A Story has emotional power: it brings meaning, hope, and vision together; it connects body and soul. It can be as simple as a saying or as complex as a biography; it can come from a conversation, a newspaper clipping, a movie, or a myth. A Story can bring the power of imagination into a situation. If we identify with the story, it becomes incorporated into us, and every cell and molecule in our body responds. Jean Shinoda Bolen
This week, in my Message from the Muse four-card tarot video, the card that came up to represent the theme for the week is the Major Arcana card, the High Priestess.
As I looked at the card I thought about the idea of the priestess as the one who has wisdom and who knows how and when to reveal the Mysteries, that spiritual knowledge that leads to understanding of and connection to the Divine.
And, since these readings are always in relation to you and your creative work, I looked at the message of the High Priestess as being about how we share with others the knowledge and experience we have about our work, in essence, the story of who you are and what you do.
When I was on the fine crafts show circuit selling my handwoven rayon chenille wearables and throws, I was repeatedly asked questions about the work and my process. Questions like:
“How long did it take you to weave this?”
“How did you get into weaving?”
“Wow, is this hard to do? I don’t think I could do this?”
On one level, people wanted to know about the value of the work in relation to the prices I was charging. But on another deeper level, they wanted to hear the story of the work. They wanted to hear my story about how and why I got into weaving as a craft and a business. And they loved it when I talked about my passion for color and how I wanted a woman to feel the impact of my color choices in her belly so that when she wore my weaving it transformed her.
They also loved hearing about how my weaving business name, Nettles and Green Threads, was taken from a fairytale. Because hearing these stories imbued meaning to the work. And with the meaning came value and significance. Story has many functions in our lives and one of the most important is to provide meaning.
As human beings, we all thirst for meaning and we search for it, consciously or unconsciously, everywhere—in our work, in our relationships, in our existence. Story is a powerful tool for conveying meaning. In fact, the search for meaning is probably one of the reasons story exists, to help us understand our world and ourselves.
I’m not talking about just the story that a write creates. I’m talking about the story of you and your work…whatever it is you do. Whether you teach or speak or paint or perform or counsel, there are stories in your work and stories about who you are and why you do what you do.
So look for the story in your work. Why do you do what you do? Then look to share that story with others. Pull back the curtains on the Mysteries only you know. And if you share your story well, then you give people work that has depth and breadth, heart and soul.
You give them that connection to the Divine.