When time and mind
come into one place
the hidden door
in the secret board in the floor
will open before your startled face
you will see it has always been there
put your paint covered hand onto the map
and press the place where it says : d a r e
then step freely from the trap
that was set by others or by your sleeping self
you didn’t even know you were waiting for you
pick up the magic pen on the invisible shelf
attempt to draw the rose that blooms within
and write the story that belongs to few
the one that begins with you
that legend that is ready to pounce
like a cat jumping on a sleeping woman, you wake!
from now on the world’s hidden doors are yours!
Doors which only you can see and taste and take
myths that belong to your mouth only, will speak
here in the secret spaces you will discover
your true name
Summoning the Guides by Shiloh Sophia, 2017
Demonstration painting for Color of Woman School painted live on camera with over 50 women witnessing the process.
Since she was 23, Shiloh Sophia has been on a great adventure focusing on one thing :
How can creativity be a tool for transformation and revelation?
Through teachings about poetry and painting brought to her by Caron McCloud and
Sue Hoya Sellars, she began to work with an arena of study that she felt was truly revolutionary and sacred: Intentional Creativity. What she discoverd was the potent access that creating with mindfulness made available. She explored how consciousness was activated through creative acts and integration of right and left brain. The dynamic weave of inquiry, image and language came together into teachings that would rock existing educational frameworks. She and her community began to gather the women.
In the 1930ies Lenore Thomas Straus, writer and sculptor would bring forward ideas we use today in our work with Intentional Creativity. Lenore trained Sue Hoya Sellars and Sue trained Shiloh. Shiloh was also trained by her mother Caron McCloud and her grandmothers Eden McCloud and Helen Davis. This group of women, and what they gave to Shiloh is what she credits with starting her on the path of Intentional Creativity. This is an enduring legeacy.
Now the offerings of Intentional Creativity serve over 500 enrolled students per month in Intentional Creativity based education and experiences and her teachings reach over 30k a month. There are over 200 Intentional Creativity® Teachers worldwide who collectively serve upwards of 50K students.
To create a sacred container to hold the work in action in 2008, she co-founded Cosmic Cowgirls as the community and culture for Intentional Creativity. Mary MacDonald, Jenafer Owen have been a part of guiding the community almost since day one. Shiloh's family, including her sisters, Shannon McCloud and Laurel Davis, her cousin, Bridget McBride, and her aunt Janet Seaforth were instrumental in shaping the philosophy and the culture. The ideas that seeded the work started in the 1930s and continue to this day as a living teaching and creative lineage.
Shiloh Sophia's approach to creating is essential to awakening consciousness and is rooted in the idea that each person can discover who they are for themselves and gain access to their information. "Creative process when directed through intention gives access to the hidden worlds within us. We are all on a journey of integrating that inner world and the world we live in. This kind of creating has nothing to do with talent or skill in art making, rather, art making is the gateway that gives access to consciousness, imagination and playfulness.
My work is to curate an experience in which this opportunity arises : To become who we are. Who we already are, but didn't have access to. And then how that can give rise to activism, spirituality, relationships, pleasure, integrity and sovereignty from systems that no longer serve. We are creating our own systems and ways of working."
Shiloh Sophia has authored 8 books and has had an art gallery since 1997. She has taught at University in Masters and Phd programs, as well as at the United Nations CSW for four years. Most early mornings you can find her having tea with her Muse writing and painting in the Red Thread Cafe. Shiloh Sophia and her husband Jonathan travel the world together praying, playing and filming episodes for the Intentional Creativity Curriculum.
NURTURING THE SOUL THROUGH ART & EDUCATION SINCE 1995
Paintbrushes in the hand of the Muse make good tools when excavating hidden stories.
ARe you called to learn More about Shiloh Sophia, the Cosmic Cowgirls
& The work of Intentional Creativity?
We are a community of teachers, Healers, Alchemists, Poets, Artists, Philosphers and Badass Mystics guided by the work of Intentional Creativity. Want to get connected?
Caron McCloud
Sue Hoya Sellars
Cosmic Cowgirls at the United Nations, 2016
Shiloh Sophia & The Cosmic Cowgirls
Letters from the Red Thread Cafe
Watch a Shiloh Sophia Video
Curator and Co-Founder of Intentional Creativity
What Are the 4 Layers of Intentional Creativity?
Poetry Readings that stir the soul to awaken
Intentional Creativity Painting Build
Painting stories of past, present and Future
May Love Be At The Center of All Choices
We mail at least 2 times a month and sometimes more. According to the Muse with painting, poetry and events. If you want access to upcoming classes and to learn more about our Intentional Creativity movement, this is the way to get connected.
Intentional Creativity® 2019 Curriculum
Intentional Collaborations
If you are interested in joining us for a class, training or reteat, and experiencing Intentional Creativity for yourself, come over and see how you can join in.
We also have a free women's community on Facebook called the Red Thread Cafe Classroom!
Interviews with Creative Leaders
An Inquiry into Belonging
A call to Creatives, Educators, Healers, Dreamers and Entrepreneurs riding the creative edge
Shiloh Sophia works with client beloveds to bring Intentional Creative process into their lives and projects. Her work with image and language paired with the intelligence of the heart is relevant and taught in many fields including Innovative Leadership, Corporate Teamwork, Group Process, Therapeutic Healing, Academia. As well as in hospitals, prisons, social work settings and clinics. Shiloh and her team of over 200 teachers around the world bring Intentional Creativity as a tool for exploration and innovation.
Curating how we think, feel, access and act creates the future we are co-creating. In response to the question, does someone have to be creative to experience benefits from Intentional Creativity, she replies : "Every bone in our body is a creative bone. Everything we do IS creative, we just aren't thinking about it in that way. When we begin to approach all that we create with this level of mindfulness, our life begins to transform before our eyes."
After working with thousands of people in how creativity can catalyze our consciousness, her body of work lives in the Intentional Creativity Curriculum through teacher training and the 501c3 founded by her and her husband, Jonathan McCloud, aslo an artist and poet.
Curating Consciousness Through Intentional Creativity
Intentional Creativity can be used to heal and transform our stories as well as catalyze our consciousness.
- Catalyze our stuck stories into stories of possibility
- Transform stories of trauma into tools for empowerment
- Show what is hidden that is ready to be revealed
- Provide a tool for looking inward for our own information
- Grants access to a new way of working with PTSD
- Integrate right and left brain for maximum access to thought
- Inspire action through liberating stuck energy
- Bring movement into the body and the field of space around the body
- Illuminate the gifts of the individual and provide image and language
- Move ideas into actions by providing clarity
- The creation itself becomes a witness to what is possible
- Increase self awareness and intuition
- Create connection in creativity community
In 2017 Intentional Creativity Foundation took on an expansive research project where we surveyed over 500 people within the creativity community and we were amazed at the results!
Here are a few statistics to share with you that express the need and impact of being connected to our personal creativity in our daily lives.
Practice and Compassion
93% said they experience creativity as a mindfulness practice
89% said they include creativity as a part of their spiritual practice
89% felt a sense of connection with the Divine (as they define it)
86% felt that their creative practice positively impacted those closest to them
92% feel that creativity influences their compassion for themselves
90% said they experienced compassion for others near them through creativity
83% experienced compassion for others they did not know through stories they heard
80% said they would suggest creative process to others who experience depression
Self Expression and Well Being
87% consider themselves self expressed as compared to before they were creating
86% said they have experienced breakthroughs and aha’s during painting
77% said they choose painting specifically to work through a chosen breakthrough
90 % said they have experienced a shift in their default thinking
88% said they experienced a shift in their personal story through creating with intention
89% said they bring insights into their life discovered while painting
85 % said they experienced an expanded sense of self
79% noticed an ease of physical symptoms while creating
93% experience creating as a relief/break that benefits their overall well being
90% have experienced a shift in recurring emotional pain through creative process
90% said that creativity helped them maintain a healthy outlook
Of those surveyed, 42% said they had experienced sexual abuse, 72% said they
experienced verbal abuse, 24% said they had worked with disease, 49% said
they experienced back pain. 65% said they have experienced depression.
Paint brushes are magic wands...
HOT Invitations with Shiloh Sophia!
Actions you can take to participate in the Global Intentional Creativity Community
Join a cosmic Happening online or in person
We are a global community working together to bring goodness to the world through self expression. This will give you an overview of what we are up to! We work with the Cosmic Cowgirls and over 200 teachers worldwide to bring Intentional Creativity!
Training for women teachers, healers & guides
We offer trainings and certifications to become an Intentional Creativity Teacher as well as a Red Thread Guide. This is ideal for women who are healers, practitioners, therapists, artists and guides who want to add an additional element of self expression to their offering.
But, WHo IS She, Really?
She wears a lot of hats...
This work has always been Deeply rooted in community, ceremony & Celebration
Photo by Brun
The Tree of Life Within
A training in Austrailia
Photo by Hobby
Lenore Thomas Straus, Sue Hoya Sellars and gathering of women with Lenore in Sonoma
Muse Metacognitive Drawing
Experience a free mini-class in Metacognitive Drawing (15 minutes)
with your Muse through Intentional Creativity!
The Dance of the Critic and The Muse
7-Step Initiation Into the Voice & Vision of Your Soul
This process provides greater access to the inner self, who often has powerful insights about what you are not seeing. Bring your inquiry, move your pen on paper and see what arises in your consciousness.
7-week Video Course with Shiloh Sophia, including Live Muse Salons!
Experience proven, hands-on practices to tame your Inner Critic, open to the joy of authentic self-expression, and invite your Muse to dance with you!