Commitment, Receptivity, and Insight

Unknown Speaker cites Rollo May: we cannot will insights but must commit to intensive work and encounter.

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Creativity involves bringing one’s inner nature into being, a task unique for each individual. It must arise from your innermost self, not from fulfilling the expectations of others.

One of the most destructive things, psychologically, is unused creative power. If someone has a creative gift and, for some reason (fear, laziness, or conformity), does not use it, the psychic energy turns inwards and becomes poisonous. That is why we often see neuroses or psychoses as expressions of not-lived possibilities.

Creation always comes at a cost, a sacrifice that brings about suffering. Growth requires enduring inner conflict and moral burden. Without confrontation, there is no transformation, and hence no individuation. Creativity takes great courage, because an active battle with the gods is occurring.

Genuine creativity is characterised by a heightened consciousness. The artist experiences joy, in contrast to fleeting happiness. Joy is the emotion that goes with heightened consciousness, the mood that accompanies the experience of actualising one’s own potentialities.

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📚 Recommended Reading

▶ Prometheus Bound - Aeschylus

https://amzn.to/49p2v9f

▶ The Courage to Create - Rollo May

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▶ The Marriage of Heaven and Hell - William Blake

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▶ Songs of Experience and Innocence - William Blake