The Seven Roles // #2 The Artisan

When we leave the All that Is we are ‘fragments’. Picture a spark of pure white light. One of the first things we do is choose our ROLE. Picture the white spark passing through a prism and becoming one of the 7 colors within the white.
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ARTISAN [18% of the population]
Back in Kansas City [where I used to live] I have a friend — a psychologist who works from his home. He didn’t leave the decorating of his home solely to his wife but had a hand in it as well— particularly his office, the kitchen, a great custom-built closet of his own design and some custom-built pocket doors the likes of which I’d never seen before. They’re so perfectly balanced that, though they’re quite heavy, they slide open and closed at the touch of a finger.
Little touches in his personal space abound— like the small wooden hand-carved train in his office with old-style locomotive and caboose. He loves to do gross-pointe needle point [he’s too impatient for petit-pointe] and there are several pillows of his own design scattered around his office.
He dresses casually and wears brightly colored shirts at work and when relaxing around the house. He jokes that he at least matches his socks to his shirts—but that’s not always the case.
He was active in the raising of his children long before it became accepted practice among the male population generally.
He plays the guitar in coffee shops on the weekends often singing songs of his own composition.
He has been known to give home-made plywood doll houses [each one is different] to his friends for Christmas. I have one, and he and I spent lovely afternoons scouring flea markets for furnishings for it. He’s also made furniture for the houses.
When I looked for gifts for him, I would hunt for art supplies, unusual pottery or big, floppy hats.
He has an amazing, though dry, sense of humor.
For all that, he can be quiet and contemplative—often allowing his wife, a Sage [more about Sages later] to take center stage during group therapy while he hangs back and observes.

After I started studying Michael, I had a reading and asked about him. Though I hadn’t really thought it through, I wasn’t surprised to learn that he’s a second-level Old Artisan.
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The Artisan is the ordinal half of the pair of Roles that are the most creative [the Cardinal side is the Sage].

Artisans can be flaky, outrageous, like to wear bright colors [and often, these days, their hair is brightly colored (turquoise or purple, say) as well] and they make things. Oh, Lordy, how they make things!
Look around you: everything you see—your computer, your phone, your furniture, your clothes, the ceiling fan that keeps you from fainting in the heat, the furnace that keeps you from dying from the cold, your bathroom fixtures, your kitchen appliances, your vehicles, and on and on and on—an artisan had a hand in designing, building, repairing, updating, rethinking and refining.
Artisans are innovative, spontaneous, eccentric, scattered, imaginative, clever and creative. If they’re not careful, they can slip into their own delusional worlds—so they need to stay well-grounded, something that doesn’t come all that easily to them.
The real world may not hold the attention of an artisan all that long. They may see an object and immediately begin fantasizing about how to make it better. If the object of their magpie interest happens to belong to you and you value it, get it out of their hands FAST—before they start taking it apart to 1] see how it works and 2] figure out how to make it more efficient. On the other hand, if you leave them to it, you just might come back later and find your friend, all smiles, holding an improved version.
You’ll find Artisans in the fields of the fine arts, literature, computer programming, mathematics, engineering, and quantum physics. They may excel at philosophy, psychology, sociology [Why do people act as they do? Why are they different when alone as opposed to when acting in groups?]
Those with an engineering bent may turn their hands to designing, repairing and making innovations to the engines or interiors of automobiles, for instance. Or bicycles. Or robots. Or solar panels. Or airplanes.
Those old films of the first attempts at heavier-than-air flying machines probably feature lots of Artisans.
Artisans often have an inventive, fly-by-the-seat-of-their-pants style of creativity that allows them to create remarkable things out of limited resources.
I used to watch a T.V. program [is it still around?] in which two brothers would pick up stuff left at the curb for the large-item pick-up to haul away. They would take such items to their workshop and create something entirely new, return them to the original owners, ring the door-bell and run away. The unsuspecting home owner would open the door to find their renovated microwave-turned-aquarium, for instance—or two or three wooden doors that were reincarnated as an entertainment center [I wish they lived in MY neighborhood!] Anyway, any guesses what Role at least one of those brothers was likely to be?

Like Scholars, Artisans want to know stuff— but their focus is narrower: ‘How are things put together?’ is the question. From the atom to the space station, the Artisan is insatiably curious about what makes it tick. Why must it be designed THIS way as opposed to THAT way and would THAT way work as well?

Many great baseball players are Artisans; the geometric principles of the game fascinate them.

Artisans can be the moodiest of the roles. Often introspective, they may become depressed and can bring down an entire roomful of people. On the other hand, a happy Artisan can change a roomful of sour dispositions into a joyful celebration.
The Artisan can also be the most likely to descend into chaos and become the craziest of all the Roles.

Physically, Artisans are often attractive. Women may be described as anything from ‘cute’ to ‘cuddly’ to ‘adorable.’ Males tend not to have the ‘rough hewn’ or ‘hatchet jaw’ face but be predisposed toward softer features.
Many of the fashion models in the haute couture world are Artisans. So are many of the designers of the clothes the models display.

Being an Ordinal role, the Artisan is generally not comfortable in large groups of people, gravitating to the intimacy of the one-to-one connection. [My psychologist friend often hung back and let his wife run the group therapy/training sessions— though he thoroughly enjoyed the individual therapy side of their joint practice.]

Artisans greatly value their alone time. This is especially true when their creative juices are flowing and there is a new and exciting project in the works.
It can be downright dangerous for an Artisan to get blocked. An Artisan will always find ways to be creative, even if it means creating an interesting disease.

Day to day living is often a bore for the Artisan. The monotonous grind of the 9-5 workplace is decidedly not to the Artisan’s taste. Acting, dance or the other performing arts, are more to their liking—even though accompanied by the inherent risks that go with such occupations. As mentioned earlier, several of the truly great baseball players are Artisans. Scientists out in the forefront of theory [though probably not behind the podium at the conferences], are Artisans. Musical composers or members of the orchestra: yes. Soloists? Less likely. Music conductors? Even less so. The spotlight would shine too brightly for the Artisan to be comfortable in it.

Often fiercely innovative and ahead of their time, they find themselves out of step with the rest of society. This may account for the fact that the Artisan can feel out of touch with the world and, on occasion, move toward a neurotic or even psychotic viewpoint.

Their world is often littered with a number of unfinished projects, sometimes literally strewn everywhere. In fact, while the Artisan might see this type of system as being completely logical and ordered, the other roles may see only chaos. The Artisan and his or her spouse will need to come to some agreements about how their space is ordered or divided just in order to continue speaking to each other.

Whether as artists, performers, craftsmen, engineers, writers, composers, surgeons, carpenters, or philosophers, Artisans can make almost anything a canvas for their creations, and in their own inventive ways, make the world a better place.

Some well known Artisans are: Meryl Streep, Michael Jackson, Claude Monet, Mozart, Vincent van Gogh, Debussy, Walt Disney, Renoir, Elvis Presley, Albert Einstein, George Lucas, Steven Speilberg, Richard Gere.