The first Six Months Inside the Sanctuary

The first six months of the Inner Artist Sanctuary became a creative journey through identity, embodiment, expression, nurturing, radiance, and rhythm. Guided by the zodiac as a cyclical framework, we explored how art, reflection, and seasonal questions can reveal our own creative patterns - and how we can return to these themes whenever they become alive again.

This is the second part of a series about my Inner Artist Sanctuary member space and the experience of creating and holding this space over the past 6 months - here you can find the first part of this series: https://ahowa.art/post/Inner-Artist-Sanctuary-intention

A creative journey through the seasons

When the Inner Artist Sanctuary began, I wanted a structure to guide this space and I decided to let our creative journey follow the changing seasons of the zodiac.

Not because I wanted to teach astrology (I am not an astrologer), but because it helped me provide a very practical framework. The zodiac give us an archetypal rhythm to work with - a sequence of different perspectives and questions we can bring into our creative practice.

And over the first six months, something beautifully coherent emerged.

We began with Aries and Identity.
Who am I?
Who am I as an artist?
How do I see myself and my journey?
What deeper desires do I carry within?
What changes when I begin to see myself differently?

From there, Taurus brought us into Embodiment.
We went from knowing what we wanted to grounding it in reality.
How do I actually live my desires?
What do I allow myself to want?
How do my ideas take form?
And how do I meet the needs of my body in the process?

Then came Gemini and asked for Expression.
We focused specifically on inner and outer communication.
What wants to be said?
What have I been holding back?
What helps me feel safe enough to express something?
What is the story I tell myself?

With Cancer, we focused on Nurturing.
We came back to the inner realms and our emotional needs.
How can I be present with my emotions?
What helps me feel at home in myself?
How can I create from a place of nourishment?
What do I need right now?

Then Leo invited us into Radiance.
We allowed ourselves to expand in a new way from inner safety.
What do I see when I really see myself?
How can I see myself and others with the eyes of my heart?
Where am I needed/wanted/asked to show up right now?
How do I want to show up?

Finally, Virgo connected us to our Rhythm.
We came back to grounding and looking at everyday reality.
What habits and routines shape my day?
Which rhythm do i want to create for myself?
What habits do I want to let go of or change?
What small everyday actions can support me?

When I look back at this sequence, it feels like a beautiful rhythm of in-breath and out-breath. We explore the layers of our energy and our earthly existence and keep moving in and out - expanding into possibilities and ideas, and then checking back in with the body and emotions.

The themes did not end when the month ended

When we recently looked back over these six months, one member said something that helped me understand what had actually happened:

“This was a great way to integrate everything all together. At the beginning of each season, it was one thing, and by the time each space was winding down, it had changed for me each time. It kind of evolved into something.” (Christine)

I love the word integration here.

Because the themes were never simply topics. They became questions we lived with.

Sometimes we began the month thinking a theme meant one thing and discovered something completely different by the end.
Sometimes the artwork contradicted what we had written.
Sometimes resistance was more revealing than enthusiasm.
Sometimes a question stayed quiet for months and then suddenly became relevant again.

Another member described the experience this way:

“It’s been a journey of self-development more than anything else. It’s the themes and the questions to myself. The drawings do things - they prompt me to think of things and make things emerge and notice things I’ve never noticed before.” (Nora)

This relationship between question and image is one of the things I love most about creative inquiry.

We can answer a question with the mind.
And then we make something and allow the hands to just flow.
And suddenly something else becomes visible.

You don't have to be “into astrology”

Another thing came up during our review that made me smile.

One member said she often forgot which zodiac sign we were technically working with.
What stayed with her instead were questions such as:
What is my identity?
What is my body telling me?
How am I feeling?
What needs integration?
What rhythm do I need?

That is exactly how I hope people can work with the seasonal framework.

You do not need to study astrology.
You do not need to organize your life around the zodiac.
You can simply meet the questions and feel how they resonate for you.

For me, the zodiac is a source of inspiration - a way of regularly and intentionally changing perspective so that we do not always approach ourselves from the same angle.

And over time, another possibility appears:

You may begin to notice your own rhythms, our own preferences, our own challenges - and ultimately this is how we start really understanding ourselves in connection with the cycle of time and seasons

Which kinds of questions energize or inspire you?
Which ones do you avoid?
When do you naturally want to turn inward and rest?
When do you want to create, communicate, organize, or share?

Creating in resonance with the larger cycle and rhythm becomes a way of noticing your personal one. It also shows us how we are naturally woven into the greater whole, and how we can come into greater harmony with the seasonal cycles.

The library is an invitation

As the Sanctuary grows it has become important to make sure that participants don't feel behind, or like they need to complete all the different questions and art processes in there.

There is more material now than anyone needs to complete.
And I think that is a good thing.
I want the library to become a treasure trove and a reservoir of ideas that you can tap into when the right moment comes. I believe that this can become a great way to let your intuition guide you.

If you miss a season, you have not missed an essential step.
You have permission to skip between seasons and themes and to follow your interest.
If something from Aries becomes relevant during Libra, return to Aries.
If your body suddenly asks for the questions we explored during Taurus, they are still there.
If one month does not resonate, let it go.

The Sanctuary library is not a checklist of unfinished work.

It is becoming a collection of themes, inquiries, meditations, art processes, and questions that can be revisited whenever they become relevant and alive again.

In that sense, the journey is cyclical rather than linear.

It is always possible to return and revisit, and explore the next layer of a question or theme. The zodiac itself reflects this cyclical and interconnected movement. The signs do not exist as twelve separate themes that we pass through just once and then leave behind. They sit in relationship with one another across the wheel, forming complementary axes.

Aries and Libra for example. Aries asks questions of self: Who am I? What do I want? How do I move from my own center? Libra brings us into relationship: How do I meet another person? How do I balance my needs with theirs? What happens when “me” becomes “we”?
These are not opposing themes in the sense that we have to choose one over the other. They continually inform each other. In fact, astrologers often describe Aries and Libra as a relationship axis - Aries representing the self and Libra the other.

The lunar cycle brings these connections into view and into our lived experience as well. During Libra season, for example, the Full Moon falls in the opposite sign of Aries. In 2026, the Aries Full Moon occurred on September 26 while the Sun was in Libra, highlighting that same tension between individuality and relationship, autonomy and connection.
So when we arrive in Libra, we are not really leaving Aries behind. We may return to the questions we explored six months earlier - but from another angle, with different experiences and different needs.
Who am I? becomes intertwined with Who am I in relationship? And a question that seemed complete in spring may reveal an entirely new layer in autumn...

For anyone who wants to learn more about the idea of polarity in the zodiac, I recommend the following article as a good starting point and summary: https://www.astro.com/astrowiki/en/Polarity

This is part of what I love about working with the zodiac as a creative framework. It keeps circling us back to familiar questions, but never from exactly the same place.

My vision is for the Sanctuary to become a space where you can slow down and explore whatever feels most alive for you, and for the library to offer inspiration, guidance, and questions.

Six months later

Looking back, I began to see a movement through these first six themes - it felt alive and truly aligned to my own inner experience.

We asked:

Who am I?
How do I inhabit myself?
What wants to be expressed?
What needs care?
How can I show up?
What helps me sustain what matters?

And with the beginning of Libra season, another question begins to emerge:

How can we meet?

We had spent six months exploring the artist within.

Now, Libra is activates a different part of us - the sign of relationship, self and other, reciprocity, and balance.

This is where we go from here, again expanding outwards as we meet others - and we will carry this energy into the second half of the zodiac cycle.

What happens when our individual creative processes enter relationship with one another?

This question is opening the next chapter of the Sanctuary - we are starting off with a FREE intro session where we explore the idea and practice of creative relationships.

Join me LIVE on October 10th
Building a Creative Sanctuary Together
FREE guided Intuitive Neuro Art™ with Antje Howard
>>SIGN UP HERE<<

This session is open to anyone - whether you identify as an artist or not.
No art experience or skills required. I will guide the processes step by step and create a space for you to explore, experiment, and meet your creativity in a new way.