The Pathway of Creative Individuation
The odyssey of unmasking our Perfect Self-Expression in life, art, and work.
The Pathway is a philosophy that grants us permission to realize an aligned, beautiful, and prosperous vision of our creative life.
The concept of “Creative Individuation” was borne from my pursuit of prosperity, truth, and wholeness as an artist and thinker. The awareness of this process grew organically from a desire from my liberation of suffering within my music career. It continues to expand and evolve as each day passes, and as life reveals its interesting mystery every step of the way.
The Pathway is a process to:
Move into greater wholeness, integrity, and truth as an artist.
Come home to yourself.
Be consistently challenging yourself to be honest, constant, and in integrity.
Become your truest creative self, rooted in your values, and growing a new role in society as an empowered creative person.
Share your unique genius with the world, and being ok with that.
The Pathway, as a philosophy, is intended to help restructure our approach to the unfolding of our life, art, and work so that we are newly opened and available to the creative potential that calls our Self home.
A person who chooses to walk the Pathway is committed to their own creative flourishing.
Our dreams, passions, and ideas? We have them for a reason. The heart is a very crucial compass, and defines a life-affirming and prosperous path. I believe it will guide you towards the most authentic construction and representation of your particular creative outlet, medium, audience, and impact. That is, the external realization of that which you are called to offer, transcending any pre-conceived notion of the culture, or conditioned attachment of the ego.
But at the crux of this work there is an essential truth to realize: in order to realize your personal truth as an artist, you simply have to forge your own way. How?
By becoming more whole.
No one else can tell you what it looks like, what it should be, or how it’s going to work out. That is your very own creative process of life. And this is precisely the whole point: you are creating something radically innovative. It’s your very own life, an expression of your essential Self made manifest in your everyday living. It is the divine creative force moving through you, sourced in Love, steeped in Self-honoring, and realized in integrity, meeting the world in a unique fashion that only you can dish up. And that, in its highest incarnation, serves the world in a meaningful way.
The Pathway of creative becoming, or creative individuation, is an archetypal journey. It is guided by the True North of the heart, which attunes to the Higher Self, the Atman, or Divine Guest of the Soul.
Each step is revealed through an archetypal creative process, or what I call Natura, which governs the creative principles of life.
In this worldview, the individual creative process is aligned with the inherent cycles and structures of nature, the evolutionary will of the cosmos, and the vast currents of creative consciousness that move through our humble human vehicles. This creative process can be applied to any project, endeavor, question, or goal, and applied to those aspects of yourself that you seek to transform, heal, and realize.
The principles are universal.
The process is archetypal.
But the practice is personal.
It’s the way of Nature, of creation. It is evident in all that is around us. It resides in every breath we take, in every seed, and in every tree. And it is revealed in every moment, every artwork, and every life.
We must learn how to see ourselves within this paradigm of cosmic greatness, holographically pared down into the simple practices, interactions, and choices that make up our days.
We learn to become more conscious.
We learn to become more available to the flow.
We learn to ask better questions about our life.
We learn how to romance our Self.
We learn how to honor the wisdom of the heart.
Wholeness becomes a verb. We participate fully in the unfolding of our lives. We witness the transformative changes taking place in our inner and outer worlds, and lean into the stretch of who we are becoming.
Walking the Pathway isn’t for everyone. It poses a risk to the ego’s identity, a former self, caught in the shadows of the collective, offering an empty promise to keep us small and safe, as long as we quell any uprising of inner rebellion.
But the Pathway of the heart stirs up a revolution.
This is not a rugged, individualistic, brandish-your-machete kind of process. It is a pathway of true surrender. It is a passageway of incessant beheadings. (Yours, that is.)
You have to be truly committed to yourself, or at the very least, to the longing that drives you, with its whisper of promise: Something is waiting for you, but you have to go and meet it. You have to step into the Unknown.
You learn how to Not Know (a primary lesson of the creative process!). You also learn how to be in the flow of life, to be available for Wisdom’s higher truth, and to trust in the unfolding of your life as organized and guided by a greater force than the wounded mind could possibly fathom.
You become fiercely beholden to your own potential. And you will be tested to stay true to that potential as you walk through some of the difficult bits (which, I’m afraid, are quite inevitable).
If it was easy, everyone would be doing it. And then, perhaps, we wouldn’t find ourselves in the pickle we’re in, witnessing the current cultural maelstrom ravaging our environment, our societies, our art-making, our love-making, our relationships, our minds, and our bodies, evidence of the destruction which the perfect patriarchal storm has hungrily left in its wake.
We would already be liberated. The world would be a better place. And the mind would be a safer haven, a temple in which to evolve sacred life, rather than reinforce a prison of our own making.
The greatest risk is the sacrifice of your own fear, and the subsequent deconstruction of your perceived limitations.
You see, the hardest part of following the Pathway is not actually going forward: it’s getting out of your own damned way.
When it comes to originating our work, innovating our livelihood, and pursuing our living–essentially bringing a vision from nothing into something–there is an inherent conundrum.
We are simply not meant to know at the start what is going to unfold. We are meant to ask the question and walk the path, as each step informs our becoming, deepens our knowing, and moves us in the direction towards that which we are being readied.
It’s a difficult process, but essential if you choose to lean into the question at the heart of this work:
What is my highest calling as an artist?
The Pathway is a metaphor for this process of creative individuation. The wisdom which emerges throughout this process informs our work in the world. In my experience, this individuation process is also a personal prescription for sacred living in all facets of life.
It’s not easy, but it is relatively simple. We apply the fundamental concepts of the creative process in our lives.
What does that mean?
It means that we gain understanding and embody the innate processes that govern life, the laws of nature, and the exquisite harmony that weaves together all of creation. Which includes your life, and what you create therein.
Life is a symphony, and we are the composers. And every day is a song of living.
We only get one of these precious things. I would like to spend my time fostering a life that is as radiant, loving, and true as I can, with whatever resources I’ve been given to try.
I want to make my life a work of art. And I truly believe that anything is possible for you, for me, and for us.
Love,
Allison
Well said! The labyrinth picture is a perfect fit for the Pathway..all steps are toward the center even if the way forward is unclear.