Creativity
A young artist stands in front of a paint-splattered canvas. Her arms and fingers are covered in splotches of color. The wooden tip of her brush is pressed against her lip as her eyes scan the canvas for the next step. She hums softly, unaware, immersed in the process of developing her piece. A small smile creases the corners of her mouth as her hand fervently returns to applying paint on the scene she is building.
His big strong hands press into the dough. He pushes the pad of his hand through the mixture over and over again. The dough is gathered into a ball and flung down on the table as he has done thousands of times before. This bread is for his family. This bread will feed them for many days. It is made with a recipe that he has developed over many trials and errors. He loves this part of the baking process and kneads that love into the dough as he shapes it.
Her trembling hands hold the flute up to her lips. It has been years since she’s played, and she isn’t really sure that she remembers how to anymore. She exhales, focusing her breath across the mouth of the instrument. A shaking, wavering note escapes. She wiggles her fingers across the keys, making a cacophony of noise, and smiles; a whisper of something awakens. A faint thread of memory flutters by and she grasps onto a string of notes. Her fingers follow the old and long-forgotten memory. One simple song is all she remembers, but it is enough to spark her creativity and the music she once loved so much.
Beauty and devotion awaken creativity. When we are able to see beauty, finding it in all the places we look, we will find a strong pull towards devoting ourselves to that beauty. What better way to devote to beauty than to create more beauty? An offering. A song. A day picking up trash. Creativity takes on many shapes and forms, but its source flows from the power of beauty.
However, creativity is not easy. In fact, creativity is immensely challenging. Our culture puts a lot of pressure on creativity. Many of us hold this notion that in order to be creative we have to live up to some external standard. Our creativity must be good enough based on the judgment of sources outside of ourselves. We may feel that our creativity doesn’t count if it doesn’t earn an income, become a side hustle, get exploited on social media, or be recognized by others.
Creativity isn’t something that only the elite or classically trained possess. All humans are creative. The shape, color, sound, and experience of that creativity will be different for each person. Our creative voice might have always been a roaring noise that we can easily hear and honor, but just as likely, it may be a small voice that is timid, shy, and quiet. Exploring that voice and making space for it to communicate with us is vital to the energy of the Beauty Pentacle.
The power of beauty flows from the top of our heads, down our bodies, and into our right foot. As the Goddess continues to draw on us, she moves from our right foot to our left hand, coming to rest at that energy center—the place of creativity.
The act of being creative is an act of beauty. It doesn’t matter if you have an art form that you already know and love or if art seems like something a million miles away from your reality. All humans are creative. And creativity doesn’t have to involve art.
I once had a mentor ask me if I was wasting my creative energy on finding ways to not be creative. Of course, this was true. Creative energy can be put to use in ways that don’t serve you. Creativity can be wasted living in fantasy worlds, movies, television, and video games. It can be squandered on work that dulls your senses and bores your mind. It can be turned into busywork preventing you from digging into the beauty all around you.
Creativity doesn’t have to be for anyone but you. In fact, creativity is best when it is done only for you without worry or direction from anyone else. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t take lessons, find a teacher, or study from masters if your heart calls you to do so. But develop your creative skills for the love of being creative. Hone your skills for the joy of it. Let your happiness, joy, fear, frustration, pain, story, and beauty all flow through your creative endeavors.
Many people confuse the idea of creativity with expression, which is the last point of the pentacle. Let me be clear on the difference. Expression isn’t necessarily creative and not all creativity gets expressed. In the tool of the Beauty Pentacle, creativity is a power just for you. It doesn’t need to be given away. It doesn’t need to be shared. It is only a voice that needs to be listened to. On the other hand, expression is the sharing of that creativity. Expression is the pouring out of the energy that you have built up, the saying what needs to be said. The difference between these two points may seem subtle, but once you start working through their energy the differences will become more profound.
Personal Development
The following exercises are designed to spark creativity in your life. This section should power up the energy center of creativity within you. You may discover personal blocks or obstacles through these exercises; work through them and don’t give up. Through the personal development section your creativity will be sharpened and honored. How can you open up to creativity?
check-in
what is creativity?
Get out your journal and write on the topic of creativity. This might seem like a simple and obvious answer. Perhaps creativity equals art? Perhaps creativity equals creation? Perhaps it is something else altogether? What about when creativity is used negatively? What about the times you are creative in avoiding what needs to be done? What about the ways you are creative in not dealing with “the thing”? How does creativity show up in your life? How much space do you make for it? And does it feel like an important part of who you are? How and why?
Discovering Creativity
Intention Map Book 
A piece of magick that I have done for well over two decades is the practice of making an intention map. For many years I did these on my birthday as a way of creating a visual spell for what I wanted to draw into my life in the coming year. This would serve as a touchstone for me, and often it would help me to see how I was truly manifesting my desires in ways other than my logical mind expected me to.
I’ve heard intention maps also referred to as spell collages, intention charts, intention collages, spirit boards, intention boards, and even art spells. Creating an intention map starts with a large blank piece of paper and a stack of old magazines. You go through the magazines, cutting out any words or images that strike a positive reaction in you. Cut out anything beautiful, powerful, or in alignment with what you want to manifest in your life.
Once you have all the images and words cut out, you arrange them on your piece of paper in a collage that is pleasing to your eyes.
In this specific working, I invite you to take the intention map one step further. Instead of one big sheet of paper, get a large journal with blank pages. Perhaps this journal could be your Beauty Pentacle Book of Shadows, or another book altogether. Inside these pages affix beautiful images, poetry, words, phrases, and art that appeals to your beauty eye. Also within these pages press flowers, save seeds, put in a lock of your lover’s hair, and anything else that strikes your fancy. Write down your spells, put in clippings of photographs, and affix feathers you’ve collected (with awareness that not all feathers are legal to possess). Let this be a beautiful collection of magick.
Another option besides a blank journal is to get a big old used book and do the same thing. The bonus of a big used book is the ability to include the words from the book. You can cut out pieces, cross out words, black out sentences, and use what is already there to incorporate your own beauty into an old and forgotten book.
Whether you start with a blank paged journal or an old book, let this book become an intention map of beauty. When you open the pages you should feel inspired by the beauty that you’ve created within them.
Discovering Creativity Bibliomancy 
Divination goes hand in hand with the Beauty Pentacle. Divination requires a keen connection to beauty and an awakened intuition. While doing the work of the Beauty Pentacle and running beauty energy through your body, you may have already discovered blocks or obstacles. One way to get information on areas where you feel challenged is with divination, specifically bibliomancy.
Bibliomancy is the art of using the written word to reveal insight into a situation. This connects to creativity because all books, no matter the form or style, are an expression of creative energy. Using bibliomancy in connection to your creative self is the perfect form of divination.
Bibliomancy can also open your creative mind. The answers that you receive may be a little like the answers given by the oracle at Delphi, a bit of a riddle. It may require your creative self to dissect the message and grasp its true meaning for you.
When you find that you have a question that requires some outside guidance, pull out a book—the bigger and thicker the better. I prefer to use poetry books or spiritual books, but any book will do. State your question or issue out loud and then flip through the pages of the book.
When you feel called, stop flipping the pages and allow the book to fall open. Without looking at the words, slide your finger along the page until you notice an urge to stop. When this happens, look down at the words where your finger stopped and read the sentence you have landed on.
Let this sentence inform the area where you need guidance or information. Keep track of any revelations in your journal.
Discovering Creativity Tarot Mandala
Creating something beautiful is all part of this work. You don’t need any fancy art supplies or training to make a spectacular art piece. Mandala is the Sanskrit word for circle. The mandala is used in many Eastern philosophies as a meditation or creative practice for esoteric concepts. A mandala in Buddhist practice is meant to be temporary. Monks will spend hours—sometimes days—creating an intricate art piece only to sweep it up once complete.
The following exercise follows the same concept as a mandala, but rather than using paint, colored sand, or paper and pencils, you will use tarot or oracle cards.
This piece is best done with a group of people. Invite as many friends over as you feel comfortable sharing this work with. Ask each person to bring a deck of tarot or oracle cards. Sit in a circle and focus on beauty. Give space for each participant to go through their decks of cards and pull out three to five cards that bring up feelings of beauty. Once everyone has their cards, lay them out in the center of the room, creating a mandala, or sacred design, for beauty.
Take your time to look at the beauty that has been created together. Take note of similarities and differences. Look at how the colors, sizes, and shapes create a picture of beauty. Consider taking a picture of your beauty mandala. Take some time to discuss the mandala with the group. What do other folks notice? When ready, pick up the cards and return them to their original decks.
Follow this same process for all the other points: devotion, creativity, desire, and expression.
check-in
beautiful stranger
Pull out your journal and complete the following sentences:
• The word “creativity” makes me feel …
• I am creative when …
• I enjoy being creative when …
• Creativity is …
• I express my creativity by …
• Creativity feels like …
If you are feeling exceptionally brave, consider posting your responses on social media and encouraging your friends to answer too. The more that we share beauty with others and engage in these conversations, the more the doors to beauty are opened and our eyes are uncovered.
Discovering Creativity
Letter to the Past 
Every single person on the planet has had someone tell them they couldn’t do something creative. Every single person on the planet has attempted something creative and been shut down, told it’s not good enough, or laughed at. It doesn’t matter how, when, or why this shutdown happened. What matters is getting back on the horse and creating something again.
When I was in the fifth grade, I joined the music group at my elementary school. There were only three of us in the group, all girls, all playing the flute. Our music teacher was a rather cranky old guy. He was the music teacher for our entire school district. I wasn’t a very good flute player. I didn’t practice as much as I should have. I got bored with it easily, but I did like music class.
One of the other girls was very good. I don’t know if she was just musically talented or if she practiced a lot, but she was much better than I was. The third girl was somewhere in the middle. Not as terrible as I was but not as good as our “first chair” player.
I have a clear memory of one of our lessons. Our music teacher was exceptionally annoyed with our lack of skill. He told me that I would never make it into the high school band. No matter how hard I practiced I would never be good enough. Being the stubborn Taurus I am, rather than discourage me, it actually made me mad enough to want to prove his ass wrong.
By the time we got to junior high school, only two of the three of us were still playing the flute. I was still terrible, typically the last or second-to-last chair out of ten flute players. But I kept going with it. In fact, I loved being a part of the concert band, even if I was terrible.
By the time we got to high school, I was the only one left still playing the flute. Still terrible, that never changed, but I made it to the high school band. I didn’t stop my creative outlet of playing music, because I did love it, just not enough to practice on a daily basis.
If I had let that old cranky man dictate my future experience, I never would have been a part of the high school concert band, which was a highlight of my teen years. It could have been very easy for me to hide, quit, or stop playing altogether.
Think back on a time when your creative self was admonished for not being good enough. Think back on a time when your creative self was crushed by the feedback from a mentor, teacher, parent, or idol. If you could go back in time and talk to that younger self, what would you tell them to encourage them to keep going in their creative endeavors?
Pull out your journal and write a letter to your past self who was told their creative expression wasn’t good enough. Tell that shining being why they should not give up. Explain how important that creative outlet is. Encourage them to keep going.
Write this letter and then set it aside for at least a week. Try not to think about it. Although, keep in mind, when you start poking into memories like this, you are likely to have other memories and feelings pop up. After a week, pull this letter back out. Light a candle, burn some incense you love, and read the letter out loud.
Notice anything that comes up for you when reading this letter. Imagine your younger self sitting across from you, listening to this letter. See their—your—eyes light up with encouragement. See what it might have felt like to have been told that your creativity was a beautiful blessing. How would you feel now if you had been given encouragement then?
When done reading the letter, go and do something creative. Sing, dance, drum, draw, paint, mold, play the flute! Do whatever your creative self calls for. Be brilliant, be terrible, be silly, but be creative.
Discovering Creativity Imagined Other Lives
There are many roads that we don’t take. Maybe life forces us in a different direction. Maybe we choose the left path instead of the right. Life is full of choices. In making a choice, we don’t choose something else—for good or for bad. Setting aside a potential path can be hard, but we don’t have to totally let go of those lost paths.
I left college as a sophomore. At the time, I had a great corporate job. I was being promoted quickly, making more than double that of my peers. It was easy for me to see where my life was headed in the corporate world. I figured college was unnecessary. That worked well for me for many years, but the world has changed a lot since 1999. Not having a degree has made it next to impossible to even get a corporate job interview. What if I had finished college? What if I had completed that degree? What would my life look like now?
Set a space for yourself with a candle, your journal, and something to drink. Sit down and light the candle. Ask your guides and allies to be present as you step into this working. Take a deep breath and center yourself.
In your journal, make a list of five paths you didn’t take. Have a few of your five imagined lives be real options you could have taken, like finishing college. But also let a couple of them be ridiculous fantasies that were never really possible. Like randomly meeting Jason Priestley at a 7-Eleven in Los Angeles, falling immediately in love, and running off together. (Okay, so that might be one of my fantasies.) Have a couple of your imagined lives just be silly and playful.
Make space to “time-walk,” following the roads through these imagined lives. What if you had followed that other path? What chain reactions would be different than the life you are living now? Write out the story of these five lives if you had taken those paths and not the path you have been on.
Write these imagined lives out as if you are watching a story unfold in front of you. If need be, give yourself a couple of journaling sessions to finish up this process. Once you are finished, read back over your imagined lives. Are there any similarities? Are there any roads where there is overlap? Are there places in these lives where you feel a longing to go back? Are there things you want to incorporate into your life now?
Look at the places where you feel a longing. How can you make changes or adjustments in your life right now in order to start bringing these roads into your current path? What can you do in this life to create some of those imagined lives in your reality? Tomorrow take one step to pull that closer to you.
Discovering Creativity Release Shame
Being creative will bring about dips into beauty, pain, hardship, and celebration. Opening up to your creativity may even bring you into the depths of fear. You may find doors that you have been working hard to keep closed rattling and shaking, the skeletons inside demanding attention.
We all carry around some form of shame, guilt, or sadness about something from the past. Artistic and creative endeavors give us a way to express these challenging feelings and make something awesome, beautiful, or transformative from it.
I drew a picture of my mom once when I was about eight. I had been watching a television show on PBS that taught you how to draw and thought I really knew what I was doing. My mom was less than impressed with my drawing and in a less-than-stellar mom moment reacted with, “Do you think my nose looks like that?!” when I showed her my artwork.
Over thirty years later, I get how a tired and overworked mom, with some sensitive feelings about her nose, might make that statement. But as an eight-year-old budding artist, I was pretty crushed. I didn’t get that she was projecting her self-conscious feelings onto my drawing, I just thought I sucked. I stopped drawing after that.
We all have stories like this too. There is some shame around this story for me, shame around my relationship with my mother, and shame about not being good enough. The not-good-enough shame has been an ongoing issue my entire life. It shows up in lots of places and relationships. It is one of my shadows. And so I have to work on it and with it.
Write a list of where you feel shame. Take this letter outside and carefully burn it in a fireproof container. Burn the paper down until there is nothing but ash. Then release the ashes to the winds. Watch as your shame floats away, no longer yours; release it.
Take a moment to cleanse after releasing the ashes. Choose your favorite method. Smudge or sain yourself with burning herbs, take a cleansing bath, spray yourself with a smokeless incense, whichever method you like best.
Return to your writing and make a list of the things that you are proud of. Write down all of the things that you have accomplished, the big things and the little things. When you are finished with the list, go back outside and read the list to the winds. Let your voice carry what you’ve accomplished out into the world. Keep this list and refer to it any time you need a boost.
Discovering Creativity Take a Break
Give yourself time away from this work. Take a solid week off of reading, journaling, contemplation, or running the pentacle. See how it feels to set the practice down for a few days. If possible, simplify all of your other spiritual practices too. Give yourself a break from self-improvement. Ultimately it will be good for you.
After a week, pick the pentacle work back up. Start writing in your journal again. Bring your spiritual practices back into your daily activities. How does it feel to shift back into these practices? Is it easy and smooth or rough and challenging?
Discovering Creativity
Inspiration Date 
In order to awaken to the power of the Beauty Pentacle and the energy center of creativity, commit to taking yourself on an inspiration date at least once a week. This might feel like a challenging commitment, but it is an important one. It is a step to prove your dedication to yourself, your creativity, and the beauty of the world.
On an inspiration date go somewhere beautiful. Go to an art gallery, take a walk through a park, attend a play, go to a concert, explore a place you’ve never been before. Get out and do something that fills you up with beauty.
While out and about, take photos, pick up business cards or brochures, and pick flowers and put these into your journal. Keep track of anything odd, interesting, or joyful that happens while on your date.
Discovering Creativity Trance to Meet Your Creativity 
When you work with an energy center enough it can start to take on a life of its own. With the creativity point, the more you are creative, the stronger this energy becomes. It then becomes possible to commune with this energy. By having a strong relationship with your creativity, you can garner a lot of information you would otherwise be without.
This exercise should be done when you have thirty to forty-five minutes to devote to the process. If you can do this trance with other folks, great! Have one of the people read the trance. If not, record yourself reading it and play it back when you are ready.
Find a place where you can sit or lay down undisturbed. Make sure that you are comfortable and make any adjustments to keep it that way throughout the trance. Have your journal and a glass of water handy for after the trance.
Trance: Take a deep breath. Feel the expansion of your lungs. Breathe with intention—in and out. Notice how a long, slow breath helps your body to calm, relax, and slow down. Keep breathing noticing the inhale and exhale. (Pause.)
Notice your edges, the edges of your body, and how it feels to be you in this time and place. Let your awareness sink down to the tips of your toes. Visualize your toes surrounded by a warm, bright light. Every piece of you that this light touches is left relaxed and calm. As you breathe, each of your toes is touched by this light.
The warm light moves upward, wrapping around your ankles. And it moves further upward, covering your shins and calves in a warm, relaxing glow of light. The light covers your knees and thighs, leaving every bit of you relaxed and warm. (Pause.)
This light continues to move upward, surrounding your pelvic bowl, your belly, and your lower back, leaving you relaxed. The light moves up your rib cage and up your spine. This warm light swirls around your hips and sides. The glow covers your shoulders, moving down your arms, elbows, and hands. The light swirls around each of your fingers, leaving you relaxed and warm.
Again, the light moves up, swirling around your throat and neck. The warm glow covers the back of your head, your jaw, your cheeks, your temples, and around your eyes. The light swirls around your head, coming to a close at the top of your head. Now your whole body is covered in a warm glow—warm, safe, and relaxed.
From this place of relaxation, open your inner eye, that Witch’s eye that sits right above and between your normal seeing eyes. Open that Witch’s eye and see in front of you a path. Step forward onto the path, placing one foot in front of the other, continuing to move along. As you walk, take notice of what kind of landscape you are in and anything interesting in your sight. (Pause.)
Continue to move forward along the path, step by step, moving further and further with one foot in front of the other. Ahead of you, you notice a building. This place is the house of your creativity. Allow it to take shape as your steps continue to bring you closer to it. With each step forward, you can see more and more of your house of creativity more clearly. Allow this place to fully form, taking note of its size, shape, and style. (Pause.)
As you step up to your house of creativity, the door opens and you step inside. Take a look around this place. How is it decorated or furnished? Are there supplies for creativity accessible to you? Explore this space. (Long pause.)
There is a closed door in this place. You go to it and knock three times. The door opens and you step inside the room. Awaiting you is your creativity. What does your creativity look like? What is its size, shape, color, and expression? If it hasn’t already, your creativity morphs into a human form. Take time to speak with your creativity. Ask the questions that you have been holding about your relationship with your creativity. Hear what it has to say. (Pause.)
Although you can visit your house of creativity at any time, your time here is limited for now. Say anything else that needs to be said before you leave this place. (Pause.)
Walk back out of the room and leave your house of creativity. Step back onto the path that brought you here, following it back the way you came. Again, take note of your surroundings and the landscape that is on either side of your path. Keep walking, shifting your awareness to follow the path, and step back into your body.
Allow yourself to become aware of your breathing. Shift your awareness, beginning to close your inner eye. Notice the edges of your body and how it feels to be in this time and this place. Close your Witch’s eye and slowly open your normal seeing eyes.
Take some time to write down anything odd, important, or interesting from your experience. Drink the glass of water and slowly let yourself move back into the world.
Discovering Creativity Traveling Beauty Mirror 
The beauty mirror is the primary magickal tool of the Beauty Pentacle. But carrying around a large mirror for magickal work away from your beauty altar isn’t practical. Having a traveling beauty mirror will give you the opportunity to do magickal workings with your mirror out in the world.
Get a small compact mirror. Of course you can find a compact mirror at a pharmacy, dollar store, or big-box store, but for this mirror take your time and find something exceptionally beautiful. Find an old antique compact or silver cigarette case that shines like a mirror when properly polished. Find a gorgeous old family heirloom that is hiding in a box in the garage. Find a small, artfully decorated box that you can affix a mirror to the inside of. Take your time and find the perfect little thing to serve as your traveling mirror.
Follow the beauty mirror ritual from the first section to bless and consecrate this small mirror.
Carry this mirror with you as often as possible. If you can keep it in a bag, purse, or pocket even better. The traveling beauty mirror should be used to “catch” beautiful moments. When you see a magnificent sunset, pull out your traveling beauty mirror and look at the scene through the reflection of the mirror. If you witness something fantastic, look at it through the reflection in the mirror.
Each time you use your mirror to capture the reflection of a beautiful or inspiring moment, the power of your traveling beauty mirror increases.
This is a two-way process. The more you charge the mirror by catching beautiful reflections, the stronger it gets, and then you can turn that around and use that energy to boost your own feelings around beauty, devotion, creativity, desire, or expression. When you need a personal boost of beauty, or anytime you aren’t feeling yourself, look at your own reflection in the traveling beauty mirror. If you have a friend or loved one that is in a challenging place or feeling depleted, have them look at themselves in your traveling beauty mirror as a way to share your beautiful power with them.
check-in
what’s been beautiful?
Pull out your journal and consider the following questions. Now that you’ve had some time to step into the power of creativity, how does that shift or alter how you see beauty in the world? Take some time to write down what has been beautiful on this journey, what feels shifting or expanding in your life. What beauty have you seen recently? What’s been beautiful?
Discovering Creativity Curiosity 
A curious mind is one that will discover beauty wherever it goes. When you are curious, you will find yourself with the desire to explore, uncover, and discover the wild and beautiful things in the world. Some of us are naturally curious. A naturally curious person will crawl under an arched bush to see where it leads. A naturally curious person will try a new restaurant and eat something they’ve never tasted before. A naturally curious person will drive down a road they’ve never been on just to figure out where it might end up. A naturally curious person is always asking, “Why?”
Curiosity will bring more opportunities to find unexpected beauty because you are more likely to end up in an unexpected place.
For this working you will need to be undisturbed for thirty minutes in a place where you can sit or lie down comfortably. You will only need a journal.
Trance: Take a few deep breaths and allow yourself to sink into the place where you sit. Give yourself some space to just breathe. Notice each inhale and exhale, letting your breath cleanse and open your awareness.
Let your mind wander to the concept of curiosity. How do you feel about your curiosity? Do you have a good relationship with your curiosity? Contemplate the role of curiosity in your life.
Give your curiosity a name, like Whiskers. Engage in a conversation with Whiskers. If you are naturally curious it should be rather easy to hear its voice and hear the name it wants to be called. If you tend to be more cautious it may take some time to hear that voice clearly. (Pause.)
Ask your curiosity to tell you how to be more connected with it. Listen to what is needed to bring your curiosity out more often. How can you have a healthy relationship with your curiosity? (Pause.)
Sit in conversation with your curiosity for as long as you want. When you feel ready, bring your focus back to your breath. Breathe in and out, paying attention to the flow of air as it comes and goes in your body.
When you are ready, open your eyes, slowly get up, and write down anything important or interesting in your journal.
Interpersonal Development
The following exercises will help your creativity grow in relation to others. Through this next section you will be able to discover how to honor the creativity in others and how to make sure that you take up the right amount of creative space. All that we do is connected to other people. How can you make these relationships more creative and fulfilling?
Discovering Creativity
Love Artists
Creativity should be fun—and maybe even easy. In order to honor creativity in your interpersonal relationships, go out and explore art. Go to a museum, attend the ballet, check out a local exhibit, watch a high school play, find several artists that you totally love. The only way you can find artists that you love is to go and see art. If you live in a more rural environment with less access to artistic endeavors, look up images online. Use sites like Instagram or DeviantArt to check out what people are creating.
Find art that you love and then share it with your friends, family, and other art lovers in your life. And make sure that you tell these artists that you love their work. Wait for them after a play, send them an email to their online shop, walk up at that exhibit and tell them their work touched you. You’ll be glad you did and so will they!
Discovering Creativity Taking Up Space
Many folks find it a challenge to be creative because they fear taking up too much space. They hide their skills and talents in order to make room for others who are better, more talented, or more highly skilled or trained. Creativity asks us to take up the right amount of space. Determining your “right size” may be a challenge. The following trance is a process of taking up space and discovering what is your right size. This can be done on your own or with a group of people. If you work with others through this process, make sure that you leave time afterwards to share how the experience was for each of you.
Find a time and place where you can be undisturbed for at least thirty minutes.
Trance: Sit comfortably with your feet flat on the floor. Give yourself the luxury of a breath. Breathe in and out, slowly and intentionally. Feel the air push your blood through your body. Feel your lungs expand with each inhale.
Sink into yourself and expand into your edges; this body that you have is fully and completely yours. What does it feel like to fully take up the space of your body? (Pause.) How is it to breathe into your feet and the top of your head at the same time? (Pause.) How is it to fully inhabit your body? (Pause.) Sit like this for some time, fully taking up your space. Many of us never take up our full space. Take up all of it now. (Long pause.)
Now expand that awareness. (Pause.) Inhabit the space that is right in front of you, right behind you, right above you, and right below you. (Pause) How is it to take up this much more space? (Long pause.)
What if you could expand yourself even further? (Pause.) Can you send your awareness into the sky above you? (Pause.) Can you move all the way into space to the moon, to the sun? (Pause.) What about below you? Can you send your awareness down into the ground below you? (Pause.) What about deeper than that, what about to the core of the earth? (Pause.)
Allow your awareness to come back into your body. (Pause.) What is your right size? How full is your awareness when you are taking up your full amount of space? (Pause.) Can you adjust yourself to fill up the right amount of space, not too much, not too little? (Pause.) How does it feel to be fully you in your best and right size? (Long pause.)
Return to noticing your breath, the regular inhalation and exhalation of your lungs. Let your awareness come back down into your body—again fully against the edges of your skin. (Pause.) Let yourself come back fully into this time and place, opening your eyes slowly when you feel ready.
Write down anything important or interesting that may have come up for you when your awareness was shifted.
Community Development
Creativity serves our communities. In many places around the world, access to museums is free. In many places, access to museums is free on certain days of the year or for locals. Finding access to artwork and the art that is being created by your local community can tell you a lot about what is going on in your corner of the world. The following exercise is designed to help you tap into that community creativity.
Discovering Creativity Art Project
It would be impossible to dig into the energy of creativity without creating something. Perhaps you are already a skilled artist, perhaps not. It doesn’t matter. What does matter is that you create something. The possibilities are endless, which may feel daunting. But choose a medium that requires you to use your hands: paint, sculpt, make a collage, draw, carve, cut, paste, or glue. Do something you’ve never done before.
Now comes the real challenge. Once you have completed the project, give it away. Maybe you give this as a gift to a friend or family member. Perhaps you share your creation on social media. Maybe you leave your artwork in a place for someone to stumble across and enjoy. Be brave and reveal the creativity that you possess. Imagine what creativity your bravery might inspire in others.
Global Development
Creativity speaks to us in ways talking to each other never can. You can learn so much about a culture or community by their artwork and creative expressions. Imagine what the global creative message might be. The following ritual is for personal, interpersonal, and community exploration. But I encourage you to use the following ritual as a way to delve into the creative spirit of the globe.
Ritual: Mirror Scrying
This ritual is to practice divination using your beauty mirror as the divinatory mode. Divination is a tool to help you tap into your own natural intuitive psychic abilities. As with everything in life, this may be easier for some folks than it is for others. Scrying takes patience—and the right tool.
One of my mentors practiced scrying into a crystal ball for years with no success. She believed that she just wasn’t gifted with that skill. Her partner suggested she try using a different type of stone than quartz crystal. So she tried a black obsidian sphere. This was an amazing success for her.
If you try scrying with your beauty mirror and don’t get good results, keep practicing. If after several tries of mirror scrying you still have no results, try a different object. If your beauty mirror doesn’t work, try a black mirror. Just keep practicing.
Supplies: Your beauty mirror, a candle, and your journal.
Set Up: On a table where you can sit comfortably, place the lit candle and your beauty mirror and have your journal handy. Have the space be as dark as possible, only lit by the candle if you can.
Ritual: Take a deep breath and bring yourself into full awareness. Breathe deep into your belly, put your hand on your center, and let yourself settle into the current time and place.
Pick up your beauty mirror and while holding it in your hands, begin to run the Beauty Pentacle. Say the points of the pentacle out loud as the energy flows through your body: beauty, devotion, creativity, desire, expression. Ask to be shown how to access global creativity. When you feel ready, look into the mirror and watch your reflection for a few minutes.
Adjust the mirror so you can see the reflection of the flame in the surface of the mirror. Let your eyes go soft as you watch the flickering colors of the fire. Through your altered vision, take note of any shapes, letters, numbers, or images that come through the reflection. It is not uncommon to watch a little scene play out in the candle flame. If you notice your thoughts getting pulled away or distracted, just take a breath and refocus on the flame.
Write down what you see as it comes across your vision. Don’t worry about the images making sense or fitting into a specific situation. Messages from scrying don’t always make linear sense or have a clear and obvious point. Just write down anything you see.
When the images stop flowing or you feel complete in this process, thank your mirror for its wisdom. Thank the candle flame for its wisdom and then blow it out. Turn on some lights and read through your notes. Start to put the pieces of what came through together. Does anything obvious stand out? Are there any clear messages? Is there a message that you need to follow up on?
Final Creativity Ritual
For this ritual you will need several hours to devote to the process. This ritual is designed for a solitary practitioner but could be easily adapted for a group.
Supplies: Athame, vase of flowers, incense, bowl of salt water, a stone or crystal, your purple candle, art supplies in whatever medium you prefer, and your favorite music.
Set Up: Play your favorite music in the background as you set up your altar. You can use your beauty altar or set up an altar just for this ritual. Set up your art supplies in a way that they can be used during your ritual. Have the vase of flowers, bowl of salt water, the stone or crystal, incense, purple candle, and athame on the altar space close by.
Ritual: Light the incense and walk it around your ritual space. When you have completed this process, use the incense smoke around your body as a smoke cleanse. Pick up your athame and draw an energetic circle around your ritual space with the blade of your knife pointing outward. Start in the north and end in the north after a full rotation.
Call upon any guides, guardians, godds, or allies that you might want to join you in this working. Invite them into your circle by speaking from your heart.
Call upon your creativity. Invite your creativity into the circle as an ally and guide. Speak from your heart and make space for your creative self to fully take up your ritual space.
Pick up your art supplies and start creating. Paint or draw, carve or sing, play drums or cut out images, make jewelry or candles, do whatever style of art that you enjoy or feel called to play with. Let this process take as long as it needs to.
When you feel complete with your art piece, take it to the altar. Run the art piece through the smoke of the incense and say this: Blessed by the spirit of air.
Run your art piece through the candle flame and say this: Blessed by the spirit of fire.
Sprinkle your art piece with the salt water and say this: Blessed by the spirit of water.
Set your art piece on the stone or crystal and say this: Blessed by the spirit of earth.
Show your art piece to any godds, ancestors, or allies that you may have invited into your ritual. Explain to them what you have made and why you decided to make this piece. Ask for their blessing and speak from your heart.
Set your artwork down in a safe place or hang it up if you can.
Step back to your altar and open your circle using your athame. Slice through the energetic barrier that you created at the beginning of the ritual, releasing the circle as you move.
Welcome back.
check-in
how’s it going?
Take out your journal and consider the following questions. After working through the creativity point, how have your feelings on creativity changed? Do you find yourself noticing beauty in the world around you more often? Look back over the challenges that you’ve faced and write what comes up for you when you see all that you have accomplished.