Hi lightningbug,

I know this thread is quite old but I assume you're still interested in this issue and around somewhere.

I was fascinated by this topic because creative visualization is the central point of lessons I took from a school of mysticism and is something about which I have given much thought and energy throughout the years.

The first thing that I wanted to manifest, as part of my spiritual studies, was to have a house and a nice car. I visualized a country home with a white picket fence and driving up in a nice car. I began trying to work on this by tending to my career and setting myself up to earn more money. My ex-husband, not knowing anything about this, suddenly wanted to buy a home although we could not afford it and it was a crazy idea. Everything that was like my visualization was way too expensive. Then there was this one home that needed work, but had a beautiful yard with a white picket fence. We couldn't afford it and it was too far away so we offered an insultingly low price to the sellers to get rid of the proposition, but it was accepted to our surprise. The next thing we knew we owned the home. Shortly after that my mother decided to buy a new car and gave me her current one outright to my amazement. This was my first conscious experience of manifesting creatively.

The fact is we are already very good at creative manifestation as that is what we practice from birth without knowing it. This is why Aleister Crowley said "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law". People are often mystified as to what that statement means but all it is is an affirmation that we manifest everything in our lives based on our desires. So the whole point of creative visualization is to work with the Desire. It is an issue of what you want completely, not as someone commented, what you "need".

When I understood this law and that this is what I was doing all my life, I thought back to things I had manifested through desire without realizing it. I could remember being a very young child and wanting to be attractive, to the point where I was determined that I would be by the time I grew up. It was a strong wish with uncertain outcome but at the same time I was absolutely determined. The strange thing is that I matured before everyone else in my class and did become an attractive adult. I believe that without the desire and creative intent, I would not have been. I nurtured that and brought it out in every way I could think of. Later, I spent 10 years as a beauty consultant, having understood that physical beauty could be tapped into in many ways and I knew how to help others do this. 40 years later I can look at childhood friends who have grown up, and see that at least two of them had significant natural beauty that was completely untapped, and it was due only to lack of desire or interest in creating that.

I can also recall a situation where I was consciously working with desire and having terrible lack of success. I wanted to have a small lifting procedure done at 40 to diminish the signs of aging on my eyes. I did everything to manifest this but everyone was getting in my way and creating obstacles to achieving my goal, even blatantly trying to talk me out of it or trying to stop me from keeping the appointment. Like you, I couldn't think What I Was Doing Wrong. The answer is, nothing. But sometimes, it is hard to make desire work when other people to do not want you to achieve your desire. There may be a lot of competition. With the house and car, other people's desires were aligned with mine in such a way that they fell into my lap. With becoming more attractive as I matured, there was no one to align with either way, it was between me and myself. With the eye lift procedure, people in my life who had chosen to accept their aging without a fight desperately did not want me to take a different route. What happened however is that I persisted and got the procedure successfully done.

Let me tell you what I think happened with your visualization: it was good but you were fighting competition and other people, their desires and intentions (your parents, fellow artists, etc). If you want to get that painting published the fact that you didn't do it in one particular way shouldn't matter - because there are still so many ways left. Sometimes people can get in their own way by limiting the methods by which the desired thing may come, giving up if it does not happen by the expected way, such as through money. So stop limiting yourself by how this can happen, the point is for it to happen. You should not give up and you should be prepared to deal with other people who don't want you to achieve your desire. There will be extra effort involved there. At any rate I think that is the best of what I can share. I do hope you will return to this thread and find this post useful.