Dreams, Visions, and Manifestations with CALLA LILY
A tour of my Vision Boards for the last five years
HAIL CALLA LILY, Zantedeschia aethiopica, who is neither a Calla or Lily and yet populates our collective imagination with your striking white spiral and proud stymen. Teach me the language of resurrection, lending me the strength to begin again and again, in each season, in each year, and in each moment. Share with me your spectrum of wisdom that captures the complexity of life from purity to fertility. Hail and Welcome!
Falling in Love with the Visions of Calla Lily
Until last year, even after writing this zine back in 2021, I didn't really connect with or care for Calla Lilies. They felt stiff and austere with their spiraling bloom. Then something shifted and now I see Calla Lilies everywhere and I adore their proud, powerful stance. They have become my flower for the Seer, Visioning, and the New Moon. Pisces Season begins this week on February 18th so it seemed like a perfect time to revisit past vision boards, and begin preparing for the New Moon next week.
New Moon Vision Board Gathering February 27th
Every month we gather in the dark of the New Moon to refine and define our vision with the support of a creatively crafted vision board. Gather materials or use digital resources to create in an intimate and welcoming container.
Thursday Feb 27th 8-10pm MST in the Creative Coven on Discord
Hosted by Artwitch Khiri Lee. Her work is steeped in sacred, ritual and embodied art practices. She has 10+ years experience using community-based art and theatre to educate and create brave environments for anyone to discover their creative flow. Learn more about crafting a Vision Board
Pisces is the final sign in the wheel of Zodiac, known as a season for dreaming and synthesizing. If you missed the first few chances to reset for a new year, than Pisces season could be the next wonderful opportunity to pause and take stock, especially when invoking an ally like Calla Lily along the way.
I've been making vision board since I was in high school. Back then I made them annually on a large piece of poster board that would hang in my bedroom or office. Since 2021 I have been creating a vision board each New Moon.
2021
I began making vision boards monthly in 2021 after attending the Southern Sierra Goddexx Gathering. The event was a powerful swirl of inspirations and connections in a year when everything was breaking apart. At first the group gathered in the Virtual Hive on Topia.io, a spatial video conferencing site with some creative features for bridging the gap between the screen and the people behind the cameras. In the end the energy there peetered out and I moved the creating to discord where we still gather today.
My first year of vision boards were crafted on a 11x15 piece of watercolor paper. I had an abundance and the simple shape, white background, and sturdiness suited my needs at the time. My themes that year focused around health and prosperity.
2022
After the rigidity of the watercolor paper mirrored by the literal confinement of quarantine I was craving a more out of the box form for my vision boards in 2022. I would start on a piece of random paper from around my studio (I had plenty), and then would let the images explode off the page in whatever way they suited. These vision boards were wonderfully dynamic, and a few of them are still hanging in my studio. My themes in 2022 were around creativity, artistry, and finding balance.
2023
Taking another big swing in my inspiration, the next year I decided to house my vision boards in an art book. My pile of monthly visions was beginning to take up quite a lot of space. I had a reclaimed book on bulbs from the thrift store that I used as both a tarot journal and creative space for my vision boards in 2023. This was the year I became a mother, so the first half are themed around nesting and having a healthy baby. The second half are about rediscovering myself in the new form as Mother.
2024
Finally in 2024 I played with making my vision board in an old calendar. One of my biggest frustrations with my vision board in a book was that I didn't see the vision board as often, since I was also using the book as a journal. It moved around, and was hard to display behind my altar. Building my visions in a calendar seemed like a fun compromise. I displayed the vision board calendar on the wall in the hall of my bathroom, and since we mostly leave the door open, I saw the vision boards every time I moved through my house.
2025
Since each year I mix up the formula slightly, I am excited to play with something new in 2025. And I am feeling even more radical, wondering if instead of visioning with found images, I want to make vision weavings or vision dances or vision streams instead, to better embody the feeling versus the doing.
I am inspired by a quote from the podcast creator Meghan Leatherman who wrote:
"Most spiritual traditions point to the fact that what we see in the material reality is first created in the unseen, energetic realms. This means that while it may not be time to sprout or make bigger, Springtime changes in your life, it is absolutely time to dream into them and give them shape and heft in your imagination.This is a beautiful way to dance with the lessons of Winter and of fear: to find a quiet, inner place where you can envision your most natural self and how you’d like to live as that person. As those visions are nested and nurtured, they can feel more and more safe so that when they’re ready to come into “real” life, they will be familiar to you and already have a place to root in and grow."
I am also reading Mind Magic: The Neuroscience of Manifestation and How It Changes Everything by James R. Doty through the recommendation of Caroline Cala Donofrio's Bookclub on Substack. My biggest take away so far is bringing manifestation back to the heart.
When I look back over the years at my favorite and most powerful vision boards they are always the ones made with the most clear care and heart-centeredness. I want to take the time to enter in a calm state of mind while crafting my visions for 2025, with more focus on the feeling I want to manifest in my life, rather than a specific product or outcome. I may also let go of the monthly model for my visioning, using each new moon to return to an already created image. I'm ready for a radical shift to keep the energy and the practice fresh!
Reset your dreams with a vision board
Holding the vision of your Dream in the minds eye is a great place to start, but it can become taxing to keep the pieces together. Creating a Vision Board transforms the dream into a concrete image, allowing the mind to rest and starting the process of manifestation outside of the self.
What is a Vision Board?
A vision board is a collection of images and words that are collaged together to affirm and clarify a dream or goal.
It is a simple visualization tool that can be easily created to ground your dreams in reality. Once your Vision Board is complete every time you look at it, it will transport you to your goal, which creates a loop of affirmation and reflection.
Part of the Joy of a Vision Board is the simplicity with which it can be created. There are only four materials needed:
A collection of Magazines, old Calendars or Found images.
Scissors.
Glue or Tape.
A space to create.
or there are a plethora of online tools like canva and pinterest shuffles for digital crafting. Find an image pool in the bonus materials as part of the CALLA LILY zine below for Subscribers to get your creative process flowing.
Since there has been one New Moon this year already I have attempted a few different vision boards. The first is on the cover of my planner, and it was one of those few creations where I had an fairly clear image in my mind's eye that I was then able to successfully translate through collage. It is a great reminder each morning of my mythic dream to become a river.
I also attempted a monthly vision board at the Lunar New Year. I did not open my heart, my breathe was tight. I was tired and frustrated and pushed myself through to keep my commitment. The opposite of how I want to be dreaming and visioning my life. In the end I was unhappy with what I created, and went through several attempts at editing and playing to see if I could come to an inspirational place. I learned that its okay for a vision board to flop. Although a vision board does not have to be aesthetic or artistic, as it is a sacred kind of art making, I do find I am more likely to soak in the magic when I am pleased with what I crafted.
I also started another weaving. I made my first hoop weaving last summer and loved the process. Perhaps this weaving can be my vision board instead, a softer more integrated exploration of my dreams and aspirations. I also like that I could add to the weaving over the next several moons, finding a less generative and more restful rhythm with my dream life.
How are you visioning your life in 2025? What manifestation tools do you utilize? Have you or are you making a vision board? Do you want to join us in the Creative Coven Discord Server next week to craft together in the dark of the Moon? Let us know in the chat.
The full issue of 52 Petals: CALLA LILY is included in this post for subscribers, including an image pool for your next Vision Board. Thank you for supporting the Khaleidoscope Zine Archive.
In this issue:
Fresh Starts with Calla Lily
The Calla Lily Rainbow
Resetting your dreams and vision boarding