Recovering a Sense of Creative Safety with The Hanged One
Week One of the Tarot Artist's Way...
This summer, I’m guiding you through a tarot takeover of Julia Cameron’s 12 week creative recovery program, The Artist’s Way. Each Monday, I’ll pair a key theme from the book with a tarot archetype, and share fresh insights on The Artist’s Way’s message, through a tarot-lens. Today, we’re diving in to Week 1: Recovering a Sense of Safety with The Hanged One.
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Week One of our tarot-informed journey through The Artist’s Way kicks off with an invitation to recover a sense of safety, begging the question… what is safety, in a creative context?
I turned to a tarot archetype that walks the fine line between safety and danger to find out… The Hanged One.
ICYMI, the replay recording of our Tarot Artist’s Way intention setting session is available here.
In The Hanged One card, we observe a figure strung up by a single foot, dangling like a pendulum from the boughs of a tree.
It’s not the fatal scene we might conjure if we were told the card’s title and nothing else. The hero in this card is not hanged as in executed. They are safe from the worst fate of death (at least for now), they are safely — if unconventionally — secured to the tree.
But the sense of safety in this image is not the same as the stability or comfort that’s often associated with many archetypal conjurings of “safety” — there are no guards or blockades, no padding or nets, no circle of protection here. Just a question: what if I hung myself upside down? And a non-judgmental answer: OK, let’s fuck around and find out.
Creative safety, I’d argue — with the Hanged One as my witness — is about giving ourselves permission to dare, without knowing where our bold actions will lead. It’s about surrendering to the unknown and letting that be a muse to us, rather than a block. It’s about finding home in the liminal spaces that don’t provide easy answers. About — if I can borrow some words from
— "choosing the path of curiosity over the path of fear”.1The path of curiosity is not free from fear, but it’s a hell of a lot more rewarding.
The Hanged Man is the only figure whose face shines with golden light; not even the angels appear so transfigured. He has attached himself to the tree of his deepest spiritual values, and it no longer matters to him if people approve or disapprove of him.
— Rachel Pollack, The New Tarot Handbook
The Hanged One chooses the path of curiosity every time — they constantly experiment with their own perception, assumptions, and stamina. They aren’t afraid to be witnessed in their weirdness, to be misunderstood or dismissed. They are inviting discomfort in many forms, safe in the knowledge that discomfort has the potential to breed magic.
The reward? The luminous halo of light that frames their face. The ease in their posture. A sense that all is well, regardless of how things seem, radiating from within.
So, I think it’s safe to say that recovering a sense of creative safety has nothing to do with making ourselves comfortable, with avoiding fear, with chasing a room of our own or a financial padding to fund our creative dreams or even a supportive creative community — and everything to do with befriending and generously feeding our appetite for exploration, new perspectives, and risk.
Because here’s the truth: creativity is the direct offspring of discomfort — the spark resulting from the friction of flint against steel. A new way of thinking and being, in response to an old way that wasn’t enough.
The Hanged One prompts us to intentionally pursue discomfort in service of that new way. Ultimately, it’s about growing pains. And about what we give up (our sense of stability) and what we gain (transcendance, inspiration).
Like the Hanged One, Week One of The Artist’s Way offers a masterclass in approaching discomfort with creative curiosity, and a step-by-step tool kit for rejuvinating and feeding our starved inner artist. Julia Cameron challenges readers to face dreams we’ve denied ourselves (Shadow Artists), come face-to-face with our inner critic (Blurts), and experiment with vulnerable tasks like the Morning Pages and Affirmations. It’s raw, emotional, and revealing. The definition of uncomfortable. An initiation into fucking around and finding out.
This week, whether you’re reading through and “doing” Week One of The Artist’s Way, or simply taking this opportunity to reflect on creative safety through lens of the Hanged One, I invite you to abandon any idea that creative safety is linked to comfort or stability, and to choose the path of curiosity over fear. To reframe discomfort as a portal to creative discovery, and to watch what happens when you befriend your hunger for questions that don’t have answers… yet. •
Join me live on Sunday, May 18th at 7pm UK / 2pm Eastern / 11am Pacific for a tarot journaling event where we’ll reflect back on how our experience with recovering creative safety has manifested over the week.
Below, full-access subscribers to The Shuffle can find:
Morning Pages prompts
Artist’s Date suggestions
What’s next
A discount code for my limited edition Inner Artist tarot letter