SoulCollage banner image
SoulCollage® Community Update
October 1, 2012


Pets and Grief -  

"SoulCollage® as a Rememberance of Love" 

By

Kathryn King MSW

SoulCollage® Facilitator

 

"Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened."
                                                            ~Anatole France

 

 

             If you have lost a pet, I invite you to make a SoulCollage® card in its honor.

 

KKing border 

Our love for animals does open a special door for us. Animals also have the ability to awaken our hearts. We revel in the joy of these precious creatures being in our lives and learn from their loyalty, ability to be in the moment, their zest for life, and unconditional love.

 

Animals provide a safe place to love openly and in return, to be loved fully for who we are. There is no pretense with an animal. They love us with every inch of their bodies, instantly forgive our mistakes, make us feel important every time we come home, and call out our tender and care-taking sides. They provide companionship in this hectic world where our family and friends may live far away. No wonder we love them so much!

 

The time will come for animals we have loved to leave their earthly body behind. It is something we know in the back of our minds. We try not to think about too much because it feels devastating to even imagine not coming home to them. Perhaps if we did remember that they are temporary gifts we would slow our lives down and spend more time looking in their soulful eyes and scratching their bellies.

 

It may be hard to believe but I have lost three Australian Shepherds in the last four years. All of them died in the month of November. Poco was 16, Aruba died suddenly at age two and then last November we lost Buddy to cancer. The heartbreak of losing so many beloved companions in such a short time is impossible to put into words. Those of you who have lost pets know exactly what I mean. In many ways, to lose a pet that we have had as part of our daily lives is harder than losing a person. Our relationships with people are complicated by nature. Our love for our animals is simple and pure.

 

Making SoulCollage® cards for each of my dogs has been the one thing that brings me comfort.  The process of cutting and pasting their photographs onto powerful backgrounds was the beginning of my healing process. I lit a candle and allowed my tears to freely flow. I soon realized that the cards would help hold the energy of their love for me and hold some of my grief of their deaths. Sometimes the cards begin speaking before they are fully glued down... "I Am One Who will always love you", "I Am One Who will guide you from the other side", "I Am One Who believes in you." The cards continue to speak to me and so I experience these relationships as still being alive and well.  I believe that my Aussies continue to guide me. 

 

KKing card pet/grief  

Let your SoulCollage® card for your pet  speak to you as you do the IAOW exercise with the card. If it was a family pet, it can be very powerful to make cards together as a family as each family member will have had a slightly different relationship with the pet. Let each person share their card's wisdom and perhaps light a candle as well. Put the cards somewhere special in your home, on the mantle or some other central place. Your pet's presence will continue to bring you comfort. Even if the death was long ago, make a card and allow it to hold some of the grief for you.

 

Is your animal companion still alive and well? Make a SoulCollage® card now! Don't wait for the pets passing to fully honor its presence in your life. Capture their essences in cards and remember to be grateful to have them in your life. It is both their lives and deaths that serves to awaken our souls. I know that I will one day lose another well-loved Aussie. I embrace that opening of my heart and soul. SoulCollage® has been the perfect way for me to support this opening of my own heart and share it with a world that is in desperate need of hope and love.

  

Kathryn King MSW is a Facilitator living in Vancouver, WA. She has a passion for pets and the people who love them and now offers grief counseling, ceremonies, and SoulCollage® classes to honor pets that have passed. www.eastwindceremonies.com 

Why I Love SoulCollage 2 dvd
Walls
Check out this video by Facilitators:

 

Receive a PDF of "Seena Frost Answers Questions about SoulCollage®"
2012 Facilitator Training

Canada (Guelph, Ontario) with Seena Frost & Audrey Chowdhury  September 28-30, 2012- Ignatius Jesuit Centre  FULL

Contact Barbara regarding the wait list.
Email: Barbara.Susan.Booth@sympatico.ca

 

Arizona (Prescott) Kat Kirby ATR

October 12-14, 2012

 

Wisconsin (near Dubuque, IA)  Audrey Chowdhury, ATR-BC - November 9-11, 2012 - Sinsinawa Mound Center 

 

 Click here to view the 2013 

Training Calendar.

 
Starter Kit


This package at $39.95 saves you 12% off the retail price of these items, if items were bought separately. Get started with SoulCollage® yourself or give a friend a life-changing gift package.

SoulCollage® Evolving by Seena B. Frost  Card Pack - 12 quality mat board blank cards - 5" x 8"
SoulCollage® Evolving is the basic text for SoulCollage®. Once you or your friend has looked at the book, you'll want to get started right away making cards with the 12 blank cards and the glue stick in this kit. Many SoulCollagers want to cover their cards with the glove-like high quality sleeve so these are included as well.

Add a pair of high quality Fiskars craft scissors to your order along with this item and you are all set to begin finding and collaging the images that grab you! 



 
 

Seena Frost, LMFT and 

Mariabruna Sirabella, LMFT

 

 

November 30 - December 2, 2012
                     San Rafael, CA

 

 

In this workshop we discover or further clarify our own reactions to the various manifestations of the shadow around us, which impact us personally in direct and indirect ways. We will also strengthen our boundaries and our filters in order to avoid contributing to the polarization of good and evil and to maintain inner balance and health. Everything created has Light and Shadow, this is the inescapable ambivalence at the root of all human existence, and at the core of the entire universe. This is true in our inner personal life, within families, and at community, national and cosmic level.

 

The way to acknowledge and manage external shadow is quite different than the process of naming and integrating the shadow within. How do we respond when we are confronted by the Shadow of the World? Do we recognize it as such or do we take unnecessary responsibility? Do we tend to polarize, attack, hide? Do we get despondent or depressed? This workshop invites our imagination and intuition to reveal the Neters that can support a healthier way to manage the forces of the Shadow in the World in its small and larger expressions rooted in fear, greed and ignorance.

 
Register at: 
 
Shadow CD

 
                    By Seena B. Frost


The Shadow (a term from Jungian psychology) is a concept that is referred to often in SoulCollage® work. It has to do with balance. Any form whether visible or invisible has the potential to lose its balance, to show its Shadow. When a form's energy becomes exaggerated or too much, we say it is manifesting Shadow. On the other hand, when a form's energy is absent when needed, this is also Shadow. We are trying to come to balance with any particular quality or part of us, finding that place where there is not too much or too little of a quality. All the cards except the Transpersonals have the potential for Shadow, and manifested Shadows will have different degrees of density. 

The developer of SoulCollage®, Seena Frost, gives examples to help in recognizing Shadow, and to guide in the constant work of rebalancing shadowed Committee, Community, Companion, and Council cards in your SoulCollage® deck.  

$14.95