I was a hidden treasure and I longed to be known. ~ Hadith Qudsi
I am wanting to write about the archetype of creativity. Since I am presently reading The Archetypal Artist, and it is close at hand, also because it is particularly relevant, I will quote author Mary Antonia Wood’s definition (which includes part of Jung’s) of archetype:
In Wood’s words, archetypes are “dynamic potentials….primordial and thematic shaping energies – dynamos with the power to generate enactments in the physical world.” Wood quotes Jung who explains, “archetypes were, and still are, living psychic forces that demand to be taken seriously...they have a strange way of making sure of their effect.” p. 8
What Jung says about archetypes being “living psychic forces that demand to be take seriously” is astounding and challenges consensual reality, but it fits with my experience. Archetypes inform us and also require respect from us. Etymologically, ‘re-spect’ means ‘to look again.’ They call to us for attention, engagement, and relationship. This is not for their benefit, but for our own. Archetypes, if we take them “seriously,” transform our awareness and our lives into something beyond what we would have even imagined or thought to ask for.
When we focus on a particular subject whether it be in our writing, dance, painting, etc., we also call upon its archetypal nature, whether this is intended or not. Well, it is impossible to say whether we call upon the archetype or it has first called upon us. In any case, it is activated, and it expresses itself to us. It communicates what it is about to us through experience. If we don’t listen, we miss out and may even pay a price.
My first conscious experience of this activation of archetype through creativity was many years ago when I was writing a fictional piece about a magician. I didn’t realize the connection at the time, but I became immersed in a reality in which magic in the form of synchronicity (meaningful coincidences) abounded, so much so that I questioned my sanity, but I was being informed about the true nature of magic.
An archetype has a consciousness and you can come to sense its presence. If you want to learn about something in depth, study (essentially meaning cultivate/care for) it, and develop a relationship with it by entering into a creative process with it and it will teach you what you need to know (sometimes leading you to the right book, person, or other resource).
To explain this more clearly I will describe something of what I am experiencing as I write about the archetype of creative process.
Creativity is inseparable from nature, and shares its qualities. In Jung’s view, “we are nature and nature is creative life.” p. 44 One aspect of nature/creativity I am experiencing in particular at this time is fecundity. Nature grows.
As I write about creative process, I am unable to keep up. I have started several short pieces which are so far unfinished because others sprouted in the soil of my mind and I felt a need to attend to them. I am feeling overwhelmed by how much there is to say. This is similar to what it can feel like as a gardener.
My husband and I recently returned from time away and the garden was so overgrown I couldn’t even think where to start. Forget planting squash this year as the squash bed has been overrun by raspberry bushes. Weeds have taken over. Sacrifice is a necessary aspect of gardening and creativity.
The challenge is not just the plants/writing pieces that are springing up in abundance. Often, plants/writing pieces have offshoots and branches that need pruning and shaping. One becomes two or multiple and needs to be divided.
I am experiencing how creativity is like nature – is nature. And I am sensing that the metaphorical form for this project on the subject of creative process is a garden, with each subject I am writing about being a ‘plant’. This suggests to me that I will need to pay attention through the seasons and see where I am after the year’s rotation. We are in spring as I write this, a time of abundance and potential, but in nature there is fruitfulness as well as hibernation and dormancy. There can be times of drought and emptying, flooding, freezing, and death. Creativity is like this too.
The archetype of creativity is informing me and guiding me as I write this. I need to bring my gardening perspective and experience and cultivate this writing project with a similar kind of care. I have to work with the forces of nature, without trying to force my will and I need to attend with my heart. This reminds me of the alchemists who were also working with the forces of nature. Each individual’s Opus guided the alchemist through an archetypal yet unique experiment and experience of transformation.
I have great trust in nature and creativity, as well as their cycles of death and rebirth. I trust that, as with Nature, Creativity is ever present and available and wanting attention and respect. I am aware that many would consider me “crazy” for speaking this way. But then again, maybe we need to re-imagine the nature of our world.