94stranger
34. The Artist: Group – Communication (7 blue)
http://www.rainringcards.com/Cards/The_Artist/34.aspx
The image
A middle-aged man with thick hair and a deeply-lined, sensitive face sits at a workbench. The tools and finished objects which surround him identify him as a sculptor in wood. He wears a blue artist’s smock and is absorbed in working with a fine chisel on his latest piece. Behind him on the wall hangs a picture of a lighthouse.
The portrait
Without a doubt, the artist is the most sensitive of the male types in Rainring, and the closest to his female side. For this reason, it is also the most likely male type to be incarnated in women. As an Artist, you can be extrovert or introvert, and this will also markedly affect your life-style outside your actual creative work.
At worst, you are the kind of artist who keeps your inner demons at bay by creative activity which brings you satisfaction, peace of mind and a sense of achievement, even if your work is not marketable or critically acclaimed. At best, your work reveals to the rest of us things which we always somehow knew, but could never express – for that is the function of art, in the sense of all creative endeavour. You are the most tolerant of men, for your need is to see, to hear, to sense what is, and he who judges blinds himself with what should be. You are a communicator, but of a special kind – your work consists in tapping into the Unconscious and from that source bringing into the light of day things which had thus far remained in the darkness. Compared to the Seer, you have the great advantage that your work, your oeuvre is what you care about – this is a valuable and usually effective shield from the dangers of contact with the Unconscious. However, ‘genius is akin to madness’ and only a fine line separates the high creative achievement from the disintegrated condition of the basket case – acute sensitivity is very difficult to manage.
You have the ingredients for self-sufficiency: as a true artist you have to satisfy not the public but yourself. Every dictatorial regime has had major problems with artists, for you belong to a genre which cherishes, indeed can only thrive given independence and freedom of expression. You are likely to be a person with very decided and idiosyncratic views on matters which concern you. You may be an excellent and effective propagandist for non-mainstream causes, if the spirit moves you. In a very real sense, the moral health of a society can be judged by the state of its artists – their silence spells big trouble; if they are visibly and audibly angry and disaffected, all is not rotten in the state of… whatever country it may be.
What of the shadow side? We have already indicated that the elephant in the room for the artist is mental health problems. As an artist, you feel most alive when you are gripped by inspiration. It is an intoxicating state. But he who inspires (breathes in) must also expire (breathe out). Your besetting sin is that of wanting to live permanently in that exalted condition, and being unwilling to recognise that the mundane and trivial are a necessary part of the rich tapestry of existence – someone has to cook, clean and do the accounts. In fact, your mental health requires you to be able not just to write, paint or compose, but to be able to stop. You and your requirements can often be very invasive – the world must cease to exist around you when the muse strikes. A great singer once said: ‘she who cannot do menial work cannot sing’. In former times, there was no cadre of individuals set apart as ‘artist’. Everyone participated in the life of the tribe, then at night around the fire, the gifted would entertain with their various arts: music, dance, drama, story-telling. The source of art is life: if you cease to have a life outside your art, that art will become a hollow shell.
Divinatory meanings
Creative work or ideas, free expression, sensitivity, a childlike wonder at, closeness to and appreciation of nature and animals; independence of mind; alternative views; eccentricity, dedication, single-mindedness, tolerance, awareness, exaggeration, excess in physical appetites, naivety, instability, vanity, invasiveness, childish ego-centricity, petulance, mood swings.
http://www.rainringcards.com/Cards/The_Artist/34.aspx
The image
A middle-aged man with thick hair and a deeply-lined, sensitive face sits at a workbench. The tools and finished objects which surround him identify him as a sculptor in wood. He wears a blue artist’s smock and is absorbed in working with a fine chisel on his latest piece. Behind him on the wall hangs a picture of a lighthouse.
The portrait
Without a doubt, the artist is the most sensitive of the male types in Rainring, and the closest to his female side. For this reason, it is also the most likely male type to be incarnated in women. As an Artist, you can be extrovert or introvert, and this will also markedly affect your life-style outside your actual creative work.
At worst, you are the kind of artist who keeps your inner demons at bay by creative activity which brings you satisfaction, peace of mind and a sense of achievement, even if your work is not marketable or critically acclaimed. At best, your work reveals to the rest of us things which we always somehow knew, but could never express – for that is the function of art, in the sense of all creative endeavour. You are the most tolerant of men, for your need is to see, to hear, to sense what is, and he who judges blinds himself with what should be. You are a communicator, but of a special kind – your work consists in tapping into the Unconscious and from that source bringing into the light of day things which had thus far remained in the darkness. Compared to the Seer, you have the great advantage that your work, your oeuvre is what you care about – this is a valuable and usually effective shield from the dangers of contact with the Unconscious. However, ‘genius is akin to madness’ and only a fine line separates the high creative achievement from the disintegrated condition of the basket case – acute sensitivity is very difficult to manage.
You have the ingredients for self-sufficiency: as a true artist you have to satisfy not the public but yourself. Every dictatorial regime has had major problems with artists, for you belong to a genre which cherishes, indeed can only thrive given independence and freedom of expression. You are likely to be a person with very decided and idiosyncratic views on matters which concern you. You may be an excellent and effective propagandist for non-mainstream causes, if the spirit moves you. In a very real sense, the moral health of a society can be judged by the state of its artists – their silence spells big trouble; if they are visibly and audibly angry and disaffected, all is not rotten in the state of… whatever country it may be.
What of the shadow side? We have already indicated that the elephant in the room for the artist is mental health problems. As an artist, you feel most alive when you are gripped by inspiration. It is an intoxicating state. But he who inspires (breathes in) must also expire (breathe out). Your besetting sin is that of wanting to live permanently in that exalted condition, and being unwilling to recognise that the mundane and trivial are a necessary part of the rich tapestry of existence – someone has to cook, clean and do the accounts. In fact, your mental health requires you to be able not just to write, paint or compose, but to be able to stop. You and your requirements can often be very invasive – the world must cease to exist around you when the muse strikes. A great singer once said: ‘she who cannot do menial work cannot sing’. In former times, there was no cadre of individuals set apart as ‘artist’. Everyone participated in the life of the tribe, then at night around the fire, the gifted would entertain with their various arts: music, dance, drama, story-telling. The source of art is life: if you cease to have a life outside your art, that art will become a hollow shell.
Divinatory meanings
Creative work or ideas, free expression, sensitivity, a childlike wonder at, closeness to and appreciation of nature and animals; independence of mind; alternative views; eccentricity, dedication, single-mindedness, tolerance, awareness, exaggeration, excess in physical appetites, naivety, instability, vanity, invasiveness, childish ego-centricity, petulance, mood swings.
