SoulCollage® for the Crafty Woman Writer’s Soul

However you define crafty works for me

Quilters of Gee’s Bend, Alabama. Photo by Carol M. Highsmith via Library of Congress, Wiki Commons

What do I mean by crafty, anyway?

When the idea for this post first popped up, I envisioned all you Middle-Pausers who make art or indulge in crafts. I know we have painters, crochets, and knitters in our midst, as well as fabric artists like Barbara Carter, and collagers like me. And don’t forget wordcraft, which reminds me, we writers are crafty, too.

In addition, there’s craft brewing and all kinds of creative explorations happening in our kitchens. Susie Antonia is an artist when it comes to Phillipino cooking and makes a mean adobo. And Linda Lum shares her culinary craftiness with us from time to time.

Just now the word witchcraft popped into my hopefully still fertile imagination. Popular culture has seized this powerful archetype to populate stories with cackling crones who eat children, or boss around flying monkeys.

But when we dig a bit deeper, we find a legacy of natural healers and helpers. Women who knew their medicinal herbs, and how to assist at a difficult birth. When things went wrong, she was the one to call. But seeing how knowledge is power, some men felt threatened. Interestingly, the ones who happened to be in power.

So these women were hounded and rounded up and burned at the stake. Often with a gay man or two, who they used as ‘kindling’ for those fires. This is where the term ‘faggot’ came from.

All that to say women versed in the healing arts fall under my definition of crafty. And if they had to use their skills in secret, as has been the case throughout history, the other definition of crafty comes into play.

Which is?

According to Merriam-Webster, crafty means adept in the use of subtlety and cunning.

With this as our measure, I dare say most women qualify as adept in subtlety and cunning. We’ve had to be to survive in a male-dominated world. Women of color have had to be to survive in a white supremacist man’s world.

We’ve learned, often the hard way, to find ways around obstacles thrown in our path. Harriet Tubman and Joan of Arc, among many others, dressed like men so they could fulfill their callings.

J. K. Rowling, George Sand, and the Brontë sisters were hardly the only women who used their first initials or pen names to get in publishing doors or before a male audience.

How many women have had to act like someone else to have their gifts accepted or because it wasn’t safe to be themselves? Acting is both an art and a craft. And how many of those sisters have made the world a better, safer place by being crafty?

So wise women are crafty.

And crafty women are wise.

Sadly, far too many of us have had to hide our wisdom to get by. To pretend we don’t know something we know, so as not to threaten a sensitive male ego.

March–Woman’s History Month–is almost here.

So there’s an opportunity for any of us who wish to lift up our sisters who’ve done amazing things, including artists, crafters, and crafty ones, like ourselves. I’ll probably mention this again in our Pump-Priming Prompts, but let this serve as a heads-up.

Okay, now that we’re all clear on crafty, what about SoulCollage®?

First of all, what is SoulCollage®?

SoulCollage® is a process of allowing our souls to select and arrange images into collages, typically on 5 X 8-inch matt boards. It’s like creating our personal Tarot or oracle deck. In addition to being ‘read’ when created, we can do readings with one or more cards to answer specific questions.

Over the years, I’ve made several cards using images from magazines and calendars that appeal to my soul. Now I use Canva.com.

It’s easy to select a background photo and then add appealing images where they seem to want to go, resizing them as needed. With Canva or Unsplash, you can type in a word or phrase and get way more choices than even National Geographic Magazine might offer.

Recently I’ve been using SoulCollage® to inspire my writing.

Not just poetry which is probably the easiest way to use it. Create a collage, read its message, look for any metaphors or hidden meanings, and craft it into a poem. There’s that word again.

So in honor of all of us crafty women, I’m about to create a SoulCollage® card. Hang on, I’ll be right back.

Okay. I’m back. Here’s the SoulCollage® card that came to life just now:

**SoulCollage® card built from an image by Brett Sayles, Created by the author on Canva.com**

While making the card, I was called to include natural elements evoking the feminine like water, earth, caves, and the moon. The bowl near the top contains medicinal herbs. Harriet Tubman sits in the light at the entrance to a mysterious opening at the top of the mountain steps.

Next, I ‘read’ the card by asking it, Who are you? And what message do you have for me or us?

And the crafty women (i.e. the card) replied:

“We are the ones who honor all of life by honing our crafts to the best of our abilities. We came into the world when we did to serve a specific purpose, evidenced by our loves and passions. The world needs everything we women offer, whether everyone gets that or not.

“The message we have you is not to compare gifts but to share them.

“If you’re open and patient, you’ll discern how and when to do that. Whatever craft or craftiness you’re called to create, plunge in. Revel in it and see what it reveals to you. You and your work are a key part of the chain connecting the past with the future.

“Lift up the mothers and sisters who’ve gone before you, blazing trails that you might more easily find your way. Study our collective history not only to celebrate its breakthroughs but so you can avoid its horrors.

“In that spirit, lift up the crones, witches, faggots, and other ones far too often mistreated. Let your love heal any fears that arise as you reclaim your past — the beastly as well as the beautiful. And wear your womanhoods proudly. Blessings to you all!”

Wow.

What a call to action, as well as a reminder of how vital we each are. And what a great segue into Women’s History Month. So this year, let’s leap into the mystery as well as the history of who we are as we put on our sisterhoods!

For more info about SoulCollage® and ways to create and develop fictional characters, please see my latest book, Developing Characters: Fun Ways to Cast Your Fiction.

**Graphic and book cover designed by the author in Canva.com**