Creativity as a Path to Wholeness
“To speak of creativity is to speak of profound intimacy. It is also to speak of our connecting to the Divine in us and of our bringing the Divine back to the community. This is true whether we understand our creativity to be begetting and nourishing our children, making music, doing theater, gardening, writing, teaching, running a business, painting, constructing houses, or sharing the healing arts of medicine and therapy.” - Matthew Fox, Creativity
The Sacred Union of Creativity and Healing
How do we strengthen the link between the realm of creativity and the realm of everyday life? How do we return to that wild child within us and heal those parts of ourselves that we have left behind? How can we meet our resistance in compassionate and loving ways?
Patience, gentleness, and honoring our own individual process. Creativity is a process. Trying to force creativity is like trying to force water to move as we/our ego wants it to move. It unfolds through time, just as the ocean does with its ebbs and flows.
Creativity isn't just about creating these beautiful works of art that can be put on display for everybody to ‘oooh and aaah’ over. It is about shaping the story of our lives. It is about channeling that which is within us in a way that dissolves the old and creates new. It is for the sake of play, of connecting to those deeper parts of us that we are not so familiar with. Connecting to those parts of us that have been hidden, have run away, or have been gone for so long, we don't even really know them at all anymore.
When we step into the creative realms, we either feel this great sense of intimacy or we may feel this great sense of discomfort and fear. Many of us have deemed intimacy as dangerous and block ourselves off to protect ourselves. We have also been taught to get away from discomfort or fearful feelings as fast as we can. Often, instead of seeing these chaotic feelings as portals to new, expanded growth, we distract ourselves and choose to direct our attention towards something that will bring back those sensations of safety and security.
For us to feel balanced and healthy- to return to a sense of joy- it is important we temper our need to distract- to feel safe and secure- with the unpredictability of playfulness. We learn how to BE with all that rises from the mysterious, wild, sometimes chaotic places. We create space for creativity that comes from the child and the Wild. Creativity happens at the border between chaos and order. Nature knows the “right” balance of order and discipline, chaos and surrender- so we go there.
We come out of our minds and into our “senses”. We commune and ask our Nature.
The Whispers of Plants: How Nature Inspires Creativity
Nature has been my greatest teacher in learning how to be present with that wild child within myself, to be present with what's directly around me.
When I connect with Nature with my body and my hands, my mind softens and my heart opens. I come in direct contact with that part of me that is Earth. I come into my senses. The basic aspects of being human - smell, taste, touch, hear, feel.
I create space to FEEL that which wants to be created through me. The songs of the winged ones, the smells of the newly budding lilacs, the squishiness of the mud between my toes as I walk through the woods after a rain, the heat and warmth of the Sun after a few days of grey skies. All of that beauty naturally IS. There is no force, no push, no resistance. Life unfolds itself through each of these Beings.
When we create space to BE with our own Elemental selves—when we breathe and quiet our minds and listen to the stirrings within us, the waters moving through our bodies, the slight pain in our shoulder blades,the beat of our hearts—then Nature begins to speak through us. The impulse/inspiration rises, and with our breath, we move towards that “thing” that is calling us to be created.
Creating for the Soul - Practices & Healing Energies
When we pause and connect, we hear the Air’s song, the Waters within us are free to flow, and the Fires begin to flame. Air represents inspiration and clarity. Water represents the unconscious and intuitive. Fire represents passion and the Muse. Together, grounded in our bodies, the three open the channels of communication so the Mystery may come through and anchor into this reality.
When we go into these holy spaces with intention and sacredness in our hearts, then we are communicating to these beings that we honor and respect them. Through them, we remember our own Nature. We create portals to those parts of us that we have lost or have hidden away -and the Wild Child rises.
We then have the capacity to create. We create for the healing and evolution of ourselves AND as we create it takes us out of ourselves. It is an offering back into the Universe.
So sit. Follow those animal instincts of yours.
Choose a spot in Nature and sit with her. Go into your garden or those woods and sit with those plants and trees. Return to those spots and watch how that plant or tree evolves, changes, shifts with the Seasons. Watch how the ecosystem naturally forms and evolves and know this is the same with you.
Join in ceremony with the Plants - whether that be in community or through a Master Plant diet, or through personal Ritual. Joining with a plant opens doorways for the deeper, more unconscious aspects of ourselves to surface and be seen.
A Palette for Healing: Modalities that Nurture Healing
Taking these steps further into Nature-inspired creative practices anchors us in what we receive and helps us nurture the rising.
Journal about your experience. Write about your experience as if it's a mythological story, or write a poem, OR just ramble all that comes through.
Make an herbal remedy- a tincture or oil, or take a bath with the flowers & leaves. Commune with them in sacred silence. Add them into your daily routine.
Make that cup of herbal tea- taste, smell, and take in the natural essence of the plant- knowing that this essence is also a part of you that can be awakened through the plant.
Dance with them, sing to them. Let the voice of the plant move through you. As you move, the emotional aspects of you also have freedom to move.
Meditate with the plants, OR take a camera, sketchbook and pencil and go for a walk. Take photos or draw that which calls your attention. Look at Nature through a narrow lens, zooming in from the wide perspective to the simplicity of the message of that Being that is in front of you.
Create an altar honoring both the beauty and wisdom of Nature and your passion for creating and freeing your Muse/wild child.
Create a collage or vision board using images that reflect that which is forming and moving through you. See how it all weaves a story, how the images share a visual of what it is you may need or process.
Creative Healing as Sacred Transformation
No matter how we express all that moves through us, we will always allow and create space for transformation to occur. As we engage actively in what is moving through us, that which no longer serves naturally dissolves, and space is provided for our wild child to shine and radiate.
We feel more inspired and alive and we feel connected to the whole. Feelings of stagnation and isolation no longer have a space to exist and the beauty that is us begins to ripple out into the world.
It certainly takes practice, patience, and discipline to create space for creativity—especially in this world—but if we wish to move beyond the old paradigm of disconnection and isolation, it is well worth the work!
Access Your Creativity for Your Healing and Growth
Creativity has incredible power. It can heal on many levels and literally transform worlds. It connects us to many of the parts of ourselves we thought we had lost. It helps us access these parts and connects with the world in a way that we may never have known was possible.
If you are feeling ready to access your creativity for your own healing and growth, yet find it challenging to access, book a session with me today, and we can explore how we can create that pathway of healing and transformation together. I would be honored to walk with you. Please feel free to reach out to me here.
About the Author
Sage RavenStar is a shapeshifter, following this mission through many names: Plant Medicine Coach, Shamanic Guide, Healer, Mentor, Mystic, Tarot Reader, Facilitator, Hag/Crone, Hedgewitch, and Mother. Sage’s greatest teacher in life has been Life Herself. Through her journey of healing from a wide array of issues rooted in generational and childhood trauma, Mama Gaia has always been her most consistent support and ally. It has always been her passion to assist others in re-building and strengthening their connection with Life and our natural Allies, both on a personal scale and on a greater collective scale of hurt and trauma. Her lived experience in abuse, addictions, mental health challenges, and body ‘issues’, and her dedication and connection to those ‘outside of the box’, bring a special touch to her work that cannot be replicated. She looks forward to bringing elements of all she has been and is known to walk with you as you walk your own path towards inner and outer peace as an essential piece of the interconnected web of Life.
