Michelle Rothwell | February 28, 2020 | Categories: Articles

One customary form of advice for growing your creative
practice recommends that you refine “what you already know, what you already have, and what you already do.” If you follow this advice to the letter, you will remain fundamentally the same as you were, but perhaps with more polish, more information, or more efficiency. Models for this type of basic growth may add enhancements or embellishments, but their intent is not to transform you in a total and profound way. It takes courage to seek a different path.

The Hero’s Journey is a potent and revolutionary act of transformation. It can be frightening or difficult to change substantially most of what you know and utilize in your practice. As Campbell describes, old beliefs and patterns that no longer serve you must fall away or be discarded. Only then can you access the freedom to be reborn with new powers and perspectives. As applied to developing our Creativity, launching a personal transformation can initiate lasting change, shedding older or outmoded practices and replace them with newer or more potent ones.

A natural model for a complete reinvention is found in the process of metamorphosis that turns a caterpillar into a butterfly. This remarkable and wondrous achievement incorporates distinctive stages that are much more than simple alterations or linear change. Each stage of the unfolding drama has a different function and purpose. A total reworking of ‘anatomy’ is necessary to turn an immature figure into the adult form.

The power of metamorphosis is astonishing. An egg first becomes an earth-bound and drab-looking caterpillar, before morphing completely into a brightly-colored spectacle that calls the sky its home. The process that accomplishes this change seems miraculous. The caterpillar develops into a new entity, an entirely different creature. The mysterious, inner workings of the chrysalis provide us with evidence that a profound, sublime force exists in Nature with the power to reshape, reinvent, and recreate.

Your creative practice can be reshaped, reinvented, and recreated, too. The reality of metamorphosis can provide you with all the reassurance necessary to approach your creative transformation with confidence instead of fear. If you can accept the indispensable nature of each stage of transformation, you can be fully present for each distinct engagement of the process. Each opportunity you encounter has a purpose. The more willing you are to embrace change, the greater the degree of creative power and self-actualization you will be able to attain.