Art by Greg Ruth
The creative act initiates in the deepest layers of the psyche. It rises out of the ancient bones of everything that has ever lived and everything that is yet to come, the land of primordial wholeness, our collective unconscious. Step by step, breath by breath, it moves towards us in search of a receptive vessel to unfold, stirring our heart and soul enough to spur us into action.
The task of the creator is to weave bridges that link the instinctive soul that rests and nestles within, with the world of matter on the outside. The creative birthing journey, from inside out, requires that we step lightly onto this world and allow ourselves to be led by the cycles of life, death and rebirth. To birth our visions forth we have to entrust our journeys to the regenerative rhythms of the world around us. Those that serve the life of what needs to live and the death of what needs to die. Moving slowly, one step at a time, following the continuous flow of forming, dissolving and reforming, we come to cultivate a rich relationship with standing on the threshold of the unknown and un-emerged.
Landing softly, on parts of us that are held by senses and intuitions, we reach to inner lands that incubate the as yet unformed and manifold. Here we find the threads that will unravel creative act and Self alongside each other. In the dance of formation, we can never fully separate creation from creator. Each reflects and holds the other in intimate recognition. Tug and pull, piece by piece, we unfurl ourselves alongside our creative expressions, becoming active and passive, leading and led, founder and found.
There is space for creative expression in anything that we do- from motherhood, to relationships, to painting, sculpting, writing and everything that moves the soul- and it always requires risk and experimentation. It requires us to enter a zone of creative freedom, where we allow something that is ready, to unfold. As we stand before the void of nothingness, ready and willing to discover, we have to brave the primal terror of emptiness and the unknown. The creative journey is a ride through chaos. As we peel through the layers of confusion, doubt, shame and judgement with playful curiosity and courage, we bear witness to an emerging order that brings forth something of value and service, as much to our soul as to the Soul of the greater whole.
It is in the solid container of discipline we can engage with the richness of chaos that gradually reveals itself, only to those who will commit. To stoke up the fire and keep the creative flames alight, to let chaos whisper its wisdom into our heart, we have to consistently show up to what the soul has chosen. This is the same journey that any initiation and transformation would lead us through. By stepping into a dialogue with the all-emerging void, we have already summoned enough inner allies for the way ahead. In good time, our expressions evolve into their own, as the wild and the untamed gradually discover form and voice. We have led what belongs to the intuitive soul into mature completeness. And in doing so, something of Self reaches its own completeness.
The alchemical dimension of the creative process purges and purifies the spirit. Those that work to bring something of the world within to the world without, awaken and engage the dormant layers of the deeper psyche. They activate the latent instinctive allies of the greater Self. Engaging with the creative force is an ongoing and intrinsic aspect of living. This is a fire we have to keep on stoking. If we let the flames go out, we run counter to our innate nature, for to keep this fire alight is to call soul into making.
The process that starts in the deepest and most private corners of ourselves transforms into an outer act of presence. And every creative act is at its heart a collective act, channelled by each and every one of us, in service of all. Like the rest of life, all aspects of inner work need to be fed by the creative forces that bring us to recall and re-member what was only faintly kept within. To create, is to call a bit more of Self into being. To breathe a bit more depth and soul back into the world.
