What is a Vision Board?

Written by Christine Kane

 A vision board (also called a Treasure Map or a Visual Explorer or Creativity Collage) is typically a poster board on which you paste or collage images that you’ve torn out from various magazines. It’s simple.

The idea behind this is that when you surround yourself with images of who you want to become, what you want to have, where you want to live, or where you want to vacation, your life changes to match those images and those desires.

For instance, before I ever started performing music and I had no idea how I’d ever get a gig, write enough songs, or assemble a press kit, I drew a picture of myself in a bar with people watching me perform (I’m a terrible visual artist, so I actually had to label the people “people!”). And though it wasn’t the only factor in making it happen, I had a calendar full of bar and coffeehouse gigs by the next year.

Mirror, like miracle and mirage, comes from the Latin root mirari which means “to wonder at.” Like the moon’s light is reflected on the surface of the sea.

Know Thyself and You Will Know The Mysteries of The Universe

One of the teachings of the ancient Eleusinian Mysteries was to Know Thyself. Many spiritual traditions have long felt that our reflection is part of our soul, that the world around us is a reflection of the divine, which in turn is a reflection of creation here on Earth. The power for us in this point of view is that we have the opportunity to learn the deepest truths about the divine as we experience the world around us and look into our own hearts.

Sacred objects can be a very important part of one’s spiritual practice.  When we make our own tools in a sacred way, the act of creation itself is a ritual, a powerful mixture of our intention and the movement of spirit through our bodies.  In this way we begin filling the piece with our personal magic at the first glimmering seed stage of an idea, through careful selection of materials and working environment, so by the time we begin using them as ritual objects, on altars, or in sacred play, they are already rich receptacles of spirit, a deep well available for us to tap as we need to remember and reconnect.  These principles, like any spiritual practice, are part of a whole life and are applicable to its many facets.  Play with them and see what works for you and compost what doesn’t.

The practice of burning herbs, resin, or incense has been used by many cultures around the world since ancestral times as part of spiritual and healing traditions to purify mind, body, and spirit. The smoke from burning sacred plants binds with the stagnant or negative energy of people, places, and objects and carries that energy to a place where it can be regenerated and returned to the cycle as a beneficial force.

Smudging has become an important part of how I move into sacred space, the familiar smell of burning sage or copal wakes up deep cellular memory, helping me drop into ritual space, bringing my spirit back into my body, into the moment, stilling my mind as I shed the concerns of the day to focus on the work to come.