If asked to name the virus that is most dangerous to our world at this time, most of us would, of course, say Covid.  For this current pandemic is reported to have resulted in the loss of millions of lives, imposed severe economic hardships and disrupted the lives of millions more all around the globe. It has also restructured many aspects of our daily lives.  Terms like lockdown, social distancing and mask mandates have become the rule of the day and continue to create serious levels of anxiety, confusion, despair and division.  

On the other side, Covid has prompted many of us to revisit our core values, re-examine many of our practices and habits and remember what gives us a genuine sense of meaning and purpose. It has also caused many of us to rethink our priorities, revisit issues of mortality and helped many of us re-affirm the importance of our intimate relationships.  And it has brought about some quite astounding changes in our environment - clearer skies, reduced levels of pollution in some our interior and off-shore waters and the return of marine life thought banished in our lifetimes. 

Horrifying and extraordinary.   And yet, what if I told you that as troubling and dangerous as Covid is, there is another and far more deadly virus we should be far more concerned about? 

And what if I also told you that if we do not give it our full attention it could well result in the end of things, of humanity, of the other endangered species and of our planet itself. 

Carl Jung apparently without having knowledge of this indigenous term, independently identified this same phenomenon and called it the Totalitarian Virus.  He believed it literally robs human beings of our discernment and ability to defend ourselves against beliefs and actions that are against our own interests. He also suggested that this virus of the mind causes us to abdicate our sovereignty, delegate our independence of thought, makes us susceptible to a kind of mass insanity which, if left untreated eventually results in a form of psychic suicide.

I realize, of course, that you are probably wondering why I am talking about Wetiko and mass insanity in a blog titled Creativity. But if you stay with me for just a few moments longer I think you will understand.

For Wetiko, this disease of soul that can literally end humanity, has within both its cause and its cure.  And it is this anomaly I want to talk briefly about.  This cure according to according to Paul Levy, author of Dispelling Wetiko – a book I sincerely hope you will read - can lead us to a whole new level of consciousness and a much more elevated state of existence.  And this cure is accessible to all of us through our creative expression.  

Yes, this most natural of all human forms of expression, this call from the heart and prompt from the soul we call creativity can lead us, if we are willing and courageous enough, to open our hearts, let our imaginations soar and allow our innate gifts and skills to turn the grist of our lives into the gold of greater compassion, understanding, love, grace and commitment to the great good.  

Creativity is a form of alchemy we can all practice and in this way transform the pain, suffering, confusion, doubt, and the unhealed wounds that we brought with us into this life as well as those we accumulate while here into greater wholeness, oneness, individuation, enlightenment or whatever name you call this elevated state.  

So whether you are called to a blank canvas, an empty piece of paper, a musical note sheet, a garden, a social cause, a children’s classroom;  whether you favor words or paints or movement, voice, stone or wood or mental constructs and theory – just let go and express, share, and create. 

And please know, you do not have to appear on the stage in Carnegie Hall, create a song that makes it to the top of the Billboard Charts, have your painting hung in the Louvre, or win the Nobel Prize.  All you need to do in the privacy of your own space is to let your heart play, explore, improvise and let your note in the song of life emerge.  In the end, you see, the cure is not found in a search for greatness, but your surrender to simplicity, honesty integrity and your trust in doing what you were born to do.

Yes, I truly believe that creativity is the cure to the most dangerous virus of all.