The First Value of The Everything: ARTISTIC ORIGINALITY – A Sacred Law Perspective

The following is an excerpt from Sacred Law School materials. For more information, see www.sacredlaws.com

We know that the most essential art project we will ever create is the assemblage of our own true natural self. Artistic originality in the sense of the Seven Values, does not exist solely outside of ourselves to be praised or panned; it rather exists in the deepest interior spaces of our core, waiting to be brought out and realized in its individual shining glory. Artistic originality is the pride with which we present ourselves to the world, aware of our effect on the world but not at the effect of the world.

In designing our own selves as an artful creation, there are of course many pitfalls to be avoided. Looking at the Blocks Wheel provides us with one clue. The block that sits in the East, along with artistic originality is repression. Repression squelches the inner and outer light, smothers illumination and shuts down the forward motion of our own evolutionary excellence. But what does it look like in every day life? It plays out as cruelty, small and large. I have thought a lot about cruelty this past season, in all its forms and have come to recognize that cruelty is the world’s face of our repressed shining naturalness. Repression expressed as cruelty makes it impossible to manifest our artistic originality. In other words, cruelty is the result of our repressed shining artistically original natural self.

Cruelty shuts off our own natural kindness and our own natural sense of one-ness leaving us bereft of our connecting link both to spirit and to our inner selves. Cruelty comes in so many forms and has so many faces: gossip that is destined to reach the ears that it shouldn’t, judgments and misunderstandings, pity –driven reactions, senseless criticism, lack of respect for others- including our teachers - and their own expressions, an inability to speak the unspeakable with measured intent, an inability to walk our talk, an inability to dream ourselves forward, seeking revenge for perceived wrongs, lack of support for friends in need, and plain old unpleasantness and the sloppy way we speak to one another or about one another.

The lack of artistic expression and the manifestation of repression as cruelty is sometimes more easily recognized in others than in ourselves. When we experience someone or something as cruel, what we are really experiencing is the attempt to repress or muffle a part of our shining expression of self. Somehow, the artistic originality of our natural self becomes the object of ridicule and repression. It is our task to recognize this for the pettiness that it is and not allow this repression to become our reality. In this way, we can gain a greater understanding of our own sense of self worth without being at the effect of others. It becomes, then, an excellent opportunity to reflect upon the ways in which we repress our own naturalness and the ways in which our path is not guided by our shining..

As Thunder Strikes said in his address to the 23rd SunDance, paraphrased here “Just because you are on a path with heart or in an upper gateway, doesn’t make you a nice person.” I think this statement is a direct reflection of our tendency to repress our natural goodness, our natural spirit’s desire to create ourselves as a healthy, artistic original cell in Great Spirit’s body. We can’t be natural if we are being cruel and repressive.. As committed apprentices and upholders of our SunDance Vows, our natural, artistically original selves must be Rainbow Warriors, shining with the light of the East and for whom repression and cruelty must be below our collective and individual bottom lines. Perhaps as we delve more deeply into our own naturalness we can also delve more deeply into kindness!

The questions are designed to really get to the core of what artistic originality is for the individual. Not every question applies to every person, of course, but at least one or two questions in each aspect should help you probe more deeply. Follow the thread into your own core.

Questions to explore to understand and develop your Artistic Originality….

Heart
Do you express your emotions? At appropriate times? How?
Name the style of your emotional expression.
Are you the controller or are you controlled? Controlled by what?
Are you giving? To whom? Where? How? When? With conditions?
Are others more giving that you? Are you a taker?
What do you do to be liked? To fit in? To belong?
Do you act based on your emotions? What buttons get pushed?
Are you kind? To whom? What does it fulfill inside of you?
Are you unkind or cruel or thoughtless? In what circumstances?
What is your heart’s style? Name it.

Mind
Do you judge yourself on your looks? How? When?
Do you judge others on their looks? How? When?
Do you judge yourself and others in general? Where and when?
Do you see the world in a certain way? Are you ‘right’?
Are you open to discussion about your originality?
Do you expand your mind to expand yourself?
Do you rebel to be different?
Do you believe only in your little world?
How was your world view formed?
Where did the rules you live by come from?
Are these rules really yours?
How are these rules and laws expressed in the world?
How did you decide what was right and wrong?
Where and when do you allow yourself to be unkind or cruel?
Is your cruelty funny? Or clever?
How does your mind express itself? Name its style.

Body
Does your body reflect who you truly are?
What is your body’s style? Name it.
What do you wear that represents who you are?
What do you wear that represents who you desire to be?
Do you put on masks? Where and when?
Do you know you are wearing a mask?
Do you wear different masks under different circumstances?
Can you take off all the masks or put them on at will?
When and where are you maskless – at your most relaxed natural self?
What style is yours? Give it a name.
Does your home reflect who you are? Does it reflect your style?
Name your home’s style.
Do your physical surroundings reflect back to you what you most desire?

Spirit
What do you ‘believe’ in?
What do you have faith in? (Or in whom do you have faith?)
What guides your vision?
Do you believe in energy forces other than the visible ones?
Do you seek guidance? Where? When?
What have you created that is original?
How free are you inside to dream big dreams?
What is your biggest dream?
Do you seek beauty and surround yourself with beauty?
What inspires you?
What feeds your hope?
Are you headed in the ‘right” direction?
Do you do something everyday that moves you towards your dream?
How much time do you spend wishing you could be different?
Where do you shine? How is it expressed?
What sort of style does your spirit have? Name it.

Passion
Where does your drive to be yourself come from?
How free are you to express your sexuality?
Where do you shine sexually? How is it expressed and how often?
Are you embarrassed? By what?
Are you ashamed? Of what?
Are you guilty? About what?
Are you comfortable with who you are?
Have you created yourself in your own image?
What do you desire to create artistically?
How much time do you spend criticizing and analyzing instead of living?
How much unkindness do you spread around every day? How? Where?
How much pleasure do you gain every day? How?
How much pleasure do you give everyday? How?
What is your sexual style? Name it.