This is my newest SoulCollage© card.  It was made after listening to the audio exercise on Seena Frost‘s CD introducing the SoulCollage© process.

The meditation was to pick a chakra, energetically bring the attention there, and then ask for an animal image.  I settled on the fourth chakra, the heart center, and arrived eventually, quite perfectly it seemed to me, at a sand crab.  First I saw a white fish of the deep, deep ocean, which shifted to a flea, and then to a mole, which finally became the sand crab (which is, surprisingly, sometimes called a ‘sand flea’ or a ‘mole crab’).

I am the one who lives at the edge of the land and the sea.  I am attuned to the turning of the tides, the shifting of the seas, the cycling of the moon.  I filter sea water very efficiently to feed myself from the little hole that I burrow into (backwards).  I hear beachcombers’ voices and vibrations of movement, but I am protected (mostly) from them by layers of sand.

I want to remind you that even if you have backed yourself into a little hole, you can still feel the movements of the ocean, the dramatic swings of the moon.  I don’t want you to mistake being out of view with being out of touch.  Find ways to feel the Vastness that Is Life.  Step outside.  Find YOUR edge.

Process notes: I loved that layers of denim (from a Living Magazine article on the enduring popularity of denim and how to upcycle jeans) became the surf in this image — both because REAL denim became snow in two or three landscape quilts I made this winter, and because it is fitting for someone so devoted to fabric… The denim-as-ocean renders the Sand Crab’s message particular to my work as a fiber artist, i.e. —

working in my burrow (unfinished basement) with piles of fabric, can, if held lightly, bring me in touch with the entire world…  there IS an edge there to occupy… (and it’s not making pin cushions!)

I also like that this card (and most won’t) includes two pieces of paper that came from prior artistic endeavor —

• the splotchy background behind the crab was a second pull off of an iron-on transfer, or just one which burned up and decomposed (some do — esp. if they’re old)
• the starfish and shells on the right (fluorescent) were made by placing teeny sea-finds on the scanner, and then tweaking the colors.

Seena Frost emphasizes that the process is a flexible one, but gives the participant FOUR SUITS as a starting point.  More about that as I go on, but one of her four suits is the Companion Suit.  The Companion Suit is comprised of our animal guides.  Populating this suit with images can act as partial redress for the lack of nature in many of our lives.  Also, it is a good suit to have because as Seena says, “the soul loves animal energy.”

Personally, I have noticed that it can be easier to accept an animal as perfect than to accept myself or another human being as same.  My acceptance of all aspects of an animal’s behavior becomes a template for viewing human behavior — particularly stuff from the shadow.

In other words, if I can conceptualize a lowly sand flea or a carnivorous shark as upstanding members of creation, completely innocent, or at least, completely independent of my/our tendency to place value on their characteristics, then perhaps I can do the same for myself.  In fact, in various gatherings where dancing/meditation/voicework have allowed a group of us to ‘get out of our own way’ (and let the dance dance us, so to speak), I HAVE felt complete acceptance of some of the ugliest parts of myself and my past.  Can I do this on my own?  Without that structure or preparation?  This seems a big and inviting potential in SoulCollage© work.

Thank you, Sand Crab!