Notes

In Week 6, I loved what she had to say about God:

• This week, in your Morning Pages, write about the god you do believe in and the god you would like to believe in.
• For some of us, this means, “What if God’s a woman and she’s on my side?” For others, it is a god of energy. For still others, a collective of higher forces moving us toward our highest good.
• If you are still dealing with a god consciousness that has remained unexamined since childhood, you are probably dealing with a toxic god.
• What would a nontoxic god think of your creative goals? Might such a god really exist? If so, would money or your job or your lover remain your higher power?

Artist Affirmations

I am a talented person.
I have a right to be an artist.
I am a good person and a good artist.
Creativity is a blessing I accept.
My creativity blesses others.
My creativity is appreciated.
I now treat myself and my creativity more gently.
I now treat myself and my creativity more generously.
I now share my creativity more openly.
I now accept hope.
I now act affirmatively.
I now accept creative recovery.
I now allow myself to heal.
I now accept God’s help unfolding my life.
I now believe God loves artists.

Sacred Circle Rules

1. Creativity flourishes in a place of safety and acceptance.
2. Creative feedback must build on strengths, never focus on weaknesses.
3. Creativity grows among friends, withers among enemies.
4. All creative ideas are children who deserve our protection.
5. All creative success requires creative failure.
6. Fulfilling our creativity is a sacred trust.
7. Violating someone’s creativity violates a sacred trust.
8. Creative feedback must support the creative child, never shame it.
9. Success occurs in clusters and is born in generosity.
10. The good of another can never block our own.

Above All: God is the source. No human power can deflect our good or create it.

An Artist’s Prayer

O Great Creator
We are gathered together in your name That we may be of greater service to you And to our fellows.
We offer ourselves to you as instruments.
We open ourselves to your creativity in our lives.
We surrender to you our old ideas.
We welcome your new and more expansive ideas.
We trust that you will lead us.
We trust that it is safe to follow you.
We know you created us and that creativity Is your nature and our own.
We ask you to unfold our lives
According to your plan, not our low self-worth.
Help us to believe that it is not too late And that we are not too small or too flawed To be healed—
By you and through each other-and made whole.
Help us to love one another, To nurture each other’s unfolding, To encourage each other’s growth, And understand each other’s fears.
Help us to know that we are not alone, That we are loved and lovable.
Help us to create as an act of worship to you.