BRINGING TREASURE TO THE SURFACE
Beginning Thursday June 4, Sue Reynolds and I will be leading a combined SoulCollage and writing retreat in Amherst. I asked her to write a guest blog on my site this month to explain SoulCollage a little bit, because it can be difficult to understand if you haven’t done it for yourself.
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“I am the one who goes into the depths to retrieve treasure.”
A Guest Blog by Sue Reynolds
When Pat offered to let me write a guest blog on her site, I was delighted to share a little of the SoulCollage® process.
This card pictured to the left may be my favourite, of all the many (over 200!) I have created over the years.
It’s called “The Depth Seeker” and my journal entry around this begins: “I am the one who goes into the depths seeking my treasure.” This defines the work we do as writers and artists.
The cavernous background conveys the vastness of those depths. This isn’t about going down a narrow well and climbing back out again immediately. This is about descending into and investigating a whole other world.
The very young child stepping tentatively down the stairs from the floor where he/she is “supposed to” stay represents many things to me. He or she says that:
much of what lies in those depths was laid down when we were very young;
descending like this can be a transgressive act and we are often afraid we will be punished if we investigate those depths;
the fear about what lies down there may be over-inflated, the way a child may be terrified about what lies under the bed, or in the dark when the lights are turned off;
or what is down there may be legitimately frightening and unmanageable because a child doesn’t have the power to fix or change it.
The glittering diamond represents the beauty of what can be gained when we summon enough courage to go deep.
The jewel also represents the transformative power of the work. Diamonds are a metamorphic stone – created by applying high temperature and high pressure to carbon at a depth of between 87 and 118 miles below the surface of the Earth. Metaphorically we can also be subject to tremendous pressure far below consciousness; applying the heat of attention can be transformative. Through the metamorphic process carbon is transformed into faceted nuggets of tremendous beauty and value; so we attain diamonds of wisdom through this work.
Diamonds can be made into tools. The analogy there is, I think, that the more of this work we do, the more equipped we are to do this work.
I am the one who facilitates this work with clients through my training and experience as a SoulCollage® facilitator, as an AWA-certified writing facilitator, and as a psychotherapist.
And I am the one who does this work in my own life, for my own Self and Soul.
I just read this over, and I realize that I haven’t said that this process of making SoulCollage® cards is FUN. It’s artistic, but it’s easy – with skills available to anyone – skills you probably exercised in kindergarten: cutting with scissors, sticking with glue. When a day of SoulCollage® is over, generally participants can’t believe how much time has passed and that it’s time to quit.
SoulCollage® is a fabulous practice for writers because it’s all about metaphor. It’s particularly juicy for poets because of its imagistic, metaphorical nature. Often we choose images based on barely recognized impulses to begin with – impulses that mostly come from an emotional, rather than a cognitive, place. The work can be done intentionally, but intuition is often the guide in this process.
Two weeks from now, from June 4 to 7, Pat Schneider and I will be leading our second retreat in Amherst combining writing and SoulCollage®.
The beautiful part about this retreat is that SoulCollage® is only one half of what we will do; this is also about writing with Pat Schneider’s guidance (and occasionally mine). After our days of visual creation are finished, we will be led to write from our images, in directions both intuitive and intentional.
It would be wonderful if you could join us. There are still a couple of places available.
