Deck: The Astrochemical Tarot by Smokey Spells
I want to propose a wild idea.
I’m going to ask you to participate in a thought experiment with me. I don’t ask you to “believe” the words I present to you here; rather, I invite you to entertain possibility (as Caroline W. Casey says.)
For the duration of time it takes you to read this transmission, I ask you to suspend your resistance. To invite curiosity. To notice what happens in your mind, body, and spirit when you consider these words.
A couple days ago, I was in a meditative trance state, contemplating creative blocks—and these words began to pour out of me via my pen onto paper. I present them to you in their original form: raw, without editing or commentary.
“Creative Blocks”: A Channeled Transmission
What you call “creative blocks” are a relatively new phenomenon. What we mean by “new” is that are not universal, and they have also not been part of the creative experience for all of time.
The creativity books you read, plus any other creative you talk to, would have you believe a different story. We live in the reality where “creative blocks” are an inevitable part of the process/journey of the artist.
But what if there are many other realities?
Creative blocks as you know them feel universal in part because you’ve been told the story of “creative blocks” and so when showing up feels hard, or doing the thing feels challenging or you feel unable to create for some reason, you say, “Ah, a block!”
It’s the reality you know. Your brain’s organizing principle says, “AH. Yes. We have been taught about creative blocks and so that’s what this must be.” Your brain’s organizing principle helps you sort your reality into compartments and labels that make sense based on the reality you’ve been taught.
And so your experience seems to validate the reality you’ve been taught—or so you believe.
In truth, the reality you’ve been taught is providing context and edges for your nebulous and edgeless internal experience—helping you categorize your experience based on what you know.
The truth is that there will always be challenges, puzzles, and uncertainties in the creative experience. It’s just that you’ve been taught an unhelpful paradigm for contextualizing those inevitable experiences—and this specific paradigm of “creative blocks” only amplifies the challenge, rather than helping you navigate it.
You see, in the reality of “creative blocks”, these blocks are outside forces that happen to you.
You can already see how this is disempowering.
A “creative block” is an outside force in opposition to you and your goal of creation. A “creative block” inhibits you, prevents you, stops you—BLOCKS you.
Therefore a “creative block” is your enemy, your “nemesis” you must “defeat” on your journey of expression.
And there are all kinds of “tips” and “tricks” for “overcoming” creative blocks, except none of them actually work, because none of them get to the root of what’s really going on.
Or, if they do work, they breed a joyless process.
The reason they don’t work is because a “creative block” is not some enemy outside of you.
A “creative block” is a part of you.
And usually it is a message from your wild creative self.
An alarm of sorts that sounds, telling you something is off. A part of you is exiled, and wants to be seen.
When you “overcome” your “blocks”, what you’re really doing is overriding and shutting down a part of yourself.
What’s really exciting is that in the new-reality you’re trying on, you have the opportunity to reframe “creative blocks”.
What if they aren’t a problem?
What if they are vital information?
And what happens when you go deeper into that information?
Yesterday I released episode three of The Glitch Witch podcast, titled “Creative Blocks are Medicine”. You can listen to that here!
And if you’re intrigued by today’s thought experiment and you’d like to play some more with these ideas: I have exciting news: tonight (Thursday, August 17, 2023) at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time, I am hosting a FREE workshop titled Creative Block Alchemy.
We’re going to deep dive into these concepts and learn how to relate to creative blocks (and our wild creative selves!) in a whole new way.
This workshop is the foundation of all my work, and if this is the only work of mine you ever interact with, you’ll be equipped with all the tools you’ll need to begin your lifelong journey of rewilding creativity.
A replay will be sent to all enrollees so it’s not required that you attend live—however, my learning spaces are very low-pressure, come-as-you-are environments and the communal aspect really amplifies the transformational, alchemical experience exponentially.
At the time of this writing, there are 63 spots left (limited to 100 due to Zoom room capacity.)
Sign up here if you’d like to come play with us. I hope to see you there!
Until next time.
Stay weird,
Lisa
I’m so stoked for this