Agnosticism and Affirmations

The Artist's Way is spiritually themed, and makes an assumption of faith on the part of the reader.

As an agnostic, I find the frequent references to "The Creator" anywhere from quaint to tedious. For the most part they don't work for me, but I'm occasionally able to tweak it to suit my own perspective. I especially needed to do this with the affirmations that are offered in week one.

My girl Emily and my husband (who also identify as agnostic/atheistic) were also disturbed by this, so I tried re-writing them to see if they could get behind a less god-centric message. (this whole post is probably going to bum out my sister who is my only reader, so, sorry, K).


Here are the ones I could use wholeheartedly:

5. My creativity heals myself & others.
6. I am allowed to nurture my artist.
7. Through the use of a few simple tools, my creativity will flourish.
9. My creativity (always) leads me to truth and love.
I personally would omit the always on this one as I prefer to avoid absolute thinking.
15. I am willing to create.
16. I am willing to learn to let myself create.
18. I am willing to be of service through my creativity.
19. I am willing to experience my creative energy.
20. I am willing to use my creative talents.

Affirmations I tweaked
1. I am a channel for God's creativity and my work comes to good. BECOMES
"I AM OPEN TO BEING A CONDUIT OF CREATIVE ENERGY. . . and my work leads to good things"

2. My dreams come from God & God has the power to accomplish them BECOMES
"MY DREAMS REPRESENT A HIGHER, TRUER VERSION OF MYSELF THAT I CAN ACCESS"

3. As I create & listen, I will be led BECOMES
"I WILL LISTEN AS I CREATE"

4. Creativity is the Creator's will for me BECOMES
CREATIVITY IS NATURAL FOR EVERYONE

8. Through the use of my creativity I serve God BECOMES
THROUGH THE USE OF MY CREATIVITY, I TAP INTO A HIGHER POWER THAT CONNECTS AND SERVES ALL BEINGS.

12. There is a divine plan of goodness for my work BECOMES
MY WORK TAPS INTO THE DIVINE IN ME

13. As I listen to my creator, I am led.
Replaced Creator with MY INTUITION

14. As I listen to my creativity, I am led to my Creator.
Replaced Creator with DIVINITY.

17. See no. 1.

Affirmations I wasn't able to get behind:

10. My creativity leads me to forgiveness and self-forgiveness.
I was surprised by the strength of myreaction to this one, since it is not one of the God ones. For me, it is too loaded, too calculated, too much someone else's idea of what my creative purpose SHOULD be. I might be able to work with-
MY CREATIVITY IS ONE PATH TO SELF FORGIVENESS
meaning that I could use it for that purpose, but I am not willing to put it on me or my art to get anyone else to a place of forgiveness, nor am I okay with REQUIRING or EXPECTING that it do that for me.

11. There is a divine plan of goodness for me.
OMG so loaded. Even just the word goodness is problematic. I finally settled on
GOODNESS IS ABUNDANT IN MY LIFE
but really I could take or leave this one.

Maybe it's too late to say that I'm trying to reserve my skepticism and be open to all possibilities... (I am!), but this is as far as I could get for now...