Thursday, March 20, 2008

Moderator Guide

Guide for the WITW Moderator

Each week the Moderator will help facilitate the meeting with:

• Unlocking the door before 6:30
• Getting the group started at or close to 6:30
• Keeping us aware of the time
• Help keep the discussion flowing
• Helping us close the meeting at 8:00
• Passing the key to next weeks Moderator
• Making sure that we leave the facility clean
• Making sure the lights are out and the door is locked

Please sign up to Moderate! It is part of how we give back to the group.

Here is the suggested format for the meeting. This is a creative group and we are always open to new approaches!

1) Start the meeting with creative check-ins taking about half an hour total. It helps asking the group to keep it simple or brief (we have fun talking!) Ask each person to focus on creative activities, blocks, accomplishments, joys & sorrows etc. “Creative” is in the very broadest sense of the word!

2) Bring the group back around to the book and the chapter for the week. It helps to provide a starting place for discussion. Perhaps something that really caught your attention and why. You may need to gently help those of us who like to ramble finalize our thoughts so others may join in the conversation.

3) Close the meeting. Remind people to check in over email sometime during the week with:
Journaling
Walks
Artist’s dates
Doing nothing
Anything of importance or not.

Finally here are some entirely optional things that have been done in the past that you may or may not choose to do:

• Bring coffee and/or tea to make.
• Bring snacks
• Say a meditation, of your choosing, at the beginning to bring us into the group, or the end to send us out into the world.
• Have a short group activity to share.

Finally here is a favorite meditation, originally given by Michael Bailey who started our walking in this world, together.

The Sacred Circle:
Art is an act of the soul, not the intellect. When we are dealing with people’s dreams – their visions, really – we are in the realm of the sacred. We are involved with forces and energies larger than our own. We are engaged in a sacred transaction for which we know only a little, the shadow, not the shape.
For this reason, it is mandatory that any gathering of artists be in the spirit of a sacred trust. We invoke the Great Creator when we invoke our own creativity, and that creative force has the power to alter lives, fulfill destinies, answer our dreams.
As artists we belong to an ancient and holy tribe. We are the carriers of the truth that spirit moves through us all.
We are meant to midwife dreams for one another. We cannot labor in place of one another, but we can support the labor that each must undertake to birth his or her art and foster it to maturity.
It is for all these reasons that the Sacred Circle must exist in any place of creation. It is this protective ring, this soul boundary that enlivens us at our highest level.
Success occurs in clusters. Drawing a sacred circle creates a sphere of safety and a center of attraction for our good. By filling this form faithfully, we draw to us the best. We draw the people we need. We attract the gifts we could best employ.
The Sacred Circle is built on respect and trust. The image is of the garden. Each plant has its name and its place. There is no one flower that cancels the need for another. Each bloom has its unique and irreplaceable beauty.
Art is an act of the soul; ours is a spiritual community.

Julia Cameron in “The Artist Way”

No comments: