What is the Sound-Soul System? A Transformative Approach to Music, Creativity, and Spiritual Development.
We aspire to be creative people, to express an innate creative spark, and become musicians, artists, dancers, designers, or film makers. We imagine the benefits of this desire- the fame, the notoriety, the attraction, the freedom- but underneath is a more profound aspect of the creative process- the development of self. Inside us, a creative self seeks to know us, to merge with us, and enhance the quality and power of our lives. This inner yearning is the soul’s bidding, which in simple terms means to express the deepest creativity within us, that which is most aligned with our joy and authenticity. To do this, we must embrace the creative life, while simultaneously pealing back layers of conditioning that hinder us from expressing ourselves creativity and authentically. The creative endeavour is both a practical and developmental process- a soul process of learning and inner development.
Antecedents to Creative Development
Traditionally, in ancient Greek or African societies, the arts were learnt through time-tested traditions that taught neophytes ‘the artform’, while simultaneously developing their sense of self. This process provides benefit for artists and others in the community, who are encouraged and facilitated to express themselves through the mastery of their art. These types of societies exist today, in those that have descended from long ritual traditions, such as West African societies and their diasporic descendants, or Hindustani, Sufi, or Balinese traditions that merge music, dance, and art with spiritual or religious doctrines. These types of traditions have a dual function, to provide the technical knowledge to aid mastery of a creative ritual system, while simultaneously providing the vehicle for spiritual and social development. Within these traditions, as one progresses along the path of the artform, one also progresses along the path of self-development and develops social-spiritual maturity.
The Creative Self
In the book, ‘The Artists way’, Julia Cameron provides a pathway for spiritual development using the creative process. Aimed for Westerners, it offers practical tips and advice for aspiring artists to express their creative selves. She outlines the psychological and social barriers to the emergence of the creative self, and gives practical advice for how to deal with it. The practices in this book are great for moving into a creative mindset, with tips like ‘morning writing’ and the ‘artist date’ (both techniques which I can personally attest to) as important ways for liberating the creative self. The book does not teach a specific type of art, a lineage, or tradition, but rather a set of general practices for a becoming more creative. In general, it provides an important first step in motivating aspiring artists.
While the book is great in its ability to inspire and motivate people into creative practice, I fear that it perpetuates a type of Western thinking. The popularity of the New Age Movement in the 1990s and its ongoing resurgence in new guises today, has led us to a watered down version of creativity and spirituality, one which appeals to our idea of creating freely without the support of tradition. It emerges from our debasement of religion, and anything authoritative, especially where the freedom of the artist is concerned. This has both a positive and negative edge. On the positive, it speaks to the Western mindset, that anything is possible, that we aren’t constrained by traditional rules, and that we can become whatever we will. On the negative, it shuns any idea of tradition, of following a well trodden path, of giving our will over to teachers, of humbling ourselves. These latter traits are common to the Asian traditions like Zen- those with strong religious foundations.
We want the positive things- freedom, choice, positivity, and ease, but without relegating our sense of self, of humbling our personality, of prostrating ourselves to something higher, either a tradition or a god. These qualities are precisely those necessary for doing what Cameron is calling for, which is subjugation of our personality and the emergence of the creative self. This becomes even more challenging when we add religion or spirituality to the mix, the idea that we need ‘outside’ help to achieve the most liberating inner self. Cameron has tried to address this by providing a set of practical techniques and spiritual concepts, but I feel she hasn’t gone far enough. Considering this book was released in the 1994 (with many re-publications over the years), I think the Western mind has developed since the original New Age movement and is ready for a deeper sense of the spiritual.
Tradition versus Modernity
In our yearning for things which are easy- our microwave ovens, automatic car doors, and Uber eats- we expect even the learning of art to be easy. We expect we can do a few artistic exercises, a few times a week, maybe for a few months and voila- we are artists. We fail to understand that, art is a lifelong process of development. A spiritual process that never ends. As artists, we live in that perpetual knowing that we will never be everything we desire or yearn for, because through creative introspection we learn that the creative self, or genius, is larger than we can ever hope to understand. As so, we satisfy ourselves with small steps in the constant uncovering of the creative genius, and resign ourselves to never fully arriving.
Traditionally, the practice of art was an ongoing process of learning and spiritual development. Sure, you became proficient and masterful at your art, but you understood that there was still more to learn, more blockages to let go of, more spirit to infuse into your art. This perspective annoys and discourages many creative students who like the idea of an easy progression to stardom. Such ideas kill fantasies. If we let go of the idea of art as activity, hobby, or habit, and instead see it as a spiritual process- then we can live with the notion that we develop artistically until death.
See art isn’t something we do on weekends or when we want to impress people, it is a way of life. Cliche as that sounds, art is a specific way of looking at the world where your artform becomes a vehicle, a methodology, by which you initiate yourself from a fearful, naive, materialist; into a courageous, learned, and mystical entity. This transformation moves you into depths of soul that only comes from deep introspection in your chosen field. Each project, each month, and each year, you dig a little deeper, push yourself a little further, collaborate with others who inspire you, while always increasing your knowledge and technique a bit more. Without realising, one day you look back and see how far you’ve come.
You learn to detach the mind from body, so that muscle memory helps you focus on other aspects of your artform. Your mind focuses on learning new things so you are always in a perpetual state of student, even as masters. Your humbled by the grandeur of the process, and prostrate to life. We unravel the creative genius within, each time offering us new surprises in our capacity for art, but also love, gratitude, and admiration for god’s creation.
The Sound-Soul System
The Sound-Soul System is a response to the need for artists (aspiring and professional), to develop the tools for undergoing the creative process of self-mastery within the bounds of a specific type of art- a tradition. It teaches practice within the context of psychological, social, and spiritual development. Thus. it provides systematic techniques for learning of the function of sound while facilitating the expression of soul, hence ‘Sound-Soul System’.
Soul holds our most innate yearnings for authenticity, creativity, and collaboration, but hides within us, until we actively birth it through creative practice and identification. The Sound-Soul System core teachings embrace knowledge of ritual, traditionally based on initiation into higher realms through trance, altered states, experiences of the divine or social unity. Ritual is a holistic practice that embodies varieties of artforms, including dance, film, design, visual art, and others. It infuses these artistic forms with an underlying core ethos: a particular way of creating and performing. Understanding this ethos is important for artists seeking to provoke transformative experience in their audiences, while transforming themselves in the process.
As we learn that art is a practice and process of spiritual development, we naturally want to serve others in their development- we do this by mastering our artform, and imbuing our art with the symbols that evoke transformation in others. We initiate others by helping them see there own creative selves, either through creative practice, or sudden direct experience. This creates a cascade effect, where the vision of a new self produces a permanent alteration of consciousness: we are permanently changed and cannot go back. To do this we use ritual, which is the multi-sensory experience of symbols of transformation. These symbols appear in a variety of artforms, making it powerful and all-encompassing. The combination of multi-media experiences provides embodied multi-sensory stimulation to evoke change.
Accordingly, the Sound-Soul System is a methodology which encourages cross-disciplinary collaboration for the purposes of creating powerful transformational art. It includes techniques and practices which develop this potential, elucidated through teachings, talks, workshops, books, and articles. By undertaking the Sound-Soul system, the neophyte embraces the techniques necessary to free the creative self, within a tried-and-tested system that aids the creation of powerful and evocative music and art. Through this process, one touches upon the soul and learns to express its unique desires, to live by synchronicities, and to call upon its wisdom for the betterment of self and other. If this sounds all too mystical, then we are on the right track, since moving into our creative self is always a deep mystical experience, one that brings mystery to life. It draws from the world of the unknown, the unconscious self, which lurks underneath our conscious thinking and social conditioning.
Through practical and philosophical understanding, we begin to understand the creative process and its application in the real world- we learn how and why through exploring the terrain of our inner psychological landscape and apply this knowledge to our art. Through this journey we arrive at knowledge of our two selves- one is the outer personality, the other the inner creative self. Though practice we harmonise the two, bringing our creative self into alignment with our personality. The extent that we can do this, the more authentic, evocative, and powerful our sense of self becomes. In time, our self and art becomes deliciously unique, along with the innovative quality of our ideas.
When ideas emerge from the creative self, they are innately creative, aligned with the nature of our soul, and no longer a product of the herd conditioning. We become real selves in the psychological and spiritual sense, with permeates our outer lives and personalities. With the knowing of our uniqueness, we become ok with not having what others have, what they want, where they are going. We come to terms with our lives and accept our strengths and weaknesses. We see our pain and struggles as embers of transformation and come to appreciate the soul’s perfection in leading us to wholeness. We grow aware of the artistic nature of our own lives. That we are artists creating something truly original and divine without realising: that which we call ‘our life’. The Sound-Soul System is a process of coming into awareness of the artist within, and provides the tools and techniques to aid the evolution of art in each and every creative self to be birthed.
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References
Cameron, J., 1994. The Artist's Way. Souvenir Press. (2020)
