Are Creativity and the Divine the Same Thing?

2/22/22

Dear friend,

We've been talking this month about being in relationship with our creativity because that's the theme the Light House community is exploring this month, led by member and visual artist Kathryn Coneway.

In my first letter to you about this topic (which you can access here, if you missed it), I talked about how the first gathering in the community around this topic made me realize I don't have a back-and-forth, in-the-moment, full-of-spontaneity-and-surprise kind of relationship with creativity.

And in my second letter on the topic (found here, if you missed it), I wondered whether our intuitive or sensing preferences on the Myers-Briggs indicator has any impact on the way we experience our creative process. If so, that might explain why I experience my relationship with creativity at the front end of a creative endeavor but not as much when I'm actually creating a thing.

Both of those pieces I wrote are leading me to a new question: Are creativity and the Divine the same thing?

When we interact with creativity, are we, in fact, interacting with God?

Here's why I'm wondering this.

Last week I described my usual relationship with creativity this way:

"I sit and wait for the idea that wants to come, almost like I'm in a receptive posture. Then, once it comes, I see it all in my mind's eye, practically in its totality, from beginning to end, and I create to that picture I see in my head."

The other day, I realized this is also how I experience prayer and discernment.

When I'm in discernment about something, I literally have to pause and sit in a receptive space of prayer. I go into my current prayer image in my inner world (which is the primary way I pray), and I watch the scene and interact with the scene about the thing I'm discerning, waiting for it to teach me or show me what I'm to do.

Once the image shows me the discernment, I know what to do and I then go forth and do it.

My creative process looks exactly like my prayer and discernment process.

Which then makes me wonder: Does yours?

And if so, might we actually be interacting with Spirit when we're interacting with our creativity?

How would it change the way we think about our creativity, if so? How would it change the way we think about prayer, if so?

I'd love to hear what this provokes for you! Feel free to hit reply and share your thoughts. 💕

Yours in contemplative light,
Christianne