(Part 3 of a 4 part series on working with Creativepreneurs)
Creativepreneurs and going “into”
Previously, the first 2 parts of this series focused on external aspects of the creative process, access, and audience. At this time, we turn our attention inward and address two fundamentally essential elements that undermine a creative path if ignored: time and space. Let’s start with space first, as experience proves, when creativepreneurs resolve the questions of creative space, the emergence of creative time occurs quite naturally.
The range of creative spaces, from lofts and studios, to film sets and rehearsal spaces, varies greatly. Obviously, the importance of the garage for the emergence of new bands in rock music cannot be underestimated. For a writer, the space might reside inside a certain notebook or tablet, both easy to slip into a backpack.
Importantly, I wish to stress this idea is simple. If intentional, not haphazard, in your approach to creative space, profound results emerge.
The Magic Circle of a Tenemos
By way of analogy, I want to share a concept prevalent in both psychoanalysis and religious studies. In Ancient Greece, tenemos designated an area cut off from common use.
A temenos enclosed a sacred space called a hieron. It was usually surrounded by a wall, ditch, or line of stones. All things inside the demarcated area belonged to the designated god. Greeks could find asylum within a sanctuary and be under the protection of the deity, and could not be moved against their will.
Along with the sense of sanctuary emerging from the Classical era, we find a similar designation in psychoanalysis.
Carl Jung relates the temenos to the spellbinding or magic circle, which acts as a ‘square space’ or ‘safe spot’ where mental ‘work’ can take place. This temenos resembles among others a ‘symmetrical rose garden with a fountain in the middle’ in which an encounter with the unconscious can be had and where these unconscious contents can safely be brought into the light of consciousness.
Tenemos
The Creative Tenemos
Creativity thrives when we designate space that is set aside for it specifically. Furthermore, the distinction from common use gives the creative act the dignity it deserves. Creation brings things into the world. Clearly, creativity resides with other birthing symbols. Creativity is extra-ordinary.
When working with creativepreneurs, I relish the process that develops their unique creative tenemos.