The Vein of Gold

I have made a permanent connection. With who you ask? Me. What made me think I was disconnected? I just knew like you know. Traumatic life experiences during childhood, tragic episodes, etc. It doesn't really matter how you got disconnected with your inner artist child only that it's possible to reconnect right now if you pick up Julia Cameron's book: The Artist Way and work through the exercises. Your life will change for real. The Vein of Gold (the sequel to the Artist's Way) focuses on finding your specific source of treasure/talent. Both books ensure that you will stay well-connected to your inner artist child and not lose him/her ever again. There are no short cuts, but Julia Cameron's program works. I don't know why it works, but it does. Before you do one more thing to improve or change your life buy both books and do the exercises faithfully. I still journal, take artist dates and buy little gifts for my inner artist child. Why? It works, but I would have never made the connection without these two wonderful books. The books are like treasure maps to find the treasure (the gold) in you. You and you alone are your own gold-digger.

Julia Cameron has done it again. I read her first book The Artist's Way and this book is just as great. I've experienced an increase in creativity that I never thought possible. It truly is a journey inward. I'm 35 yrs. old and a mother of two. I had no idea that there was still so much to discover about myself. As mentioned in the book, a great symptom of increased creativity, is greater spirituality. This book has truly changed my life!

Julia Cameron's books should be mandatory coursework in all creative writing classes or any kind of dramatic and performing arts programs around the world! Luminous, loving, and healing are the trademarks of her artistic recovery programs. Climb this mountain and find your creative muse! The book follows a weekly development plan to exacavate the voice within. A gradual mentorship no matter where you are on the journey to expressing your artistic birthright. Don't we all have a story to tell that is uniquely our own? Or perhaps there is that song that is one which places us in our element like nothing else? And then again, there are those stage roles that seem written just for us, or are they? The answer in Julia Cameron's Vein of Gold is ... YES! Cameron describes in her book how the actor Robert De Niro seems born to play certain mystery roles and when he steps out of them the thespian magic seems to disappear. This is the basis for the Vein of Gold, which followed the very successful Artist's Way, as a 12-week study in artistic recovery. The Vein of Gold continues upon Cameron's practice of morning pages, artist dates to be taken solo, and a series of tasks designed to coax out the creative child. Each chapter begins with a rich collection of Cameron's wisdom as a professional writer herself and follows a particular theme. Readers are encouraged to stay on each theme presented in the chapter, such as abundance, and do homework assignments such as a collage or add decoration to their living space. The point of this is to draw out in a reader what is uniquely their own story, song, or poem to birth. In the commercial world of art, Cameron notes, a lot is being quantified by how much money a movie earned, how much a painting was sold for, or how many hits songs a record spawned. This message is often what gets in the way of finding one's vein of gold because the artists believes that they must deliver art that is "acceptable" rather than "authentic". In the Vein of God, Cameron strives to draw out what is already there and meant to expressed rather than mould a person's art into a template of popular opinion. Beyond the 12 distinct chapters, the book is divided into kingdoms to illustrate the kind of inner journey that Cameron is taking her students on. Each kingdom (sight, story, sound, attitude, relationship, and spirituality) reflects the kind of "sense" training that is intended to help readers excavate their own vein of gold as practical exercises probe leading questions into the psyche. What Cameron wants is for those who seek their inner gold, to not only find it, but to claim it as theirs alone. The Buddha once said that there are three things never hidden for long: the sun, the moon, and the truth. Finding gold in the hills of our inner life is only possible through the truth. Cameron's Vein of Gold is a literary prospector's guide to seeing our truth underneath all the beliefs, emotions, and patterns we have long hidden under.

I know a therapist who uses Julia's Morning Pages technique in her practice. Then I stumbled upon this author's name and her book "The Artist's Way" in Sarah Ban Breathnach's books. So, of course, I picked up the Artist's Way at the library and started my own morning pages. That was 3 years ago. What has happened since? Well, I stopped doing the pages after 2 months (I was "busy") and I've been kinda wandering ever since. Lo and behold I stumbled upon this book, bought it used at a library sale and am back to those damn (ha-ha) morning writings. Well, I must tell you that this woman is a genius. Not only have these pages been quite an inspiration and a positive flow for me, but the "assignments" she asks you to undertake are life changing. I am a much more positive person and that shows in my writings. Let me stress to you that I am NOT a writer of any sort, my creativity has not shown it's full colors yet (they are dim, but they're there)and I get writer's cramp and I whine about doing it, but I DO IT and am a better person for it. As they say, "When the student is ready, the teacher appears." I guess I am ready for Real Life. Thank you Ms. Cameron.

The Vein of Gold goes deeper than the Artist's Way does. (AW was just the tip of the iceberg.) There is about 19 weeks of work in this book if you take your time. You "write your life to right it." This book continues the practice of the morning pages and the artist's dates but also gives you more assignments to do and more time to do some of them. If you are on the creative path to recovery I would highly recommend you work with this book. You can jump right in but you might want to do the Artist's Way first. I faciliate groups using both books and find that the group energy adds to the synchronicity and security of having the same processes at the same time. There are lovely quotes and sharing processes within the book. The sections are called "Kingdoms" and you explore and delve into your life story in a manner you may not have thought of yourself.If you are on the creative pathway and want to move forward in your development --get this book!