The Changing Weave
of Writing, Creativity and Ritual:
The Core of the Inner Work at Samasati
(Please note that this work is in addition to our daily writing workshops).

Although the structure of the retreat remains stable year after year, the inner work, which is the heart of the retreat, is ever-growing and changing. It must for the retreat to remain vital for me as well as for you.

I expect the work of the retreat to change every year although I never know how until the change begins to make itself known to me. It always does around February (why, I don't know, but this is what happens!) and this year is no different. Somehow the work of the retreat manifests itself and it's always an exciting experience for me.

We will have writing workshops and our very important session in which we read and critique, but I am seeing the thread of journeying and the spiritual dimension of the creativity work deepening. The ideas I am exploring are these:

• Creativity as the Journey of the Soul.
  
  
• The Priestess Archetype as a guide to deeper creativity

1. The Priestess Archetype as a Guide to a Deeper Creativity.

The priestess archetype, which is particularly powerful for us as creative women, has been all but scourged from Western culture until recently. What does the priestess archetype offer us? Intuition, the bridge to sacred wisdom, the deeper mysteries of life. To me, this is the essence of the creative journey that we as creative women and writers take.

Women walk very differently on a spiritual path when we are fully encouraged to express our soulful nature. The soul itself is described as feminine by many sources, being at once wild, willful, chaotic, earthy, sensual, sweet, deeply emotional, passionate and compassionate. This is the fertile home that we will explore through the priestess archetype in Costa Rica.

2. Creativity as the Journey of the Soul

Most of us delegate our creativity to our writing and "other creative work." We compartmentalize our writing as something we "do", something that is outside our "normal life" - even outside our "real life." By compartmentalizing our creativity an separating it from our everyday life, we ensure that our writing will suffer; we will be in an anxious rather than a fluid relationship with our creativity.

I am coming to see that the more we allow the creative flow to support and enliven our life "outside our writing", the more integrated writing and life will be. Writing no longer is something we must "find time for", something we have to "fit into our busy schedule"; rather, writing becomes a natural outflow from life itself, just as life becomes a natural outflow of our writing. The more I explore this, the more effortless my own writing becomes. It is no longer, "Oh, my God, I have to sit down and write." Rather, the desire to write becomes a gentle guide to the writing itself.

This isn't something that our minds, stomping ground of the Inner Critic, can easily grasp. In fact, if we try to embrace this flow as a concept, it can become scary. This Life Flow is an experience that rises up from the knowing within the cosmic inner world of our deepest being. This is the experience we will open to in Costa Rica, and I believe that by calling forth the Priestess Archetype, we will find a ready, gentle but powerful guide. And what better surroundings than a rainforest, a vibrant expression of the fecund feminine embracing us at every turn.

The Priestess Archetype … Creativity as The Journey of the Soul

These two concepts weave together powerfully and offer both insight and opportunity for women whose creativity dares to burn brightly and passionately. For what is a priestess? What was a priestess?

• A priestess is she who tells stories.

• A priestess is she who teaches.

• A priestess is she who heals.

• A priestess is she who holds the intuitive nature of all creation as sacred.

• A priestess is she who can travel beyond the veils, the guardian of the hidden knowledge that is our intuition.

And here we come full circle, for intuition is a deep knowing that arrives without words and is ungraspable by the mind. Our intuition, held sacred by the energy of the Priestess Archetype, is integral to our creativity and takes us home.

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