Art can be a powerful tool for connecting with your spiritual nature, otherwise known as your true essence, by taking you deeper on your inner journey – whether consciously or not. It can help you express your deepest thoughts and feelings, explore your beliefs, fears, (perceived) limitations, and find meaning or purpose in life. It can be either an escape or a profound exploration. With Art, you are wholly and solely in control – and completely not at the same time, if you’re doing it right! Of course, there is no ‘wrong’ in art, it is subjective after all – but there is such a thing as learning to step out of the way and allow the muses to speak to you.

Here are some tips on how to use art to connect with your spirituality:

  1. Choose a medium that you enjoy. There are many different types of art, such as painting, drawing, dancing, music, and writing. Choose a medium that you enjoy working with and that feels expressive to you. It is great to try new things and I highly encourage that but sometimes you want to find something you are already comfortable with to ‘think’ as little as possible and just ‘do’. Explore definitely but also find the thing that you can lose yourself to the creative process in.
  2. Find a quiet space where you can be alone. When you are creating spiritual art, it is important to have a space where you can be quiet and focused. This will help you to connect with your inner self and to create art that is truly meaningful to you. I love to meditate first and find it really helps if this is in your ‘art area’. In fact, often an unplanned art session starts specifically because of some vision I have just received whilst enjoying my meditation.
  3. Set an intention for your art*. Before you begin creating, take a few moments to set an intention for your art. What do you hope to achieve by creating this piece? Do you want to explore a particular spiritual theme? Do you want to connect with a higher power? Once you have set an intention, keep it in mind as you create your art. *Optional – though it felt right to add this point, experience shows me the results never match the plan, but that’s only in my experience. You need to create your own method and this post is to hopefully inspire a few starting points for that.
  4. Be open to the process. Don’t worry about making perfect art. The most important thing is to be open to the creative process and to allow your art to flow through you. As much as some people might not want to read this, or agree with me – art does not come from within. You receive creative inspiration, as you are open to it. You’re like a radio receiver, what you pick up depends on what you are vibrationally tuned into. This works too if you are tuned into darker currents or lower frequencies (not bad, it’s just not the goal of this particular post). There’s some really dark poems out there for example, this writer has even penned a few but I am conscious even that was channeled and is powerful in its own right. Even for that manifested darkness, I am honoured I was ‘chosen’ to be the receiver, which only worked because I had dark experiences to draw from. Not a blessed feeling at the time but something I’m thankful for now. The important thing is you choose your alignments consciously AND do not inhibit what flows through you, it might not make sense at the time but stick with it and be authentic to what resonates with you. Even something that feels like it is inspired from something stored deep within, in a roundabout way is still guided by a higher version of you, wanting to help you heal something stuck in your biological and energetic systems – but let’s not get caught up on the schematics, the important part is going with that process, wherever it takes you.
  5. Reflect on your art. Once you have finished creating your art, take some time to reflect on it. What does it mean to you? What emotions does it evoke? How does it connect you to your spirituality? Was it what you had planned? How did you feel as ‘you’ created it or did it feel more like it was creating itself? Did other memories surface during the creative process? You can learn so much from this reflection exercise.

Here are some further ideas for how to use art to connect with your spirituality:

  • Create a sacred space in your home. This could involve creating an altar, painting a spiritual mural, or simply hanging an inspiring artwork that is meaningful to you, perhaps some sacred geometry. If you are a fellow witchy being – this may even be in your altar area, or it may just be a mental sacred space that you learn to ‘switch on’ when it is needed. I personally have an art room and in that art room I have a smaller table that I use specifically for meditation and connecting with certain energetic forms. This is a separate area to my personal altar in my bedroom or communal altar I share with my sister in a our ‘Pagan Room’ but sometimes the best art is born from a roughly sketched on a scrap piece of paper, awkwardly balancing on my steering wheel at the beach at 3am in the morning! You have to go with the flow but when starting out or refining your art to match this goal, a sense of direction and dedicated zones may be a powerful mental preparation tool.
  • Meditate on art. We touched on this but more specific of a mental activity, find a piece of art that inspires you and meditate on it. Pay attention to the colours, shapes, and symbols in the art. How does it make you feel? What does it say to you? Are you drawn to a certain style or do specific symbols grab your attention the most? Art is personal and should be for you firstly. It is important to know though, it wields great power and you have the opportunity to create an instant viewer experience with art. What journey do you want someone to take when they see your art? Meditate on your finished art as if you are viewing it for the first time – did you get the message across?
  • Journal about art. Write about your experiences with art in your journal. What pieces of art have inspired you? If you’ve done a picture you don’t like, why does it cause a reaction and what would you do differently? What have you learned about yourself through art? This last point is perhaps the most crucial when you view it as a way to deepen your inner journey!
  • Create art with others. Join a spiritual art class or workshop. Creating art with others can be a powerful way to connect with your spirituality and to build community. It can also be good to push yourself out of your comfort zone. I joined an art class specifically because the idea of painting in front of someone irked me out. I don’t like limitations so I needed to challenge that. I personally envision sharing spiritual art and creating the safe space to do as to be a big part of the ‘Awakened Power’ project, so if you have a spiritual piece you’d like to share – I’d be honoured if you chose me for that, in whatever form that is!

Ultimately, the way that you use art to connect with your spirituality is up to you. There is no right or wrong way to do it. The most important thing is to be open to the process and to allow art to help you on your spiritual journey – and have fun. This is coming from someone who has destroyed more drawings out of anger that completed projects. In contrast, now I am a big believer in Art for the soul and the healing powers that holds.

I’ve learned this in the most roundabout way possible and literally had to lose use of my drawing hand and spend a few years relearning it all with my non-dominant hand to appreciate how much of an achievement even a stick figure or a page of scratchy black angry scribbles can be, if that’s what resonates at the time. In this respect, do not be a Carlie XD, do the art, don’t judge the art – learn from it (even if you don’t like it).

Blessed Be xo