bloom

and flourish in the heat of the Sun.

Over at Inspiration Avenue, Gemma, our co-host for this week

chose the topic of Here Comes the Sun. I teamed up with

my Frida theme and entered my first ever

art doll.  She was born today - very fitting for the theme

of Imbolc, Candlemas and Spring, don't you think?

Her Grace by Devata

I invite you to play along with Song of my Soul, SoulCollage Soul Songs.

Here you can make a collage that speaks to your heart, guides the way

or just reflects what you are looking at now. 

Song of my Soul plays every Sunday.

Here is a full description if you are interested, but really, there are no rules.

Soul Songs

Brigit, sacred woman, goddess and saint

of the fiery strength of inspiration,

you who take us through the door of initiation;

into the threefold cycle of life;

may your green mantle

protect and nurture the sprouting seeds

as new life awakens in the soul.

In honour of Candlemas and St Brigit's Day and the

Holy Day of Brigit the Celtic Goddess

I share this card from my community deck of my Soul Collage cards.

I invite you to join in with a collage of your own journey coupled with a few words, a story,

a poem or a rhyme.  Whatever makes your heart smile.

I posted here how to go about making a collage card.

Here is Miss Robyn's beautiful card that she entered last week - go here to read more about her story.

And Fran aka Redonwriter played along with this beautiful card - go here to read her story

I also invite you to join in Art Novena for Our Lady of Lourdes

and Rebecca's Postcards from Paradise

Blessings

Hettienne

Soul Songs

Today is the second Soul Songs here and I hope to see many more joining in.  Thank you to Fran aka Redonwriter for joining in last week and for sharing her incredibly beautiful collage card :  the Dancer Within.

Please visit Fran at http://redondowriter.typepad.com/sacredordinary/2012/01/hettienne-creates-a-new-soulcollage-site-.html and read all about her card.

This art form of collaging your being, is not limited to qualified SoulCollagers.  It is a simple and creative way of creating beautiful art which gives you answers to your deepest questions and thoughts;  when you allow the card and its images to 'speak' to you, you become your own therapist.  I also see these cards as a mirror of my deepest self - a self that is most often not seen by others and often not by myself.  Making a collage and seeing what it reflects back at you, you walk a little bit deeper into your own unconscious - into those hidden places where you seldom go, and all of a sudden you understand yourself or maybe a habit of yours, so much better.

Try your hand at it.

 Here http://pathofdivinelove.blogspot.com/2012/01/soul-songs.html  I blogged it in more detail and I also gave some examples of cards that I made for myself.  But it is very simple :  you gather images from magazines or books or digital images;  then you play around with them and create a collage;  the collage must please you in some way - a mindless process, completely relying on your feelings!

When the picture hits the spot of  'aaah that is what I want/like/need/love', then you write a short poem/verse/lyric  that speaks your heart and share it here with us.  Together we can form a circle of singing the song of our own souls - a circle of being seen and being heard - Soul Songs.

Here is mine for this week :

Gypsy Woman.

Powerful voice of rebellion

fiery gypsy woman

creatrix of a new harmony

breaking down the ancient wall of Jericho.

So please join in, leave a message and your link below.