Unlocking creative transformation: The power of metaphor in life and art

Many years ago, I began giving intuitive readings to friends and family. These readings weren’t about prediction or fortune-telling—they delved deeper. I worked with metaphors and images I saw “under the surface” of whatever situation they were grappling with. People loved my readings and frequently asked for them, but I hesitated to embrace the word “psychic.” Reading metaphoric images didn’t seem to align with academia either, so I pushed this gift aside.

Ironically, during my first academic job interview, when asked what I wanted to teach, I blurted out, “metaphor.” Some part of me instinctively knew that metaphor is fundamental to how we learn and perceive the world. As it turns out, metaphor lies at the heart of all creative transformation.

The field of depth psychology gave me a framework to understand this metaphoric realm that came so naturally to me. Decades of research by George Lakoff and others have revealed that metaphors are the foundation of our cognition, shaping how we think, speak, and act. Whether we realize it or not, metaphorical thought underpins everything we do. As Lakoff and Johnson state in Metaphors We Live By, metaphorical thinking is “unavoidable, ubiquitous, and mostly unconscious.” Every situation has an underlying metaphor framing it, and that frame influences how we solve problems and determine our next steps.

William Blake once said, “In the universe, there are things that are known, and things that are unknown, and in between, there are doors.” Metaphor is that doorway—a portal to other realms and ways of knowing. It’s an ancient, profound intelligence we all possess. Whether conscious or not, our guidance and clarity always first present themselves as metaphor.

Metaphor is at the core of all art, creativity, and the unfolding of our lives. When we honor and explore the metaphoric images beneath our awareness, we unlock new channels of creativity and insight. This isn’t just about understanding—it’s about transformation. Metaphor opens the way.