Going Deeper

This is one of my newest SoulCollage Cards.

Going Deeper

• I am the One who explores the depths inside.
• I am the One who feels apprehensive, but continues anyway.
• I am the One who is nervous and excited about inner discovery.
• I am the One who is courageous.

The main image, the man whose features are visible, was collected maybe a year ago at a SoulCollage workshop (Thanks, Suzie Wolfer). I felt a strong affinity with it, and it reminded me of inner psychological exploration. It still does.

While I was creating it, I thought about adding water images -- a diver or deep sea level fish -- but they didn't quite make it. The stalagtites are created with water, but I kind of wanted a more overt representation. And then I found these incredible images of a shipwreck. How perfect a representation for those shipwrecks of life that find their way to the bottom and continue to haunt our subconscious. So I cut out the ship wheel, and it went over his heart / hara.

It felt "done."

I realized that it was time for this image to come out now because I am about to go on a 10-day silent meditation retreat in September. So begins my commitment to frequent retreat practice in the fall / winter of 2008. September's retreat schedule includes even more meditation than usual every day, and I don't really see in the schedule where I will have the after-meal naps I rely on so strongly at the other retreats I have been to. I am apprehensive and excited about deepening my practice, and looking into the nature of my mind during this time. Did I mention apprehensive?

Having realized that, I nodded and worked on another card, had dinner, hung out with friends, came home, and showed Patrick my newest cards.

Now, Patrick is usually very conservative with his comments. He has a certain reverence for the cards, and tends to state what he sees, with little interpretation. Even if interpretation is encouraged, he is reluctant to do so.

So when he said, "Going deeper into Dharma practice," I was impressed that he would verbalize that intuition he had gathered from this image, and his knowledge of my process. I said as much, and then he pointed to the shipwheel, and said, "Well it was the Dharma Wheel right there. That was the first thing I noticed."

Okay, guess who was the last to know about that.

I am serious. I did not place that there consciously at all, though it certainly is perfect. The Dharma Wheel is often depicted like a ship's wheel, the eight spokes representing the Noble Eightfold Path:

1. Right Understanding
2. Right Thought
3. Right Speech
4. Right Action
5. Right Livelihood
6. Right Effort
7. Right Mindfulness
8. Right Concentration

My subconscious, when I let it work on SoulCollage cards, creates magic.

A similar thing happened with this card:

Kwan Yin

Kwan Yin is the Bodhisattva of Compassion who "hears the cries of the world." Her element is water, and she is often depicted with a bottle, holding her tears, or pouring out the waters of compassion.

While I was creating this card, I placed her by a river, with ocean in the background, and the nautilus shell all as symbols of water, of the sea. This card looked exactly as it does now, and I clearly remember thinking, "Hmmmm, now what can I include to illustrate her listening capacity?"

A few beats later, it dawned that the nautilus shell is a beautiful reflection of the inner ear's cochlea, and also a representation of the childhood ritual of listening to the ocean inside shells... I laughed at myself and thanked this higher wisdom so graciously participating with me in the creativity of cardmaking.