from Art Times:
A Literary Journal and Resource for All the Arts
WE’VE ALL HAD experiences with our innate “Inner Wisdom” such as the process of a cold coming and going in its own time, the unexpected gift of a dream (maybe a nightmare) to guide us, or the inspired solution, seemingly out of “nowhere,” for the poem or business deal with which we were struggling. This “Inner Wisdom” is known by many names, including: The Unconscious, God/Goddess, Great Spirit, Primal Energy, and Divine Inspiration. The name”Inner Wisdom” has special significance because this “body intelligence” aspect of the Divine seems to always know exactly what our total being needs to evolve and heal, and how and when to manifest in the most perfect, simple, efficient, sometimes humorous, sometimes terrifying, and often eloquent ways. It’s so simple, perfect and ever present, that it’s often difficult to notice and acknowledge.
Inner Wisdom thrives in an atmosphere of love, patience, and acceptance. Its only impulse is to be used; so much so that when we don’t appreciate it or spend quality time with its flow, it keeps presenting us with uncomfortable situations, symptoms, dreams, and images putting us on notice to slow down, listen, feel, express all the necessary prerequisites to integrate, evolve, and heal. Inner Wisdom’s vehicle is through the body. Inner Wisdom and the body are the same (as are God and the Body). All we have to do is quiet the mind and allow Inner Wisdom expression through the body. Often, Inner Wisdom clearly shows up in dreams, visualizations, and visual creations depicted in the form of a mysterious animal or bird, or a face or figure with a powerful presence.
Common practices that actively invite Inner Wisdom are: Yoga, Meditation, Breath Work, Dream Work, Athletics, Chanting, Prayer, Yogic Sexual Practices, Being in Nature, Honest and Heartfelt Communication between People, and Witnessing all forms of Expressive Arts. All these experiences bring us to the body, to sensations and feeling, to Inner Wisdom, to God/Goddess, to Soul.
An especially powerful and magical form of Inner Wisdom is accessed by total immersion in the creative process, whether it be dancing, making music and sounds, sculpting or painting. The body is the only place to go; there are no words. When engaged in the creative process, you are in your Divinity and undergoing transformation as well. And the Inner Wisdom that flows during this process is intrinsically encoded in your work and body alike. You experience yourself at this moment as fully authentic, fully alive. You want more!
You don’t have to be trained in the arts to experience this ecstasy. It is your birthright. Again and again, people clear numerous physical problems, from headaches to cancer, as well as emotional and spiritual blocks, by accessing Inner Wisdom through this natural evolutionary creative process. Often people are not aware of their blocks, nor had they a conscious intention of clearing them.
As young children we naturally paint and live in this powerful, intuitive way. But as we move toward adulthood in our culture which is so alienated from nature, this creative healing source becomes blocked off to many; the mind takes over and the body gets lost. It is harder to sit down to paint or play or engage in other spontaneous, creative activities as well.
Obedience in this law is the deepest obedience and the worthiest worship of Her. Make, transform one substance into another, press form into chaos, mold material into spiritual reality-fashion potential into actual, change one form of energy into another, transmute blood into milk, clay into vessel, feeling into movement, wind into song, egg into child, fiber into cloth, stone into crystal, memory into image, body into worship.”
We access the Divine each time we create from the body’s Inner Wisdom, and in this way, the Divine is encoded in each production. The process by which art is made is similar to the evolutionary process of creation in the Universe, and the capacity everyone has to create is part of the Divinity of being human. Bringing this ritual of creating and viewing soul touching art routinely into our lives is a most natural way of staying balanced, healthy, and vital – a spiritual practice connecting you to your Inner Wisdom Source.
Love and bless, ag
