In my review for the "My Artist's Way Toolkit," I mentioned that the book and accompanying site had a spiritual aspect to them that I would address at a later time. That post was already far too long.
Before beginning The Artist's Way book, I noticed the subtitle, A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity. Wanting to know what that meant, I did a little digging. The book has multiple references to God. The author of The Artist's Way, Julia Cameron, is most likely a Christian. I'm not sure if she ever states that outright.
However, on the first pages of the book, she addresses the way in which she is using God and suggests ways for others to think about it. If a religious God isn't your thing, she recommends thinking of God instead as the Universe or whatever higher power you do believe in or even as an acronym for "good orderly direction."
This worked for me. I was raised in a strict, conservative, Christian home. As an adult, I'm not sure how I would define my beliefs exactly. I believe in something. I believe in treating others with kindness. I believe in a certain moral code. I believe in allowing others to live within theirs. So substituting the Universe whenever she referenced God was okay for me. The Universe provides me with creative ideas. That kind of thing.
So to my friends who asked for a report regarding the spirituality aspect of the book, I can say that for me, it was okay. I think she actually managed to present the ideas in a manner that could work for most people, which I'd imagine was tricky. If that concession of substituting your own idea for God isn't something you're comfortable with, or if you don't believe in any kind of higher power or general order, it might be more difficult.
I also said in that other post that I'd address how I tackle self-help books/instructional guides/how-tos. I'll do that tomorrow or Friday.
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
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3 comments:
That sounds exactly like the way my mom looks at the world and taught us. She always called whatever the higher power type thing is, "The Universe." It took a long time for me to figure out what my beliefs are called, and I found that it is called Agnostic Theism. I believe there is "The Universe" but also believe that it is impossible to "know" for sure what that is.
Thank you for your review - it made me go and look at it on Amazon. It's my next read book because I did like what I read about it and appears to be what I'm looking for at the moment. :-)
That's good that she included her beliefs while not trying to force them on others.
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