Workshop: Called, Compelled then Catalysed by the Creator Archetype
The influence of the Creator Archetype on our psyches is a mixed one. Our culture both envies and pities artists. Many people secretly long to spend their time doing artistic, expressive and meaningful work but feel hampered by the financial and other constraints this can pose.
It is no secret that the majority of artists battle some form of mental health issue, be it depression, anxiety, social isolation, hypersensitivity and other worries. Without inner work and practical grounding, the ecstasy of our genius soon morphs into madness. In mythology, Persephone had to endure the full underworld experience in order to move from a naïve girl to powerful priestess.
In the public consciousness, the starving artist is just as prominent as the tortured artist. Up until recently, people have felt they had to make a distinct choice between well-paid drudgery or earn the scraps that accompany creatively stimulating work.
With the advent of the Cultural Creative phenomenon, it is no longer an either/or choice.
Collectively we are navigating a paradigm shift where a glut of technically proficient but creatively deficient 9-5er’s has reached saturation point. Instead of competing for a shrinking wage pool the people who are proving to thrive financially tend to be entrepreneurs. Then there is a smaller minority again, who have stepped beyond financial prosperity to incorporate emotional and psychological well-being - social or conscious entrepreneurs.
Becoming receptive to the influence of the Creator archetype is far more transformative than finding creative expression and financial freedom, however. It includes the wonder of reinventing oneself, particularly after a harrowing episode with the Destroyer, or death/rebirth archetype. It involves birthing a vision for one’s life and building something tangible and lasting. The letting go process encountered during a loss, or death helps us to get out of our own way and become a conduit for a higher purpose to come through.
In Elizabeth Gilbert’s most recent work, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear, she argues that everyone has the potential to create something exceptional simply by showing a willingness to create for the higher good of others, which allows expression to be channelled through us. In her own life, she began a fictional work then left it aside to focus on a relationship matter. Some years later she met a fellow writer who had an almost identical fictional idea come to her after Gilbert abandoned her project. Gilbert’s inference is that the collective unconscious constantly abounds with powerful ideas just looking for a worthy host to act as an outlet.
When our unique personalities and conceptions ride the waves generated by the Creator archetype, flow and bliss are sure to follow. This workshop will look at numerous real-life examples of people that reinvented their lives through creative expression as well as celebrate the peak experiences of the participants.
In harmonising with the four seasons, this workshop, “Called, Compelled then Catalysed by the Creator Archetype” coincides with the beginning of Spring and us having processed the autumnal and winter work of the Destroyer.
Workshop Program
Saturday 22nd September
9.00am Registration
9.20 – 10.45 SESSION 1 Phoenix Rising – Exploring the Creator Archetype and the Rebirth which Follows Hollowing out Periods
10.45 – 11.15 Morning Tea
11.15 – 12.45 SESSION 2: Insights from Esoteric Modalities – Tarot, Numerology and Astrology’s Relationship with the Creator Archetype.
12.45 – 1.15 Lunch
1.15 – 2.15 SESSION 3: Small Group Sharing - An Opportunity to Express and Discuss the Archetypes Current Influence and One's Present Challenges/Successes in Living More Aligned with their Values and Deeper Passions.
2:15 - 3.30 SESSION 4: Preparing a Story to Share Relating to One's Experience with the Creator archetype - An Individual Writing Task where Participants Prepare a Life Event Story to Share in the Evening.
3.30 – 4:30 SESSION 5: A Hatha Yoga Session to Relax, Recharge and Renew.
4:30 - 5:00 Support with Story Writing/ Time to Complete One's Story/ Chill out Time
5.00pm Dinner
6.00pm SESSION 6: An Evening in Sacred Space (Held in our Yurt) - Participants Share a Personal Story about an Encounter with the Creator Archetype.
11pm Close
Sunday 23rd September
8.00 Breakfast (for those staying on site)
9:00 - 12:00 An informal morning of connection and conversations getting to know other participants better.
Celebration, excitement and optimism are the central themes of this holistic workshop focusing on heart-based authentic conversations, bodily expression through yoga & movement, drawing on the mind and memories to elicit life story writing, engaging the spirit by communing over meals and culminating with an evenings sharing circle in our sublime yurt space.
How better to find renewal through both the natural season of Spring and the internal dimension to it.
At the heart of this Intrepid Series of archetypal workshops is a quest for wholeness, healing and flourishing in every aspect of our lives, including creatively. As the psychoanalyst Otto Rank pointed out:
“The ideal of the average is to be as others are; of the neurotic to be himself largely in opposition to what others want him to be; of the creative person, to be that which he actually is.”
It is not necessary to have attended the previous workshop in order to derive a great deal of benefit from this upcoming one. All that is required is a willingness to explore your uniqueness, contemplate the vision you have for your life and the role creative expression will play.
We hope you can join us and find the same satisfaction as one of the participants from our last workshop who voiced this reaction the day after:
Maximum of 12 Participants
Date: Saturday 22nd September (Sunday morning optional)
Location: Katoomba, Blue Mountains NSW
Cost: $250 - includes morning tea, lunch, dinner & workbooks. $300 for those wanting accommodation & Sunday breakfast.
