Crying for a Woman I Never Met – Honoring Seena Frost.

Crying for a Woman I Never Met – Honoring Seena Frost.
Posted on January 14, 2016 by Barbara Techel
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Seena Frost, Founder of SoulCollage®.com

Crying for a Woman I Never Met – Honoring Seena Frost.

by Barbara Techel

I never met Seena Frost— the remarkable woman who created the process called SoulCollage®. A creative, intuitive, and fun process I learned about in 2014 and trained to become a facilitator.

I was overcome with emotion when I read this on her daughter, Jennifer’s Facebook page today: “my mother and friend, merged peacefully into oneness with Spirit late last night at home with her family gathered around her.”

Why does this feel so emotional? I wondered. And as I thought about it there are many reasons. First, to think about losing my own mother someday I know will be one of the hardest things I will ever have to face. I can’t even imagine it. But I know this is reality and I pray she will have the same peaceful transition as Seena when her time comes.

Second, I have such immense admiration for Seena. She made such a difference in this world. She has helped thousands, many being women, to find their authentic voices and to be proud in letting their light shine.

In a world where so many are frightened to let the mask come off and be who they really wish to be in fear of judgment, to have had someone like Seena who thrived on encouraging others to tap into their own wisdom, was such a gift – a deeply, rich, wonderful gift.
I’m also getting ready to facilitate a SoulCollage® workshop in my home this Saturday in the lower level of my home which I’ve dubbed, “Joyful Pause Studio.” It’s not my first time sharing this process, but it is the first time in my new space.

I can’t tell you how often I’ve felt scared to take this leap – scared that no one will sign up for the workshops —worried about being disappointed. But I’m honored to have five ladies who will be taking part in the workshop this Saturday.

And so it will be an even more special honor in sharing this with this group of ladies, knowing that I, along with over 2,300 other facilitators, are carrying on the legacy of Seena – with our own authentic styles and voices added to the mix.

I discovered through the many thoughtful memories being shared on Facebook of Seena something she wrote in an article that I want to share also in her honor and memory:
“I truly believe that creating our SoulCollage® cards and sharing them in groups adds positive energy to this cosmic vibration, and will help humans move into the next paradigm. We may not be able to see it, but perhaps, if we look up at the night sky, we can be reminded and reassured of the vastness of Indra’s Net, and, as individual jewels, continue to create and share compassion and hope and humor and love.”

Seena, now part of that night sky, shining ever so brilliantly bright – I take into my heart that beautiful vibration of her spirit and hope that by sharing this process with others, I too, can make a difference in helping others feel safe in sharing their inner light.

Godspeed Seena. Godspeed.

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Light Danced with Shadow in Catherine’s Yard

Every artist knows the importance of light and shadow in their visual compositions, paintings, photographs and drawings. The subject of shadow is an important component of SoulCollage(R) also, as originated and taught by Seena B. Frost. Discussions about it came up in the recent weekend  Facilitator Training I took with eleven other inspiring women and our leader, creat-ress, artist, photographer and author, Catherine Anderson in Charlotte North Carolina.

The Light shines on Catherine Anderson

“We recognize that for human life to thrive…it is best lived in a community that is supportive and compassionate…a community that is able to listen to and understand and tolerate many points of view…a community that is creative and imaginative as well as smart.”  Seena Frost

That is exactly how I experienced our facilitator and group of soon-to-be certified SoulCollage(R) facilitators. (Pardon the (R), my Alt 0147 approach as taught, has not yet worked for me.)

By Sunday morning, we arrived in high spirits of time well-spent together.

Ginger and Margaret break out in song.

From our introductory Friday evening session, embraced in Catherine’s beautiful and bountiful studio setting, we knew something great was on the horizon. We settled in.

Discoveries of just the perfect image waiting for us.

Our group was not entirely new to the process of making the cards, yet we reviewed the basics and important techniques. We enjoyed seeing many of the SoulCollage(R) cards brought by each woman. We learned the very, very valuable experience of being Reader, Witness, Facilitator and Recorder. Our inner artists were awakened and alert.

And all the while we were totally involved in creating, sharing, listening, meditating and appreciating, there was something going on outside in Catherine’s yard.

Light was forever playing with shadow! Everywhere you looked, there was the marvelous, breathtaking mixture of light and shadow. It was like nature knew and applauded that an artist of high order lived there.  Light and shadow gloriously embraced all that surrounded Catherine’s home.

An Artist’s Retreat

Each morning we arrived, Catherine had “made something”, (a personal value of hers) reminding me of the scripture that announces, “Behold, I am a new creation.” And each day of training, we were.

Our luncheons and ongoing refreshments available for “whenever” filled our cup to overflowing in nutrition and appreciation.

We were so “One with the many” that even the deer joined us for lunch, coming right up to the sun porch.

And the light continued to play with them and throughout the yard.

The light was not only bright, it was very, very hot in a humid setting and so Catherine protected us from that throughout the weekend. But the closing ceremony took place with the light shining upon our cards and upon the receipt of our SoulCollage(R) Facilitator Certificates.  Joy radiated in our hearts and travelled in light speed around the path of the labyrinth as we received recognition from the heart and hands of Catherine Anderson.

One by one, Catherine called us forward and with the handing of the certificate to each of us, SoulCollage(R) becomes 12 time richer with exponential expansion possibilities to many varied communities who will be served from these leaders.

Gabriella

Something important is happening here. We take the trust with us. This matters to our world.  We are keepers of the keys.

Catherine unlocks the doors with honor, humility and hope.

Seeing the future with a firm step forward on a path that promises peace.

Light is not the only energy present. Enthusiasm and purpose abound. We go forth. We leave this place. We are aware of light and shadow in our world.

But there is balance at the center.

and the light still plays with Seena.

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All I Had to Do

It seems like all I had to do this year was find my sunflower child. And I did that.

I found her in an image I could not ignore. A sweet child placing her soft face right into the center of a large sunflower.

I put her in the center of my Intention Mandala for 2013. I look at this often and so the presence of this sweet child is with me throughout the days.

But more than that, she keeps appearing in images I come upon in other places. She was on the East Coast with me when I enjoyed my weekend at the Women Writers and Artists gathering. Of course she was! My 2013 Intention Mandala is “The Year of Joy and Fun” and I was certainly joy-filled and having fun with my women companions, enveloped in writing, art and reverence for the larger story of us all.

During one of the workshops, there was my sunflower girl in a pile of images to be chosen for our projects. You know I chose her!

And today, as I begin preparation for the SoulCollage(R) and Daily Word  workshop I will facilitate at Unity of Kalamazoo in September, I found her once again, as an image in the front of the September/October Daily Word. What a blessing and confirmation for the work I desire to do with this. I have read the Daily Word as a subscriber since 1979. It always lights up the next step in my path with Scripture and Affirmation Truths. I trust it with my whole heart and soul.  Perhaps, that is where the desire comes from to play and pray our prayers and affirmations into image through the wondrous process of Seena Frost’s SoulCollage(R)

In the accompanying poem, “All I Had to Do”, by Donna Miesbach, a question is asked:
“Why, then, did I Not see You?
How could I have
Missed your Presence
When all I had to do
Was stop and look
Within my heart?”

That is exactly what we will do when our workshop gathers and selects the scriptures and affirmations they want to “see” through their own images selected at random from many magazine visuals I have spent tearing from sources recycled and given to me. The perfect images will be present, just as the sunflower girl has been present to me. The attendees will have an awed sense of “All I Had to Do” was…..put some pictures together to express a heart and soul-felt confidence that “this is the Truth of me.” The Scripture, affirmation and image will continue to live in them in a “best friend forever” sort of Presence.

All I had to do when I first came across my sunflower girl image was imagine her at the center of my mandala. This Intention Mandala is based on the work of Janet Conner and her “Lotus and the Lily.” I’ve been making this type of yearly mandala since 2010.  On these mandalas, we put whatever we can imagine we want the most to manifest in our lives on the outside circumference of our mandala. Then we don’t really think about them anymore.

“When the right conditions are present, there is manifestation.”

She also insists we put “big things” on the mandala, not necessarily things we think “possible” to get, because the manifestation comes without effort from our “making it happen”, if your focus is in the right place.  Some of my “big things” have been: a home I love; check; a large weight loss; check; good health and fitness; check; travel abroad; check; financial supply for workshops and training; check; live and love with Tom; check. These are big! These are manifest.

To get to the right place, we first concentrate on total forgiveness of others and of self. And to stay with that, working on that whenever and wherever needed. I do that.

Next, we state the conditions we agree to live. These conditions are written out and placed in the center of the mandala. Mine have changed over the years, but they are my guideposts when they appear on my mandala. So for my year of 2013, My year of Joy and Fun, these are the conditions I live by, as witnessed by my sunflower girl:

It seems like this is “all” I have to do to live a balanced and centered life. “All” is always a very small word, but sometimes “all I have to do” is a very large thing to do; other times, it is as easy as floating with the waves. In any case, when I am doing these things, I cannot miss “the Presence” that is always right within my heart.

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The Conversation Begins…..I Am One Who

I am in love with the process of SoulCollage(R) and I have my bags packed to visit Catherine Anderson in Charlotte North Carolina to attend her weekend workshop in SoulCollage(R) facilitator training. I hope to begin to bring the joy of this practice to many more people in the Kalamazoo area and beyond.

http://www.soulcollage.com/

http://www.catherineandersonstudio.com/soulcollage.html

Catherine explains this as “a gentle, playful and often joyful way of exploring your life and your deep self.  Using images from magazines, individuals create their own unique deck of cards, where each card represents a different aspect of themselves. There is a deeper level of knowing that is accessed through images.  The process combines image, words, intuition, and synchronicity into a unique creative and artistic process that anyone can do.  It requires no special skills, but can often produce images and insights that are surprising and full of depth and meaning.  SoulCollage® works directly with the language of symbols, images and archetypes and is an insightful process of self-discovery.”

“I am One who places high value on Fitness and Health.”

What Catherine says, in a neat little nutshell, is most certainly true. Since I attended her Introduction to SoulCollage(R) workshop last year, I have been gaining in the stack of my SoulCollage(R) cards, which arise spontaneously and intuitively.

And they certainly speak volumes to me. That is the neat thing about SoulCollage(R). No one else interprets your cards. You, alone, listen to and attend the “speakers” in the card. They are incredibly wise, and I get the sense that even though I think I am hearing the message for the first time, some part of me has “always known” their message to be the truth of me.

“I am the One who jumps in and knows I can do this!”

Seena B. Frost planted the seed for SoulCollage(R) some time ago back in the 1980s. Even though these cards and this process can serve on the deepest level of psychotherapy, and do that, she convinced millions that  anyone could do this creative process with a good pair of scissors, pre-cut mat board cards and images you can find anywhere, and glue!

Author of SoulCollage(R) and SoulCollage(R) Evolving, Seena has a world-wide website and a facilitator training process working around the world as this practice expands exponentially.

           Seena Frost
http://www.soulcollage.com/

I engaged with Karen Mann, of Australia, in an 8 week fascinating and very instructive course of a combination of SoulCollage(R) and FasterEFT, Emotional Freedom Technique of Tapping. What a way of bringing SoulCollage(R) home and attaching it to body memory! Thank you, Karen.  (And learning to think and speak like an Australian was great fun).

Karen Mann

Catherine Anderson is a most gracious woman-artist who has walked her path of creating a life filled with what she loves to do and be…..and that would be creator, artist, photographer, writer, woman leader and inspirer, and author of her award winning book, “The Creative Photographer”.

http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Photographer-Catherine-Anderson/dp/1600597165/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1375814650&sr=1-1&keywords=the+creative+photographer

 Catherine Anderson

(Note: I am amazed! I just saw this on special on Amazon.com for $9.87, which has to be the bargain of the century. The wealth of knowledge, creativity and image in this book is worth much more than ten times that, so be like a phantom and treat yourself to a “steal”)

Catherine has brought SoulCollage(R) facilitator training to South Africa, India and is teaching art inspiration in Italy, being a global ambassador for the wonders wrought through soul with imagination, camera, images, lines, circles and squares. The world provides the sacred canvas for creation.

Long before I knew about SoulCollage(R), I had met and come to love Jan Phillips. I also have had her CD “All the Way to Heaven” for many years. I love every song on that and it’s hard to say I have a favorite, but “The Artist’s Creed” and “The Conversation” are right up there at the top. I play them both for my own enjoyment and contemplation and for many groups I facilitate in spirituality and holistic health.

Jan Phillips is out front of the WomanSpirit wave of life occurring now. Jan calls out loudly, but lovingly, for the Life Artist in us all, to move forward in a new form of activism that invites others to make a difference and create the change we want to be and see.  She is a force for Wisdom and Truth in our lives and in our world. She does not believe in little. She wants us to live our BIG Selves. And we do that, as one of the lyrics of her songs says, “take the hand of everyone you’re walking with!”  She is creator, artist extradinaire, teacher, author, friend and priestess. This summer, she created the first summer symposium on the campus of Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs New York, “Women(s) Voices for a Change”.

Jan Phillips

http://www.janphillips.com/giftshop.html

Jan’s “The Conversation” seems to me now, to be the perfect spokesperson for SoulCollage(R). In it, a person asks some very meaningful questions, and begins to hear back truthful, soul-opening answers to her queries. That is exactly what happens in SoulCollage(R).

“I Am your Wise Woman within. I Am with you always.”

The Conversation: (Jan Phillips)

“You are my spirit and I call on you to help me remember what I know… You are the flame that lights the path I walk, the guide I need that leads me home..”.

“I am Dave, your big brother, on his journey down Alzheimer’s waters.”

(The Conversation continues:)

“I am the one whose hand is in your hand, I will lead you down which ever path you choose…I am your guardian, I’m your deepest friend, I’m your deepest intuition, I’m your muse…..I am the VOICE that calls you to the light, the TRUEST of the voices that you hear.”

“Every time you call on me, I’m there for you.”

My 3rd Chakra Third Eye – Far Seeing Totem Animal

Questions and Answers from “The Conversation”  Jan Phillips.

“Do you have the answers that I’m looking for?”
All the answers that you seek, you have inside. “

“How will I know if I have chosen right?
If you’ve chosen out of love, love will abide.”

I Am the One with Healing Hands. My gift to you is Peace.

“How am I to know what I am here to do?
Just be who you are , the doing will get done.”

In The Conversation, the answer given to the question posed about knowing “I am of the Light”  is to

“Take the hand of everyone you’re walking with
and the love you feel will spread that light around.”

So I have taken the hands of Catherine, Jan and Seena and Karen and through SoulCollage(R), I will spread the that love and light around.

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Visions and Messages from the Soul

Catherine Anderson’s First Class of SoulCollage Facilitators
in South Africa in 2012.

I am so excited to be taking SoulCollage Facilitator training from marvelous and inspirational artist extraordinaire, Catherine Anderson in Charlotte, NC in early August this year.

I completed my initial training with Catherine last year in a wondrous visit to her charming and spiritually energetic studio, filled to the brim with image and word resources, plus her own abiding Presence.

I look forward to incorporating this SoulCollage practice into my own personal life and into the life of Souljourner at-Large LLC programs and retreats. It is all coming into view and purpose for me.

I say yes to it all.

This is my soul collage card that “breathes my heart”. I made it in Catherine’s workshop. It tells of the voyage I’ve had with my “big brother,” Dave who is now travelling in the misty paths of Alzheimers.

Dave is on the twilight journey of the canoe paddler, (or perhaps it is the dawning of a new morning experience of life). He is alone but not alone. There is the dandelion whiffs of memory within me of Dave holding his little sister secure in the flower of life, pulling the wagon with little sis in it, establishing a fulfilling brother-sister relationship through personal letter writing.

Toward the top of the card, the message  of the card is”heard and read” by me in the silence of completing the card.

The message I hear internally is that a candle will light his way now and the flame of my love accompanies him. I add a little chocolate for sweetness on the cobblestone path he walks within the disease. There will be peace within each of us as we give way to the path that is before us and that is ours alone to walk. But truly not alone. That is a message I needed to hear. It has shone light upon my path and it acknowledges for me that Dave’s path is blessed.

This soul card has given me great comfort as the distance between us grows and I look for the grace in aging. It is there. I must agree and sit within it. All is well in this world.

SoulCollage Cards from Catherine Anderson’s
Facilitator Training in March 2013 at her Charlotte NC Studio

Seena Frost is the founder of SoulCollage. She puts forth a great question to us:

Seena Frost, SoulCollage Founder

SEENA’S CORNER

Most people still have the hierarchical world view that views real change as coming primarily from the top and seldom from down where “we” live; so, we vote, then sit, watch the news, and feel helpless. What if this belief could shift? What if more and more people begin to feel and know themselves as being deeply interconnected with the whole fabric of the planet? …Could doing SoulCollage® help people develop, at a Soul level, this perspective of interconnection?

When we speak from our cards, we often are surprised and excited by the synchronicities and connections that show up. We begin to awaken to the reality that, deep down, we are as interconnected as the millions of cells in a physical body.

~ Seena Frost
Founder of SoulCollage®
(April 2011 Neter Letter)

Do you have a big pile of images you have saved in the closet or under the bed that you have been waiting to figure out what to do with?

Find a Labyrinth of Messages coming forth from your Cards.

I am eager to find ourselves sitting together, creating the images that will touch the deep wisdom within us. It will also give the SoulCollage creator a resource available to them at any time to “go within” and hear how the image speaks to them over and over again.

I will be able to help you do this in a short while. In the meantime, start collecting images that attract you for no apparent reason at all and ones that you just know belong to you. They give you a little jolt inside, they brighten up your attitude, they draw forth awe and respect for you, or they feel happy, joyous and free.

Just begin building the pile.  You will be fascinated how they create your cards “instantaneously” and with deep purpose.

This is just plain fun. And after that, you get the bonus of knowing these cards have always belonged to you.

Thank you, Catherine, for the great introduction of SoulCollage to Napkinwriter, as a glorious new way of writing.

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