Your Art is the Magic the World Needs

Saying that living in tumultuous times can be frustrating is one of the biggest understatements of the century. It can be scary and we can get stuck in a place of helplessness. We may turn to social media to scream into the void, only to be joined by others who are equally frustrated to scream along in chorus. While that can be helpful because it offers some support, that support only goes so far. 

I think that this ties into our need to feel seen and heard, as well as our need to express ourselves. We have all this emotion that we need to let out, like a steam valve. If we don’t engage with it in a wise way, it will escape in the most available route. Usually, the most available route for our emotions are the more problematic, unhelpful ones. I think of it, again, like steam building pressure until it finds the weakest point to break out. Those cracks that the steam finds are usually not the ones that you want it to escape through. 

I was having one of those days yesterday. I was feeling a little overwhelmed by that state of…. *vaguely gestures at everything* I took the time to take a walk down the hill in the woods that surround our house, to make room to listen to my spirits. It was as I meandered down the old path, picking up litter, that I felt the answer.

The creative process.

Well, specifically, for me, it was creating music. But, generally, it was a bigger reminder.

The power of art.

Now, if you are already starting to say to yourself “But, Isaac, I am not an artist/musician/creative individual,” I would like to gently call bullshit. When you say that you don’t have a preferred point of creative expression, you probably mean that you feel like you are not good enough at it to do it. When you were a kid, did you not draw or create because you felt that you weren’t good enough? No! That happened when you started to compare yourself to others. You are probably thinking of all the amazing artists (an umbrella term that I will now be using for painters, musicians, storytellers, potters, knitters, writers, and anyone else using their creative side to express their inner landscape) who professionally do what they do. 

For the purposes that we are talking about today, the perceived quality doesn’t matter. This is about expression and creation. So, it matters more what you personally like to create, versus what you feel like you are “qualified” to create.

The act of using your personal creative to bring something beautiful into this world is magic. It is healing. It can be powerful. It is also our birthright as human beings.

So, why am I going off about the creative process? Let me tell you about how art is magic.

Art is emotions externalized

One of the ways that I work with clients is to do a fire ceremony with them. When we are working a fire ceremony, the idea is to work on transforming your relationship to an emotional process, oftentimes grief. We start the day after the new moon. I have the client create something that represents the thing that they are trying to change their relationship with. Let’s say it’s the grief that followed the end of a relationship. From the day after the new moon to the full moon, the client would create a bundle filled with things that would represent the relationship. The good, the bad, the ugly, all of it. The more things that the person could hand make and put in the bundle, the better. 

The idea is to create something outside their body to represent and hold their emotion. To create something sympathetic to what they are feeling, but also, in a way, create a home for it outside of the body. While there is power to the actual ceremony, the biggest power lies in the creation of the bundle. If someone half asses the bundle, they won’t get good results. 

Once the bundle is created, we have a ceremonial fire on the night of the full moon. I do my ceremonial bit, invite the different helping spirits in to assist, make offerings to the spirit of the fire itself, and generally call in helpers. We then sit with the bundle, lay it out, explore everything it represents, and burn it. The idea is that the fire helps transform the relationship the person has to their grief, and it can be quite cathartic. 

The biggest magic was in the creation of the bundle, though.

Another example would be when I was working through some ancestral issues. In vision, I asked my helping spirits how I could go about doing a fire ceremony for myself. They brought me to my chest, and showed me an extra heart I carried, one that was blackened and broken. 

Not literally, folks. I only have one heart organ ticking in my chest. This was, indeed, metaphorical. 

The idea, though, was to identify the emotional process that it represented (and it made sense to me, without getting too personal). So, I went to making a paper mache heart. It was messy, both in the material sense and the emotional sense. I dug into the emotion. I cried into the paper mache. I spat my anger into the paint. 

Magic gets weird and messy.

Then, I burned it, to release this emotional weight that was not mine to carry.

Talk about emotional catharsis. 

Art is communication beyond words

Sometimes, we can’t get our point across properly with words. Instead, we communicate better with other creative means. Art can help you express yourself to others, and help fulfill that need to be seen.

Art is magic

I fully believe that, when we tap into our creativity, we are tapping into a place where magic happens. I don’t mean this in a metaphorical sense. When you bring art into the world, it is creating magic.

When I began to really work with my helping spirits, I asked them how I could build our relationship. Many times, one of their suggestions was artistic. I had a bear spirit suggest I make a mask. Let me tell you, that mask takes some artistic license. When I showed my completed mask to Josh, he said “That’s definitely something someone would wear in a horror movie.” I’ve had others give me sewing jobs, or sculpting projects. I’m presently making an herbal satchel for one. 

When it comes to dealing with situations that are out of your control, you can use your art in a magical way. Create a sigil. People that make crystal grids definitely use creativity. Even scribing something on a candle takes some creativity. 

Art creates beauty

Yes, beauty is oftentimes in the eye of the beholder, but, as you are the beholder in question, create something beautiful to you. The world can often be a place that is in dire need of beauty and enchantment. We are the ones to create that for ourselves.

When I lean in on making music, I’m playing things that I find beautiful. At least, I’m learning to create things that are beautiful to my ears. I love filling my space with that beauty. It helps me turn my focus away on the more ugly things that I can’t change. Or, I can turn those emotions that I’m feeling about a situation into something beautiful. That’s some of my favorite transmutation right there. 

Pretty much, what I’m saying today is that we are in a world in dire need of your creativity. We are in dire need of the beauty that you can create. 

I’m not saying that art is a substitute for action to create change, though it can be part of it. Same with magic. You can work with spirits to help change a situation, but you still need to do your part as an embodied spirit yourself. 

I am saying, though, that you have a creative side that shows itself in whatever form is specific to you. The world needs that. You probably need that. 

How do you express your creativity?