Creativity and the soul

Mary Antonio Wood - Excerpt

Creativity is a mystery, an enigma. Like other enigmas such as “soul” and “imagination,” creativity cannot be located, measured, or summoned at will. The depths of creativity, like those of the soul, are beyond our ability to completely know and describe – yet creativity, like soul, animates our lives. It may seem odd to begin a book on creativity by so quickly revealing the limitations of human curiosity when attempting to explore and ultimately understand both the origins and essential nature of creativity. However, rather than offering a surrender, this book will approach creativity as one might approach a wild animal in the forest – with a sense of reverent awe, combined with a dose of humility. To approach creativity is itself a creative act; one that includes the same type of patience and attentiveness necessary for catching a glimpse of any wild thing, including the soul.

Creativity and soul are very much alike in that neither of them is a thing, substance, or possession. In their ambiguity, both soul and creativity are better approached and imagined as symbols, perspectives, happenings, experiences, ways of being – or even as beings themselves. In fact, the word “creativity,” with its exclusive and aspirational connotations, occludes more than it reveals. To reimagine creativity begins by reimagining it as “the creative,” as something alive and autonomous. Breaking out of the pattern of thinking of creativity as a possession is not easy, so the terms “creativity” and “the creative” will be used interchangeably due to the former’s prominence in contemporary thought. As will become clear, this book is not an explication of terms but rather an invitation to enter into a renewed relationship with both the creative and the soul – ultimately, they are one and the same.

Before the reunion, however, it is worthwhile to consider creativity and the soul individually. Our Western notions of the soul have been shaped by a myriad of sources: from early Mediterranean shamanic traditions to the pre-Socratic philosophers of Greece; from India to the Far East; from Plato to the Renaissance Neoplatonists; from Christian theologians to Romantic poets; from medical doctors to the pioneers of psychology; and on to today’s philosophers, artists, spiritual guides, and neuroscientists.