SoulCollage® Through the Lens of Aura-Soma
written especially for SoulCollagers
Creative self-expression in some form has assisted me through many phases of development and transformation in my life. SoulCollage® has given me additional tools for depth work, plus the fun and enrichment of free flowing creativity. Becoming a Facilitator in 2010 gifted me a beautiful way to connect with others to share this wealth.
Discovering the Aura-Soma color care system in the summer of 2011 was intriguing and exciting. As I dove into the luscious array of lore and images in The Aura-Soma Sourcebook, by Mike Booth and Carol McKnight, and Aura-Soma, Healing through Color, Light and Plant Energy by Irene Dalichow and Mike Booth, I dared to imagine how all might connect with the energy of my life. To my great joy, I have discovered that viewing my SoulCollage® cards through this additional lens has deepened and enriched my practice of both systems. Through my own exploration of color in the SoulCollage® cards I’ve created—and in sharing the process with others—I have come to understand that we innately have a color code inside that guides us on a path of healing.
A Brief Introduction to Aura-Soma
The Aura-Soma Color Care system is known as a non-intrusive, self-selective system of soul work that seeks to restore, revitalize and rebalance all levels of being and connect us with soul potential and purpose. As a paradigm of healing, it is based upon recognizing and honoring the inherent wisdom each one of us carries within. Sound familiar?
As of November 2014, there are 112 color bottles numbered 0-111 (examples below), called equilibrium bottles. Each one, through color and color combination, embodies a unique message and vibration. “You are the colors you choose and these reflect your being’s needs,” says the system’s creator and founder Vicky Wall. She honors the wisdom of our being as expressed in the colors we choose and interpret for ourselves, and in our taking personal responsibility for our own well-being through self-healing choices.
The bottles themselves are captivatingly beautiful and people are undeniably drawn to them. The language of color is universal and one that most everyone speaks. In this context, Aura means light and Soma means body or being. The Aura –Soma color care system seeks to connect us with the light within ourselves and the living energies of light and color that surround us. The system is continually growing and expanding in consciousness as humanity also evolves.
The colors and color combinations of Aura-Soma are keys to consciousness which help us to understand our own essential nature. Color is interpreted and understood on symbolic, spiritual, mental, emotional, and energetic levels. The bottles are divided into upper and lower sections, the upper conveying a personality vibration representative of the vehicle through which the lower color—the Soul vibration, which can be conscious or unconscious—works. Most bottles have two colors, while some contain upper and lower sections of the same color.
Aura-Soma has many correspondences to numerology, tarot, the Tree of Life, archangels and ascended masters, and the chakra system. It is grounded in ageless wisdom as well as being an open-ended system that continues to grow and expand. However, you do not have to have knowledge of, or believe in, any of these systems in order to derive rich meaning from working with the colors. There is much more to the Aura-Soma color care system than I’ll be writing about here, so if your interest is piqued, I hope that you will explore in a lot more depth.
Color has many applications and meanings in our everyday life, from the colors we are drawn to, to those we choose to wear and to decorate with, to the food we eat, to the colors presented to us through school uniform and team colors--AND the colors present in the imagery we choose to create our SoulCollage® cards. In the same way that the practice of SoulCollage® encourages us to glean the wisdom of our creations for ourselves, Aura-Soma encourages our own insights and interpretations of color for ourselves, with the bottle information shared within the system standing as gateways and invitations into the Mystery.
Exploring the Combination of Systems
My next step after discovering Aura-Soma was to experiment with some SoulCollage® cards already created in my deck. I looked to see how the colors I chose via the imagery that created my collage cards might align with any already existing writing or understanding I had of the card, or if the exploration of a SoulCollage® card through the lens of Aura-Soma brought me any important new insights.
I was aware that I would be working from the “appearance” standpoint and that Aura-Soma includes a physical component of applying color to the body as well. Yet the cards’ visual appearance felt like an important place to begin.
The initial inquiry was fun, rewarding and extremely opening. Enthusiastically I set out upon a journey to explore how Soul-Collage and Aura-Soma could work together in complementary ways.
To learn more about Aura-Soma, I went to Santa Fe in 2012 to study Levels 1 and 2. After returning from Level 1 training, I revisited a card in my deck that was made during my SoulCollage® Facilitators training in August 2010. That was a pivotal time in my life that held the energy of looking back for the purpose of greater understanding in moving forward.
The card shared below, called Butterfly Warrior, encapsulates the energy of a life-altering “storm” and a significant passage in my life. The passage culminated in an awakening in 1995. Suddenly it felt as though lightning struck my head, opening it wide, and I saw as I had not seen before. I experienced a bright light and was shown the purpose of suffering and the importance of perception. This experience forever changed me and the way I chose to live my life: I felt a joyful sense of purpose and a love for life, and was infused with a warrior-like resolve to make a difference This began with sharing about my own process and encouraging others in their processes of transformation, especially through engaging various art forms. The modes I’ve used have continued to shape-shift.
I Am One Who emerges from a powerful storm transformed, having
witnessed the stillness at the eye
Looking through the lens of Aura-Soma in August 2012, I chose four bottles for this card:
(Author’s note: Aura-Soma considers dark neutrals as deep magenta and whites as clear. In this system, Clear also connects with the rainbow.)
B100, B89, B55, B83
B100, also known as Archangel Metatron, seems to be the most prominent in this card.
Clear/Deep Magenta
.
Main Theme: The light coming into the shadow
Affirmation: I see all things as they are.
Extended Theme: Connecting with what brings the possibility of wholeness from the depths of our being to alleviate suffering.
B89: Energy Rescue
Red/Deep Magenta
Main Theme: Healing Energy
Tarot Correspondence: Return Journey of Strength
Affirmation: I am open to see the creativity in all aspects of life that present themselves to me.
Extended Theme: A new window or portal; time-shift; gateway to a new understanding, a new possibility for enthusiastic well-being, new paradigm, Transformations that help bring forth our healing instincts, intuitive spirituality.
B55: The Christ
Clear/Red
Main Theme: To develop sacrificial love
Tarot Correspondence: 10 of Swords
Affirmation: I awaken to the mystery of the body as love
Extended Theme: The energy to work with and for the light, Awakening to and Grounding the light within. The opportunity to see purpose.
B83 – Open Sesame
Turquoise/Gold
Main Theme: Old wine in new skins
Tarot Correspondence: Return Journey of the Hierophant
Affirmations: I am open to the wisdom that is revealing itself to me, that I may share it from my heart
I open myself to the deepest joy so that I may share it with others
Extended Theme: The depths of wisdom expressed in a new way. Wisdom communicated through the feeling side of being.
I am going to focus here on the last bottle first, B83, and its significance in the card and in my life. This color combination is found on the butterfly’s wings as it flies to freedom. Although only a small amount of this is showing, it feels and is extremely significant to a story in my life that continues to unfold.
In choosing to work with color following my inner prompts as to what to use and when, I am not limited by an exact formula. If you choose to explore in this fashion, the writings that accompany the bottles are incredible openings to the mystery within YOU, portals through which you may come to know yourself more deeply in your own time and in your own way.
As I contemplate the many doors that have opened to me (B83 Open Sesame) since the awakening and since creating this card, and the many things I’ve learned that I feel prompted to share, I smile at the connection and realize that there is no turning back.
The Butterfly suggests that as well; it is a living creature whose DNA is actually altered through its phases of development.
The Journey into the eye of a powerful storm had brought me to a different place; a portal to a new understanding (B89) and shone light into the shadows, creating a new dawn in the inner world (B100). I had been filled with renewed energy and had found purpose (B55). As I share from the heart, many new doors have opened and are continuing to open to me (B83).
Story-lines in your deck and other options
There are many ways to explore color in your SoulCollage® deck. This is only one example and only scratches the surface of what can be revealed. In this system the bottles connect to each other in other ways not quite as apparent that have proven to be affirming, nourishing and supportive.
Grouping cards by color (or in association with a specific bottle) is another interesting way to explore your deck. Often this way depicts some type of movement and also may have repetitive shapes, postures, elements, even animals – all very interesting to see. There is an Aura-Soma tarot deck as well (illustrated by Pamela Matthews) that has the images of each bottle on the back of the tarot card depicted. It is a wonderful tool to work with your collage cards and there are myriad methods of doing this. Drawing a color card to further illumine a collage card, or multiple cards, is one way of working that has proven rewarding for me.
Another fascinating exploration has been to consider the color of clothing in any people present in cards and to look at this as qualities embodied or seeking to be embodied. There are infinite possibilities, plenty of meaningful and fun ways to explore the energy of color in your deck.
Storyline Sequence
The Butterfly Warrior card shared above is also part of a storyline sequence I have explored through the color lens with a specific Bottle – B89.
These are some of the cards in that sequence. As you can see, each one includes the image of a portal of some sort. Together, they tell a story of ongoing transformation which really connects to the energy of the bottle B89 (see above).
Each individual card in the sequence can be viewed with the addition of other bottles present as well. These refine and further define the story, a living, breathing story I can tell about myself and my passage through life, and how that connects to the whole. It has been incredibly powerful and meaningful to explore cards in this fashion, for me and for others with whom I have shared this discovery process. It is also powerful to find additional and intentional and nourishing ways to incorporate the color into my life.
“Shake To’s”--Another Way of Viewing
Each two-color bottle also “shakes to” a third color. This is another way of viewing individual cards and of connecting cards, and colors, to each other, which often reveals deeper layers of meaning. Sara Pranikoff, friend and fellow SoulCollage® Facilitator here in Cincinnati, provides a beautiful example of a process and card created right before the Christmas Season. The unexpected pinks in Sara’s card can be seen to proceed from B55, The Christ (consisting of Clear, or white, and Red) to B55’s “shake-to colors” of compassionate pink. Here are the meanings given by the Aura-Soma system to its correlating bottles B23, B81, and B52.
WaterBearer
Sara reflects:
"This card was one that created itself, as I was preparing to present a workshop on staying grounded during the upcoming holiday season. My conscious mind was busy looking for images of candles and other things I associated with my felt sense of the deeper meaning of the season. As I sorted, though, these pink images kept calling to me, insisting that I work with them.
As I finally gave in and created the pink card, I could feel within my body the sense of bringing forth healing waters into the world. It was a powerful feeling, yet one which I did not have a context for at the time. I had never heard of using pink at this time of year, nor of the WaterBearer archetype, which might have added to my understanding.
About six months after I made the card, I shared it with Sarah. Through correlating the colors with Aura-Soma, I came to learn that, in this system, pink is the color for compassion and unconditional love. That was a pivotal moment in revealing how the archetype of Compassion/ Kuan Yin/ WaterBearer was finding form in my card-making beyond the level of my conscious awareness, yet deeply aligned with what was in my heart.
The Aura Soma correlations have also been helpful when doing readings with this card. Often in readings, this card speaks to me about the importance of connecting heart/grounding/love (red) with spirit (white) in my life and work, and also reminds me to keep my own vessel of compassion filled. When I ask how I will remember, the striped vase on the card tells me to remember the peppermint striped candy canes of the season in which this card was made." ~Sara P
I notice that Sara’s card also contains the color Coral (over the healing waters), which in the Aura-Soma system is connected with the “New Christ” energy. It is an energy of the receptive feminine that brings attention to “the way we do the things we do” and is also closely connected to the WaterBearer archetype. All this seems to resonate deeply with what she has shared and with the beautiful numinous quality of her card.
Both of the single card examples given in this article are expressions of the introduction of Light (Clear). In my own Butterfly Warrior card, reminiscent of a long-ago experience, the light was electrifying and forever altering, via B100 and Archangel Metatron. In Sara Pranikoff’s WaterBearer, a more subtle refinement process takes place as Light is added to Red to create Pink. The cards are connected through B55, representing the Christ.
In this Rainbow Bridge time here on Earth, where and when so many of us are seeking to embody our truths and live more conscious “bigger picture” mythic lives while in human form, SoulCollage® and the Aura-Soma color care system seem excellent companions for the journey.
Using the natural rainbow as a metaphor for this union of personal and transpersonal aspects of the human psyche, it could be said that the Rainbow Bridge is the result, or manifestation, of the union of super-conscious illumination and enlightenment—sunlight—with the great sub-conscious—the mysterious unknown depths of the element of water.
Soul-Collage® primarily uses imagery, and secondarily words, to create powerful and transformative openings into the unconscious body-mind.
Aura-Soma uses primarily the energy of color, and secondarily that of the plant and mineral kingdoms, to tap the super-conscious in powerfully opening and connecting ways.
My experience is that together they are potently alchemical and serve to support and illumine each other, thereby bridging heaven and earth within our own lives.
© Sarah Gallant
Sara’s Portion © Sara Pranikoff
.