Creativity ~ Part I: Imagination

Creativity: An 8-Part Series

By Kristy McCaffrey

When I was in the final stages of completing my third book, The Sparrow, I had a strong sense of cultivation, as if I were gardening. As I strove to refine the story and add more details that would, hopefully, enliven the tale more deeply, I could literally feel the soft, sweet, moist earth fall through my fingers as I scooped it up and packed it into the world I'd created. In moments like these, the creative life fully connects with ordinary reality. It's why painters paint, sculptors sculpt, and writers write. It's why we, as humans, create. We want to bring meaning to our lives, and art—in any form—presents an outlet for us to express this yearning.

We all create, whether you label yourself an artist or not. Decorating your home, landscaping your yard, crafting long letters to friends and family—all are forms of self-expression, a deeply-rooted desire present in all of us.

Artmaking is making the invisible, visible. ~ Marcel Duchamp

Studies have shown that activities such as writing, drawing and even knitting reduce stress and increase serotonin levels. A UCLA study found that when young people engaged in artistic pursuits from a young age, they outperformed their peers in categories ranging from academics to life skills.

Cross-cultural anthropologist Angeles Arrien states that in many traditional cultures, a healer will ask an ill person four questions: When did you stop singing? When did you stop dancing? When did you stop telling your story? When did you stop sitting in silence?

We need our creativity to survive. And we need to move through our creativity ourselves.

 

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Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught. ~ Oscar Wilde

In this series on Creativity, I'll be discussing the following, each in a separate post:

I.      Imagination

II.    Domestication vs. Wildness

III.   Shape-Shifting

IV.   Forbearance

V.    Maiden/Mother/Crone

VI.   The Virgin and the Sacred Prostitute

VII.  Synchronicity

VIII. Magic

Let's get started.

I. Imagination

Imagination is when you step outside of time. I've often thought that imagination is less something we create and more something we tap into. As a fiction writer, I most definitely conjure ideas and make-believe people to fill the pages of my stories. Or do I?

I wrote my very first novel, The Wren, based on an idea that came to me when I was 15 years old. It was at that time I first became acquainted with my heroine, Molly Hart. Years later, as I drove cross-country with my mother and sister—a leaving-the-nest move from Phoenix to Pittsburgh—we pulled off at a rest stop outside of Amarillo. It was a desolate place, with wide-open sky and the endless flat expanse of the Texas Panhandle. And that's when I felt her, standing in the tall grass, watching me. It was Molly.

I was about 22 years old at the time. I didn't write Molly's story until I was 33, but in that moment it was as if she breathed her spirit into mine. For a while, I tried setting her story in Arizona, but it didn’t come together until I moved the tale back to Texas. It's been said that stories chase the right person to tell them. On that day, Molly most definitely pursued me, conveying in no uncertain terms that’s where she belonged. It was my job to pay attention. So, perhaps imagination is less an activity of making something up and more a sense of remembering.

Copyright 2014 Kristy McCaffrey

How might you trigger this remembering?

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Playing. Children know it, and animals do as well. When children play, they follow their innate talents. It simply doesn’t occur for them not to. Playing is any activity that disengages the rational mind—for some it may be sports, or sewing, or playing a musical instrument. As adults, we often encapsulate play into vacations, but it should really be present each day. How can you add more play to your day? Think about it, and then let go and just have fun.

A Labrador retriever plays through its lifetime and dies a child. ~ Dr. Stuart Brown

Copyright 2014 Kristy McCaffrey

Dreams. Whatever your personal beliefs about dreams, and why we have them, there is nothing better at shining a spotlight into your life than your dreams. The key is learning to work with the imagery. Renowned dream archaeologist Robert Moss suggests keeping a dream journal to begin understanding the messages relayed. Working with dreams isn’t a passive endeavor. Everything around us is alive with meaning; all you have to do is pay attention. For further guidance, read Moss's Active Dreaming—Journeying Beyond Self-Limitation to a Life of Wild Freedom (New World Library, 2011). If you’re still not certain that there’s something to be gained from this dreaming thing, check out his book The Secret History of Dreaming (New World Library, 2009) in which he elaborates on the dream lives of Joan of Arc, Mark Twain, and Winston Churchill.

Copyright 2014 Kristy McCaffrey

In dreams begin responsibilities. ~ William Butler Yeats

      Solitude. Numerous studies tout the benefits of meditation, but even if you can’t quiet your mind enough for a deep practice, time alone can trigger a rush of ideas, from planning dinner parties to writing a book. Immersing yourself in the words of others can offer additional stimulus. Perhaps you’re inspired by perusing the latest fictional tale, or devouring Deepak Chopra, or quietly absorbing passages from the Bible. Or perhaps soothing music does the trick, or a hot bath and candles. A practice of daily solitude will fine-tune your access to imagination.

Copyright 2014 Kristy McCaffrey

To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work. ~ Mary Oliver

Imagination is the act of creating new ideas. The key is learning to open the floodgates within the mind that can hold it back. Playing, dreams, and solitude are three ways to allow the remembering to enter your life.

Imagination is more important than knowledge. ~ Albert Einstein

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Don’t miss Part II in the Creativity series: Domestication vs. Wildness

Until next time…

Find Your Path, Find Your Purpose

By Kristy McCaffrey

“The job of the wayfinder, whether an ancient oracle or a modern scientific theorist, is to reach beyond current human knowledge into the realm of the unimagined and bring back something true and useful.” ~ Martha Beck

Do you have a strong sense of having a specific mission or purpose in life? Do you have a compulsion to master certain skills, to become proficient in a certain profession? Do you have a high sense of empathy? Do you feel a strong desire to lessen the suffering for people or animals? Do you feel as if you don’t quite fit into normal society?

Martha Beck addresses these questions in her rich and layered book Finding Your Way in a Wild New World: Reclaim Your True Nature to Create the Life You Want. Hers isn’t the first treatise on the subject of life purpose, but her approach is more in line with ancient shamanic teachings rather than modern-day psychology. In an engaging manner she outlines the basic tenets of the Team. The Team, you see, is here to change the world, and many of us are on this Team whether we realize it or not. She points out that in today’s world, knowledge is common place; the real need is human attention. And not just any attention, but a focus based on authenticity, inventiveness, humor, empathy, and meaning. 

Team members are wayfinders, and wayfinders have been around for millennia, utilizing ancient technologies. Beck calls these the Technologies of Magic: Wordlessness, Oneness, Imagination, and Forming.

Wordlessness shifts the mind from the verbal center to the more creative and intuitive side of the brain. Oneness allows you to feel the connections we all have to one another and the world around us. With wordlessness and oneness activated, using Imagination will help you achieve a level of problem solving that won’t feel like work. And finally, Forming will bring what you’ve imagined into the physical world. The first two are states of consciousness, not something society places a high value upon, but without them not much of consequence will be accomplished. People are more acquainted with the last two skills; they are more active states, more doing states. However, it’s important not to skip the first two because without them what you form in this world will have no real significance or impact on those around you.

To achieve Wordlessness, any activity that dissolves verbal attention will do, such as singing, painting, poetry, literature, dancing, or any type of repetitive exercise like running, swimming or cycling. One well known path to Wordlessness is yoga.

If Wordlessness is becoming present in the magical realm then Oneness is connecting and communicating through it. In Oneness there is no separation between yourself and anything else in the universe. Ancient teachers say that we communicate with everything and everything is communicating with us. In the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus says, “I am the light that is over all things…Split a piece of wood and I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there.”

One way to master Oneness is through deep practice, an intense way of learning a new skill that requires persistence. It’s not a matter of repetition but rather fully embracing the new skill, integrating it into your neural pathways, and then branching out in new and innovative ways.

Beck states, “To master Wordlessness, heal your true nature, and become a wayfinder, you must unlearn almost everything you were taught in school about what it means to be intelligent.” 

Wordlessness and Oneness can seem challenging for a person of western culture to master. “One South American shaman who was trained by a tribe deep in the forest…has to work to step out of Oneness so that he can understand the fear and neuroses of his First World patients.”

Using an analogy of a computer, mastering all four facets of the Technologies of Magic can be thought of in this way: log on to the energetic Internet using Wordlessness, communicate by sending energetic messages via Oneness, write code to create things online using Imagination, and finally, print out the creation—Forming—bringing it into the physical realm.

The time is now. The world needs what you have to offer. Don’t wait. Perhaps you want to rescue animals, perhaps you want to bring safe drinking water to a third world country, or maybe you simply feel called to help an elderly neighbor down the street get groceries. We all play a part, big and small. Nature can heal itself and Team members are willing to leave their gilded cage and embrace the change needed in today’s world.