The Artist's Way Read Free

Accepting this concept can greatly expand your creative possibilities.
    As you work with the tools in this book, as you undertake the weekly tasks, many changes will be set in motion. Chief among these changes will be the triggering of synchronicity : we change and the universe furthers and expands that change. I have an irreverent shorthand for this that I keep taped to my writing desk: “Leap, and the net will appear.”
    It is my experience both as an artist and as a teacher that when we move out on faith into the act of creation, the universe is able to advance. It is a little like opening the gate at the top of a field irrigation system. Once we remove the blocks, the flow moves in.
    Again, I do not ask you to believe this. In order for this creative emergence to happen, you don’t have to believe in God. I simply ask you to observe and note this process as it unfolds. In effect, you will be midwiving and witnessing your own creative progression.
    Creativity is an experience—to my eye, a spiritual experience. It does not matter which way you think of it: creativity leading to spirituality or spirituality leading to creativity. In fact, I do not make a distinction between the two. In the face of such experience, the whole question of belief is rendered obsolete. As Carl Jung answered the question of belief late in his life, “I don’t believe; I know.”
    The music of this opera [ Madame Butterfly ] was dic tated to me by God; I was merely instrumental in putting it on paper and communicating it to the public.
    G IACOMO P UCCINI
    Straightaway the ideas flow in upon me, directly from God.
    J OHANNES B RAHMS
    We must accept that this creative pulse within us is God’s creative pulse itself.
    J OSEPH C HILTON P EARCE
    It is the creative potential itself in human beings that is the image of God.
    M ARY D ALY
    The following spiritual principles are the bedrock on which creative recovery and discovery can be built. Read them through once a day, and keep an inner ear cocked for any shifts in attitudes or beliefs.

 BASIC PRINCIPLES
Creativity is the natural order of life. Life is energy: pure creative energy.
There is an underlying, in-dwelling creative force infusing all of life—including ourselves.
When we open ourselves to our creativity, we open ourselves to the creator’s creativity within us and our lives.
We are, ourselves, creations. And we, in turn, are meant to continue creativity by being creative ourselves.
Creativity is God’s gift to us. Using our creativity is our gift back to God.
The refusal to be creative is self-will and is counter to our true nature.
When we open ourselves to exploring our creativity, we open ourselves to God: good orderly direction.
As we open our creative channel to the creator, many gentle but powerful changes are to be expected.
It is safe to open ourselves up to greater and greater creativity.
Our creative dreams and yearnings come from a divine source. As we move toward our dreams, we move toward our divinity.
    Every blade of grass has its Angel that bends over it and whispers, “Grow, grow.”
    T HE T ALMUD
    Great improvisors are like priests. They are thinking only of their god.
    S TÉPHANE G RAPPELLI MUSICIAN
    What we play is life.
    L OUIS A RMSTRONG
    Creativity is harnessing univer sality and making it flow through your eyes.
    P ETER K OESTENBAUM

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK FOR YOUR CREATIVE RECOVERY
    I paint not by sight but by faith. Faith gives you sight.
    A MOS F ERGUSON
    Why should we all use our cre ative power … ? Because there is nothing that makes people so generous, joyful, lively, bold and compassionate, so indifferent to fighting and the accumulation of objects and money.
    B RENDA U ELAND
    There are a number of ways to use this book. Most of all, I invite you to use it creatively. This section offers you a sort of road map through the process, with some specific ideas about how to proceed. Some students have done the