Many people suggest that creativity requires a good measure of predictability and consistency. We need a structure within which to create.
This is true.
And also true is that groundbreaking creativity — the type we call innovation — often requires us to break up that structure.
It’s one of the inherent tensions in the creative process.
Our brains settle into well-worn neural pathways that have been repeatedly grooved. Like a road we’ve taken countless times, our thoughts can become so familiar to us we hardly notice we are in them.
Mercury Conjunct Uranus in Taurus: Get Out of Your Groove
Today, as Mercury comes into a conjunction with Uranus in the sign of Taurus, is our annual invitation to shake things up, to take a new path, and perhaps find some innovation in our approach to life.
Taurus, as a fixed earth sign, is the sign that is most resistant to change. It likes stability, predictability, consistency, security. Even when that predictability comes in the form of predictable actions or thoughts that we know aren’t serving us.
Uranus is known as the planet of revolution. It’s innovative, which means it’s also disruptive — as innovation tends to be. It’s in the midst of a long transit through Taurus. Ultimately, Uranus is here to liberate us from what keeps us confined.
Mercury represents our thinking. It is the messenger, the communicator, the salesperson. It can also have a bit of a disruptive quality.
Uranus in Taurus can feel like an earthquake. Mercury and Uranus conjunct in this sign shakes the ground and tears it up.
Taurus is stubborn. It likes its comforts; it likes to be settled in to its nest. It likes things to be beautiful and calm and pleasant. Taurus often resists change. It doesn’t like to take a risk.
And being innovative is risky.
There’s the risk that people won’t get it. The risk of rejection. The risk of failure.
When Uranus and Mercury meet up, it can have the hallmark of an innovative genius. But to embrace that archetype requires being willing to take a risk.
Genius doesn’t just come from accepting the status quo or staying in the familiar comfort of your thoughts. It emerges from a willingness to question your thinking, to question the origins of the thoughts themselves.
If you’re always doing the same thing in the same way, you won’t have a reason to innovate.
If you never question your thoughts and beliefs, and the origins of them, you’ll never get to the truth. You’ll believe that what you’ve been conditioned to think is true.
It may be disruptive, but sometimes disruption is exactly what we need.
How to Disrupt Yourself
When we get outside our typical habits and have an adventure, we often gain new perspectives that shift our understanding of the world. Having a new experience can lead to insights that solve the problems we thought were keeping us stuck.
We don’t necessarily need to go on a far-flung adventure to gain new perspective.
Sometimes just slightly altering our daily routine or surrounding ourselves with new people can create big shifts in how we see the world and ourselves. A new environment can give us new ideas that spark innovation and lead us to uncover deeper truths that have been hidden under our well-planted feet.
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