Definitions: (1) to bring into being; to originate; to cause to exist; (2) characterized by originality and execution of thought; (3) forming something new; inventive
Synonyms: constitutive, generative, productive, resourceful
Balancing Qualities: Ability, Harmony, Practicality, Responsibility, Talented
Compatible Qualities: adaptability, devoted, dreaming, flexible, humorous, playful, whimsical
Familial and Consequential Qualities: Three qualities work well with creativity: curiosity, courage, and confidence.
In order to be courageous, in the inventive sense, one needs a measure of curiosity. Curiosity creates the positive impetus to venture into an unknown situation. Your fear says there may also be difficulty in that place, but your inquisitiveness, your sense of wonder, can be your guiding light. How will this new experience relate to something I really want? What does it look like? What does it feel like? What does it taste like? This is how curiosity leads to courage. Once you experience some courage, you become confident. Confidence allows you to commit to a course of action that surely will foster difficulty but also will lead to the accomplishment of your goal and many experiences of joy and growth. You are then literally becoming a new person.
People Who Exemplify This Quality:
There are different avenues and types of creativity.
• Imhotep (27th century BC) [Pyramid Builder]
• William Shakespeare (1564-1616) [Words]
• Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) [Music]
• Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) [Politics]
• Albert Einstein (1879-1955) [Math]
• Isadora Duncan (1877-1927) [Dance]
• Ieoh Ming [I. M.] Pei (1917-2019) [Architecture]
• Jonathan Winters (1925-2013) [Comedy]
Quotes:
• We are creators! And creators act. — Jacquelyn Small, Transformers, the Therapists of the Future {1982}
• It is the creative potential itself in human beings that is the image of God. — Mary Daly (1928-2010) American theologian
• Creative thinking may simply mean the realization that there’s no particular virtue in doing things the way they have always been done. — Rudolf Flesch (1911-1986) Readability expert
• Why should we all use our creative power? Because there is nothing that makes people so generous, joyful, lively, bold, and compassionate. — Brenda Ueland (1891-1985) American writer
• Creating, I have concluded, is the best window to the universe I know. … If anything could truly change the face of our civilization, it is the creative process. — Robert Jordan Fritz (1943-) The Path of Least Resistance {1984}
Notes:
• In Mr. Fritz’s quote one could substitute any favorite quality. Every quality is transformative.
• Fritz also says if you use your feelings as a standard of measurement, you will always gravitate toward what is familiar. But if you are creating something new, then by its very nature, your pursuit will be and therefore feel unfamiliar. If you cannot depend upon feelings, then it is the quality of wonder taking you forward.
Observation: One of the hardest parts of being original is getting outside of the existing paradigms, especially when the established prototype is a good one. If flapping birds are the only model, how can humans believe they can fly?
Tips:
• Fight destruction with creation.
• Use your natural and developed abilities in your creative endeavors.
• Conflict inhibits the creative function of the inner life. It is like a civil war in the personality. Be creative in resolving conflict.
Suggestions:
• Leaving all your options open is good at the outset, but it is deadly to finalizing a creation. Commit to a particular route and reduce the possibilities as you progress. The goal is a single point. Having a contingency, a Plan B if you fail, is reasonable, but having too many options is not workable.
• When that inner negative voice says you don’t have the money, you don’t have the will, you don’t have the ability – some of which is probably true – you are telling yourself you need to develop the qualities you do not possess. If you’ve got a grand idea, then go get the education, or the talent, or the backing. It takes courage to be creative.
• It takes time for the two sides of the creative process: absorption and execution. The fact that creativity ebbs and flows is a good reason to get the gifts of the muse down on paper, into a tape recorder, or onto a sketchbook when she is whispering in your ear.
If you are bathing continuously in your creative juices, you will not have time for the realistic application of your creation. You need to project it, to three-dimensionalize it, to turn it into that which it needs to become. After the surge of the creative spark, return to the idea at a more normal time, and in a practical manner accept the challenge to enhance your idea. You will also re-stir your creativity when you go back to your sketch and see the flash of brilliance there, ready to be expanded from a simple notion into a concept and, finally, a substantive reality.
Symbols: 1) dance; 2) the spiral; 3) the storm; 4) a volcano; 5) Aries (The Zodiac); 6) the Minstrel (Tarot); 7) the mouth [speech]; 8) the spider [web spinning]; 9) weaving [warp = passive; woof = active]; 10) the letter ‘r’
Note: Juan Eduardo Cirlot Laporta (1916-1973) in A Dictionary of Symbols {1962}, points out that the trilled r is onomatopoeic, alluding to thunder as the symbol of creative power. It is for this reason most verbs in almost all languages contain the letter r.
Mythological Figures: 1) Bel, the Father of the Babylonian gods, the creator of the world and all its people; 2) Osiris, the primary Egyptian deity, is the source of fruitfulness and life, the sum of all benefits, creator and god of the Nile
Theological Figures: Brahma {The Creator} [the supreme god in the Hindu Trimurti]; Ahura Mazda {The lord of light and wisdom} [the highest deity of worship in Zoroastrianism]; God by any other name