The Wild Artist's River

Earlier this year I was in the loft piling up some old boxes of things from many years ago,

when I noticed a book and picked it up.

I didn't open it or read it but for some reason, the moment that I saw it, a beautiful feeling was triggered in me. It was a feeling of Back Then, When ...

*Life was more a leafy country lane than a mega motorway.

*Making art was carving by a campfire not fired up in a production factory.

*Words were written, books bound and blogs pressed naturally.

*I felt connected to something greater, deeper and more alive than just the internet of things.  

*I was immersed in a creative current, an artistic taproot, a "wild free river" that felt like home.

It was such a RELIEF to feel that old feeling.

For many years now my art has become funneled towards the internet, to the small boxes of social media, to selling all the things. As a result - and maybe you're like me - I've found my creative impulses bleached, worn down and scorched by the light of perpetual digitality. I feel a bit tired. A bit tense around the future of my craft. A bit blurgh.

But, picking up that book in the loft, I was connected to something so sweet and familiar and beautiful. Everything felt like it was all going to be alright.

Later, when J came home from work and we were sitting amongst the orange and purple flowers in the late afternoon sun, I went on to tell him about the strange river of feeling that I'd tapped into.

"It was weird," I said. "Like a creative current of simplicity, trust, joy ... and so much reassurance." I paused and gazed into the flower beds that burst with weeds and flowers and colour and life. Smiled at him. "I can still feel it now."

"I'm not sure if it was the book that activated that feeling," J said.

"What do you mean?"

"I think it was this." He took out his phone and showed me a graph, a small set of lines on a spectrogram that had exploded out on that very day. "It's the Schumann Resonance. For some reason it was amplified today."

Have you heard of the Schmann Resonance? It's known as the "earth's heartbeat" - and while it sounds a bit woo-woo, it's rooted firmly in science.

The Schumann Resonance was discovered by Dr Winifrid Otto Schmann, a German physicist. While teaching at the University of Munich in 1952, he had been working on mathematical equations to "describe the Earth's electrical properties" and the behaviour of electromagnetic waves between the surface of the Earth and the ionosphere cavity. When Schumann analysed his data, he discovered the fundamental frequency of the Earth is approximately 7.8Hz, which became known as the Schmann Resonance. Since then, monitoring stations have been set up all over the world, where scientists are able to measure this frequency and gather information on the electrical field and magnetic field strength across the Earth's surface. This data is collected and used to create a spectrogram, which shows the frequency and intensity of the Schumann Resonance.

The spectrogram for that day was what J was showing me.

But, what did this have to do with my Wild Artist River?

The natural frequency of 7.83 Hz - the Schmann Frequency - is an Alpha/Theta brainwave frequency that is known to promote relaxation, cell regeneration and healing in humans. Scientific tests from all over the world have shown that when we align with this frequency, it has a direct direct impact on mood, enhancing meditative states and creativity. Modern technology exposes us to higher frequencies of electromagnetic radiation (EMR) that range from 30,000 Hz to 3 billion Hz, disrupting the natural balance of our electromagnetic waves ... which results in depression, lack of creativity, burn out and anxiety.

But by tuning back into the 7.83Hz frequency, we can reconnect with those levels of wellbeing, grounding - and CREATIVITY - once again.

I now think that the feeling I'd felt in the loft that day was my mind and body resonating with the Schumann Frequency. It just so happened that I'd picked up an old book at the same time.

The whole experience has got me thinking.

It's made me realise that as Artists who have a vested interest in keeping our creativity alive, we NEED to be return to Schmuann Resonance aka The Wild Artist River regularly; to swim in it, bathe in it and immerse in it often. Not as a means to an end to become more productive and make more money or become more successful ... but to nurture, replenish and restore our wild, feral, native, artistic TRUTH.

For me, understanding the relationship that my creativity has with the Wild Artist River has changed my perspective a lot. It's changed how I want to make art, write, hang out and it is now even beginning to inform how I want to live and my vision for the next chapter of my life.

Why?

Because I am happier with my feet planted in that current.

And, as the poet Annie Dillard said, "How we spend our days, is of course, how we spend our lives."

How are your days?

How is your creativity faring up in the digital fanfare?

Do you want to get to the Wild Artist River?

Good.

I'm making us some maps. x