SOLITUDE

“Every kind of creative work demands solitude, and being alone, constructively alone, is a prerequisite for every phase of the creative process.” ~ Barbara Powell

Solitude, a word that comes from the Latin “solus,” is akin to the Greek word “holos,” signifying whole, entire.

You’d be hard pressed to find a creative person who isn’t poignantly aware of their existential aloneness, and yet, like anyone else, they live in relationship. However, often, instead of social relationships, they rely upon deep, abiding relationships with the ineffable intimations of their gift. There’s a sense of partnership with the unseen–the muse, the unconscious, the universe–to get their work done.

And so the creative person working in solitude are not really “alone.” They have an intense affairs with aspects of the self and with the numinous. Henry James once said that the “essential loneliness” of his life constituted his “deepest” aspect.

The quality of relationship with one’s own inner dynamics, which are nurtured in solitude, provide the conditions for creation. The feeling arises, when we are creating, that we are doing what we are meant to do and it is sustained by the experience of being touched by something larger– a communion experience that one simply cannot explain, but instead must honor and serve.

“The strongest man is the one who stands most alone.” ~Henrik Ibsen

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