Facing the Storm: SoulCollage® and Poetry

 In these times of so much grief, anger and suffering, it feels self-indulgent to post about my small life.  But, our lives do go on, along with our emotions around the bigger picture.

Today I want to talk about one of the beauties of the SoulCollage® process.  You put a few images together that have drawn you to them, and often you have no idea what the joining of them truly signifies until you work with the card later.  Somehow, this simple, enjoyable activity manages to get to what is truly going on for you, on both superficial and deeper levels.

This is my most recent card:

When I picked up the central image, I saw the figure as naked, vulnerable, and heading into a ritual, perhaps one of initiation.  When placed on the background, he hugely dominated it.  On the original photo, he did not loom so large.  It's a little hard to see here, but there is an additional image on the bottom of some ruins.  I didn't know at the time why it was necessary, but when I added it, I felt the card was complete.

I've sat with the card on my writing table/altar for some weeks now.  Finally, a short poem came, and it helped me to deepen my understanding of what the card meant.  Here it is:

Facing the Storm

Like Inanna,

I have had

one thing

after another

stripped away,

and still,

I descend.

Naked. Vulnerable.

And yet,

I breathe

up strength.

I rise,

shoulders back,

confronting an

electrifying lightning

storm that

crashes onto

the far landscape.

I stand on

my ancestors’

shoulders, on

the earth

that holds

me up, on

my native abilities

to persevere,

and on

the necessity

to yield.

There are so many powerful storms facing all of us now.  All I know is that art and poetry are important as we go on.  May we be held.  May we persevere.  May we yield.