Ep #209: The Power of the Written Word and Your Deepest Truth

“I want to be a scribe for the dreams of God.” I wrote that to a writing mentor earlier this year. It felt hella audacious, dangerous even, and also true. What might feel to you dangerous, audacious, and yet simply deeply true?

What might feel bold, out there, even heretical, and simply true? What calling stirs things deep within you, forgotten things, ancient, mysterious things? What imagining of your dream is large and true enough to also capture the interest of story, poem, song, or art that is restless and circling the Earth, searching for the right imagination to bring it to life, to give it a corpus.

Ask and it shall be given unto you, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you. This is the time of year when, in this Northern Hemisphere, the veil between the worlds is most thin. What better time than to knock on the door of your deepest truth, of your unconscious, and ask that the gifts and potential within you be unlocked and pour through you into the world?

What better time to stand at the threshold of mystery, the portal to worlds beyond this three-dimensional reality, call out to what you’ve been seeking, what you’ve long desired to create, and let the universe answer you, the echoes of its own mighty cosmic creative force becoming your dreams made manifest?

The imagination can be an instrument for forces transcendent to the human experience, forces that then flow through our minds and which we then use to sculpt our lives and realities.

The written word has, since ancient times, been a way to channel these transcendent energies and ideas, and in this episode of The Art School Podcast, I’m going to be sharing with you information about a creative salon I recently held for this community; a creative salon in which we used – in ways that delighted, enlivened, surprised, and awakened and nourished the creative spirit – the written word, to tap the alchemical potential within the participants and out in the world.

We explored writing as a tool of divination, manifestation, and the channeling of each person’s innate singular genius. Supporting them to become the artist they’re to be while also empowering them to create both subtle and profound transformation in all areas of life.

It was a special week here in the Art School community, again, during this time when the veil was thin. And I think you’re going to love this episode and the invitation to learn more about what went on and how you can access that same alchemizing power in your own life.

You are listening to The Art School Podcast; a show for artists and creatives who want to become the next greatest version of themselves. Learn how to cultivate an extraordinary way of being and take the mystery out of making money, and the struggle out of making art. Here is your host, master certified life coach, artist, and former lawyer, Leah Badertscher.

Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of The Art School Podcast. So, I am recording this for you early November 2022. We are in the time of year where we just celebrated All Hallows’ Eve, Halloween, All Saints’ Day, All Soul’s Day, Día de los Muertos, The Feast of Samhain.

And so, as I mentioned in the intro, it’s a time when, in this Northern Hemisphere, it’s recognized that the veil is thin; recognized by some of us who are into that kind of thing. The veil is thin. The veil between worlds.

And I thought that would be a particularly incredible context and energy in which to have some very special Art School events and gatherings this last week. And not only were they special. I’d say they were off the charts.

What I want to do in today’s podcast is to invite you to explore those events for yourself. Both were recorded. We had a creative salon/séance. We tapped into some magic. It was so much fun. And tapped into both the mystical and the pragmatic. That’s that place where, as artists, we love to dwell. We are tapping into mind, imagination, where do those things come from?

Where does that original capital-C Creativity come from? I do believe that it is something transcendent to the human experience, and then also that which flows through us and can sculpt us, and then enables us to collaborate, cocreate in the sculpting, the creation, the living, the experiencing of our lives and really the world.

So, we were going big or going home this week. There was no going home. It was all out. And thank you to everyone who was there and brought their own presence. Because nothing is more cosmically creative and alchemizing than our true presence.

And in these containers, it’s always my intention to offer opportunities for transformation. And I want to say again and again that that potential within you that wants to rise, however that is made known to you through your dreams or goals, to trust that is sacred, that it is not random, and that the deep metamorphosis, transformation, that you perhaps at this point are just wishing were possible for your life, you can’t maybe even quite imagine it, in these spaces, we create a large enough space so that sometimes the dreams you thought were big, you realize the reason you were feeling limited is that, “Oh they’re not actually big enough. There’s more juice there to tap into.”

And I don’t mean not big enough in terms of we’re going to have to work harder or grind. That’s not it at all. There is something so much more complex and nuanced and profound going on. And rather than me just telling you about it here, what I wanted to do was invite you to experience it for yourself.

So, I recorded both of our events this week, the séance/creative salon on Tuesday. And in that session, I really dove into writing and the potential for writing as I approach it.

And so, if you are bored with writing, if you think it’s just hard, if you have sort of a tortured relationship with it, or perhaps no relationship at all because you don’t think of yourself as a writer, and also you’re desiring more juice in your life, you are desiring feeling actually alive, fully alive, you’re desiring some magic, you’re desiring a childlike enthusiasm for life, and also through the vessel of you as a mature adult.

You’re going to love this class, or at least, you’re invited to check it out and see if you love it. And then, on Thursday, we had a follow up call, both a question and answer, and then I did offer coaching at the end. And the questions I received were beautiful. And the beautiful people that volunteered for coaching, thank you, because I know your exchange in our conversation and the way you modeled this work live for other people helped everyone on the call and will empower and, I think, really enlighten, leave you feeling lighter and clearer and more illuminated for everyone who’s now in this larger Art School community who listens and watches the replay.

And I find this so exciting because there are profound transformation happening in this very special Art School community all the time. And it’s a very – I can’t even quite capture it. It’s such a constructive, generous, gracious community and these kinds of deep transformations are contagious in the best of ways.

It truly is a place where a rising tide lifts all ships, where there is the elevation of the individual and the potential and the tapping and the amplification of that. And it also is clear to everyone in this group that we are no longer in the realm of zero sum, where we’re no longer in the realm of competition or hierarchy.

It’s palpable in a group like this that someone who feels more liberated, more free, more empowered, more successful, more fulfilled, more excited about and in love with their life and their work, oh my gosh, it’s the furthest thing that that could ever take from anybody. And instead, that energy, it really is like a collective web that uplifts the entire group and inspires.

Not only inspires, but it actually feels like the others have more energy that they didn’t have before to then do the same. And so, it’s this positive snowball effect. Again though, rather than just tell you about it, the best way to learn more about it, to really understand and actually experience the effect for yourself is to experience it for yourself.

So, I had the two events this week. One call Tuesday that was more content, more me teaching, and then also workshop style creative salon exercises, which that sounds even a lot more boring, even if you love that stuff, than it was. It was juicy. Particularly the exercise we did around desire. Oh my gosh, that opens so much for so many people. Which is why I did it. Because it’s work that I’ve been doing for a long time with private clients and in the mastermind. And there is a tsunami of change, beautiful, unfolding transformation, lightning of spirit, shedding of old things, accelerated change too.

This exercise is a catalyst for so much self-discovery and integration, a radical approach to nurturing the deep self and the innate genius and creating such a beautiful relationship with yourself.

So, I introduced that exercise. There’s much more of it to come. And we’re going to be exploring this. I’ll talk about where a little bit later. So, that was one of the exercises we did. And again, exercise, I don’t know what to call it, like a magical exercise, and a definitely alchemizing writing exercise.

And we really focused in Tuesday’s workshop about approaching writing not as just this mundane thing that’s task-like and we use in order to do something else. But really, reawakening the reality that’s available to us, reawakening, reigniting our imagination, reigniting our internal spirit, our life force by exploring writing as a tool of divination, intuition, manifestation, and the channeling of your innate singular genius, as well as transcendent creative energies.

All of this in service of, well, the sheer damn fun of it. There’s that. And then also, to support you in, I say, becoming the artist you were meant to be. Because you are all artists. You are all creators. And also, empowering you to create both subtle and profound transformation in all areas of life.

And again, I don’t say that and cross my fingers and hope that it’s true. I’ve seen it again and again. I’ve seen it personally and I’ve seen it in the lives of my clients. And it’s so good. I cannot not share it, and I really just want more and more people to be aware that this is available.

To me, this is like we are living in the age of something I heard decades ago when I was in a law school cubicle, when I was sitting, studying away, something like torts, late at night in my cubby. And then, I heard there is a rising of creativity, it’s like the renaissance but more feminine and more divinely feminine in form this time. It is a renascence.

And I wrote it down and kind of hunched over and covered it up in the margins along the outlines I was making, and felt that that was a moment when I was given some foreshadowing of what I would be doing with the rest of my life, and doing as a part of a larger whole and a movement that’s happening, and I also knew in that moment, someday I will have a company and I will name it, the name will be Renascence.

Which many of you obviously know of the Art School, but the umbrella for the Art School is and has always been Renascence. And so, it’s this sort of, for instance, particular approach to writing that I see as a tool to help people discover what wants to rise through them and for them.

And also, it’s a process that when you engage in it, it’s also the process itself is alchemizing. It helps bake things within you, in that way that alchemy does, where what’s burned away is what you don’t need and then the essence of gold from the base material, the raw material of your life is released, that it is a process, this approach to writing is a process that can elevate your vibration, that can elevate the vibration on your life, of your consciousness, and that in fact is like one of the age-old definitions of alchemy, the elevation of a frequency or vibration of something.

And so, in these two salons/séances/coaching calls, we were exploring writing in this way and then also there’s a particular emphasis on writing as a way of accessing, writing in this way as a way of accessing desire.

And I’m thinking of desire as a way of interfacing with the divine. For me, that’s what creativity is too, a way of interfacing with the divine. And so, these three elements we’re talking about in this last Tuesday salon together, writing, desire, and creativity really being a way to be in conversation with your deep self, with your soul, with perhaps forgotten, buried, never-discovered-yet aspects of you, and then also something perhaps greater than you, whether you believe in a God, or the universe, or love, or art, or beauty, or creativity.

Whatever that is for you, using these elements, creativity, your desire, and writing as a way to interface with some largeness, both within you and without you, with greatness both within you and something greater that all of us, that also is us.

And this really translated into profoundly beautiful, moving ways in the conversations I was able to have with people, that on the Thursday call, for those that volunteered to do some group coaching, some live coaching.

So, because both of these calls, again, were on the longer side, it does not make sense to release them in podcast format. But I wanted to give you an introduction and also information and to whet your appetite for this kind of alchemy, transformation, this sort of magic possibility, this sense of reigniting your life and discovering, no matter what age you are, that there is so much, no matter what you’ve done, that there is so much yet within you and that you can discover to help clear you out so enthusiasm can move through you again, and that that flame within you roars to life and it awakens a spirit. You become a human lit from within.

The other thing that I think is not only informative and helpful but is also personally transformative when you move closer into being in the community and actually doing these events with other people within the Art School is you start to witness the transformations and what comes of that in other people’s lives.

Because one thing that I always want to do more of here, and at this point just have not had the bandwidth to keep up with it, are things like testimonials and case studies and client stories.

And also, I know that within the group, people are aware of one another and what they are doing and are astonished and so happy for one another with the transformations in, yes, finances, yes, selling paintings, like for thousands of dollars, for $10,000. I just had a client who sold a painting at what she thought was an impossible price, over $10,000. And she said she was laughing because she was even trying to talk the person out of it because she was still a little bit uncomfortable with it, although this patron, customer really loved the piece.

So, there are those kind of numbers, external-driven results. There are transformations in relationship, in health, in people all of a sudden noticing that they’ve lost weight, that they’re no longer thinking or obsessing about food and then obsessing or thinking about their obsession with food or with an alcohol dependency, relationships, did I say that yet?

That’s one of my favorites, is the way that relationships are transformed and in such a beautiful way. Not to mention all the blessed, incredible inner work, the dropping away of the conditioning and places where we have been carrying around an inner critic who is basically like an integrated abuser or shamer, and the liberation and lightness and joy that comes back into your life when you radically change your relationship with yourself and you are free of those things, sometimes completely free, sometimes just 10% more free at a time, sometimes 1%. And then, that’s something you can build on. And that, in itself, is a magnificent achievement and improvement.

So, again, in these communities, people start to know one another and get to track each other’s careers and lives and see someone who decided, two years ago, to quit a full-time job as a graphic designer and go all in as a full-time artist, and see them now getting accepted into every single juried art show that they apply for, oh, and selling paintings.

So, those are the kinds of things too that in this environment which is not competitive, it actually enhances your deep knowing, it creates a more solid sense within you that, “These things are not actually out of reach because I’m in this tribe, this community here where people are doing extraordinary things.”

And so, the extraordinary becomes normalized in this wonderful way where you just feel it as the deep, solid, sacred ground beneath you, holding you up. And there is just this calm, quiet sense of your own agency and a deep quiet, but also it’s like the deep quiet of a mountain, this energy of, “Oh, I can do this. I can do this.” That is not out of reach. It’s not easy. It requires work. But it’s not the same kind of work as struggling against yourself or as constantly questioning whether you’re delusional or whether this is a pipe dream.

No, that can fall away and you can discover that that longing you’ve had, that belief that you’re meant for something more, that’s valid. And it’s just a fact. And then, you can do the simple, humble, and also transcendent work of creating.

And I do hope these two classes contribute to that sense of the solid creative and that sense of a deep calm and power and foundation within you. So, this brings me to the part of the podcast where I want you to do more than just listen.

I want you to lean in and really work with me, coach with me. My coach with me challenge, invitation to you this week is to download and watch and participate in the exercises, the alchemizing exercises that we are making available.

And if that seems like too much, do the exercise on creating a list of 21 desires. I describe it in the Tuesday class. I answer questions about it in the Thursday class. It again, is a part of a longer work that we do together in the Art School and the mastermind, and yet this piece of the 21 desires can stand on its own.

And you’ll hear me talk about why, and why it’s so life changing in those class replays, but that would be if you could just pick one thing to do from those two classes, that is where I would begin.

And also, if you just notice your own brain saying now all the reasons you don’t want to do that or can’t want to do that, note those because that right there is a goldmine, my friends. And we could do all sorts of, like, three years’ worth of therapy in exploring the protests right there.

So, I hope you enjoy these two class recordings. I should have said this earlier. I should have read some of the testimonials I got already this week.

And I say this not to brag, although there’s nothing wrong with bragging. I say this just to inspire you to take advantage of these resources. People who have – they’re not new to this kind of work. They’re savvy. They’re experienced. They’re smart. They’re deep. They’re successful. They’re wise.

And to have people like that, who I deeply respect, say this is pure gold, there is such a wealth of power in the coaching, this is absolutely life changing, this is transformational, thank you so very much, it was exactly what I needed, it got me right back on track, and so on and so on, I got a flood.

And thank you to those of you that flooded me. It’s my favorite kind of flood. A flood of enthusiasm. And I just wanted to share that with those of you listening who have a lot going on in your lives and are understandably like, “I only want to invest my time…” because this is free, “In something that’s worth it.” And I do believe this, as one participant said, is worth it, is pure gold.

Thank you so much for listening to another episode of The Art School Podcast. I love knowing you’re listening. I want to thank in particular Sandy and Barb for the epically incredible letters you sent me this last week.

And as I wrote in my responses to Sandy and Barb, I can’t call what they wrote to me an email because it seems beneath it. So, even though emails are wonderful, these were letters and I deeply appreciate hearing what this work has meant to you and I deeply appreciate your kind words about the podcast, and also wanted to give a shoutout to your beautiful artistry because Barb Danielson is a talented artistic photographer and we’ll have her website link in the show notes.

And Sandy Silvius is an artist that specializes in the artistry of the written word. So, you can check out her online lettering studio, where you will have that link in the show notes as well. And to anyone who writes to me and says, “I think you would like to know just what your work has meant to me,” you are 100% right.

I love knowing. It’s such fuel. So, thank you. And if you are interested in participating in this movement and paying it forward, I so appreciate when you share, when you subscribe. And a share could be through passing on an episode, Social media shares help tremendously too. And you can tag me, @leahcb1. I love connecting with you there. And I love knowing that you are out there listening.

So, I want to say something in closing today about how important I know it is for you to be able to maintain a strong, vibrant, alive relationship with your artist self and with your work, and that I also know that just out in the day to day grind of things sometimes, that can be a difficult relationship to maintain.

It can be difficult to retain the magic, the passion, the energy, the inspiration, the curiosity. And something Barb wrote in her letter to me that I was so moved by and I thought was so well observed and articulated was that she was noting one of the reasons she listens to the podcast is because it gives her an infusion of this kind of energy, an infusion of magic, because often she is someone who is creating the magic for others.

And as artists, that’s what I know you are doing. You are creating meaning in the world. You are creating the beauty. You are engaged in revelation that makes life worth living, that makes other people come alive. And that if you’re doing it all on your own, it can feel sometimes like you’re just on the cusp of burnout. And that is one of the reasons why I create and offer this podcast and also the Art School community, so that you can have a deep well and a community to come to, to be nourished, and that this can be a new normal, a truly thriving creative, a deeply nourished, thriving creative, and that when we are together, again, those resources that do nourish us, those energies that do nourish us are amplified.

So, to close, I wanted to once again just encourage you to explore writing in the way I’m presenting it in today’s episode, and in the Tuesday salon recording. Because it can be such a source, a natural, renewable, infinite resource for you.

I included this quote in a newsletter I sent out, “Writing is magic. As much the water of life is any other creative art, the water is free, so drink. Drink and be filled up.” Stephen King.

And then I also wrote that you do not need to identify as a quote unquote writer and that this is very important. As Mr. King says, writing is like the water of life. So, please don’t disqualify yourself. Don’t disqualify yourself from any creativity because, if you can hold a pen and write words on a page, you have everything you need to be a conduit, everything you need to experience how writing can change your life.

Anything I offer, from private coaching to this podcast, to the Art School, to free workshops – and I have so much more that I’m offering coming up, so please stay tuned, there is no reason to disqualify yourself because there’ll be free things, there’ll be very accessible things. There will be high-end VIP luxury things.

And everything, every single one of those things is designed to support you, the human that is the artist, your potential, and the actualization of your goals and dreams, meaning that can actually happen, that book dream, that home dream, that family dream, that painting dream, the six-figure, seven-figure dream, and also many dreams you haven’t even allowed yourself yet. They can all come to be. You can do that.

One of my core approaches to this is nurturing the numinous. I know that all of you have access to overwhelming, endless amounts of strategy and information. And so, what I have found is that the people that come to me are not coming for more strategy or information. They are resourceful. And when the time comes, we can resource exactly what we need from those categories.

But they aren’t the blood, guts, bone, heart, and soul of things. They aren’t what liberates your singular genius and fulfills you. These people that come to work with me, that come to the Art School, come because something within them knows it will be the container which respects their own sovereignty, which helps them reclaim their own agency, and in which they can reconnect to their own innate genius.

There are so many ways we can do this. And it’s really your self, your inner genius that I listen to, that leads the way. And writing is one of these ways. Writing is one of the ways we can reclaim our agency and artistic creative sovereignty, in our art, but truly in all areas of life. Building a self and life that is solid, deep, fulfilled. Writing is able to be a conduit for the exact wisdom and energies you need for the journey of self-actualization and the building of your wildest creative dreams.

Two things I think are closely related in sacred twin intentions, but more on that in future conversations. And I do so look forward to all of those future conversations. Thanks so much, everyone for listening. Have a beautiful week and I look forward to talking with you next time.