Infinite Possibilities

A SoulCollage Card by Alyson Kennedy

What would you do if, one day, you discovered that all of your SoulCollage cards were gone – every last one? This is exactly what happened to Alyson Kennedy.

Read Alyson Kennedy’s story of how a twist of fate led her to a renewal of “infinite possibilities.”

Alyson's Story

My Cards have been stolen!! I have lost many things in my life – socks, hairbrushes, earrings, glasses, library books, hats, umbrellas, boyfriends and packed lunches. I always wonder if they are off somewhere enjoying a new life, or washed up like detritus on some silted creek bed. However, to imagine the loss of my beloved sixteen-year-old deck of Neter (SoulCollage) Cards, a collection carefully culled from my most feared and shadowy and quirky selves, NEVER! Surely I would not carelessly toss them aside, like my favorite green tea mug that rolled off the top of my car hood last week, or let them suffer the fate of my favorite brown corduroy coat that got left behind at the movies, shoved messily down a chair’s crack. No, to lose my SoulCollage cards would take an Olympian mandate, the proverbial thunderbolt tossed from a clear blue sky.

And that is precisely what occurred. At approximately 6:26 A.M. Friday, July 28, 2006, I found my car window smashed in, its safety glass shattered like sugary sprinkles all over my front seat. Two items were missing. My lint-covered nurse bag filled with forgotten, moldy lunches and my SoulCollage cards.

Unlike my usual self, I did not panic or grow hysteric. I did not imagine some sinister end to my precious cards. In fact I did not mourn at all. Rather a calming state of acceptance and peace about this odious theft fell over me. “What is this?” I asked myself. No shaming from the Critic? No Lost Child crying over her abandonment? No massive search parties organized by my Treasure Seeker? Instead I plotted a new deck.

At first I thought I should make a list of all my eighty eight cards and try to recreate them with similar images. But then I reminded myself that my most powerful cards were those that were created by putting images together first, and then trying to assign meaning. Over the next five days I began to assemble a new deck. I feverishly ripped out new images, pictures torn mostly from art magazines. They surrounded me as I watched a DVD on the epic story of Gilgamesh.

My first card was the Wounded Child, just like the first creation of my old Neter deck. The second card was the Witch, surrounded by lots of ripe oriental poppies, oozing with resin. I felt compelled to put the Witch together with her botanical healing power that uses this outlawed plant. When I look at Her I realize how thankful I am that she exists. As an R.N. I medicate people all day long with the poppy’s fruits, helping to ease wracking pain. And knowing that I myself am crossing over to the Senior side, I give thanks for the Witch and her herbs. And I also see how She is an important “antidote” to my Wounded Child.

My third card assembled effortlessly and is called Limitless Possibilities. (This is our Featured Card.) To me it represents the mystery of creativity inside ourselves, and mirrors the endless mystery of the universe. I see my old Neters dancing into the Grail jug of the cosmos and emerging as new Neters. I recognize in this card an article I read about the universe being like a clump of bubbles that keep expanding and forming new universes.

I have created another thirty six cards in five days. Since they were all created spontaneously, without preconceived ideas of who they should be, I look forward to finding out who they are.

(Alyson has been in an on-going weekly SoulCollage group for over fifteen years)