Seeking Wisdom: A Spiritual Path to Creative Connection (A Six-Week Artist's Way Program)
Do you want to feel more connected to the divine or your source of creativity?
Do you want to learn how to pray in a way that feels meaningful to you?
If your answer to either of these questions is yes, Julia Cameron’s book Seeking Wisdom: A Spiritual Path to Creative Connection outlines an excellent six-week program to enhance creativity and spiritual connection.
Picking up where The Artist’s Way leaves off, Cameron provides activities aimed at developing six aspects of prayer. By creating connection to a Higher Power, each of us can break through the blocks that keep us from our creative opportunities. It is the connection between God and creativity that Cameron seeks to cultivate in those who practice her work.
Cameron’s basic understanding of God is as an artist that the world—cosmos, nature, people—all of it is a form of creative energy. By tapping into this divine creativity, we can foster and develop our own inner creative resources. Ultimately, by being part of the divine creative plan, we can live more fulfilled lives.
There are several familiar aspects to Cameron’s work. She reintroduces morning pages in this book. Morning pages are three pages of handwritten thoughts done immediately upon awakening. Writing in this way is designed to help clear the channel between us and God—getting rid of the clutter of thoughts that often deluge us. After these morning pages, both our prayer/meditation and our creative work will have more clarity and purpose.
Artist dates are also reintroduced to the reader. An artist date is a weekly adventure, done alone, just for the fun of it. No dogs. No friends, children, or partners. The idea is to do something that is new or invigorating. Have you always wanted to go to a museum or on a nature walk? Are you energized by going to a sculpture garden? Whatever you choose, the idea is to be alone so that you can find a sense of inner joy or peace.
We are all creative. That truth is reiterated throughout the book. Cameron’s six-week program helps foster a true relationship with a power greater than oneself, so that each of us can tap into our creativity.
In the six-week program, Cameron suggests learning to speak with God without formality, and to find a concept of the divine that is benevolent, authentic, and accessible. Doing so will build in the participant a feeling of faith, and an understanding of the miracle that we find in life.
Creating a creative vision develops from an experience of a creative God. If we experience beauty in a bird’s flight or joy in the feeling of swimming in a stream, we are better able to tap into our own creative force.
We do not have to be “good” at what we do creatively by some external measure, such as much money we make through our creative output. Rather, the idea is to find what is creative within us so that we can manifest and create lives that bring an experience of bounty and abundance.
Readers who have worked with The Artist’s Way will find much familiar in this program. The inspirational quotes that line the pages of the book have been retained from previous works and are a welcome bonus here. Those who are familiar with 12-step programs will find familiar language in this program.
The program described in Seeking Wisdom is not new. Rather, it is a continuation of what worked in previous books to give Cameron’s followers a more in-depth way of developing a connection to God, and a powerful prayer experience.
By first creating a concept of God, looking at and trying out different types of prayer, then developing a connection between creativity and the divine, Cameron has created a solid program to help all of us break through our creative blocks.
Building a practice that intertwines prayer and creativity will benefit any artist.
Julia Cameron’s Seeking Wisdom: A Spiritual Path to Creative Connection is a must-read for those who struggle finding a connection with a Higher Power, and creatives who want a more-robust experience of their art. If you’re an artist—and we’re all artists—who wants a more dynamic creative experience, you want to purchase and use this book today.