The Journey to Self through SoulCollage®

The Ego, Jung tells us, is that part of the pyche that we think of as 'I'. Our conscious intelligence. Our everyday brain that thinks, plans and runs the show of our day-to-day life. The Self, as Jung defined it, is a greater entity, which includes the Ego but also incorporates the Personal and Collective Unconscious. Dreams and intuitions come from the Self. The archetypes of the unconscious dwell there. It is, Jung believed, the sphere of the Soul ~~Steven Pressfield. 'The War of Art'

"I would love to live like a river flows,
 carried by the surprise
 of its own unfolding".

 ~ ~John O'Donohue


Monday, June 27, 2011

SoulCollage® Studio session

Our first SoulCollage® studio session is happening!

These sessions are for people who are already making SoulCollage® cards, not for people new to the process.

Here are the details:

When:
Monday 4th July, 2011 from 6.30pm to 9pm
Where:
Downstairs at the Brisbane Quaker Meeting House, 10 Hampson St, Kelvin Grove (Brisbane). Go down the path beside the house and then continue on down the stairs.
Cost:  
$10 each 
Tea, coffee and nibbles included.
(NB: Participants from my 'Introduction to SoulCollage®' workshop on 18th June are eligible to come to this session for free.)
What to bring: Please bring any SoulCollage® cards that you've made.  I will supply magazines but feel free to contribute a couple of your own, if you wish.  I will have blank cards for sale ($9 for 10 cards or $1 each), as well as Seena Frost's latest book ($33).


**PLEASE BOOK:  Please book with me by phone or email. Thanks


These regular monthly evenings are for meeting other SoulCollagers, for card-making and for sharing our cards and SoulCollage® experiences among friends.  Seena Frost, the creator of SoulCollage®  believes that community is a very important component of SoulCollage®. During these evenings I'll spend a little time focusing on some aspect of SoulCollage® and the rest of the time will be for card-making.

For this first studio session, I'll be going over doing readings with your SoulCollage® cards.  By 'readings', I mean posing a question for guidance in some area of your life and then drawing a card, or cards, from your deck and through them, accessing your inner wisdom for guidance on the issue.  Don't worry if you only have one or a few cards, you will still be able to do this exercise by using my deck.

Note that if you don't want to share any of your insights from your cards with another person or the group, that is perfectly OK.  Please still come along and enjoy making some cards.

If you have any questions about this session, or anything at all to do with SoulCollage®,  please contact me.

Finally, here's a lovely piece that I came across from Christian mystic, St. John of the Cross which, I feel, nicely ties in with what we're doing with SoulCollage®:

She caught me off guard when my soul said to me,
“Have we met?”

So surprised I was to hear her speak like that,
I chuckled.

She began to sing a tale: “There was once a hardworking man
who used to worry so much because he could
not feed and clothe his children and
wife the way he wanted.

There was a beautiful little chapel in the village
where the man lived and one day while
he was praying, an angel
appeared.

The angel said, ‘Follow me.’ And he did, out into an ancient forest.

‘Now dig here,’ the angel said. And the man felt strength in
his limbs he had not known since youth and with just
his bare hands he dug deep and found a
lost treasure, and his relationship
with the world changed.”

Finding our soul’s beauty does that – gives us
tremendous freedom
from worry.

“Dig here,” the angel said–
“in your soul,
in your
soul.”

~St. John of the Cross

So looking forward to seeing you on 4th!


Friday, June 24, 2011

August SoulCollage® workshop

Preliminary notice about an 'Introduction to SoulCollage®' workshop which I'll be facilitating  at the Brookfield Spirituality Centre, Brookfield Rd, Brookfield, on the western outskirts of Brisbane. The date is Saturday 13th August and it runs from 9am to 5pm.  Further details coming soon.  Contact me to register your interest in finding out more about the magic of SoulCollage® at this beautiful venue, which includes a small chapel and a labyrinth.

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Surrealism and SoulCollage®

Victor Brauner | Romania/France 1903–66 | Loup-table (Wolf-table)1939, 1947 | Wood and taxidermied fox | 54 x 57 x 28.5 cm | Donation of Jacqueline Victor-Brauner 1982 | Collection: Musée national d'art moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris © Victor Brauner/ADAGP. Licensed by Viscopy, Sydney, 2011
Yesterday afternoon I visited the Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA) here in Brisbane to attend the gallery members' preview for 'Surrealism: The Poetry of Dreams', an exhibition which is visiting from the Pompidou Centre in Paris. Wow! Surrealism is so much more than just Dali!  We were extremely fortunate that Didier Ottinger, Deputy Director of the Pompidou Centre, presented a floor talk, during which I was struck by how much Surrealism and SoulCollage® have in common, most notably, of course, both work by accessing the subconscious. The director spoke about how, in Surrealism, the juxtaposition of disparate elements into a new image creates the "spark" from which a "new mythology" can emerge. And it seems to me, that's exactly how SoulCollage® works!

This is a very comprehensive exhibition, 180 works by 56 artists, tracing the history of the movement from the 1920s up to the 1960s. It includes paintings, collages, sculptures, drawings, photographs and films. I was thrilled to find, too, a lovely little assemblage by Joseph Cornell.

One of the features of GoMA is the wonderful purpose-built Children's Art Centre incorporated into the gallery which runs fun and fabulous activities in conjunction with all major exhibitions. Yesterday I was able to check out the latest Surrealist activities for little and big children, and now can't wait to get my Inner Child back there to create some Surrealistic sculptures and collages! The children can email pictures of their creations to themselves, their friends and family, from the centre, so watch this space for mine!

The exhibition runs until 2nd October and my suggestion is - go!  Here's the link to the information on the gallery website

Meanwhile, if you'd like to have your own surrealistic experience with SoulCollage®, come along to my latest SoulCollage® workshop (below) or contact me to register your interest for a future workshop.
René Magritte | Belgium 1898–1967 | Le modèle rouge (The red model)1935 | Oil on canvas mounted on cardboard | 56 x 46cm | Purchased 1975 | Collection: Musée national d’art moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris | © René Magritte/ADAGP. Licensed by Viscopy, Sydney, 2011
Click here for a slideshow of some of the works.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Introduction to SoulCollage® Workshop


'Do heart work on the pictures within you'.  Rainer Maria Rilke



Discover your Self with SoulCollage®
*An intuitive collage process to access your own Inner Wisdom.
*Make your own personalised set of beautiful cards to assist you in life's journey.
*Fun to do.      
*No art experience needed.
We are each the perfect artist of our own Soul!
*A powerful tool for use with clients in counselling, and many other applications.


SoulCollage®, as developed by U.S. psychotherapist Seena Frost, is a powerful transformational process for accessing our inner wisdom by creating a deck of collaged cards with deep personal meaning that is a reflection of our own inner and outer worlds, and which can help us with life's questions and transitions.

Using found images, intuitively create a beautiful personalised deck of cards and dialogue with the cards to access your own insight and inner wisdom.

In addition to personal use, SoulCollage® is being used in many other areas, including in many aspects of counselling, with church groups, women's, men's and children's groups, coaching, creative problem solving, team building, conflict resolution, dream work, money issues, cancer support, life transitions, & more.

Introduction to SoulCollage® Workshop
Saturday 18th June, 2011
9.30am to 4.30pm
In the beautiful rainforest environment of the 
Brisbane Quaker Meeting House
10 Hampson St
Kelvin Grove (Brisbane)
Cost: $130
$15 discount if you book by Mon 13th June
$15 discount if you bring a friend (for both you and your friend)

Learn about:
>How to make SoulCollage® cards
>The 4 suits of the SoulCollage® deck
>The transpersonal cards
>How to dialogue with your cards
>How to access the wisdom of your animal guides
>How SoulCollage® can help you with your life's journey and transitions
>Some of the applications for which SoulCollage® can be used by professionals

Places are limited so reserve your place now.
  For more information about this, and other upcoming workshops, please contact me: 

Jo 
Click on 'View my complete profile' under 'About me' at right to find my email address.

If you live outside Brisbane, please contact me to discuss organising a workshop for you, or to put you in touch with a facilitator in your area.


Please contact me if you'd like me to present a free introductory talk 
about SoulCollage® to your group. 


Go to www.soulcollage.com to find out more about SoulCollage®

Here are a few more of my recent cards. 
To see some earlier cards, scroll down to the bottom of this blog, and also click on my blog archive list on the right here.
Click on the images to enlarge.


'I lived into the depths, and the depths began to speak. 
The depths taught me the other truth'.  C.G. Jung

Soul Essence (Transpersonal)


Stepping into my Power - Committee