Art is an act of the soul, not the intellect.  When we are dealing with peoples' dreams ---their visions, really---we are in the realm of the sacred.  We are involved with forces and energies larger than our own.  We are engaged in a sacred transaction of which we know only a little; the shadow, not the shape.
   

 For these reasons, it is mandatory that any gathering of artists be in the spirit of a sacred trust.  We invoke the Great Creator when we invoke our own creativity, and that creative force has the power to alter lives, fulfill destinies, answer our dreams.

    In our human lives, we are often impatient, ill-tempered, inappropriate.  We find it difficult to treat our intimates with the love we really hold for them.  Despite this, they bear with us because of the larger, higher level of family that they honor even in our outbursts.  This is their commitment.

    As artists, we belong to an ancient and holy tribe.  We are the carriers of the truth that spirit moves through us all.  When we deal with one another, we are dealing not merely with our human personalities, but also with the unseen but ever-present throng of ideas, visions, stories, poems, songs, sculptures, art-as-facts that crowd the temple of consciousness waiting their turn to be born.

    We are meant to midwife dreams for one another.  We cannot labor in place of one another, but we can support the labor that each must undertake to birth his or her art and foster it to maturity.

    It is for all these reasons that the Sacred Circle must exist in any place of creation.  It is this protective ring, this soul boundary, that enlivens us at our highest level.  By drawing and acknowledging the Sacred Circle, we declare principles to the highest good and a faith in the accomplishment of our own good in the midst of our fellows.

    Envy, backbiting, criticism have no place in our midst, nor do ill-temper, hostility, sarcasm, chivvying for position.  These attitudes may belong in the world, but they do not belong among us in our place as artists.

    Success occurs in clusters.  Drawing a Sacred Circle creates a sphere of safety and a center of attraction for our good.  By filling this form faithfully, we draw to us the best.  We draw the people we need.  We attract the gifts we could best employ.

    The Sacred Circle is built on respect and trust.  The image is of the garden.  Each plant has its name and its place.  There is no one flower that cancels the need for another.  Each bloom has its unique and irreplaceable beauty.

    Let our gardening hands be gentle ones.  Let us not root up one another's ideas before they have time to bloom.  Let us bear with the process of growth, dormancy, cyclicality, fruition, and reseeding.  Let us never be hasty to judge, reckless in our urgency to force unnatural growth.  Let there be, always, a place for the artist toddler to try. to falter, to fail, to try again.  Let us remember that in nature's world every loss has meaning.  The same is true for us.  Turned to good use, a creative failure may be the compost that nourishes next season's creative success.  Remember, we are in this for the long haul, the ripening and harvest, not the quick fix.

    Art is an act of the soul; ours is a spiritual community.

~from The Artist's Way