The Seven Roles > Artisan

Artisan and the Five Levels of Input

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nelly:
Hello all,
Hoping someone can help me with this one...as an artisan I should probably come to grips with this topic. I can usually 'photograph' myself shifting between levels, but I really don't have an understanding of each level and how they pertain to the artisan operation. Can anyone point me in the right direction please?
Many thanks - Nelly

Dave:
Hi Nelly,

Welcome to the forum!   :)

I've seen various theories about the inputs, but have yet to find anything definitive when it came to the artisan. It's a bit of a mystery as far as I'm concerned.

In my own experience, I think the outer inputs lie somewhere between the dream and daydreaming states. I know that when I'm engaged in a creative project, I often set the project aside for awhile and let it stew so that it's temporarily away from my direct attention and open to creative spices that come from possibly outside my self. At least it feels that way.

I've also noticed that after returning to the project it may seem to have suddenly grown in my mind, as if part of myself had been secretly working on it while my conscious mind was busy with other things. I doubt this is entirely related to input levels, but I suspect outer inputs do play a role in receiving ideas and information that is not readily apparent on the conscious level, and this ultimately helps with creative projects.

There is an article about inputs on this site:
http://www.michaelteachings.com/inputs.html

Best,
Dave

Velleity:
I don't know if I can help, as I only have a discarnate artisan essence twin (and am a king role), but having been an art student for quite a while, sometimes it felt I could temporarily feel those extra inputs, or have a false experience of them. More like I 'knew' what it might be like to have them even though I don't. Being a king with one input, it was really difficult for me to be in art school and do longer term projects because I struggle to let things percolate on back burners in the way artisans can. If I'm doing a project, it kind of gets done in a week or a day or a 'set amount of time', and is one entire thing unto itself even if it has lots of levels (I usually don't see the 'meanings' until after it's finished)... but it's veeeery hard to combine hundreds of different elements into series or one huge art project at the end of the year that has to be put in an exhibition.

Once I'm done with a thing, I have to move on to something else. My one input just processes it in a condensed way and then that's it for the moment. Once I'm done simmering and boiling down the ideas, then it all just comes out in a rush of dedicated action. Sometimes the theme will come back months later, but I do a lot of complete 'one-offs'. Though then there's Georgia O'Keeffe (a king artist, one input), who found her theme(s), then was very singular yet very bold and vivid.

I got quite jealous of artisan art students, as they seemed better at juggling all the incoming influences and incorporating them like it was no big deal, or they'd go back half a year and pull something easily into present time, whereas I if I'm not organized can get very lost with everything coming at me through one channel. I just can't hold it all in my head, whether consciously or not. I had an advantage of making effective and condensed pieces of art in short periods of time, but was disadvantaged in that I couldn't spread out my themes throughout a year. Often I felt quite 'dumb' among all the artisans in art school... as I was just a bit too focused on what was there in front of me, and at the same time got frustrated with everyone floating off into unnecessary places during critiques. All the Hm-ing and er-ing of why someone chose to use certain things in their artworks, when it was fairly obvious to me... "why did you use this color, why this material? would it be better with a frame, what would a frame imply??" got on my last nerve... me thinking "because I just DID, there's no extra meaning, I don't care about the frame and what it signifies, I can't grasp why that might be important..." etc. etc. ;)

Don't know if I helped! Seems more of a rant than an answer. I just know there's quite a difference between one and 5 inputs, and I felt that difference for quite a few years. The main thing seems to be that artisans can seem better a juggling a lot of different influences (from different planes), having it all in their head at one time. Whereas having that much info in my head at one time makes me quite stressed out. The tv-channels metaphor seems incredibly apt (to me).

nelly:
Thank you, David and Elisabeth,
The shifting between reality and day dreams I think relates to the 5th level, and I think Michael refers to it as 'escaping to the 5th '  - or copping out! which is probably accurate, and I can see it in myself when I slide into the negative pole of artiface. A lot of artisan work occurs in this level, I think, and it needs to be brought to bear via another level, or it remains the artisan creation that just never becomes concrete - the great 'I was going to' or the great artisan ideas that are easier to leave in the abstract. I have quite a few projects that were just perfect in the abstract, and I didn't feel any need to actually do or create them - but I'm not sure if this is valid experience or just laziness!!
David,  I will read that link thank you.
Regards,
Nelly

Dave:
I couldn't possibly list all of the creative tangents I've mostly left abstract in my mind. Creativity is a form of play for me and the majority of my creations rarely see the light of day. For instance, I love jazz music and it's rare for me not to be mentally improvising something in my mind. I never write any of it down, however, since it's something that's always there and I've never felt the need to preserve it.

I do enjoy placing a creative project on autopilot and returning to it later to see how it has developed. Other roles do this, too, but I suspect Artisans have the edge.

Best,
Dave

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