118 NATURE-BASED EXPRESSIVE ARTS THERAPY
Individual human consciousness exists in concert with the intelligence
of the world and its vast creative processes. Another way to put this
comes from a Native American elder’s advice about what to do when
you are lost in the forest: stand still, recognize that the forest knows
where you are, and let it find you (Whyte 1994).Ecopoiesis
Poiesis , to know by creating, is a primary concept within the field
of expressive arts. This idea recognizes art making as a form of
inquiry, with both the creative process and the art works created as
sources of new learning and surprise. A nature-based approach to
expressive arts expands the concept of poiesis to one of ecopoiesis,
viewing human creative process as a part of, and embedded within,
the ongoing creative process of the living Earth and the universe.
The Earth is creating all the time, and our individual birthright of
creativity is a part of this ongoing creative process. Recognizing the
ecopoiesis of the Earth restores to the world a sense of mystery and
awe beyond the explanatory capacities of our language. Even as we
write, under the greening cover of the forest the wild iris and the
buttercup are pushing their way up through the soil. We offer thanks
for the gold and violet beauty of their blessings. This is the magic of
the real.The arts in the service of life
Whether it is the creativity of the air, the Australian bowerbird, the
mangroves or humans, creative process serves to nurture and maintain
life. In this sense all creativity is sacred. In nature-based expressive
arts, artistic creating becomes a form of alchemy, an agency of
transformation and a holy act, one that is happening all around us
every day. Terry Tempest Williams (2001) reminds us that the world
is holy and that all of life is holy.
The arts are not frills but sacraments. After the September 11
attack on the World Trade Center in New York City in 2001, hundreds