Blog

Soul Friends: The Voice of a Different Kindred Spirit Each Week

Teresa Knipper
Princeton, New Jersey

I have been doing SoulCollage® since January 2015 and became a facilitator in February 2017. My SoulCollage® journey began deep in my Catholic roots. As a little girl and even older I cherished the holy cards depicting the Saints’ lives and the symbols of their life stories. As my spirituality broadened and evolved I turned to cards to enhance my journeying. Animal totem cards assisted with my dream work and I regularly used intuitive decks like Cheryl Richardson’s Healing cards.

One day the thought occurred to me that I could create my own cards and I wondered if anyone else was doing work like this. A Google search on “soul healing cards” came up with tons of information with SoulCollage® as the first hit. Even though I was leaving on vacation two days later, I ordered Seena Frost’s book SoulCollage® Evolving and by miracle of holiday delivery it arrived the very next day, a Sunday! It immediately went in my carry-on bag and I read it in the plane. My exhausted husband was attempting to nap, but I kept nudging him awake to exclaim “this is exactly what I have been searching for!”

I was on fire to begin creating cards so I tore up all of the magazines that were left in the rental house and bought oak tag at the drugstore to begin my first cards. Then….I waited, patiently making cards and attending workshops for two years.

My first tendency has always been to jump in and begin to teach as soon as I learn something new. But something about the SoulCollage® process called me to allow the process to deepen, and to wait. Something about the process calls upon parts of myself that I have hidden or denied. In that two years of waiting, I learned more about taking care of myself in a deeper way and I took time to heal old wounds. The cards accompanied me in journaling, daily prayer and meditation, and into my therapist’s office. Every time I take a trip or vacation, I choose five or six cards at random as the energies that I will need in that journey.

The cards accompanied me when I faced the process of formalizing a dream I had for years, that of creating a business that put together my love of intuitive art and spiritual companioning. The idea for Art and Soul was there long before it was realized. But I had so many fears and doubts. Once again SoulCollage® to the rescue! I choose 12 cards to journal with each day as I worked on writing copy and editing my web site. When I thought “Who am I to do this?” the cards whispered encouragement… assuring me that I do have gifts to share.

One sticky task was designing a logo for the business. I am not a graphic designer and had no idea where to even start. “Well,” I said to myself, “What do you like?” The answer came in that morning’s journaling: “I like orange, trees and spirals.” Then lo and behold… I was suddenly holding in my hand a card I had made more than a year before that incorporated trees and spirals. I had made it on a silent retreat not consciously knowing its significance.

Over and over I have found those wonderful synchronicities involving this process. So many times when making cards (and now when I’m leading workshops), the materials, ideas or people show up just at the right time to support me. Is it because it’s happening more? Or that the SoulCollage® process helps me to pay attention? I am not sure, but it doesn’t matter because living the SoulCollage® life means living in the flow! It makes me joyous and I find that a sweet place to be!

Please visit me at my web site, Art and Soul.