Making art is a shamanic act that moves through the medicine wheel. JP explains this powerful native paradigm and how we travel the wheel when we make art.
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Hi, I’m John Paul Fischbach. I’m the Chief Alchemist here at the Auspicious Arts Incubator and I welcome you to another exciting Hot Tip Tuesday. As some of you know I have a past that includes a lot of work in the shamanic realms. I’ve travelled with Native American Medicine Men and Native American Medicine Women for years and years. After 20 or 30 years travelling with these people and adopting these practices it’s come into my life and it’s now part of how I work as an artist. A lot of people have asked me could I please share some of that shamanic perspective with you guys, so I’m happy to.
I think the best thing that I can do is to help explain the artist medicine wheel. I think as an artist you’re a holistic artist. One of the ways to embrace the holistic part of being an artist is to travel the medicine wheel. The medicine wheel is just a paradigm. It’s a circle that identifies four directions north, south, east and west because wherever you stand on this earth there will be the four directions around you. You can look to those directions for guidance.
In certain Native American cultures those directions are given attributes. They can be emotions. They can be feelings. They can be states of being. They can be seasons of the year. We’re going to take you through a little medicine wheel right now that walks you through the body, the heart, the mind and the spirit.
Try this out. Your art is a result of travelling this wheel. We start in the south with the body. There are things that you can do to stretch and awaken the body, get the blood moving. Once the body is awakened you move to the west and that awakens the heart. You have emotions and feelings. Once the heart is awakened you move to the east and the mind starts filling with thoughts and ideas.
Once that starts to happen you move to the north and you’re given vision and ideas spring from nowhere. That encourages you to go back to the south and take action and set the body in motion. Once the body is in motion the heart is in motion. Once the heart is in motion you move over to the mind. Once the mind is in motion the spirit happens and it awakens and encourages the body to move. You keep travelling the wheel in this fashion and that’s where you create art.
Similarly as an artist if you have a block, look back at the part of the wheel just before that. If you don’t have a clear vision what does your mind say? If your mind isn’t having good, clear thoughts, what’s going on in your heart? If you heart is heavy, what’s happening in the body? It’s a beautiful paradigm that can really help you.
I hope this quick journey into some of my shamanic practices has been helpful. If it has been please like the video. If you know someone else you’d love to share this with please share the video. If you have any comments you’d like to make or any questions please do that below. We really want you to more than survive we’re keen that you thrive. One of the best ways to thrive is to subscribe so we’ll see you here every Tuesday for another hot tip.
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