An entire culture can accept a particular story and through the faculty of the imagination, give it great power. We have a choice what to believe and imagine…so which do you prefer to imagine—war and poverty or peace and plenty? We can create fear or bliss, if we choose, through the stories that we imagine, through the thoughts that we entertain.
Through the power of imagination, we bring that which is formless into form. Imagination is our key to manifestation, so if we are having any problems in our lives—a prosperity challenge—if there is not enough money coming in, a health challenge, or a difficult relationship, no intimate relationship at all, the issue of finding our right work, or confusion about our purpose and mission—creative imagination is a key to manifesting our heart’s desires.
Some of us may not think we are very creative. We do not have to be an artist, a musician, a dancer, or a writer to be creative. We are creative if we have ever had to figure out how to accomplish a goal. Perhaps it was figuring out a plan to save money each month or knowing what to say to someone. The artist is not a different kind of person, but every person is a different kind of artist. And creative thinking may simply mean the realization that there is no particular virtue in doing things the way they have always been done.
Creativity says that we can get out of the box. We can suspend our feelings and sacrifice an old way of thinking for a new one. We have a responsibility to use our imagination positively. We can ask ourselves, “Am I creating my life as a work of art? What are my spiritual gifts? And am I following my bliss?” (In the words of Joseph Campbell)
Sometimes our wounding will lead us. Psychologist Jean Houston says that one way toward holiness is being punched full of holes by life. She stresses that wounding is an age-old training ground for teachers and healers in order to discover what is trying to be born in us from our wounds. What gift might be pressing for delivery?
It’s important to stop reciting the small story about it—the particulars, the details—and tell the larger story. “Tell the tale anew,” she says, “this time with the wounding at the middle of the story.
“Instead of seeing a childhood illness that keeps you bedridden and isolated as the cause of you later becoming a writer or a monk,” says James Hillman, “how about imagining the call arranging for the illness so that you might practice for your later work? Instead of seeing children who stutter or cower or are excruciatingly shy, as having developmental problems—consider that they might have some great thing inside them—that their symptoms are protecting a gift.”
At the least this approach recasts victimization as preparation and disability as training. The puzzle becomes then, not how did I get this way or why did this happen to me—but what does my angel want with me? What is the gift or the prize?
We have the power to imagine and tell our stories (beliefs) in a new, empowering way. Take time to imagine your heart’s desire. If there is an “old story” holding you back, determine how you can tell it anew.
Keep seeing the new, larger story, fuel it with your faith and feeling, and then watch it come true!
Love & Blessings,
Rev. Kathy