Our True Path of Service

Facing our Demons, Reintegrating the Minotaur, and Unburying our Transcendent Talents to Find our True Creative Self

The meaning in our lives is found by uncovering who we truly are at our deepest level.  Our purpose is to unbury our true nature which will lead us, if we follow it, to our true path of service.  And when we find and walk our true path, we live, creatively and in the light, as our true self.

We each have a unique voice, unique talents, unique messages, unique styles, and something unique to give in service of all.  

If we can get away from the noise of society, the mimesis, and the distractions, we can listen closely for that voice whispering to us from inside our psyche.  

It whispers to us to follow our own deep inspired curiosity, and to pursue our own ideas.  We all have the potential to contribute something that flows out of us from the divine.  

That is, however, certainly  easier said than done.  And the journey is a spiritual one.  

I’ve realized, that I can no longer write about the creative act of making art (and, by extension, marketing art) without also venturing into the spiritual.  Not only are they related, but they are the same thing.  Finding your true self and creating the art that only you can make  represents the essence of communing with the divine.

Often, unfortunately, we don't open ourselves up to discover who we truly are until after we've tried the path of the world and "failed."  

I don't mean “failed” in the way the world defines failure.  We may have achieved great wealth, great power, great fame or social status but....plenty of people with all of those achievements are miserable.

Those achievements, if we are not vigilant, can inflate our ego - our false attitude of grandiose self-importance - which tends to drown out the divine creative whisper.  Some of us, after worldly successes are achieved, realize that we're still suffering.  We are still unhappy.  We are still miserable.  

That is the moment we may realize that something is missing.  

Then, perhaps, in a moment of breaking, in a moment of overwhelm, often presenting itself in the form of burnout or a nervous breakdown, we finally do the very thing that our true nature has been yearning for us to do, and whispering for us to do - we let go.  While this experience itself causes suffering, it retrospect, it may be the gift of awakening to truth.

When we finally let go, we (temporarily) give up all those worldly pursuits.  Maybe we stop working for a while.  Maybe we go climb Everest.  Maybe we retreat into nature.  Maybe we escape into the solace of meditation.

But, whatever we escape to, in such moments, we often let go of our ego just enough, that suddenly the dark egoistic clouds part, and a bit of the divine light shines into our heart and we reconnect with some long lost curiosity.  We remember something that we once knew as children but had buried deep within the daedalian maze of our ego’s construction.  

And, maybe for the first time in decades, we experience a tiny bit of being true to ourselves.  

This may not happen until middle age for many and it may be part of the phenomenon we call a "mid life crisis." When a mid-life crisis hits, I believe the correct response is not to buy a sports car or to shag the pool boy (a cliché, I know, please forgive me, but it’s a cliché that makes a point), but it is to dig deep to uncover our true nature.  

In an echo of religion, once we have such a realization of our true nature, a huge weight lifts.  The chains we’ve been dragging behind us fall away and we are presented with the terrific insight that, now that we are free at last, we can't go back to the way things were. Now, we must take a leap of faith.  

We must sacrifice something to stay in touch with our true self.  We must sacrifice our ego and our need to control things (at least, while we are creating).  In some cases, people choose to make true lifestyle sacrifices.  After all, all magic has a price, and the price of creating the magic of true art is…well…everything. 

“Only one who devotes himself to a cause with his whole strength and soul can be a true master. For this reason, mastery demands all of a person.” 

— Einstein

I recall one of the top heart surgeons here in San Antonio who walked away from his entire practice at the height of his career to pursue his oil painting full time.  That is a real sacrifice.  The good news is, that I’ve never met anyone who embraced their true nature who later regretted it.  People usually say, “I wish I had done it sooner.”

We are beginning, when we make overtures in this direction toward our true nature, to come to life again.  Before our “conversion”, we had been the walking dead (there is a reason zombie apocalypse stories are so popular - it’s because we subconsciously identify with the zombies), but now, after even a small taste of the divine, we've been in-spired and had life, once again, "breathed into" us.  We have been born again.

Unfortunately, for many of us, sacrificing our ego in this way leads us to a feeling of being lost, and unsure, which is why faith can be so important. Faith that your true self can provide for your needs. Faith that your true self can persevere.  Faith that your true self can do what needs to be done without giving up that precious inner freedom (Even if what needs to be done involves existing responsibilities we’d rather let go of that our life situation demands we continue doing.  This is, after all, an inner transformation first and foremost).  Faith that by continuing to reject the lies of the worldly ego, that synchronicities will appear and give you a tailwind to walk toward your true path of mastery and service.

It is at this point that some go through the "dark night of the soul."  Their previous world view has been shattered, and they can’t go back to how things were, but the path ahead is unknown and the new world view, and the demons it unveils have not yet been accepted and integrated.  Of course it’s scary! 

In some ways, unfortunately, that dark night appears to be a necessary part of the journey. Once you've found true self, and started on the path of your life's meaning, you, like Jesus, must enter the desert and face the darkness of the egoistic devil (both your own ego, and your conditioning by the collective ethos). He will certainly try to stop you, he will certainly tell you that you are making a huge mistake, he will offer you the riches of the world, if you’ll only go back, and he will certainly try to distract you with temptation.

It just has to be endured.

Though, it seems, from what I’ve learned, that some dark nights are terrible and some aren't too bad.  I suppose it depends on what we have buried in our shadow side that previously had been trapped like the Minotaur in the maze I mentioned above.  Fortunately, there are things one can do to ease the dark night and, even then, start walking along the path.

When we start down this path of reintegration, all of these suppressions appear as “demons” that come forth first to tempt us, which we must resist, and then, when we resist calmly and kindly, they timidly approach us to be released or integrated.  And, at that point, we must accept them with love.  Many of them contain our suppressed creative energy.  That is energy you will need on the artistic journey you are undertaking.  It’s part of the magic and alchemy of the creative act - we transmute our demons into angelic muses.

In my metaphorical understanding of the Cretan myth, Theseus wasn’t the true hero, the Minotaur was.  Theseus was the ego’s false hero that succeeded in killing Minos’ true nature - the Mino-taur.  Minos had suppressed his animalistic, creative side to convince himself that he had transcended its “evil” urges.  

But humans are made up of a combination of both the animalistic and the divine - they are something unique that is neither one and both simultaneously.  Theseus killed Minos’ “demonic” animal side - and thus killed his creative energy and his muse - once and for all.  The story is a tragedy and Minos ended up wasting his potential.  If you suppress your true nature long enough, it is possible the same can happen.

So, during our dark night in the desert, we must persevere. 

Ultimately, as it has been said, if you bring forth the truth that is within you, it will set you free.  But if you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you - the real you.

And so, one way or another, we each must begin building a bridge back to internal magic and alchemy.  And to do that, as mentioned above, we must have faith in our true self as we did when were were children.

You must truly believe, not just intellectually, that you have a divine gift, you must cultivate that gift to achieve technical mastery, and then you must have the courage to share that gift with the world.

In the the parable of the talents, when the master returned from his journey, he praised the two servants who had invested the talents entrusted to them and they had greatly increased the master's wealth.  But, he chastised the servant who buried the master's talents as slothful and lazy.   

You also have talents entrusted to you, and you, as a part of creation, are entrusted with furthering something in this world in unique ways.  

So, before a mid-life crisis, a person had been burying their talents.  

But, after a divine revelation, we suddenly have the opportunity to invest and multiply them.  And we do that, not only by having faith that we have a gift, but also by cultivating that gift.

And here is where I think some of us go astray, or even fail outright.  It's not enough to uncover our true self, and to have faith, and it’s not enough to follow our deep inspired curiosity - though those are all necessary steps - but we must then cultivate those gifts until our true self is no longer simply a barely visible candle flame, but a roaring bonfire that is unstoppable by the world.  Our “minotaur” (our joined divine and animal energies) must burst forth from its egoistic labyrinth and roar to the world, “I am the rightful king of this territory.”

We all have a psycho-spiritual promised land when we walk our true path of service.  It is our birthright granted to us by the Creator.  It is ours and our alone.  It is where our creative devotion meets our unique illumination.  Finding the path to this territory is one of the primary instincts humans have in the realm of self-actualization and transcendence.  And the act of creating, harvesting our promised land, provides manna for the soul that  sustains us.  It is the only thing, as artists and creatives, that will truly sustain us.

“We humans have territories too. Ours are psychological. Stevie Wonder’s territory is the piano. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s is the gym. When Bill Gates pulls into the parking lot at Microsoft, he’s on his territory. When I sit down to write, I’m on mine…A territory provides sustenance…A territory can only be claimed alone…A territory can only be claimed by work…A territory returns exactly what you put in…When the artist works territorially, she reveres heaven.”

— Steven Pressfield

We find our promised land by allowing ourselves plenty of quiet sacred solitude to explore our inner world, by following our true curiosities, which are planted by the universe to guide us to our destiny, and by putting in the regular cadence of hard work of cultivating the garden of our talents to work toward and, eventually achieve....mastery.  By cultivating  mastery of our true path of service, we are transfigured into the master in the parable, not the servants.

So, as a reminder to all of us, including myself, instead of being daunted by the mastery we see in others and becoming discouraged by the competition, let's instead strive to be inspired and joyful to see that others have successfully navigated the path to true self and mastery.  

Let them be our inspiration, for, if others can find their own true selves, and find creative expression of that truth in a way that astonishes and humbles us, it should provide us with evidence that it can be done.  

So instead of being the third servant who is resentful of the other two and the master, let's use their example of cultivating their talents and increasing the wealth of the master.  

The wealth of the master does not refer to worldly wealth, to Caesar's coinage, but it is the creation, knowledge, art, inspiration, love and joy that we can bring to this unfolding process we call existence.  

That is how we truly fulfill ourselves, it is why we each are here, and to shirk it is to shirk one’s duty, which robs us of creative joy. And that is how we, as creators, best contribute to the positive evolution of humanity.

“If you were meant to cure cancer or write a symphony or crack cold fusion and you don’t do it, you not only hurt yourself, even destroy yourself. You hurt your children. You hurt me. You hurt the planet.   You shame the angels who watch over you and you spite the Almighty, who created you and only you with your unique gifts, for the sole purpose of nudging the human race one millimeter farther along its path back to God.”

— Steven Pressfield