Why Creativity Is My Magic (and Always Has Been)

 

How Pam Grossman Gave Language to My Design Philosophy

 

I found Pam Grossman’s podcast The Witch Wave years ago when I was first diving into the world of witchcraft. Her work enchanted me. The guests, the questions, the way she wove art, magic, and mysticism, it blew me away. As a fellow Aquarius, I felt a natural kinship with her, and I’ve been a devoted listener ever since.

So when she announced she was writing a book about the intersection of creativity and magic, I was OBSESSED. I knew in my bones it would resonate, and I was right. Reading Magic Maker felt like someone had taken the foggy edges of my inner world and given them shape and language. She names truths I’ve carried for years, truths I hadn’t fully articulated but had always lived.

I’m so grateful for what Pam’s created, both in this book and through her podcast. Her work is an offering, and this essay is my love letter back.

Pam writes about creativity as a spiritual force. It’s alive, relational, and magical. She speaks of the Creative Force as something we don’t just conjure but collaborate with. It moves through us as much as it emerges from us, responding best when we meet it with sincerity and presence. From the very first pages, I felt like I was reading the spiritual scaffolding of my own work. She names what I’ve always intuitively known: that magic and creativity are not separate. They’re the same current.

As a brand and web designer, my work lives at the intersection of intuition, aesthetics, tech, and energetic alignment. What Pam describes as casting a spell? That’s how I build brands. Not metaphorically. Literally.

Creativity Is Magic

Pam opens Magic Maker with this truth: creativity is magic. Not metaphorically. Literally. It’s how we bring something from the unseen into the seen. It’s how we conjure meaning, beauty, and resonance into form. Creativity is the most accessible spell any of us can cast, and we do it all the time. It's what we do when we write, cook, parent, dream, design, and imagine.

Pam describes creativity as an energetic exchange between maker and mystery. That it’s not a solo act of genius, but a sacred conversation. She calls the Creative Force a being that we can be in relationship with, something that lives both inside and beyond us. And like all magic, it requires participation, not just inspiration.

This truth is the heart of my work. I don’t design because I like to make things look pretty. I design because it’s how I commune with the unseen. It’s one of the ways I practice my spirituality. It’s how I remember what’s possible when we use our imaginations.

Branding, to me, is an act of spellcasting. Each choice, the texture, the tone, the colors, are threads in a larger tapestry. When done with care, those threads become a portal to the self, at least that's the case for most for personal brands. They showcase ourselves as who we truly are, not who we think we should be.

Creativity is not a tool I use. It’s the magic I live by.

Magic as Process, Not Outcome

Another poignant point from Pam's book is that magic isn't just an outcome, it's a process. She describes magic, and therefore creativity, as a practice. It is, in fact, a devotional rhythm. She reminds us that magic doesn’t just appear in a flash of inspiration; rather, it unfolds through relationship, repetition, and reverence. She believes creativity is built on trust and presence, not just productivity. To her, it's about showing up again and again to the sacred conversation between you and the unseen.

This echoes the heart of my Resonance Lens, which guides how I design. It’s a philosophy built around attunement, ritual, and frequency. The process isn’t linear. It’s lunar. Cyclical. Alive. There are moments of stillness and moments of flow. What matters is that we keep showing up: curious, open, attuned.

When I work on design projects, I don’t just immediately start designing. I enter into conversation first: with the client and their brand, the spirit of the work, and the energies that want to take form. Often, I light a candle, pull a card, and play music that connects me to the soul of the project. I sit in the silence before the strategy. Each gesture opens a portal, preparing the space for the work to speak.

When magic is working properly, there’s a physical sense of being activated. A hum. A click. A knowing. Something beyond ego begins to guide the choices. Each design decision becomes part of the ritual and it anchors the unseen into the seen, one intuitive click at a time.

Timelines vs. Timing

Our culture (aka capitalism) rewards speed, scale, and nonstop output. But magic doesn’t care about timelines. It cares about timing. Creative work asks us to slow down enough to hear what wants to come through. To tune into resonance instead of rushing toward a result.

This isn’t a dreamy ideal. It’s the lived reality of how meaningful, embodied design is made. Not under pressure. But through presence, patience, and trust. It’s in the space between breaths, where ego loosens and intuition leads, that the most resonant work is born. Like Pam reminds us, it’s in the unseen, unhurried moments that magic gathers strength.

That said, of course we live in the real world. Deadlines can be sacred too and they can be welcome containers that help birth the work. They are necessary to ensure the creative work does not stay in the liminal space forever. But if room allows, giving the design practice space to breathe leads to better creative results that ultimately land more deeply. At least, that's what I think, and I'm pretty sure Pam would agree with me too.

Ritualizing the Creative Flow

Reading Pam’s reflections on ritual felt like coming home to my own process. She describes the act of lighting a candle or taking a deep breath as gateways into sacred space, simple gestures, charged with intention. Her rituals aren’t performative. They’re relational. They aren’t meant to control the creative process, but to court it.

That’s how I approach design, too. My Prismatic Process, the six-phase client journey I guide people through, is structured like a spell. Each phase (Reflection, Rooting, Resonance, Integration, Empowerment, Evolution) builds on the last, creating momentum while honoring mystery. It’s not just a workflow. It’s a working.

Design is my devotional practice. And like Pam, I don’t believe in formulas. I believe in attunement. The Resonance Lens, my design philosophy, is how I tune into the frequency of a brand. Not just what it looks like, but what it feels like. What it sounds like. What it knows.

Pam writes that “caring for your magic means knowing how to hold both devotion and flexibility.” That’s it. That’s the balance I aim for in every creative container: enough structure to feel held, enough spaciousness to invite surprise.

A Spell Is a Strategy

There’s a reason I tell clients my design work lies at the intersection of strategy and intuition. When we create something, especially something as intimate and layered as a brand or website, we’re not just assembling parts. We’re shaping energy. We’re building a vessel that can carry meaning, magnetism, and resonance.

Pam describes the magic maker as a bridge: between binaries, between seen and unseen, between idea and embodiment. That’s branding in a nutshell. That’s the whole thing. Bridging intuition and strategy. Essence and expression. Invisible frequency and visible form.

But this work isn’t just spiritual, it’s also political.

Designing from resonance, imagination, and inner truth is an act of resistance in a world that profits off conformity and urgency. As bell hooks taught us, joy is a form of rebellion. And as Ursula K. Le Guin once wrote, “The exercise of imagination is dangerous to those who profit from the way things are because it has the power to show that the way things are is not permanent, not universal, nor necessary.”

This is the quiet revolution I believe in. Every time a client dares to show up as their full self, every time we design a brand that refuses to dilute its essence, we’re imagining a more liberated future. We’re refusing the templates of oppression. We’re building brands rooted in authenticity, beauty, and care. Something that radiates beyond business and into how we show up in the world.

That’s what I call the Ripple Effect.

When a brand is built from truth, that frequency carries. It reaches clients, communities, collaborators. It creates moments of connection that nourish, expand, and inspire. And while we may not always see the full reach of our work, we can trust that it lands for those that are meant to connect with it. One spell at a time. One design at a time. One ripple at a time.

And if you don’t think business is political, where have you been? I’ve been talking about this for years.

Designing as an Esoteric Practice

Reading Magic Maker felt like being given permission to claim the full mystical scope of what I do. Not just as intuition-driven. But as esoteric. Pam calls creative work a kind of occult practice. Not in the sinister sense, but in the true meaning of the word: hidden, unseen, waiting to be revealed. It affirmed that my methods, built on ritual, rhythm, and resonance, are valid. Plus, they’re part of a long lineage of magical makers who knew that the unseen shapes the seen.

What moved me most in Pam’s message is her view of inspiration as relational. She suggests that Creative Force is something we can call in, collaborate with, and co-create alongside. Our job is to open the channel. To show up. To trust.

She gave me language for the liminal. She wrote the book I didn’t know I was already living. And now, I get to weave that into everything I make: every brand, every website, every ritual, and every ripple. Because creating is always born out of desire. And desire, at its root, means “from the stars.” That’s where this work comes from. And that’s where it’s headed, too.

If this resonates, you’ll love reading Magic Maker. And if you’re craving a creative collaborator to bring your own sacred brand into form, you know where to find me. Your magic matters. Your brand can hold it. Let’s make something enchanted together.


Let’s Stay Connected

Alex McGinness

Founder & Lead Designer at Arcoíris Design Studio

https://arcoiris.design
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