REVERENCE

 This card may be showing up for you today to remind you that every part of your creative life is valuable. Making a beautiful dinner is an expression. You don’t have to be making or completing something BIG to be in your creativity.

The Reverence card asks you to trust that your creativity won’t ever go away. It’s an intrinsic part of who you are. Being creative is the same thing as breathing. You don't think about every breath you take. You just breathe.

Creativity is democratic.

Every act of creating, and engaging creatively in your life contributes to the project(s) you are working on. It all matters. You can be working with any medium. Food, fabric, paint, paper, wood, pixels, film, dance, words, plants, wood, numbers, tile, found objects… or a combination in this list!

Our creative expression reflects all sides of who we are, and not just the parts that feel good. Creating things that aren’t beautiful or harmonious is part of being human. Sometimes, our best work comes from the messier, darker parts of ourselves.

Having reverence for our Shadow means accepting the imperfect and raw parts, and letting them show up in what we are making without judgment or hiding. Sometimes the more vulnerable we are willing to be, the more powerful the work is.

Not everything has to be polished or easy to look at. Some of the most honest work comes from what’s uncomfortable. Vincent was able to model this to us in his work. Our creative expression can reflect all sides of who we are.

Having reverence for your own creativity means accepting the ups, the downs, the breaks + pauses that happen and knowing they all matter in shaping what you create. Having reverence means not judging yourself. The message here is: "My creative expression is innate. When I feel connected to myself, I am able to receive what wants to come through me."

Writing Prompts

What are some things I do in my day to day life that are examples of my creative expression?

Do I believe in the concept of Life as Art?

Why or why not? If you could do an abstract painting of an aspect of your shadow, what would it look like?

Vincent van Gogh

Portrait of Joseph Roulin

Arles, 1889

Oil on canvas

25 3/8 x 21 3/4 inches (64.4 x 55.2 cm)

MoMA, The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Joseph Roulin was a postal employee in Arles, and he was also a surrogate “big brother” for the artist, caring for Vincent during the major onset of mental illness that came in 1888, and seeing him through the asylum months of early 1889. He visited him almost every day before the Ear Incident because he delivered the mail to Vincent, and there were many letters! His entire family sat for Vincent and he made portraits of his wife and all of his kids. They were very close friends and you can see the love in the portraits that he did of him.