The Art of Listening

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A book about listening might not seem the obvious topic of choice for an author who is famous for helping people creatively “unblock” but for Julia Cameron, the art of listening is essential to any act of creation. “When we listen we pay attention,” she writes in the introduction to her book, “and the reward for attention is always healing.” She wasn’t always a good listener. “I grew up in a large family and it was hard to get a word in edgewise,” she says. “But when I got sober at twenty-nine, I had to listen, because it was a matter of life and death that I listened to my elders. I listened to my environment, I listened to my friends, and I listened to myself. One built upon the other.” For her, writing begins with listening. “I listen, I write it down. It is that simple.”

It might be simple, but it works: Cameron is the author of more than forty books. She is also a poet, a playwright, a filmmaker and a songwriter. But her rise to fame wasn’t easy. Born in 1948, in Illinois, Cameron began her career as a magazine writer, working for the likes of Rolling Stone. It was Rolling Stone who sent her to interview Martin Scorsese. “I sat down to interview him and I had an intuition: I’ve met the man I’m going to marry. I rang my mother and told her and she said: Does he know that?” The couple married in 1976 and had a daughter, Domenica, but divorced shortly after. There was much soul-searching before Cameron got sober and began to discover the unblocking techniques that would form the cornerstone of her teachings. She taught The Artist’s Way to friends for years, alerting them to the “tools” that would help them realise their creative potential. “At first I told myself I didn’t want to be a teacher,” she tells me, “I wanted to be an artist, but there is no contradiction between the two. I am the floor sample of my own toolkit.”

She was in her forties when The Artist’s Way was published, selling over two million copies worldwide. Today it is still a bible for artists.

Did she have any idea the book would become an international bestseller? “No,” she says. “Not at all. I was just nervous people would think of me as a teacher rather than a writer.” She still gives workshops. “Teaching unblocking keeps me unblocked,” she says. It is not unusual for her to get nervous before a class. “Every group is unique and I have to feel connected.” When teaching two hundred on Zoom, she relies a lot on her intuition. “I’ve always been guided and I came very early on to depend on it.”

Towards the end of The Listening Path, she enters new territory in a chapter called “listening beyond the veil,” which explores the way people can listen to voices beyond the grave. ”That was a bold step out of the closet,” she says. “I was worried that my readers would find it too woo-woo. But I recently taught a course on the book and I discovered that people are more woo-woo that I thought. They were very excited. In a way they had been given permission to explore something and for it to be deemed trustworthy.”

She hopes in these strange times that her book will be healing. “People have become addicted to listening to sad news. They are leaving their TVs on all day. They are exhausted by noise. I hope the book will give them the tools they need to move into calm.”

“When we tune into quiet, into silence, we become aware of a benevolent something. I don’t think people need to call it God, it can be a faith in something. I always say don’t let semantics get in the way.”

I don’t listen enough. After seven years at home with small children, I have forgotten how to have a conversation, or rather have unlearnt its ebb and flow. If I get a chance to speak above my own children, I found myself hurtling towards what I want to say with all the speed of a rocket leaving earth. Often the woman I am talking to is doing the same thing, trying to pack in three days of adult conversation over one half-drunk cup of tea, before someone shouts “Wipe my bum bum!”. My children need help too. The other day I came in at the tail end of a fight and told them to take it in turns to explain what had happened. Everyone started speaking at once so I went over to the shelf and handed my daughter a stone she had found on a walk. “This is the talking stone,” I said, “whoever holds it gets to speak.” My daughter told me her side of the story. “Now it’s your brother’s turn to speak,” I said. Her eyes flashed. She gripped the stone tighter. “No,” She said. “I’m never going to stop talking!”

The proof of Cameron’s book arrives and I am so moved by the wisdom of the introduction, I feel a new peace steal over me. The next time they fight, I take the stone from the shelf and say: “This is the listening stone. Whoever holds it, gets to listen.” My daughter holds it carefully while my son speaks, and when she speaks, he does the same. “Does anyone know out how we can solve this?” I ask. They agree to take turns and for the next hour, they play in silence. I keep the stone in my pocket, so that the next time someone speaks, I might remember to stay quiet myself.

The Listening Path: The Creative Art of Attention – a six week The Artist’s Way Programme by Julia Cameron, Souvenir Press, comes out on 7th January 2021. For details of Julia’s courses go to juliacameronlive.com