The Artist

The artist is visual in an abstract way–her mind is flooded by images and memories from the past. She accepts the mental pressure and waits until the images assume some kind of order. Looking back she can make sense of past events, reorganize them and create resolution that takes herself and others out of confusion.

The genius of this archetype is grounded in the right hemisphere of the brain. Information and inspiration come as spontaneous downloads. An entire idea seems to appear out of nothing, without the sequential gifts of logic.

One moment, there is nothing, and the next moment, there is an epiphany. It’s not possible to force a right-brained inspiration into a linear sequence. The artist has her own timing, and she can’t force anything into manifestation. She has to make peace with not knowing how things are going to happen. This is the tantric way of living.

The artist is endlessly inquiring. She can take anything apart and turn everything inside out for contemplation, for understanding, for inspiration, and to grasp its significance. She loves to play with philosophies and belief systems, seeking new understanding of patterns and relationships, interconnectivity and expansion.

Sometimes, it is the grappling through the exploration from which artistic expression occurs. Sometimes it is the breakthrough that inspires artistic expression, through poetry, music, dance, movement, contemplation, design--the artist knows no bounds in how the creative expression occurs.

With endless ways of expressing her creativity, her art is honest, abstract, courageous, illogical and wild. This takes her to places where no one has been before.

The Artist has a powerful relationship to the Alchemist (47). These two archetypes are not afraid to visit the demons of the underworld and give them voice and shape. In their fearlessness, the symbolical beings of the underworld can start revealing their true nature. When there is no more repression, light can emerge as the shadows find their way to the higher frequencies through imagination and artistic expression. This is a deeply alchemical process that ultimately frees humanity from the self-imposed spell of oppression.

The Artist has a close relationship with the Detective (63). If the Detective naturally bases his work on the left hemisphere of the brain, the Artist is his perfect complement in her more abstract, aesthetic, and creative way of approaching everything.

These two archetypes represent the two wings of yoga and tantra, which can be seen as opposite paths towards the same ultimate reality. Yoga is the path of discipline aiming at a gradual attainment of higher truth, whereas tantra is the path of surrender which allows sudden leaps in consciousness. On the uncharted path of tantra the artist says yes to everything that comes before her. It’s a path of openness where she surrenders to pleasure and pain without resistance or preference.

It takes willingness to feel pain. The tantric path well beyond the logic of the mind. As the inner spirit decides to face who we really are and what is really there, the mind has no power over us anymore. This is the path of a wild soul that loves rawness, spontaneity and paradox. It’s a path that can only be lived from the heart moment by moment achingly alive.