Virtue 5: Courage - The 12 Virtues of the Primordial Artist

This is the sixth in a series on 12 virtues that can liberate artists from cultural enslavement.

ATTEND

The world is a terrifying place. there is danger around every corner. There is vulnerability, there is death. Loved ones are taken from us, jobs are lost for no reason, we are misunderstood when we are our most truthful, and we are misunderstood when we lie. Our best intentions are thwarted and blow up in our faces. The things we most need to say feel absolutely impossible. We yearn for security but are faced with insecurity at every turn. We insulate ourselves with endless routines and comforters to hide us from the terrible, volatile, evolving world. Our egos desire predictability – our egos desire to know the code to act in the world without any chance of failure, without any chance of humiliation, without any chance of death.

We wish to be seen, we wish to be protected, we wish for life to be fair. We wish for an authority who will make things right and make them even and protect us for our specialness and our goodness.

ENVISION

Courage is the ability to face the unknown. Courage is the ability to act with integrity in spite of an unpredictable outcome. To walk forward despite the chance – the very real chance – that the ground will fall out from beneath us.

Non audacia sin pericula. There is no audacity without danger. Danger – danger to our lives, to our security, to our expectations, to our ego – is the crucial factor that courage must face. If there is no danger, and we have fooled ourselves or conserved ourselves into a situation where we cannot loose, there is no courage. And we have deprived ourselves of the very real and very primordial experience of facing our fear and moving forward anyway.

Courage in this primordial sense shows up in many scales. Yes it is our physical safety that sometimes is in question. What if we take this plane? What if we take this ferry? What if we go downtown, isn’t there crime? What if we drive home on Saturday night, aren’t people drunk driving? What if we ride this roller coaster? What if we go to this concert? What if we see our family during a pandemic – have they been isolating? Who is in our bubble, who is not?

During the COVID-19 pandemic, I went into a kind of prepper overdrive. My mind went deep into every possibility and set up systems of isolation and redundancy and security. I bought beans, water storage containers, hundreds and hundreds of masks, alcohol, bleach, dried fruit, at home exercise, everything I could afford, everything I could think of. I wore a mask outside. I refused to travel. I didn’t see friends in person for years. I managed to keep from getting COVID for 2 years, and then when I finally went on a camping trip and stayed a night at a hotel, I caught it.

I couldn’t actually protect myself. And during that time I lost touch with my friends, I lost trust for other people, I insulated myself and become a kind of hermit. I was no longer connected with the world. I was separate. I did everything I could to protect myself. But at a hefty cost, a cost I still am coming out of.

Courage is not stupidity. There can be measured prudence. But courage is the admittance and the acceptance that all risk can not be stopped. All risk cannot be mitigated. Not without stopping all action and in effect, stopping all life.

A battleship is safest in port. But that is not where it was designed to be.

We are not designed to be safe in port. We are designed to be out in the world, enacting our truth, channeling the divine, creating art as an offering. And that act – these actions – will open us up to harm. We will be criticized, we will be ignored, we will be celebrated and misunderstood, we will be tempted, we will be pursued to be servants of a market power. “What beautiful films you make, you should make them for me. I will pay well. You will have everything you need from me.” Artists will need courage to return to the blank page, the blank canvas, the empty studio, time and time again. To cover the page – that is the only way. Cover the page with courage and find out what is there.

Courage is about relying on the true within despite the antagonism without. Despite the uncertainty without. Despite the unknown without.

Courage is about accepting that we will not know nor understand the whole world. We will not ever master the universe. We will always have incomplete knowledge and incomplete preparation. The Mystery is too large – the Mystery is larger than us, and larger than our minds. We cannot, in fact, be prepared. The Mystery will always baffle us, and challenge us, and call us to grow, and reveal that we are small.

Courage is necessary because reality will baffle us. Our expectations will be dashed. We will face tragedies that despite our best efforts and best preparations, we fail, we are destroyed. We will not understand this rationally, there will be no real explanation. And we will face comedies of success and joy and completion despite our failings, despite our lack of preparation. These will baffle us as well because we will not have earned them with rational thought, or in a rational way.

Courage requires a kind of sacred naivety. It asks us to be vulnerable to the fact that the world is bigger than we can know, bigger than we can truly prepare for, bigger than we can ever control. Socrates embodied this when he expressed that his wisdom was that he knew what he did not know. Yet he was optimistic, yet he was life affirming, even when facing death. When I was 26 I moved to New York with $600 in my pocket and one contact. Rationally this was foolish, I “should” have prepared more. Yet in reality it was wonderful. Intuitively I was ready. I wanted to go, I wanted to put myself into the world. It yielded the most creative, generative era of my life so far. Naivety was required of that. I could not possible prepare for New York. Ever. And New York is but one part of the Mystery.

The Mystery is the wilderness of the mind. But the fields of the lord. How can we rationalize this? We cannot. It is the abyss. It is looking down through the glass-bottomed boat.

Yet we can go on. Yet we can move forward. Yet we can live and thrive and create with earnestness and truth and beauty. We can be warriors of the living god.

Courage links directly with Physicality (virtue 4). Courage without physicality might be hiding – because physicality is by definition vulnerability – you are in the arena. Courage and physicality link intrinsically because you are seen, you are there, you are putting ourself out there, literally.

Courage links with the Lover powerfully. The Lover is ultimately enacting courage always. The courage to stand alone, the courage to connect despite possible misunderstanding, the courage to love god and reality as it is despite the ego’s desire to be complete in and of itself and to “fix” everything.

Courage connects to Love of God / Reality in the sense that it transcends the ego’s need to know all and control all. It is a way to acknowledge our own incompleteness and yet connect and serve something higher.

Courage, though it might seem superficially to be leading one closer to death, closer to failure, closer to the void, is in fact completely life affirming. It is emergent, it is growing, it is risking in the name of cosmic growth. The tree risks when it sends out a new branch towards the sunlight. Will the canopy remain open? Will the new branch cost too many resources and not yield the photosynthesis the tree needs? Is this the last branch it will ever send?

But what of the opposite? The tree that stops growing, the tree that decides to simply conserve what it has and no longer send out new branches, nor new leaves, nor new fruit – holding, holding, trying to keep the resources inside, trying to protect…

Courage is life expressed. In spite of risk, courage is the emergent force of life in the face of death.

DIRECT

Solo

Pain/Fear embrace (Reversal of Desire) (Stutz)

Note: See Stutz’s book The Tools
Imagine a pain that will result from an action you wish to do.
Call on it “Bring it on. I love pain. Pain sets me free.”
During each statement, really viscerally feel the statement. Bring it on means bring it to me, call the pain to me. I love pain means embrace the wholeness of that pain without flinching. Pain sets me free means – imagine yourself exiting the far side of the cloud of pain – the pain was a boundary, but not a wall. You have walked through it, you have transcended it.

Integration: How have fears acted as walls rather than boundaries in your life? How real is pain when it is temporary? How much power do you wish to give it

Pairs

The Coward’s Journey

One actor enacts a scene where they are cowardly. They cannot stay what they need to say, do what They need to do. But at some point in the scene / story – they in fact do act, they do transcend their fear. In spite of their fear.
Integration: How is it to accept the cowardly feelings and yet act?

Difficult Conversations – “Courage in Connection”

Pairs receive scenario cards with challenging conversations
Examples: firing someone, ending a relationship, confronting a friend
Perform scene twice:
First time: avoiding the difficult truth
Second time: speaking truth with courage and love
Observers note the difference in energy and authenticity
Instruction: “Courage in relationship means risking connection for the sake of truth.”
Integration: How is it different to embrace courage vs to avoid? How does the end result feel in each case?

Group

The Fear naming

The participants form a circle. One moves to the center and shares their deepest fear about their art. The others say in unison: “We see your fear. We honor your courage.”
All participate.
Integration: How is it to name your fear in front of your peers? How is it to feel their witnessing and affirmation of your courage?

The Impossible Task

A participant will do something they know how to do well. An actor would recite a monologue, etc. They will do this once as a baseline. Next, they will be progressively challenged by the group.
The Impossible Task Rounds (30 minutes): Each actor performs their monologue 6 times, with escalating obstacles: Round 1 – Physical Disruption:
Witnesses gently but persistently try to move the actor around the space
Actor must continue the monologue while being physically guided/pulled
Witnesses are not aggressive – they’re like a persistent current
Round 2 – Sound Interference:
Witnesses create increasing sound (humming, clapping, vocal sounds)
Actor must find a way to be heard without shouting
The sound builds from whisper to moderate volume
Round 3 – Attention Sabotage:
Witnesses deliberately don’t watch the actor
They have conversations, look at phones, turn away
Actor must complete monologue despite being “ignored”
Round 4 – Emotional Resistance:
Witnesses respond with wrong emotions (laugh at tragedy, cry at comedy)
Actor must maintain their truth despite inappropriate responses
Witnesses’ responses should feel genuine, not mocking
Round 5 – Time Pressure:
Actor must complete their monologue in half the normal time
But they cannot rush – they must find a way to be complete and truthful
Witnesses count down loudly from 30 seconds
Round 6 – Multiple Obstacles:
Combination of physical movement, sound, distraction, and time pressure
This is the “impossible” round – maintaining truth becomes nearly impossible
The goal is to witness what happens when everything falls apart
Witness Encouragement Protocol:
After each round, witnesses offer specific encouragement:
“I saw you find new strength when…”
“Your commitment deepened when…”
“You discovered something when…”
NO advice on how to “fix” or “improve”
Focus on what emerged from the struggle, not what was lost

Integration Discussion (5 minutes):
What did you discover about their relationship to failure?
Group discusses how “impossible” conditions revealed new possibilities

Specific Coaching Points:
For Actors: Don’t try to overcome the obstacles – let them change you. The monologue can transform completely and still be “successful.”
For Witnesses: Your job is to create loving sabotage. You’re not trying to destroy the actor – you’re trying to reveal what they’re capable of under pressure.
For Facilitator: Watch for moments when actors stop fighting the obstacles and start dancing with them. Highlight these moments.

What “Success” Looks Like:
Actor maintains some form of connection to their material
They don’t give up or walk away
They adapt rather than just endure
Something unexpected emerges from the struggle
They finish with dignity, regardless of how the monologue changed

Common Discoveries:
Actors find new emotional depths when physical comfort is removed
Desperation often leads to more authentic choices
The “core” of a monologue becomes clearer when everything else is stripped away
Failure can be more interesting than success
Commitment to truth matters more than commitment to plan

Professional Applications:
Auditions with distractions (construction noise, rude casting directors)
Technical failures during performance (mic problems, lighting issues)
Difficult scene partners who don’t give expected responses
Last-minute script changes or direction changes
Performing while sick, tired, or emotionally challenged

Advanced Variations:
The Impossible Scene: Two actors perform a scene while obstacles escalate
The Impossible Song: Singers perform while breathing is restricted or disrupted
The Impossible Dance: Dancers perform while space is progressively limited

Safety Considerations:
Witnesses must never touch actors without permission
No personal attacks or cruel comments
Actors can pause and reset if they become genuinely overwhelmed
Focus on creative failure, not personal humiliation

The Elements War

Setup: Groups of 4, each person assigned an element (fire, water, earth, air) Process:
Each person embodies their element physically for 5 minutes
Elements interact in pairs: fire vs. water, earth vs. air
Final 4-way improvisation where elements must coexist and create something new
Integration: How is it to exist with a “contradictory” force? How does the conflict affect you? Is there diminishment? Rising to the challenge? Collaboration? Avoidance?

Warrior Breath – “The Breath of Power”
Virtue Focus: Courage, Physicality
Exercise:
Stand in wide stance, arms relaxed at sides
Breathe in through nose for 4 counts, hold for 4
Exhale through mouth with sound (ha, hiss, or growl) for 6 counts
With each exhale, imagine sending energy down into the earth through your feet
Progress to adding arm movements – gathering energy on inhale, directing it on exhale
Final round: breathe with intention to face something difficult
Instruction: “Your breath is your first weapon and your deepest ally. Let it teach you about power that serves rather than dominates.”
Integration: how does it feel to invite more power into your body?

CURTAIN

Courage, ferocity, tenacity, audacity. These are the grit and power of life. These are what enable us as artists to stand and deliver – to speak our truth – to face uncertainty and criticism and vulnerability and the ever repeating blank page of beginning. We must embrace courage in order to bring our love to our work, to our colleagues, to our culture. As guides and channels, we will be misunderstood, we will be ridiculed. The primordial artist is not the safe artist, is not the sure thing, is not complacent. If they become this they will need to seek farther, deeper, wilder into the unknown.

The artist must always be out there in the wilderness with the bears and the wolves and the tigers and the eagles. The artist is brave because what they face is profound and terrifying – not the human approvers, but the Mystery itself. And the act of bringing it back as a gift is ultimately a gamble. Their world may not be ready yet for it, our skill may not be tight enough to communicate it, we may falter on the way and our work be lost forever.

The nobleness of the task is that it is done in good faith in spite of no guarantee of “success”. The embrace of the virtue is it’s own true success. By doing so, the artist bonds further with the great mysterious over and above any ego reward or cultural affirmation guarantee. The artist remains free as a result of their courage.

Next week we’ll look at how courage and physicality find temper and balance in virtue 6: Alternation.