A process for creative expansion inside The Greater Edge
Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way has been an important part of my own creative recovery and expansion time and time again, helping me reconnect with creativity, possibility, self-trust, and the part of me that wants to create, over the past few years since I discovered this amazing 12-week process.
And I want to implement it into The Greater Edge as a collective practice for an ongoing Creative Expansion, every 12 weeks, for anyone who wants to have a space to join and take part in it together.
The structure is simple:
- → Read one chapter each week
- → Write Morning Pages daily
- → Take one Artist Date each week
- → Do exercises at the end of each chapter (although, optional)
- → Share what we’re discovering or experiencing
- → Take creative action
A Non-Hierarchical Peer-Run Collective Process
Here is the first thing I’d like to cover: Do I need permission to teach the artist’s way or other books by Julia?
No. Anyone can teach the course or begin a cluster by using the book and following the guidelines below. It is Julia’s belief that creative recovery at its best is a nonhierarchical, peer-run, collective process.
Guidelines
Use a twelve-week process with a weekly gathering of two to three hours. Morning Pages and Artist Dates are expected of everyone in the group, including facilitators. The tasks are done in order in the group, with everyone, including the facilitator, answering the questions and then sharing the answers in clusters of four. Do only one chapter per week. Do not share your Morning Pages with the group or anyone else. Do not reread your Morning Pages until later in the course, if you are asked to do so by your facilitator or your own inner guidance.
- We will do our gatherings in the community chats here on Substack, see more details at the bottom of this post.
Avoid self-appointed gurus. If there is any emissary, it is the work itself, as a collective composed of all who take the course. Each person is equally a part of the collective, no one more than another. While there may be “teachers,” facilitators who are relied on during the twelve-week period to guide others down the path, such people need to be prepared to share their own material and take their own creative risks. This is an egalitarian group process rather than a hierarchical one.
Listen. We each get what we need from the group process by sharing our own material and by listening to others. We do not need to comment on another person’s sharing in order to help that person. We must refrain from trying to “fix” someone else. When listening, go around the circle without commenting unduly on what is heard. We are intended to witness, not control, one another.
Respect one another. Be certain that respect and compassion are afforded equally to every member. No one is to be “fixed” by another member of the group. This is a deep and powerful internal process. Love is important. Be kind to yourself. Be kind to one another.
Expect change in the group makeup. Many people will, some will not, fulfill the twelve-week process. Many groups have a tendency to drive apart at eight to ten weeks (creative U-turns) because of the feelings of loss associated with the group’s ending. Face the truth as a group; it may help you stay together. There is often a rebellious or fallow period after the twelve weeks, with people returning to the disciplines later. When they do, they continue to find the process unfolding within them a year, a few years, or many years later.
Be autonomous. You cannot control your own process, let alone anyone else’s. Even when you feel nothing is happening, you will be changing at great velocity. This change is a deepening into your own intuition, your own creative self. The structure of the course is about safely getting across the bridge into new realms of creative spiritual awareness. You cannot do this process perfectly, so relax, be kind to yourself, and hold on to your hat.
Be self-loving. If the facilitator feels somehow “wrong” to you, change clusters or start your own. Seek your own inner guidance rather than outer guidance. You are seeking to form an artist-to-artist relationship with the Great Creator. You have your own answers within you.
All of Julia’s books are experiential books intended to teach people to process and transform life through acts of creativity. All books and all creative clusters should be practiced through creative action, not through theory.
How we’ll do this inside The Greater Edge
Every 12 weeks, I’ll open a new Creative Expansion cycle here on Substack for anyone who wants to join.
To participate:
1. Subscribe to The Greater Edge.
This is where I’ll post the weekly prompts and information for each cycle.
2. Get your copy of The Artist’s Way.
We’ll work directly from Julia Cameron’s book, one chapter at a time.
3. Join the current 12-week cycle.
Each week, I’ll open the week’s chapter and we’ll move through the process together.
4. Show up for the practice.
Morning Pages. Artist Dates. The weekly exercises. Creative action.
5. Join the conversation.
We’ll use the Substack community to share what we’re discovering, connect with one another, and support the process.
Who is this for?
This is for anyone who feels there is something more in them that wants to be created, expressed, explored, or lived.
You might be:
- → Feeling creatively stuck or disconnected from a part of yourself you once felt close to.
- → Carrying an idea, dream, project, or possibility that you haven’t been able to bring into the world.
- → At a transition point in your life and sensing that something new wants to emerge.
- → Wanting to reconnect with yourself and hear your own voice more clearly.
- → Looking for a creative community where you can explore elements of self-discovery.
- → Already creating but wanting to deepen your relationship with your creativity and creative process.
- → Simply curious about what might become possible if you gave your creativity twelve weeks of dedicated attention.
If something in you is ready to create again, this is for you.
Subscribed to Join the First 12-Weeks of Creative Expansion on my Substack:
https://thegreateredge.substack.com
Here is the Schedule.
Each week, I’ll open the week’s chapter and we’ll move through the process together.
This week is the week of the Introduction chapter.
At the start of every week, in addition to each post, I will open up a community thread to begin conversations around the respective chapters for those interested in joining the 12-week process.
October 5th : Week 1 Chapter post+thread – Recovering a Sense of Safety
October 12th : Week 2 Chapter post+thread – Recovering a Sense of Identity
October 19th : Week 3 Chapter post+thread – Recovering a Sense of Power
October 26th : Week 4 Chapter post+thread – Recovering a Sense of Integrity
November 2nd : Week 5 Chapter post+thread – Recovering a Sense of Possibility
November 9th : Week 6 Chapter post+thread – Recovering a Sense of Abundance
November 16th : Week 7 Chapter post+thread – Recovering a Sense of Connection
November 23rd : Week 8 Chapter post+thread – Recovering a Sense of Strength
November 30th : Week 9 Chapter post+thread – Recovering a Sense of Compassion
November 7th: Week 10 Chapter post+thread – Recovering a Sense of Self-Protection
December 14th : Week 11 Chapter post+thread – Recovering a Sense of Autonomy
December 21st : Week 12 Chapter post+thread – Recovering a Sense of Faith
There will be no virtual gatherings at the moment, we will keep in touch and keep each other accountable through our Community chat threads. This may change in the future based on participation and demand.
Every Saturday, for the week’s end check-in, I will drop another thread, in which we can cover and provide updates to one another as “check-in’s” in the style that is presented in the book:
- How many days this week did you do your morning pages? How was the experience for you?
- Did you do your artist’ dates this week? What did you do? How did it feel?
- Were there any other issues this week that you consider significant for your recovery. Describe them.
This should keep us collectively accountable and create the space to allow us to embark on this process individually and together.
Look forward to connecting to fellow Artists, Creatives, and Creators!
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