Soul-based art is the self-reflective practice of creative self-expression – through a wide variety of media including but not limited to drawing, painting, collage, sculpting, modeling with clay, mask-making, poetry, song, dance, spontaneous theatre improvisation, photography, and film – to give voice to inner states of being.
Although it may be therapeutic, soul-based art should not be confused with the psychoanalytical tradition of art therapy, which aims at allowing the therapist access to the unconscious mind of the client or patient. Rather within the context of Yggdrasil’s more egalitarian process, soul-based art is meant to encourage each participant’s access to the fertile depths of their own soul. Having said that, creative self-expression can move energy concentrated at the heart of our core wounds, and where there is movement, meaningful change is possible.
In exploring venues for the creative movement of soul energy, we also naturally discover and cultivate hidden talents, dormant skills, and emerging interests that may all be useful in the shaping of a soul-based vision. Although the purpose of soul-based art is not art in any commercial sense, soul-based art often does carry a potency that demands to be shared, and simply harnessing the human urge to self-expression can open a door to the soul’s deeper desire to contribute.
Artistic expression is also a means through which communication among diverse intelligences can be explored – especially as we spark and inspire artistic expression in each other. We encourage collaboration across stylistic genres and media, in order to engage all our imaginative faculties, and to foster co-creative synergy between participants.
Lastly, therapeutic art is a potent media for accessing the mythopoetic realms – the mysterious inner rhizome through which soul wounds, visionary callings, soul-based relationships, and our spiritual connection to the Whole interweave into a powerful statement that is simultaneously personal and transpersonal.
