Creativity and Spirituality
Mary Fyfe
|
Religion is what we believe because someone else experienced it. Spirituality is what we believe because we have experienced it ourselves. |
A present day spokesperson for the spiritual connection with artistic activity is Matthew Fox, a Dominican priest, who has been writing, speaking, and conducting workshops on this subject for at least the past ten years. Fox speaks of the importance of the artistic experience:
In the work of the artist, subject/object distinctions are broken through, and we experience the unity of all creation once again. Healing takes place; a healing between us and the Creator and between us and creation and between our deepest inner self and our outer self. |
Fox affirms our need to get back in touch with the source of richness that lies within each of us. When creative persons reach into their depths and bring forth things genuine -- a song, a piece of pottery, an idea, a relationship -- a union is formed between people and the Creator. This can be called a spiritual experience, and it truly is.
In his book, Original Blessing, Fox has an appendix entitled: "Toward a Family Tree of Creation-Centered Spirituality." He explains that he has used the word "toward" in the title because he believes the list is by no means complete. Beginning with Jesus and extending through the nineteenth century, he has devised a code of stars which indicates the fullness in teaching and living out creation-centered spirituality. His method is similar to our system of using 5 stars, 4 stars, and so on to signify our assessment of restaurants or bed and breakfasts. While he has ranked several hundred, I have chosen to share with you the top five:
Jesus Christ | 5 stars |
Hildegarde of Bingen (1098 - 1179) | 4 stars |
Francis of Assisi (1181 - 1225) | 5 stars |
Meister Eckhart (1260 - 1329) | 4 stars |
George Fox (1624 - 1677) | 3.5 stars |
There were several other Quakers in his list.
Look back at high points in your life. They usually come when we discard something and take a step forward. Sometimes there is pain associated with this step forward because we don't want to leave something behind, but usually when we do, we grow. With each new awakening we discard some cherished viewpoint or reintegrate it into a larger outlook. This is the creative process.
Like any work of art, this is an individual process that comes from within. Since the creative process is so closely linked with the spiritual, this makes for transpersonal development. Lois Robbins in her book, Waking Up in the Age of Creativity, suggests some attitudes and actions that nourish creation spirituality:
Accept yourself. Since you are indeed created in the image of God, you have the freedom to create just as God has, and the right to a playful relationship with the world. |
Be brave. Fear is the greatest block to creativity, yet it is inherent in the new and unknown. Wrestle with your fear, but respect it. You can learn a lot from observing what scares you.
Cultivate "beginner's mind." Keep learning, especially in the field in which you feel most competent. This keeps you open to not only your new insights, but to the discoveries of others in a rapidly changing world. This is why it's so important to be creative rather than learning to retain facts. The facts are always changing, but creativity has an integrity of its own.
Become an acute observer. Look for similarities, differences, and distinguishing characteristics in whatever you are dealing with. When you do this you are exercising both the rational and intuitive sides of your brain. You are also accepting your responsibility to be all you can be by being as awake as you can, both to your inner wisdom and to your environment. Try many different combinations of association and relationship. Divergent thinking is just as important as its opposite, congruent linear concentration. It is far ranging rather than focused, making intuitive rather than logical connections.
Keep asking questions. Then ask questions beneath the questions. Keep your mind curious and your doubts alive. Be puzzled. Encourage a sense of wonder.
Carry a notebook with you wherever you go. Capture in it your hunches, strange thoughts, "silly" questions, and inspirations before they fly away.
Develop a meditative creative discipline. Doing things with your hands develops self esteem, and doing them with awareness increases self-knowledge and compassion as well as creativity.
Find ways to teach others what you know or are learning. Teaching is the best way to learn.
Laugh. Humor releases tension, helps put problems in perspective, and sets the stage for the playful attitude in which creativity begins to flow. Any spirituality which cannot laugh at itself is based on fear.
Read widely in areas other than your own field and try to relate what you learn to what you already know. Cross fertilization is helped by the absorption of seemingly unrelated knowledge.
Avoid rigidly set patterns and ways of doing things. Be willing to try new things, to take risks, and to fail. Be flexible enough to let one idea go in favor of another.
Learn to live with ambiguity. Both creative and spiritual breakthrough are born out of that discomfort.
While preparing for this presentation, a friend loaned me the book This Way Day Break Comes by Annie Cheatham and Mary Clare Powell. If you have any doubt that indeed women are changing society, read this book. Cheatham and Powell heard the stories of almost 1,000 women as they spent four years traveling 30,000 miles around the United States and Canada. Many books and articles accurately report the hardships and injustices under which women live. But This Way Day Break Comes affirms the efforts of a thousand women who are involved in changing ways they relate to each other, who are creating physical spaces they need, and who pursue world peace.
Louise is a builder. Because I had such an open background, intellectually and psychically, I learned early to trust the wise woman inside, or the God part of me, and I have experienced it all my life. I can't always tell how things come to me, but there is something utterly natural and very compelling about my inner process.... Starhawk dreams of world peace, and she uses her inner power and wisdom to work for it. She asks the question, How do we shape a society based on the principle of power-from-within? Power-from-within has many names -- spirit, Goddess, eminence -- God. Sr. Marian, president of the Sisters of Loretto said, Art is an encounter. It involves people in a whole way. Social activists try to change peoples' mentality and values by organ educating, and talking to them. But we are not changing them. It takes artists to change peoples' minds about South America, or hopes for peace, or global awareness. Art making requires a faith stance. |
Perhaps some of you read Lear's magazine. It is a fairly new periodical advertised as being "for the woman who wasn't born yesterday." I sent in a charter subscription when it first came out, but I found I was put-off by its "slickness" and dropped it after the first year. Then I missed it; I realized there was always at least one very good article in each issue. I became a subscriber again.
Just after I had begun thinking about this lecture, there was a very good article in the December 1989 issue titled "Making the Spiritual Connections." Seventeen well known persons, including ministers, writers, psychiatrists, professors, politicians, and others, attempt to define the elusive reality of "What is spirituality?" Here are excerpts from the answers given by four of the seventeen persons.
John Updike, novelist, essayist:
Pressed, I would define spirituality as the shadow of light humanity casts as it moves through the darkness of everything that can be explained. I think of Buddha's smile and Einstein's halo of hair. I think of birthday parties. I think of common politeness, and the quixotic impulse to imagine what someone else is feeling. I think of spirit lamps. |
Faye Wattleton, President, Planned Parenthood Federation of America:
Spirituality sings in each of us. It is the zest of life. It just is. My own spirituality is deeply rooted in a religious ethos. It shapes my vision of the world as it is and as it can be. It has forced me to grow humble as I have grown mature. It opens my mind to the magnitude of life -- the insignificance of each of us as individuals but the enormously profound power of the human family. |
Robert Coles, Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School:
Here are the thoughts of an 11-year-old girl: "I think you're spiritual if you can escape from yourself a little and think of what's good for everyone, not just you, and if you can reach out and be a good person -- I mean live like a good person. You're not spiritual if you just talk spiritual and there's no action. You're a fake if that's what you do. But if you try to live up to all you hear in church, and if you think of your neighbors and friends, and the people who are in trouble and need help, and if you try to give them some help, then you're on your way to being spiritual, I think." I think so too. |
William Sloane Coffin, President, Sane/Freeze Campaign for Global Security:
Spirituality is what people do with their freedom, for freedom is so much more than freedom of choice. In earlier times the word was practically synonymous with virtue. When Abraham Lincoln called for "a rebirth of freedom," he didn't mean the freedom to exploit, to squander, to dissipate. People were truly free only when they could open their minds to truth, their consciences to justice, and their hearts to love. So we can define a deeply spiritual person as one truly free. |
For a very long time I yearned to learn to weave. The realization that weaving takes a commitment of time and effort prompted me to defer that activity until retirement. So with eagerness, some timidity, and clumsy fingers, I enrolled in a weaving class. It was exciting. The process was interesting; the weavers were talented and artistic; I saw textures and colors in a new way. I was a slow learner in weaving, but I loved it.
Yarns with stubby textures and exotic colors were hard to come by in the south suburbs where I lived. After having to drive 25 to 40 miles to purchase the kinds of yarn I wanted, I decided to open a fiber arts store. So with a little study, a self-made market survey, and the advice of small business consultants, I opened a shop. We offered materials, equipment and classes in stitchery, knitting, quilting, basketry, spinning, and weaving. Business was good; customers were pleasant. But again I had no time to weave. For seven years I operated the business until it became just too energy and time consuming. So I sold it -- intending to return to weaving seriously.
But before I could get that done, that nice young man who came to talk with me about education of young children, in 1945, invited me to share his life with him at The Rise in Woodstock. How interesting it was to return to an area where I had lived thirty years previously. Being a part of a loving family which I had known for many years, returning to my roots planted in country living, participating in the life of wonderful McHenry County Meeting and wider Quaker groups, having time for reading, gardening, stitching, traveling -- life was good in 1984.
Two years later, depression hit. I have always felt the ups and downs that all of you have felt -- sadness at the loss of a family member or close friend, disappointment with myself for not going the extra mile, loneliness for someone not present. But this was different from sadness or disappointment. I felt utter black despair, a feeling of being cut off from everyone, lacking hope for the future, powerless to change. And it was all my fault! I sought help. Two messages I received from my psychiatrist during the first visit are indelibly etched in my mind: "1. Depression is a disease, and it can be cured. 2. I believe (my doctor said) that you have experienced emotional and psychological abuse, and after hearing about your work, I believe it was by men."
My psychiatrist, a young British woman, had worked with Dr. Aaron Beck, founder of The Center for Cognitive Therapy at the University of Pennsylvania. Beck's research led him to conclude that depression is a disturbance in cognition -- thinking, in other words. The person who is depressed thinks in negative ways about self, environment, and the future. This pessimism affects the person's disposition, ability to set goals, and relationships. My doctor used Cognitive Therapy, which literally trained me to look and interpret things differently. This helped me to feel better and to act more productively. I worked closely with my doctor for almost two years. While recognizing the advances made in the development of pharmaceutical antidepressants, we were both pleased not to use them.
I want to speak briefly about the second comment made by my doctor, "that I had been abused emotionally and psychologically by men...." I believe what she said is true, but I would never have dared to put it into words. I worked in educational administration for 32 years, where almost all my colleagues were male. Unfortunately, if I were beginning over today in that field, I would expect to find much the same conditions. While many of those men were competent, supporting, understanding, and friendly, unfortunately, some were uncomfortable, unsupporting, and unfriendly. They were often incompetent and clumsy, much like the little boy who couldn't hit the ball when up to bat. I felt anger and abuse directed to me personally, but I did nothing about it. I did not confront my anger, and I did not confront the powerlessness that accompanies it. To understand the source of abuse is helpful. My belief that there is some of God in every person is helpful. I avoid self-pity, try not to bottle up anger, and try to increase efforts to empower the powerless to speak. I yet have trouble with forgiveness.
And then there was Fine Line. I had heard about it from time to time but had never been there until two years ago when looking for a place to study weaving again. Weaving instruction is given along with instruction in painting, pottery, paper making, sculpturing, spinning, and knitting. Claudia Snow, writing in the Tempo section of the Chicago Tribune last December, said,
It holds a dream that takes its form in awakening and nurturing of the creative spirit within the people who come here to visit and study. |
The Fine Line is housed in a restored barn north of St. Charles. Students are drawn from many miles to visit and then remain to study, to get in touch with their own creativity. Denise Kavanaugh, Director, with Geraldine and Peter Julian, all Sisters of St. Francis, live in the barn and operate the center. I find it interesting that each of these women had teaching careers for many, many years. Their religious order has a history of encouraging the sisters to respond to societal needs, to grow in the use of their own gifts, and to share them with others. I went to Fine Line with a great social and personal need to re-establish personal self-esteem and become a giving person again. I wanted to learn to weave and found a center with a mission statement which includes:
The world is hungry for artistic expressions of the spirit. Within each person lies creative energy. Release of creative energy enhances self-esteem. Awareness of creative power enables people to improve their lives and the lives of those they teach. |
Denise is the best teacher I have ever observed. Because I am a slow weaver (please note -- I did not say slow learner), I am in the loom room many hours and have observed her teaching many classes in beginning weaving as well as advanced classes using difficult, intricate patterns. I have heard her say to beginners, as she said to me, "If you can count to four you can learn to weave."
The mission statement further includes:
The value of the artistic experience is not only personal but has ramification which affects family and community life. The center will provide an atmosphere for releasing and channeling creative energies. The goal of our curriculum will be to provide good instruction, valuable learning experiences, and quality leisure activities for the public we serve. |
Since Fine Line opened about 11 years ago, it has moved twice to have more space -- the last time to the huge barn. Presently, planning is under way for expansion at that site. A group of at least fifty volunteers actively assist in the operation of the center. Denise just says simply, "Something always happens." I say, "A way will open."
I have shared with you how in my early experiences I discovered a process for learning/teaching which served me a lifetime in the "education" world. I found a similar process effectively utilized at Fine Line which helps me be whole again as well as having a passing ability to weave.
My wish for all of you is that somewhere you, too, may have your special "Fine Line" where you can heal, grow, perhaps forgive, perform, and look forward to your creative spiritual journeys. Let us be especially patient with ourselves as we search for ways to love creatively and spiritually. Writing this paper has been an adventure in self-discovery as well as self-understanding. It puts the past to rest. Thank you most sincerely for giving me this gift.
Burns, David D., MD. Feeling Good. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1980.
Cheatham, Anne and Powell, Mary Clare. This Way Day Break Comes. Philadelphia, PA: New Society Publishers, 1986.
Coffin, William; Coles, Robert; Updike, John; Wattleton, Faye. Making the Spiritual Connection, Lear's (New York, NY) Dec. 1969.
Fox, Matthew. Original Blessing. Santa Fe, NM: Bear and Company, 1989.
Frank, Frederick. The Awakened Eye. New York: Vintage Books, a Division of Random House, 1979.
Miller, Larry. Spiritual Aspects of Depression, Friends Journal (Philadelphia, PA) September 1987.
Miller, William C. The Neuropsychology of Creativity. (16 tapes) Mill Valley, CA: The Global Creativity Corporation, 1989.
Packard, Vance (alias Robert Crandall). They Won Their Fight for Better Schools. American Magazine (New York) May 1954.
Richards, Mary Caroline. Centering in Pottery, Poetry, and the Person. Middleton, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1962.
Robbins, Lois B. Waking Up in the Age of Creativity. Santa Fe, NM: Bear and Company, 1985.
Sutton, Ann and Sheehan, Diana. Ideas on Weaving. Loveland, CO: Interweave Press, 1989.