Creative trickbag part 2: extreme measures
Here's the second instalment of my trickbag series, revealing three extreme but foolproof ways of boosting your creativity when all else fails.
<<USE WITH CAUTION>>
Find your faith
Is there something beyond our mortal existence? This massive question has fascinated humans for either six thousand years or much longer depending on your point-of-view. And thinking outside ourselves can be rewarding in many ways, not least to our creative awareness and output. At the end of the day, ego and vanity are often unhelpful creative constraints and thinking outside of ourselves can diminish their hold.
Many artists, writers and musicians through the millenia have found inspiration in spirituality and faith, allowing them to stand strong and aim high. Stevland Morris, otherwise known as Stevie Wonder:
"Many years ago, there were those who said, ‘Well, you have three strikes against you: You’re black, you’re blind and you’re poor.’ But God said to me, ‘I will make you rich in the spirit of inspiration, to inspire others as well as create music to encourage the world to a place of oneness and hope and positivity.’ I believed Him and not them."
Stevie certainly proved that voice right in his subsequent career.
Islamic rules governing art forbid the depiction of humans and animals.
This rule, far from being restrictive, provides islamic art with a unique core powering a creative outpouring of geometry, abstract forms and symbolism expressed in media as diverse as woven carpets, architecture and calligraphy -- and more recently graffiti artists who use Arabic lettering in their work.
This from Titus Burckhardt:
"The absence of icons in Islam has not merely a negative but a positive role. By excluding all anthropomorphic images, at least within the religious realm, Islamic art aids man to be entirely himself. Instead of projecting his soul outside himself, he can remain in his ontological centre where he is both the viceregent (khal?fa) and slave ('abd) of God. Islamic art as a whole aims at creating an ambience which helps man to realize his primordial dignity; it therefore avoids everything that could be an 'idol', even in a relative and provisional manner. Nothing must stand between man and the invisible presence of God. Thus Islamic art creates a void; it eliminates in fact all the turmoil and passionate suggestions of the world, and in their stead creates an order that expresses equilibrium, serenity and peace.'
Beat poet Allen Ginsberg was born into the Jewish faith but adopted Buddhism thereafter and often wove elements of both faith traditions into his work.
This from his poem Angkor Wat: "Slithering hitherward paranoia / Banyans trailing / high muscled tree crawled / over the roof its big / long snakey toes spread / down the lintel’s red / cradle-root / elephantine bigness // Buddha I take my refuge / bowing in the black bower / before the openhanded lotus-man / sat crosslegged / and riding in the rain in the / anxious motorcycle putting / in the wetness my shirt / covered with green plastic / apron shivering / and throat choking / with upsurge / of fear / cancer Bubonic / heart failure / bitter stomach juices / a wart growing on my rib / Objection! This cant be / Me!"
Embrace fate and tap into your subconscious mind
And if exploring your spiritual side doesn't work or isn't enough, try throwing chance and chaos and entropy (and perhaps fate) into the mix.
The Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart charts the story of a man who governed his life by the roll of the dice. He followed through on the results even when this led to extreme acts:
Even Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory used this method in a mundane attempt to free his brain up for more worthy things.
Writers and other creatives have used tools like the tarot for generations to unlock previously unaccessible areas of the unconscious or to remove writers block. Recording dreams can also help. Indeed, Karl Jung in his book, Modern Man in Search of a Soul, stated that to the right interpreter, powerful dreams contain both the questions and the answers we are searching for.
Ask your subconscious mind questions. On paper if you like before you retire to bed. The next morning it will surely come up with some answers.
A dream of mine from 2011:
Sky fishing in bear river
Walking on water with eldest daughter upstream in the middle of a broad river. Like it is magical road and we are spirits. Coloured fish float in the sky above us, turning in the air and falling slowly to the water, I point them out to my daughter and tell her she should try catching them in the net we have brought, or better still with her hands, to be observed and cherished before being released.
Suddenly the river broadens further to a hundred feet or so and I am aware of the increased flow making it harder to walk. A host of animals appear upstream, also on the water, coming travelling towards us from the opposite direction. Towards and through and past us they come.
A huge brown bear appears and sensing danger I move away from it. Call to my daughter who has wandered off to catch sky fish on the opposite side of the river.
She does not respond.
I see a small pale bear, a baby polar bear? The brown bear is closing fast and I run from the water off onto the river bank, pursued by the bear, calling urgently to my daughter. I gather fir-cones from the ground and throw them at the bear to distract it.
As it turns on me I wake up.
Sell your soul
If neither faith nor random visits to the realm of the unconscious does it for you, there is a darker road well-followed. The Faustian pact, in which in return for your eternal soul you are given unique gifts to elevate your powers over those of mortal men.
Many creatives have trodden this route: from occultist (and onetime Jimmy Page obsession) Aleister Crowley, to blues legend Robert Johnson, to writer Cormack McCarthy who, while he may not have sold his soul for his prodigious talents, famously ordered his pregnant (and soon to be ex-) wife out to work so he could finish his first comma-eviscerating novel.
Putting art before family gave McCarthy time and focus and consistency which at a cost allowed his creative mind to flourish. Great for his writing (unless you like commas and in the case of Blood Meridian attached scalps) but not so much for the significant others in his life.
In the case of the good doctor turned bad, Faustus is frustrated with the limitations of regular knowledge in the famous Elizabethan work of Christopher Marlowe. He summons the devil Mephastophilis and, ignoring his advice about the consequences, signs his soul away in a blood contract with Lucifer in return for twenty-four years of service. Faustus has many prodigious adventures around the courts of Europe with his devil companion before the years finally catch up with him and it is time to pay the awful price.
Legend has it that Robert Johnson went down this route, as depicted in his song, Cross Road Blues. Like Faustus, the young bluesman was willing to pay the ultimate price for a talent that placed him above his peers, making history with his plaintive voice sung over a black guitar only to die at the tender age of twenty-eight.
How goes it, Robert?
"I went to the crossroad, fell down on my knees
I went to the crossroad, fell down on my knees
Asked the Lord above "Have mercy, now save poor Bob, if you please"
-- Robert Johnson, Cross Road Blues
This last extreme tactic works for sure but you pay for it with your soul. And when you inevitably discover your newfound talents still leave you unfulfilled with worse yet to come, you regret your mistake and try to buy it back again.
But alas you never can.
Perhaps being less creative wasn't so bad after all :-(
Homo, fuge!