Building a Container

April 9th, 2010, Rose Diamond

For quite a few years now I’ve been keenly interested in the potential of co-creative groups and how to facilitate them. Any group requires some kind of “container” for its healthy development. The container may be as simple as “this is when we meet, and this is who we are, and this is what we focus on together”.

Now, with the beginning of the Soul Weaving mentoring program, with its focus on creativity, co-creativity, leadership and new culture building, I’m asking questions about what needs to be put in place to support its full flowering. This is a process of experimentation and discovery because these skills are really at the leading edge, and all over the world people are engaged in a similar inquiry about how we move into the new.  I’d like to share some of my early musings with you.

I can’t think of anything that’s created that doesn’t have some form of container. A seed is a container which holds the blueprint for the plant until the life force builds enough to shoot out beyond the boundary; a bud is a container from which the flower unfolds when its time has come and it has been warmed enough by the sun; the womb is a container for the growing infant, puppy, or lamb. So, if we take these examples from nature, the container holds and protects the new life during its gestation period until it has grown enough to experience this protection as a limitation and gathered enough momentum to destroy its containment. The process of growth involves a creative tension and the tension enables a breakthrough into the next stage of life.

Personal growth works that way too. We build an idea of who we are, an identity, and this supports us to be in the world and fulfill the roles and tasks we’ve committed to, for example, as a parent or as a teacher, or as an entrepreneur. Then gradually as we grow and mature we start to feel there are parts of us being excluded from that identity, parts of us that need to live and find expression. And if we are courageous and decide to follow our authentic calling, eventually we have to breakthrough the limitations of old beliefs, old ideas, old stories, and create a bigger more inclusive identity. For example, many people at the moment are growing out of the identity of “me alone, me for me” to a knowing of interconnectedness and being part of One Global Family.

As creative beings we are continually growing beyond what we know and creating into the unknown. This requires much trust in ourselves and in the process of life. Because there are times when we appear to be suspended in the void, in the unknown, and not knowing who or where we are or where we’re going. We learn to trust that the solutions are inside us, or will come through us when we are open, or lie between us in community.

In any creative act, I propose there has to be some form of container and some kind of creative tension created by the container. Take writing a book for example. In the early stages of writing we are completely free;  inspiration flows, words spill out onto the page, we get high on our own creative genius. Then there comes a point where there are pages littered all over the floor and overwhelm sets in and we need to find a form,  a way to bring out the essential meaning. The form is what creates the beauty and harmony of any work of art and the artist’s job is to find the intrinsic harmony within the stream of words, or within the lump of stone or from among the colored threads and beads.

I think the success of any venture depends on how we handle the creative tension which is essential for the transformational breakthrough into a higher order. If there is insufficient tension, for example no clear focus or motivation, we may have fun for a while, then get bored and move on; if there is too much tension, for example, too rigid an agenda, then we equally get frustrated and give up. There’s a balance required between having a clear, strong motivation and desire to create and yet not being attached to the outcome, being able to surrender to what comes. We have a container yet hold it lightly and it is always subject to revision and adjustment.

Does this make sense to you? What do you think?

In terms of building a container for a learning community, or any relationship focused on creativity, co-creativity and new culture making, my understanding is that the container must be transparent, flexible, strong; the focus of ongoing dialogue and adjustment, and inclusive of all voices. My ideal for this is that when everyone in a group feels free to express their authentic self, there will be differences, and there may be conflicts of interest at times, but just as there is a higher level of integration available within the self and within the form of the art work, there is also a higher level of integration available to the group, a state of expansion which includes all of each person and goes beyond the individual into a higher level of harmony and creativity, and into higher levels of consciousness, understanding and knowing.   This is quite some “work”; the alchemy of a co-creative group.

Watch this space, there will be further musings.

Photo: The Alchemical Garden, Courtesy of the Database of Alchemical Symbols at www.alchemywebsite.com:
‘An ouroborous serpent, or dragon seizing its own tail, is set in a round vessel. From its belly a plant with three flowers grows up out of the vessel. On the earth below a Moon, Sun and star are seen.’