The Vein of Gold: A Journey to Your Creative Heart [Paperback]

Julia Cameron (Author)

Book Description

Release date: September 22, 1997

In the Vein of Gold: A Journey to Your Creative Heart, Julia Cameron, author of The Artist's Way, draws from her remarkable teaching experience to help readers reach out into ever-broadening creative horizons. As in The Artist's Way, she combines eloquent essays with playful and imaginative experiential exercises to make The Vein of Gold an extraordinary book of learning-through-doing. Inspiring essays on the creative process and more than one hundred engaging and energizing tasks involve the reader in "inner play," leading to authentic growth, renewal, and healing.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In her bestselling The Artist's Way (1992), Cameron offered a 12-week program aimed at recovering one's creativity. Each chapter ended with exercises designed to help a reader glimpse his or her inner artist, which, Cameron said, had been buried alive under a mountain of negative conditioning. Now Cameron urges readers to go deeper still. As before, she urges them to write three daily "morning pages" of stream-of-consciousness prose and to take themselves on a weekly "artist's date," a solo outing designed to help them get better acquainted with their inner selves. But here, Cameron gives new emphasis to her advice about the value of a daily 20-minute walk: "The job of your adult self, for the course of this book, will be to walk your creative child back to health." All the exercises here?from the considerable task of writing one's narrative history to doll-making; from creating collages representing difficult relationships and mulling over the common themes of favorite movies?are intended to make readers feel deeply. "A pilgrimage is a physical process," writes Cameron. "What this means is that the tools of The Vein of Gold will be more deeply felt, and therefore more deeply resisted, than the tools of The Artist's Way." The book is divided into "kingdoms"?of sight, story, sound, attitude, relationship and spirituality. Each leads readers closer to their own "vein of gold"?to that territory of experience and possibility that, Cameron says, is indelibly theirs. For those seeking the wellsprings of creativity, this book, like its predecessor, is a solid gold divining rod. 125,000 first printing; major ad/promo; BOMC and QPB featured alternates, One Spirit main selection; simultaneous Putnam Berkley audio; author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Coauthor of the best-selling The Artist's Way (Tarcher, 1992), Cameron here assists her readers in broadening their creativity by guiding them on a journey through seven kingdoms. Her analogy of mining for gold?mining for the heart of creativity?works very well. To stimulate creative energies while walking a path to emotional growth, Cameron suggests beginning with writing a morning meditation. Chapters on patience, courage, and spiritual gifts are all interesting, each chapter ending with a list of tasks to practice. Each page is festooned with a quote from a writer, artist, or spiritualist. A solid bibliography and discography round out this rich self-help guide to developing spiritual, creative lives.?Lisa S. Wise, EBSCO, Springfield, Va.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin; Reprint edition (September 22, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0874778794
• ISBN-13: 978-0874778793
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #101,494 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #97 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Psychology & Counseling > Creativity & Genius

More About the Author

Julia Cameron has been an active artist for more than thirty years. She is the author of more than thirty books, fiction and nonfiction, including her bestselling works on the creative process: The Artist's Way, Walking in This World, Finding Water, and The Writing Diet. A novelist, playwright, songwriter, and poet, she has multiple credits in theater, film, and television.

Latest endeavor: Julia Cameron Live, an online course and artists' community led by Julia. It is the most comprehensive discussion she has ever done on The Artist's Way, and the first time she has allowed cameras in her home. www.juliacameronlive.com

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

163 of 167 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Very useful! January 28, 2000

By ANONYMOUS

Format:Hardcover

If you've read the Artist's Way, and one or two years later you find that you're not making art consistently, you may find this quite helpful. It delves more deeply than the AW in enabling you to identify, clarify, nurture and fulfil your creative desires. It is very well-structured and comprehensive. Ignore, if they bother you, the `new agey' bits: there's much sensible material to be found here. I completed it in about four months without expense (I adapted, or omitted, the exercises if I didn't have the materials). I wrote my narrative time line in less than 2 weeks. It doesn't have to be anywhere near 100 pages: it can be any length you like. (Spending an hour or so a day, for a week or two, on the time line should suffice for most readers.) Unlike the AW, this book does not specify the time you should take for each section. I see that as a positive feature: it is for the reader to determine his/her pace. Yes, it's quite big, too wordy in places, and seems daunting, but it isn't necessary to do every exercise (or every chapter). The seminal sections for me were the ones on story, attitude and sight. Idid the book while learning to draw and would recommend doing it alongside your creative work if possible. If you've bought it and can't face doing all of it, try the sections on story and attitude: they're very good.

99 of 101 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Still On The Way March 4, 2001

By N. H. Turner

Format:Paperback

I began using The Vein of Gold about a year after I had begun The Artist's Way, the start of my self-development. If you don't want to do any assignments, you may want a different author. The key to Julia's method is DO SOMETHING.

The Artist's Way was good in many ways, but mainly for helping me create a discipline for myself at home. The Morning Pages are definitely an exercise in self-discipline, and they continue to be an essential part of Julia Cameron's format. I wrote Morning Pages daily for about three years, but stopped after I had been working as a web site copywriter/designer for almost a year. Then I began drawing regularly instead.

The perspective of The Vein of Gold worked better for me than The Artist's Way did. The artist's dates were easy since they didn't have to be done solo. My husband went with me, and we continue to have artist's dates regularly. (A big breakthrough for us was when we bought fingerpainting supplies. Fingerpainting was theraputic and fun for us.)

If you have a dream (being an artist, musician, whatever), take steps to make it happen. And start now.

73 of 75 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Unearthing hidden treasure...... October 17, 2001

By Ark Lady (Diana L Guerrero)

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

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!