This time of year many cultures pause to honor their ancestors. The ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, which marks the end of harvest and the beginning of winter, is considered a time when the veil between worlds of the living and the dead becomes thin.
Samhain by Tijana Lukovic
All Saints Day and All Souls Day are observed in many Catholic countries including Portugal, Spain and Hungary. And, of course, many in Mexico celebrate Día de los Muertos.
An image from Pixar's Coco showing the family's altar to their ancestors
I think this concept of connecting with our ancestors holds some wisdom for how we can cultivate our creativity.
While popular culture idolizes originality, the truth is that creativity doesn't occur in a vacuum. The myth of the lone genius is just that, a myth. Researchers now acknowledge that a wide array of influences contribute to the creative process.
Artists and scientists have also emphasized the importance of imitation and inspiration in the creative process. Oliver Sacks observed that "imitation and mastery of form or skills must come before major creativity." Mark Twain noted that,
All ideas are second-hand, consciously and unconsciously drawn from a million outside sources ... When a great orator makes a great speech you are listening to ten centuries and ten thousand men — but we call it his speech, and really some exceedingly small portion of it is his.
So just as our biological ancestors contributed to shaping our physical DNA, we can consider all those "creativity ancestors" who have shaped our creative DNA. Shaped how we see the world. Shaped what inspires us. Shaped our sense of what's possible. Shaped our aesthetic sense and appreciation for specific forms of beauty.
So why not take a moment and reflect on who've been the biggest sources of creative inspiration for you. How does it feel when you call these people to mind?
I'd like to propose three ways we can work with our creativity ancestors to support and strengthen our creativity.
Flesh out the family tree. My mom is really into genealogy and has found some pretty fascinating stories about our ancestors during her research. We can do the same with our creativity ancestors by looking up the people who inspired the people who inspire us. The last few weeks I've been slowly perusing this book over breakfast. I picked up the Children's Book of Art from our local library and it's been an easy and enjoyable way to start my day. I appreciated how, on the pages where they profile an individual artist, they explicitly call out a few of their "influences". By tracing back your lineage you can discover new sources of inspiration and new resources to draw on in your own creative work. It also helps humanize people we may have put on a pedestal by realizing they had their own idols. You might even make a creativity family tree to see all your creativity ancestors in one place.
2. Express gratitude. An important part of connecting with our biological ancestors is acknowledging that we would not exist without their efforts and sacrifices. We can similarly practice gratitude for the people in the lineage of our creative work. Why not write a letter to someone whose creativity has shaped your own creative journey telling them how much it impacted you. If the person lived centuries ago you can keep the letter in your journal. But if the person is still living, consider finding a way to send it their way. Maybe it's not a letter in snail mail (although I suppose why not), but it could be a DM on Instagram or a heartfelt podcast or book review.
3. Design a ritual. You might come up with a special prayer or invocation that you say each time you sit down to your creative work. Or perhaps you might find an object of clothing or piece of jewellery that reminds you of a specific creativity ancestor and wear it when you create. It might be a special bookshelf with books written by or about your creativity ancestors and you might adopt a practice of opening a book to a random page and reading a sentence or two when you feel creatively stuck. Or you may want to create an altar with objects that represent your creativity ancestors. Check out these "secular saint" candles for inspiration.
I think one of the reasons we get creatively stuck is because we get too much in our own heads. We paralyse ourselves with too much pressure, thinking we have to handle it all on our own. But by connecting to our creativity ancestors we need never feel alone. Rather we can locate ourselves in a long lineage of other humans who shared our passions, craft or questions. We can remember we're not simply small separate selves, but we're always in every moment standing on "the shoulders of giants".