Actively Seeking Wisdom
“When you reach the end of what you should know, you will be at the beginning what what you should sense.”
Early in 2022, Seeking Wisdom, A Spiritual Path to Creative Connection hit the store shelves, just one year after The Listening Path, The Creative Art of Attention was published.
They are the latest additions to Julia Cameron’s Artist’s Way series
Both invite us to once again embark upon A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity - as she subtitled The Artist’s Way.
But hasn’t she said it all before?
Yes, and no.
Consistency and Constancy
Thirty years ago, she introduced us to the basic tools and methods of embarking on a creative recovery.
For some these opened the door to a way of life. They offer a means of staying alert to the opportunities that abound when we make ourselves present and available to our inner wisdom.
We also open ourselves up to serendipitous ways that answers and solutions come from unlikely sources.
It was 1992 and yet I can still remember the smell of the coffee and the comfy chair I’d retreated to at a Barnes & Noble bookshop, biding my time between school runs. I don’t remember how I happened upon The Artist’s Way (TAW)- then newly published - but there it was.
It was years before I made the connection between its structures and discipline to the 12-step rooms I’d serendipitously found my way into six years before. An assignment for a graduate-level employee counseling course required a paper reflecting on attendance at 2 open Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), Narcotics Anonymous (NA), and Alanon meetings -each.
It was a lifesaving intervention I had no idea I’d needed - I went on to attend one of those Alanon meetings for decades.
Now that connection seems obvious. Twelve chapters in 12 weeks, inventories, archeology, humility, and a focus on maintaining conscious contact with a higher power in whatever way we understood it.
Cameron shares that her early days of sobriety required an embrace of a relationship with a higher power - something she resisted.
In response to “But you must believe in something?” she concluded that she could relate to this -
“The force that through the green fuse drives the flower.”
Also built into her structure was a version of “90 & 90”.
Going back to the 1930s and ‘40s in AA - long before there were rehab centers - their prescription for getting sober was to attend 90 meetings in 90 days. Given what we now know from the neuroscience around habit formation - the wisdom of this approach - even if only anecdotal at the time - was profound!
And whether posted in the room or uttered by the group as meetings conclude - ‘Keep coming back’ and ‘It works if you work it’ are mantras.
In taking up the tools and disciplines of Morning Pages, Artist Dates, Walking, and new to this book - Writing Out Guidance - we find an invitation to consistently and faithfully work the process long after the three months have passed.
Curiosity and Humility
Thirty years ago when I bought (TAW) - I began it enthusiastically. Though it took me far longer than three months, I actually worked through all twelve chapters.
A few years later, I did it again in a facilitated group. Allowing ourselves to trust and share in that environment requires humility.
Which comes with a reward. When visiting or revisiting the tasks and assignments we often find ourselves back at square one. Not that we hadn’t learned anything - but rather that there are things we need to relearn in light of the new circumstances and relationships we experience in each life stage.
So yes, Cameron has said it all before. Seeking Wisdom is an invitation for us to adopt the practices again - with an added tool alongside the reflections of her experience.
“Do not weep; do not wax indignant. Understand”
Conscious Contact
Transmitters and receivers are great descriptors for prayer and mediation. And as with the lessons of The Listening Path - there is more than we think we need to learn about something we assume we’ve been doing well enough for years.
You’ll find an overview of the content here.
Week One: God Concept
Week Two: Prayers of Petition
Week Three: Prayers of Gratitude
Week Four: Prayers of Praise
Week Five: Creativity and Spirituality
Week Six: Marching Forth, Talking to God
And yes, I’ve had many people say that all this talk of God and prayer are off-putting
So, whether this post serves as an invitation to rethink just what transmitting our petitions, praise, and gratitude to whatever creative force we imagine is out there - or sends us running from the negative experiences of our religious or irreligious upbringings - let me leave you with this observation.
Julia Cameron is 74 years old. She has published 34 non-fiction books, two works of fiction, four poetry collections, three plays, three musicals and she has two film credits to her name.
She ascribes this output to the conscious contact she maintains through the practices of Morning Pages, Artist Dates, Walking - and the newly described ‘Writing out Guidance: Listening to the Divine’ with that sustained creativity.
And you? How do you sustain yours?
#DontGoItAlone - We’re here to help.
“The stringent requirement of a sustained creative life is the humility to start again, to being anew.”
Thanks to Hadis Malekie for use of the image via Unsplash.
