Creative Introduction
We are all Creative Beings. Our purpose in life is to learn how to interact with each other, engage lessons and contribute our particular expression. Our world has become busy, stressful and filled with more options than we care to think about. We live in a global community and are exposed to multiple positive and negative stimuli on a daily basis. How do we find balance and happiness for ourselves, our work and in our relationships? It begins with Loving and appreciating the Creative Uniqueness in each individual. Higher Alignment has identified and studied Compatibility Factors that we all observe every day, but most of us have not had a vocabulary to identify and name these patterns. Compatibility terms are a ‘people language’ that help us acknowledge and own our perspectives. Compatibility Factors combine to create patterns that indicate how we will interact with and react to others. We are not ‘labeling’ individuals, but we are teaching people to recognize these patterns so they can improve their relationships. Our Intent is to support a client in growing and creating more conscious, loving relationships. Learning these Factors and the patterns they create, opens the door to a new level of self-love, understanding, compassion, tolerance, peace and joy.
Creative Expression, Creative Uniqueness and Creative Contribution all refer to a particular pattern of energies, patterns, gifts, skills, talents, abilities, interests and offerings that make us distinctive. Most of us get caught up in patterns we have learned from others that are not authentic to us. We also become entrenched in defensive identities that minimize the acceptance of our true Creative Nature. This article is committed to highlighting our differences so we can develop greater self-acceptance. This enables us to appreciate others as they are.
There are seven creative qualities that relate to each of us in different ways. We will now introduce them:
Primary Orchestrators focus on the use of will to prepare the world for new possibilities. Primary Compassionates use imagination and will to demonstrate how everyone can be loved for being who they are. Primary Implementers also focus on the use of will, usually to bring their own life into a certain standard of congruence or integrity in expression. Primary Inventors focus on visualization and imagination to bring new ideas that will startle and upset the status quo. Primary Investigators rely on visualization more than will or imagination to help bring a wisdom and understanding to any circumstance. Primary Visionaries use imagination with will, particularly on an emotional level, to present clear prescriptions for an ideal world. Primary Storytellers focus on the visualization step and use imagination and will to determine how others will respond to any particular possibility.
Higher Alignment Compatibility Factors lead to a discovery of our own Creative Uniqueness by describing the differences in response, assimilation and action among individuals. Each person has a natural, unique and creative way of being in the world. We sometimes become bewildered when others do not engage us in a way that makes sense. This occurs for two reasons: 1) we have become attached to doing, relating or being in a way that appears foreign to others (because it is different from how they operate), causing discomfort; and 2) there is a disconnect between what is natural for us and how we have been conditioned to behave. Conditioning arises from repression (a subtle form of creative denial) experienced in childhood when, to be accepted, we needed to behave in a way our parents would approve of (in order to receive their love in return). We call this process of adopting patterns of behavior (to be accepted by parents and authority figures) Imprinting. The irony is that when we get locked into unnaturally Imprinted ways of being, others often ignore us or cannot stand to be around us. This is because our Imprinting represents internal disconnects that trigger repulsion in others (as people see us as “fake” or do not want to be reminded of their own inner disconnects or repression). When trapped in our Imprinting, we enter relationships based on a false identity and wonder why we keep failing over time.
While initially it appears that the Higher Alignment process places labels on individuals, our intention is actually to release everyone from the boxes they adopted (inadvertently) as children. We want people to validate their own natural patterns, enjoy their lives and contribute more freely. This article will help you recognize your patterns and suggest how to re-open past adaptations that have limited authentic responsiveness. The more denial we have about who we are, the more fixed we are in how we operate. We want individuals to be seen and supported in their natural way of being. This means we need to validate our own process. Affirming our Truth, creates an opening for new possibilities. This freedom is itself a reward for studying this material. We are all seeking a world that operates in alignment with its potential.
The Power of Compatibility Exploration
Higher Alignment’s original research, between 1987 and 1989, involved 700 couples and highlighted 37 major areas of differences in relationships. In 1989, we focused on documenting and clarifying the 12 most important differences in relationships. The original 12 identifiable Compatibility Factors are Primary and Secondary Creative Expression, Pacing, Communication Process, Decision-Making Approach, WorldView, Defense Style, Body Type, Birth Order, Goals, Modes and Attitudes. In 1997, we added two more Compatibility Factors to better explain the Pretense and Imprinting confusion many people experience. In 2007, we added Mental Body Creative Expression to help us deal with childhood issues and how they can become parenting styles. This creates a total of 15 Compatibility Factors. Presently, the system makes it easier for individuals to deepen in their process of seeing the various layers of their creative nature.
The power of discovering our Creative Uniqueness by learning about compatibility factors is to better understand what works best in our interactions with others (to minimize reactions). When we are unconscious about our Compatibility Factors, we often make the misguided assumption that others should be similar to us. This creates conflict, tension and reactions when it turns out to be false. If we are able to recognize that every person has a unique way of operating that reflects their creative nature, which may not be like ours, we have taken the first step to operating consciously with others. The power of Compatibility Factor understanding fully emerges when we use this information to understand our own natural responses and can see how to connect with others based on their natural way of being. This requires that we understand our own natural range and flexibility and, over time, grow in our ability to appreciate the range and flexibility of those around us. The pain of learning about Compatibility can soon be offset by the future pain we avoid when we learn the factors. Compatibility Factors are a great investment, not only in personal relationships, but in life itself.
The primary obstacle for most individuals is the belief that they cannot quickly see and identify these factors. Our awareness of our own Compatibility Factors empowers us to see the Compatibility Factors in others. The more we explore our options, the more natural and effective we become in tuning in to what is going on in our relationships. By sharing our understanding, we encourage others to become clear about their patterns. This feedback loop fuels our growth about people and their differences. We learn what the mutual opportunities are when with others. We grow to appreciate both the differences and similarities as we develop ways of interacting that do not compromise or limit any individual. When Compatibility Factors are appreciated, we understand our natural boundaries, which eliminates self compromise. The fifteen Compatibility Factors provide enough insight and flexibility to greatly enrich an exploration of what works for us and what does not. This helps clarify our boundaries so we do not need to be defensive. We come to accept that individuals are who they are and to know that we do not want to change anyone.
These 15 Factors are categorized by whether they are energetically Intuitive, Idealized, Intellectual or Instinctive. This is because the energetic impact is different at each of these levels. When we do not know who we are, we primarily identify with the Instinctive Factors. Over time, our becoming conscious awakens us to the Intellectual, Idealized and Intuitive Factors. Ultimately, we begin to see how our Primary Creative Expression on the Intuitive level is the most powerful tool we can use to amplify the contribution we wish to make. We only fully experience these factors if we are able to be present with our Self, which empowers us to energetically sense the differences in others. Most of us are initially caught up in imprinted ways of interacting that we believe will please others. Releasing our reactions to how we were not seen in our past will open us up to appreciating who we are now. Understanding these factors can also support us in building a sense of cooperation so we can be present with others in a Co-Creative process.
Many individuals react when we first suggest that Compatibility Factor differences could help them sort out conflicts with others. They fear that such a system would objectify and judge them as their parents did. However, some systems that standardize and classify circumstances as a way of making distinctions can be valuable. Most individuals first experience the Higher Alignment process as a system because of the way we differentiate individuals based on their motivational structure. Our knowing can be interpreted as distancing when others cannot follow or make the same assessment. What irritates us is how often these assessments are right, which prompts us to want to do the same. We want to be able to replicate the process to make us more powerful. We do our best to help individuals realize that by understanding and releasing their parental imprinting they can experience and express their true Selves more clearly.
The problem initially is that discovering our Creative Uniqueness is more about unlearning than learning. We need to recover our natural innocent knowing and not fall into automatic conditioning where everything is either good or bad. These judgments reinforce the fragmentation of our awareness reducing our presence and interfering with our knowing. They also keep us from looking beyond our familiar assumptions because as humans we fear the unknown. As long as we doubt ourselves, we think in dualistic ways that increase our defensiveness, and coloring our perceptions. The paradox is that we have to move beyond outer discrimination to find the unifying Truth within, which is the accuracy of our own assessment. It should be noted that this does not mean that what one person shares will in any way match another’s Truth.
Finally, when we learn to see Compatibility Factors, our perceptions can also be colored by how much a particular person reminds us of past difficult experiences when we felt unloved and/or unappreciated. In this situation, the past can distort the present either because we did not want to see the connection or we make the connection inappropriately, distorting our assessment. The most difficult people to see in terms of Compatibility Factors are our family and friends because we have typically bought into their beliefs about who they are which has distorted our experience of them.
The Power of Compatibility Exploration
Creativity occurs when we are consciously present with ourselves and others. When we define our safety in terms of another merging with us or create an artificial sense of security in defensive definitions, we set up distortions in our behavior that keep us from responding to each other. Our attachments to attention, approval, admiration and adoration keep us seeking the approval of others over our own self-acceptance. This causes us to define ourselves in ways where we need others more than we honor or respect ourselves. Consequently, our motivation to engage others does not come from our natural creative expression, but from a compromised belief that we need to prove ourselves to get the respect and esteem of others.
Compromised creativity is, therefore, the standard way of operating in a society with so much role-playing and defensiveness. The more we recover our natural creativity, the more we begin to understand how to honor ourselves and learn how to connect with others without triggering their reactions or defensive beliefs. We call this process creating a Common Neutral Ground. Creativity is maximized when we can tell our truth and explore ways to learn and grow together. To accomplish this, we need to stop being so serious about our self-image and what others think about us. We need to realize that any preoccupation with the perceptions of others actually just reflects our insecurity about who we are.
Engaging our inner creative conflicts is the best way to release judgments, neutralize fears and clarify desires. The source of most creative conflicts is our childhood where others, larger and more powerful than us, overrode our creative preferences with impunity. This drove us to the energy types that hurt us, and inspired us to develop opinions about how much we could not trust different types of individuals who acted in certain ways. The purpose of Honoring Creative Differences is to clear out these unconscious beliefs and reactions so we are able to make conscious, creative choices. The more we heal our preconceived beliefs about other energy types, the clearer we can see ourselves as a creative being and appreciate our motivations and behaviors.
The more we resolve our inner conflicts and release our beliefs about how we should be creative, the more we get in touch with what really motivates us in our life. Our secondary expression is how we initially define ourselves as successful human beings. When we become over attached to this part of ourselves, we end up generating reactions in others who feel we are repressing them. This promotes the same kind of distancing that we experienced with our parents. What we want to do is to recognize that it is our primary creative energy that can best guide us to a lifework that is most fulfilling. When we uplift our view about our own creative expression, we begin to see how our views about who we are were actually a combination of roles that guided our behavior. The more we see these roles or positions do not fulfill us, we are inspired to find out what really will. The first phase of this process is to acknowledge and release our imprinting.
By honoring creative differences instead of reacting to them, we discover our ability to operate in creative alignment with others. Instead of being defined by the perceptions of others, we recognize that our authentic creative expression needs no defense because it can’t be denied if we are willing to be ourselves. By embracing the notion that anything that hurts others also ultimately hurts us, we deepen our ability to co-create with others by asking, “What is in the way of expressing our creative power mutually?” The answer to this question can either deny possibilities or support us in using each other as creative resources to enhance our solutions.
Standing in the way are our beliefs about our creative contribution. Most likely these beliefs were formed based on the pain of not being seen or accepted. The more we are able to re-examine and recreate what brings us joy in contributing to others, the more we can grow to love ourselves enough to operate in a creative flow. By bringing our unconscious creative baggage to the surface, we open up to being present with ourselves in a way that empowers our creative connections with others. As we transform our painful reactions into creative responses we will know we are on the right track based on the increasing joy we experience.
Accepting the Diversity of Creative Expression
We lose ourselves trying to get the approval of others by performing inauthentically. Instead of finding and honoring our own creative expression, we adopt and imitate the creative expression of others, believing that this will increase their acceptance of us. Actually, what it does is confuse us even more when others respond by ignoring and/or denying our value. This occurs because others automatically recognize when a person is not being authentic. On one hand, our inauthentic behavior creates an artificial sense of safety as it tells others around us that they don’t have to show up and be there authentically themselves. On the other hand, the more inauthentic behavior we do, the more we get desperate to be seen, putting us in a situation where we can’t win.
When we start to identify and eliminate our inauthentic ways of being, it challenges others around us to grow as well. If they are not prepared to engage more authentically with us, they may unconsciously seek to pull us back to a safety zone where they can operate as they have been with us. It is common that our growth forces us to leave behind our previous friends when they are not willing to confront their own lack of authentic behavior. The more we are creatively tuning in to our natural way of being, the more sensitive we become about how inauthentic behavior denies creativity and an ability to be with others. We finally come to realize that if we are not willing to be ourselves, we cannot actually even be with others.
As we begin to identify how and what we naturally contribute, it can be startling. The question we need to ask ourselves is what shows up when we are around that does not show up when we are not. Paradoxically, it is sometimes our best friends who can initially provide the insights that allow us to accept our true creative nature. While the challenge is not to define ourselves in terms of what they say, it is important to focus on what is naturally resonant within us. We can watch how we respond when others acknowledge or honor a natural way we contribute. Does it neutralize our fears and provide space for us to breathe? Does it decrease the intensity we feel about our future?
If so, start consciously acknowledging these qualities when you are contributing to others to see if they enhance the quality of your contributions. Examine if they provide clarity so that others can deepen their contribution in return. The more we can shift our contribution from doing things for others to being present with them, the more creatively powerful we will become. This takes letting go of old “identifications” about what we contribute based on past unclear creative interactions. We call this “weeding out” process centralizing and focusing on what works. It is similar to weeding our gardens so that we have room to fully acknowledge and value our growing creative being.
We will know we have arrived in the promised land of our creative nature when we are no longer attached to how we show up with others. The joy and enthusiasm we experience when we make a contribution that is defined by our own sense of being has to transcend our fears of not fitting in and our desires of being acknowledged and taken care of by others. This is the heroic path: to go beyond our conditioning to be capable of making a contribution not defined by society. Until we can release ourselves from the training wheels of role-playing, and the co-dependence of our defensive identity, we will never fully appreciate our creative power.
When we have “centralized” ourselves in our authentic creative nature, we can begin to “decentralize” ourselves in our acknowledgement of others. This means that until we have appreciated our own creative uniqueness, we do not realize what it is to honor the creative capacity of others. When we accept our creative nature fully, it allows us not to feel threatened by the creative expressions of others. We actually experience the possibility that we can meet others where they are, as they are, without compromising our own creativity in any way. This process of “decentralization” allows us to progressively embrace different types of individuals we would have reacted to in the past. The result is a fully rounded creative being who is not threatened or challenged by anyone in their life.
The Creative Possibilities
The seven creative energies are Visionary, Compassionate, Storyteller, Inventor, Implementer, Orchestrator and Investigator. Each is an expression through which we color our life experiences independent of our cultural background. This energy is not limiting; it is a starting place. It involves an underlying perception, or point of view, which we create. It is the most important factor in determining how we will choose to expand, as it is our natural way of doing things.
It should be noted that we have at least three levels of creative expression: our life expression (sensations, feelings) based on safety conditioning, our personality expression (emotions, thoughts) anchored in security in the physical world and our higher creative expression (feelings, emotions), anchored in our Authentic Life Expression. Our safety and security expression supports survival and success while the essence expression guides us to contribute in fulfilling ways. So when describing people we sequence their expressions from the highest to the lowest. For example, a Compassionate/Storyteller/Investigator would be a person with a creative expression that nurtures and protects the common good (Compassionate) who expresses these ideals through communication and humor (Storyteller) while providing insights that clarify the choices (Investigator). The blending of all the different expressions creates unique opportunities for growth.
Orchestrator Expression
Orchestrators (action, extroverted) are immediately identified in their willfulness, pride and sense of absolute fearlessness and power. An Orchestrator affects people’s Solar Plexus when they walk into a room. Many individuals can be intimidated by a Orchestrator’s sheer force of will or chafe at his or her deep sense of self-mastery. Orchestrators tend to bring up whatever fears others may have about the misuse of authority. Ironically it is the Orchestrators that pre-emptively talk about the appropriate use of power. Orchestrators are masterful planners, practical visionaries and effective delegators at all times. They have a sense of bearing and direction, which others cannot seem to influence. The secret to their success is clear vision and a sense of timing, plus their ability to sweep away whatever is not necessary or needed.
Compassionate Expression
Compassionates (inspiration, introverted) can be identified by their ability to champion what is good and right in the world on an individual level. Their softness, heart connection and love of wisdom distinguish them more than any other set of qualities. As one of the most nurturing energies, they have an ease of being that naturally disarms people. Compassionates evolve from being controlling and portraying themselves as martyrs to being truly loving, compassionate and unselfish people. Compassionates are absolutely committed to the well being of others and for this reason they find themselves care-taking to meet the needs of others. They are not servants or slaves. Compassionates are the salt of the earth—individuals who are practical and effective— but they typically end up losing themselves in whatever they are devoted to.
Implementer Expression
Implementers (action, introverted) are immediately identified by their love of what they believe to be the truth and their commitment to clarity of purpose. Implementers excel at organizing actions to reduce effort. They honor mental insights and regard the pursuit of illumination as a form of worship. In fact, they typically take as a given their power to manifest on a physical level and believe it is their evolutionary duty to seek the highest strategy by developing their mind. This gift allows them in-depth insights about how to produce synthesis on the physical plane. As an investigator dealing only with what works, their efficiency and effectiveness in putting things into action is unparalleled. Implementers selectively manipulate that which interests them, one variable at a time, to determine its effect on the whole. Certainty is what they strive for and productivity is their ideal. Implementers treasure uniformity and the focus of activity and work that has demonstrable economic value.
Inventor Expression
Inventors (expression, introverted) can be immediately identified by the desire to protect their freedom of choice. They are agents of change and as such are willing to take risks more than any other creative energy. Since they do not define themselves in terms of outer expectations, they are not particularly productive in a way others can understand. They are the most multi-dimensional and multi-modal of all the creative expressions. One of the best indicators of this is the Inventor burst mode. They seem to be able to pull together so many things that were not even on the horizon moments before, presenting solutions that transcend our ability to understand how they figured it out. They are chameleons when they are younger and usually somewhat rebellious when they are older. Overall they are problem solvers and change agents when given the opportunity.
Investigator Expression
Investigators (assimilation, balanced) are immediately identified by their intellectual power to rationalize, their insatiable desire for knowledge and their innate curiosity. They love accuracy, clarity and precision when communicating. They seek to always expand the scope of their thinking. Investigators possess keen discrimination skills and can marshal great powers of concentration. Investigators provide feedback loops to improve results in all areas of endeavor. They are drawn to mysteries and seek to provide the answers so others may appreciate them. They realize that the outer form reveals as much as it conceals and they want to be on the inside, figuring out how things work. They excel at creating and indexing hierarchies of knowledge so that it is available wherever it is needed. Neutrality, detachment, and observational skills are the primary indicators for the presence of an Investigator. They rarely miss any important details.
Visionary Expression
Visionaries (inspiration, extroverted) can be identified by their sense of inspiration and their ability to lead. They seek to identify and support the highest heart felt passion in others. For this reason they are great therapists and support people for their friends. They can be motivational speakers, supporting individuals in finding alignment for their highest visions. They seek to bring out the inherent passion or a heart’s desire within an individual. To become the most effective, they must first do their own emotional healing, otherwise, they are limited in their ability to heal others. If a Visionary is not emotionally available, they will not be able to influence and synthesize the emotions of groups. One of the most obvious signs of a Visionary is a person who believes they need to share their insights in order to uplift others. Discriminating Visionaries learn when to share their insights and when to be quiet.
Storyteller Expression
Storytellers (expression, extroverted) can be identified by their ability to create communities. They accomplish this by creating conversations that bring individuals together. Their special gifts are the ability to use humor, ritual and entertaining formats to sponsor solutions to people’s most pressing concerns. There is no other creative energy that can find the words in the moment and express exactly what the group is thinking better than a Storyteller. The most distinctive identifier of the Storyteller energy is a resonant voice. Ironically, Storytellers can also be identified by their stuttering; fear of groups; issues with their mouths, lips, or throat; and their fears of public speaking before they come into their personal power. Community building, business, teaching and writing for large audiences all appeal to Storytellers.
As mentioned earlier, we each have three Creative Expressions, so several of the options may feel appropriate as a description of us. We need to distinguish between what makes us feel safe, secure or fulfilled. For example, if you have an Investigator Mental Body, information makes you feel safe. If you have a need to prove and communicate higher principles to others and feel drawn to do this in groups, it would be likely you have a Visionary Secondary Expression. Your Primary Expression is always the one that seems the most nebulous to you. The more you think about your Primary and how over time you have grown, the more likely it will reveal which of the seven expressions is Primary. One warning, if we feel the need to prove ourselves a certain way, it may mean we have a particular kind of Imprinting. This is revealed by the effort we feel compelled to make to get others to see things our way. We need to learn how to disregard these instinctive Imprints, as they are the main cause of creative confusion and distract us from what we have come here to do.
Prioritizing Which Energies Are Important To Us
What makes us complex human beings is that we express one of these seven expressions on three levels and in multiple imprinting possibilities (where we are attached to non-authentic expressions). The three levels are: our Primary Creative expression (the essence level), our Secondary Creative expression (the personality level) and our Mental Body Expression (how we kept ourselves safe in our family). See the diagram entitled “Priority of Expression” for more information about these distinctions. The challenging part of identifying our creative energies is that we are most identified initially with our parental imprinting. This creates a motivation to try to get the approval of others by being like them. At this level, we can be imprinted by many expressions that reflect our care-takers, parents and grandparents. Our imprinting often can reinforce false identifications that confuse us.
When we begin to be seen and acknowledged creatively by others, it is usually because we begin to engage our secondary creative expression. Using one of these seven creative energies, we feel capable of being successful on an outer level. This secondary creative expression begins to overshadow our imprinting and we begin to identify with energies that allow us to assert ourselves. This is where we develop an ability to operate as a coordinated personality with our own needs and desires. As we develop our own sense of power over our environment, we can sometimes overdo this use of energy, upsetting others around us when we attempt to use our creative energy to fix or control them. Over time we learn effective boundaries so we do not overdo the use of this energy.
For many individuals, it takes a mid-life crisis for us to engage our primary creative energy. This is usually precipitated by a feeling of missing something in our lives. Sometimes it is hard to identify this energy because it was denied by our parents. When we do engage our Primary Creative expression, it provides us a sense of fulfillment that transcends our personality expression. Our Primary expression is more about us being ourselves as compared to our Personality expression, which is more about what we do to be successful. The following discussion will not only outline the differences among these levels of expression, but will also provide a framework for understanding how we evolve through three stages of development within each of these three expressions. The diagram entitled “Growth of Expression” expands on the three stages that our Primary, Secondary and even our imprinting present to the world. This means that each creative energy could be expressed in nine different ways. Please refer to the following diagram to examine how creativity in expressed through you.
In our society today, most individuals are operating in semi-conscious or unconscious levels of creativity. This is due to their attachments to role-playing and their defensive beliefs. At this stage, it is hard for people to see and accept what expression would give them joy and make their life more meaningful. Others, who have accepted their own authentic creative nature, are able to see unconscious or semi-conscious individuals better than those individuals see themselves. The process of mentoring has been an accepted way of developing people’s creative potential. This frequently occurs in the business or professional world. Unfortunately, not all mentors have the ability to see and accept the differences in those they are trying to mentor. If the mentor is unconscious or semi-conscious it is not likely that they will be able to guide others into conscious expression. With this new information, we will be able to transform this typically hit-or-miss process into one of conscious co-creative expression.
Acknowledging Our Creative Uniqueness
Each Compatibility Factor is a description of a set of choices that reflects an energetic uniqueness we contribute to the world. We tend to personalize these choices when others in our past do not respect or honor our way of being. As we grow up, we need to re-examine our truth outside our parental or societal parameters. Wherever we attempted to gain favor or make our parents angry by acting a certain way is likely the basis of imprinting that keeps others from knowing who we actually are. Imprinting disconnects us from our Self, and increases the reactivity we experience around judgments. One of the common misperceptions about Compatibility Factors is that they can indicate a “rightness or wrongness” between two given people. All Compatibility Factors are equally effective and “right” despite societal perspectives to the contrary. Actually all we are saying is that the greater the differences we have with others, the more consciousness, commitment and love we need in order to honor each other as we are.
Compatibility Factors teach us to appreciate both similarities and differences. We learn to see how differences can stretch us. By becoming less attached to our own way of doing something, we learn how to relate to others and find better ways to meet them where they are. The more we deal with differences, the more we overcome our fear that the unknown can traumatize us. Some of us are repulsed by uncomfortable similarities. This indicates we may have denied an aspect of ourselves that is now being reflected by a partner, causing our discomfort. It can also mean a partner may be reflecting back to us an old way of doing something that we now feel repulsed by. This means we have not yet fully integrated this lesson. The more we deal with uncomfortable similarities, the more we learn to love and accept ourselves as we are.
The engagement of who we are releases us from false patterns adopted from our past. In the process of discovering this truth, it frees us to be more open and able to adapt to changing circumstances. The opposite is also true; if we are not willing to confront inauthentic patterns, we attract others with inauthentic patterns and what we resist persists. In effect, our self-contraction produces more need to hold on to the false self we think we are. We have a choice to either grow or contract. While growing is a risk, contracting denies all future possibilities and traps us in a world with no hope. The only way to grow is to name, see and understand our patterns so we become more integrated, responsive and capable of bringing out the best in others. The motivation behind learning about Compatibility Factors is to find improved ways of cooperating, healing internal polarization and deepening into our true Creative Nature.
Each Compatibility Factor is a unique Creative gift we use in our personal development and that of humanity as a whole. Affirming who we are as Creative Beings, makes us naturally joyful. When who we are is covered up, we live in constant compromise. The goal of embodying our Creative Uniqueness by understanding Compatibility Factors is to release ourselves from the pain of past misunderstanding. We can then be who we are meant to be and show others by affirming their true nature as well. When we do not understand who we are, we can fall into defensive comparison patterns to deny others. We can validate this by the degree to which we withhold our acknowledgement of others until they are able and willing to honor us. The more we do not understand our Creative Uniqueness the more likely we will be blind-sided by our differences, either regularly or at some critical point. When we love and accept our Creative Uniqueness, we see the beauty and value of our differences with others. We can then use this understanding to create a conscious, creative unity.
We want everyone to understand their Creative Uniqueness to improve their ability to connect consciously. A complete lack of judgment is the best indicator that we are participating with someone who is conscious and willing to be creative. If we appreciate Creative Uniqueness, we can demonstrate our understanding of differences by not making others wrong. Ironically, in our society now, many people are afraid to explore differences. Their perception of differences often comes from defensive interactions based on fear and rejection. Until we hold a larger understanding of the meaning of differences and similarities, it is difficult to release our defensive perceptions of our reality. Understanding Compatibility Factors allows us to use differences in relationships to come into unity with others and optimize mutual creative possibilities.
Steps to Creative Empowerment
It is amazing to see the beauty of certain combinations in people. We are a rainbow of fascinating and exotic permutations. Compatibility Factors are the best way, at present, to honor the Creative Uniqueness and integrity of each individual. When individuals honor their true nature, they radiate a subtle energy similar to a flower’s perfume. This blossoming process is greatly accelerated if we understand the range of human expression and are willing to release past attachments and positions about our creativity. The purpose of the Compatibility Factors is first to separate who we are from who our parents are, and who they wanted us to be. Secondly, to learn how to be our Self by affirming our true nature with others. Finally, to recognize the authentic expression of others so we are able to maximize our ability to Love and meet them as they naturally are.
When we know the possible creative expressions, we can recognize the spectrum of motivations and directions and speak about these in a way that enriches our conversations. Consciously meeting another on a creative level dramatically increases our success as Co-Creators. When we see each other for whom we creatively are, we can neutralize the Pretenses and Defenses of others. Our appreciation of others allows the opportunity to create agreement, even with differences. With agreement about the framework of the discussion, alignment is more likely. The value of Compatibility Factors is to open up greater truth-telling, so the agreements we make will be based on conscious, mutual understanding of the issues.
Diagram 2, Creative Empowerment, illustrates the seven stages of consciousness we go through in becoming aware of compatibility differences. We begin with non-alignment and Imprinting, where we are reactive to any suggestion or interpretation others may make or
have about us. Many of us, experiencing the unconscious reactions of others, preemptively distance ourselves from their thoughts about us and assume they do not know what they are talking about. This reflects our common experience dealing with unconscious people – it is like being around bumper cars. Eventually, we become indifferent (or at least we pretend to be) to others to protect ourselves from their presumptions. Over time, we become more defensive and try to leverage the image others have of us to our own benefit. Unless we examine our defensive assumptions, we will continue to find ourselves reacting to and receiving reactions from others.
Creative Uniqueness begins with Self Discovery. Through Self Discovery we move into Creative Embodiment and become the amazing being we are meant to be. By engaging in this empowerment process, we discover that we do not need to protect our way of doing things, and we come to accept that others being different from us, is just fine. This leads us through the Creative Embodiment phase and eventually into a Mutual Manifestation phase where we are able to consciously engage each other in synergistic ways. Life becomes fun and fulfilling as we engage all the co-creative possibilities that begin to appear in response to our embodiment of our Creative Uniqueness.
One of the foundations of the Higher Alignment process is to learn how to honor individuals for who they are as Creative Beings. Hopefully, we will transcend our superficial likes and dislikes of other people, and see that it is certain patterns of behavior we may like or dislike. The more we see and honor people for their Creative Uniqueness the more likely we will come to love them as they truly are. This is particularly true when they love themselves on a creative level and can enthusiastically engage us. Hippocrates’s maxim, “Likes are cured by likes,” reflects the reality that people who are being creative naturally bring out the creativity in others. At first, this process is greatly enhanced by finding others with the same Compatibility Factors as our own because we become more conscious of our true authentic nature. Eventually, we realize that anyone being seen in their creative nature is an attractive, potent force in the world.
Top Down Development
Typically, individuals become conscious of their Instinctive factors before their Intellectual, Idealized or Intuitive factors (Diagram 1) this is the unconscious growth process in motion. When we begin embracing our Creative Uniqueness we begin to work from the top down, rather than from the bottom up. We may be startled to realize how much of what we thought was our self is really just the imprinting of our parents. By clarifying our creativity (starting with our Primary Creative Expression), we can reinvest the energy we put into our inauthentic ways of being back into our own natural creative flow. As a result, we become more centralized and rebuild a core understanding of who we are from the inside out. Our Imprinting has kept us disconnected from our own sense of being and has fragmented us. As we release our attachments to our imprinting, this energy becomes more available within us. We also become less interested in supporting others when they are being inauthentic, which we can now increasingly recognize.
We will know we have arrived in the promised land of our Authentic Creative Nature when we are no longer attached to how we show up with others. The joy and enthusiasm we experience when we make an authentic contribution needs to transcend our fear of not fitting in and our desire to be acknowledged and taken care of by others. This is the heroic path: to go beyond our conditioning and be capable of making a contribution not defined by society. Until we can release ourselves from the “training wheels” of role-playing, and the co-dependence of our defensive identity, we will never fully appreciate our creative power.
When we have “centralized” ourselves in our Authentic Creative Nature, we can begin to “decentralize” ourselves in our acknowledgement of others. This means that until we appreciate our own Creative Uniqueness, we do not realize what it is to honor the creative capacity of others. When we fully accept our creative nature, we do not need to feel threatened by the creative expressions of others. We actually experience the possibility that we can meet others where they are, just as they are, without compromising our own creativity in any way. This process of “decentralization” allows us to progressively embrace different types of individuals we would have reacted to in the past. The result is a well-balanced creative being not threatened or challenged by anyone in life. This only occurs when we honor our Creative Uniqueness.
In our society today, most individuals are operating in undeveloped levels of creativity because of their attachments to role-playing and their defensive beliefs. When we are undeveloped in our Creative Expression, it is difficult for us to see and accept what expression would give us joy and make our life more meaningful. Many of us were never exposed to the possibility that we could choose to do what would make us happy. Others, who have accepted their own Authentic Creative Nature, are able to see undeveloped individuals better than those individuals see themselves. Historically, the process of mentoring has been an accepted way of developing people’s creative potential. This frequently occurs in the business or professional world. Unfortunately, not all mentors have the ability to see and accept the differences in those they are trying to mentor. If the mentor is undeveloped in their own Creative Expression, it is not likely that they will be able to guide others into conscious expression. Understanding our Creative Uniqueness we will be able to transform this typically hit-or-miss process into a process of conscious Co-Creative discovery and expression.
Each Primary Creative Expression has 7 levels of actualization to grow through during our lifetime. During the first three actualization levels, we are “Undeveloped” in our Creative Expression or still caught in our Imprinting, Defenses, and Pretenses. At level four, we begin operating from our Primary Creative Expression and Higher Alignment considers this the beginning of the “Actualized” state of being. As we move into the last 3 levels of development stages, we continue to discover our Authentic Life Expression, engaging our Life Work and freeing ourselves from Imprinting, Defenses and Pretenses. We suggest focusing our personal growth by developing our Primary Creative Expression. Once we do this, it starts to become obvious how our other Compatibility Factors can support our Primary Expression. To facilitate this focus, we have developed Meditations for each of the Primary Creative Expressions, which are part of our training process.
The Diagram “Circle of Contributions” illustrates how all seven Primary Creative Expressions contribute unique qualities to make a whole circle. The numbers correlate to energetic rays as described in the Alice Bailey books on The Seven Rays. What is important to know, is that there are no “good or bad” Creative Expressions. All Creative Expressions have strengths and weaknesses and are uniquely designed to contribute equally to a whole. When we learn who we are as our Primary Creative Expression, we can begin the process of unlearning who we are not. We then can appreciate the uniqueness of others by exploring similarities and differences. Ultimately, we discover ways to contribute to each other using our Primary Creative Expression in the lead!
The Diagram “Expression Complements”, reflects the complementary Creative Expressions based on their contributions in terms of Inspiration, Expression, Action or Assimilation. There are two Creative Expressions that are Inspiration focused, with the Visionary being group oriented, versus Compassionates being focused on one-on-one relationships. There are two Creative Expressions that are Expression focused, with the Storyteller being group oriented, versus Inventors being focused on one-on-one relationships. Finally there are two Creative Expressions that are Action oriented, with the Orchestrator being group oriented, versus the one-on-0ne focus of the Implementers. The Investigative is an Assimilation energy (cycles between Inspiration, Expression, Action) and can be either group or one-on-one focused. It is common that we have naturally attracted friends that are our complementary energies. The common focus makes it easy to be around those individuals, without feeling judged or compromised.
The Diagram “Masculine/Feminine Intelligence Breakdown”, reflects the order of the Masculine energies, with Intentional on the left being the most Masculine, to the center of the diagram, the equally balanced Storyteller, and then to the Inventor being the most Feminine on the right side of the chart. All individuals have both Masculine and Feminine energy. It is important to realize that while we may have a female gender identity, if we happen to be an Intentional Primary Creative Expression in a female body, we may hide our Intentional Creative Expression by using a more feminine expression in order to feel seen and loved. Similarly, Inventor males may seem more feminine naturally, and take on masculine Imprinting to cover this up. Masculine Creative Expressions are Content oriented. Masculine attributes include Mastery with focus on order, control of outcomes, skills, time & people management, more formulation and “push”, higher skills in planning and implementation. Feminine Creative Expressions are Context oriented. Feminine attributes include Mystery with more chaos, flow of energy and movement, invoking opportunities, and are naturally more nurturing and spacious.
The Diagram “Affinity Relationships” reflect how some creative expressions get along better than others. It has to do with the creative nature and grounding of each expression and how it resonates with another expression. For example, Inventors and Investigators, Storytellers and Implementers, Visionaries and Compassionates each have Affinity Relationships with each other. The degree of Affinity is shown on the diagram.
The Diagram “Polar Opposite Relationships” are natural challenges to each other in a way that precipitates growth and conflict. The main issue is that the opposite expression typically denies the strength of its counterpart, forcing individuals to find new strengths in which to relate to each other. The main Polar Opposite Relationships are Inventors with Implementers, Compassionates with Orchestrators, Visionaries with Investigators. As we can see, these Opposites are mainly feminine with their masculine counterparts.
Primary Creative Expression
Our Primary Creative Expression defines who we are as a Creative Being. It is the most important factor overall, because once we understand and accept the beauty of it, we can integrate all the subsidiary Compatibility Factors and discover how they help us implement our life. Before we are born, we are whole in our Primary Creative Expression. Due to Imprinting, Defenses and Pretenses, we begin to “cover up” our Primary at an early age (typically by 18 months old), and then spend the rest of our life rediscovering it! Most of us have experienced feeling unfulfilled, or sensing that our life is “missing” something. We can be successful in our careers, and not feel fulfilled by them. These are all indicators that we may be “searching” to find the real deal or our Authentic Life Expression. The common “mid-life” crisis is not really a crisis at all, it means we are tired of just “doing” our life and ready to “be” who we are as a Primary Creative Expression. Understanding who we are, including our parental Imprinting, Defenses, Pretenses, allows us to embrace our Primary Creative Expression. It is our personal hero’s journey!
The Primary Creative Expression is the most important factor overall, because it integrates and flavors all subsidiary ways of implementation. There are seven different ways of being creative that reflect our highest motivations. Our Primary Creative Expression focuses our creative contribution, inspiring us to engage others who would benefit from our presence. The seven Intelligences/Creative Expressions are Orchestrating Intelligence or Orchestrator (King, Intrapersonal), Compassionate Intelligence (Server, Interpersonal), Intentional Intelligence or Implementer (Warrior, Body Wisdom), Inventive Intelligence or Inventor (Artisan, Harmonic), Investigative Intelligence or Investigator (Scholar, Concrete Knowing), Visionary Intelligence (Priest, Self Referencing) and Patterning Intelligence or Storyteller (Sage, Pattern Recognition).
Primary Orchestrators focus on the use of will to make changes to prepare the way for new possibilities. Primary Implementers also focus on the use of will, usually to bring their own life into a certain standard of congruence in expression. Primary Storytellers focus on the visualization step and use imagination and will to determine how others will respond to any particular possibility. Primary Inventors also focus on visualization and imagination to bring new ideas that will startle and upset the status quo. Primary Visionaries use imagination with will, particularly on an emotional level to present clear prescriptions for an ideal world. Primary Compassionates use imagination and will to demonstrate how everyone can be loved for being who they are. Primary Investigators rely upon visualization more than will or imagination to help bring a wisdom and understanding to our circumstances.
How do you seek to be most creative?
a) Using your curiosity to bring together a picture of how things work so you will have information to share when others ask? (Investigator)
b) Healing others on an emotional level that honors and uplifts their truth, clarifying their motivation to follow their life work? (Visionary)
c) Seeking to bring people together in community with humor to encourage discussions that lead to group integration? (Storyteller)
d) Preserving your personal choice at all costs, realizing that whatever you are committed to transforms you? (Inventor)
e) Being in love with the nature of true Love, bringing wisdom to people and promoting and expanding their sense of well-being on a one to one basis? (Compassionate)
f) Knowing how to place individuals in the right situations and give them the resources they need? (Orchestrator)
g) Determining how to best use your own internal resources to get the job done with the least effort? (Implementer)
Examining Our Primary Creative Expression Options
We will begin our discussion of the Primary Creative Expressions with the Investigative Intelligence Primary, and then move to the Inspiration energies (Visionary, Compassionate), Expression energies (Patterning, Inventive) and finally Action energies (Orchestrating, Intentional).
The more we are doing our Primary Creative Expression, the more likely we will be accepting ourselves, but what validates this is how we are accepting and embracing others like us. The biggest obstacle to being with our Primary Creative Expression is learning to love it. Until we love it, we tend to distance ourselves from all quality partners who are like us. This is because we are afraid we won’t be seen and valued the way we need to be. This distancing only happens with those we need to accept us, because many of us do well choosing friends similar to us. The key difference is how we distance ourselves from those that could hurt us the most. It is ironic that we seek out our parents’ patterns in romantic relationships in attempts to get them to see us as we want to be seen and do not go to the very people who could know and accept us the most.
Overall, our way to become conscious of our greatness is not to avoid our own magnificence but to quietly accept our Primary Creative Expression as our modus operandi. Ultimately our Primary Creative Expression (PCE) is the best way that we can be to be fulfilled in the world. The more we are defining ourselves in terms of our Secondary Creative Expression (SCE) or Mental Body Expression (MBE) without first accepting the context of our Primary Creative Expression, the more internal conflict we will have and the more externally we will attract conflict to us. One way of visualizing this is to see our MBE as our Intent, the SCE as the Content and the PCE as the Context of our being. When these are fully aligned, we become a conscious creator in the world. Our contributions can then be transformative not only for ourselves but also for others. Interacting with another having the same PCE can make engaging and affirming our strengths very easy and natural.
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