Soul Retrieval Guides

Soul retrieval is a shamanic practice rooted in the belief that trauma can fragment the self, leaving parts of our souls stranded in moments of fear, grief, or loss. Through trance, visualization, and deep listening, the practitioner seeks to recover these lost fragments while revealing the beliefs, stories, and relationships that shape the journey toward wholeness. Animal and plant allies are identified as guides, offering wisdom and companionship along the way.

After experiencing soul retrieval journeys alongside several friends, I felt called to create an artistic practice that could extend and embody this work. Using a swivel-tip X-Acto knife, I created paired papercuts of the animal guides that had been assigned to accompany us during our journeys. One papercut remained with me; the other was gifted to the friend whose experience had inspired the image. Together, the paired cuttings became a tangible expression of connection, healing, and shared transformation.

The forest then became our studio, collaborator, and teacher. Each of us entered the woods in search of mushrooms, carrying our papercut stencils as companions in the ritual. The slow act of wandering beneath the trees, noticing forms, gathering specimens, and returning to a chosen place became as important as the finished artwork itself. Mushrooms were carefully arranged over the stencils and left overnight to release their spores. By morning, after the mushrooms and paper had been lifted away, a hidden image emerged from the delicate dusting of spores below.

For me, these works are less objects than traces of a process—a conversation between human intention, animal guidance, fungal life, and forest ecology. The resulting spore prints serve as artifacts of reconnection, inviting reflection on the relationships that bind us to ourselves, to one another, and to the more-than-human world. Through ritual, participation, and attentive presence, the work becomes an act of remembering what was never truly lost.