Quiz: Which Creative Archetype Are You?

Creative Archetype Quiz

1. How do you approach challenges in life?
   1. I seek out the gifts within the challenges. There’s always something beautiful to be made from any struggle.
   2. I try to transform the way I see challenges; after all, a crisis is just an opportunity waiting to be discovered!
   3. I often see challenges as a message to consider a change of direction or lifestyle.
2. What role do you play in group projects?
   1. I’m the one who makes sure everything is aesthetically pleasing, organized, and uncluttered.
   2. I’m the one who brings innovative ideas that will make the project stand out.
   3. I’m the one who pulls out the never-been-tried-before approach (and scares everyone in the room!).
3. How do you view the world around you?
   1. I seek to highlight the beauty and splendor that exists everywhere.
   2. I see everything in terms of hidden potential to bring to life.
   3. I view it like a choose-your-own-adventure novel.
4. Which statement resonates with you the most?
   1. I seek to create beauty and help people see it.
   2. I see possibility for change everywhere, and drawing it out excites and fulfills me.
   3. Why take one of the roads less traveled when you can build your own road?
5. What is your idea of “creating something new”?
   1. Rearranging existing elements to create harmony and beauty (ex. a flower arrangement).
   2. Breaking down existing elements to create something entirely new (ex. cooking or baking).
   3. Venturing into the unknown (ex. inventing a useful app).
6. On a vacation, you tend to:
   1. Follow a guide to see the most important sights.
   2. Mix and match tourist favorites with a few of my own to create a unique adventure.
   3. Follow my heart—or maybe my nose.
7. Which famous figure do you feel most inspired by?
   1. Georgia O’Keeffe
   2. Robin Williams
   3. Rosa Parks
8. You’re mostly drawn toward:
   1. Beauty
   2. Magic
   3. Innovation
9. How do you get most of your inspiration?
   1. I read/listen to/follow the great thinkers of our time. There is so much wisdom to be revealed by them.
   2. I draw inspiration from all kinds of places to create something of my own.
   3. My inspiration primarily comes from within.
10. What statement best fits your beliefs about creativity?
    1. It’s about highlighting how ordinary things can become extraordinary.
    2. It’s about reorganizing and reusing things to create something new and fun.
    3. It’s about creating something out of nothing.

Count your answers and then use the guide below to see which creative archetype you most fulfill.

The Results of Your Creative Archetype Quiz

If You Got Mostly A’s

You’re the Artist

Nobody else could have ever seen a work of art or imagined it possible with the ingredients and supplies at hand, but the Artist saw it immediately.

Artists envision a beautiful butterfly garden where others complain about the weeds. They host a successful dinner party with food made from scratch, while others have their’s catered or order takeout.

The Artist archetype family does not only include those who paint, draw, sing, or act. It encompasses anyone who seeks to make the world more beautiful or highlight existing beauty—even if the beauty they seek to enhance is their own.

“When I sit down to write a book, I do not say to myself, ‘I am going to produce a work of art.’ I write it because there is some lie that I want to expose, some fact to which I want to draw attention, and my initial concern is to get a hearing.”—George Orwell

Artists synthesize and put things together in such a way that they create something entirely new. It could be an interview, a blog post, a scrapbook, or a living room design. From raw material that some might see as lifeless—a piece of wood, for example—the Artist pictures a manifestation of beauty.

(Subtypes of the artist include Beautifier, Painter, Writer, Scribe, Carpenter, Smith, Chef, Gardener, and Designer.)

If You Got Mostly B’s

You’re the Alchemist

The Alchemist archetype is interested primarily in change and transformation, both for themselves and for the world. The Alchemist archetype might not literally be attempting to create a magic potion that can help us live forever, but they do create “spells” that captivate us, hold our attention, and change us forever.

The question stoking their creative fire is: What can transform this world for the better?

Alchemists can transform nearly anything they get their hands on, from relationships and homes to workspaces and jobs. But they’re most interested in transforming minds, hearts, and humanity itself. They take what is lead and turn it into gold.

Like the Artist archetype, the Alchemist works with existing material, ideas, and forms. But whereas the Artist paints the butterfly, the Alchemist becomes the butterfly.

(Subtypes of this archetype include the Transformer, Magician, Sorcerer, Scientist, and Wizard.)

If You Got Mostly C’s

You’re the Pioneer

“The Pioneer is called to discover and explore new lands, whether that territory is internal or external … a need to step on fresh and undiscovered territory …”—Caroline Myss, Sacred Contracts

Unlike either of the previous archetypes, the Pioneer is not interested in working with existing material. They seek out new frontier. They call down new inventions, ideas, and ways of thinking directly from the cosmos.

Pioneers are characterized by their joy in risk-taking and adventure. They walk their own path however lonely it might be. Public opinion does not sway them; they seek their direction and encouragement only from within.

Pioneers are natural status quo disruptors. They are the changemakers, game changers, and paradigm tippers of our world.

(Subtypes of the Pioneer archetype include the Originator, Entrepreneur, Inventor, and Innovator.)

How to Work With Creative Archetypes

As you create, don’t let yourself be hemmed in by ideas of success or failure. If the universe doesn’t care whether its creation becomes a brief-but-bright shooting star, a life-sustaining planet, or a black hole of nothingness, why are we measuring ourselves with higher standards?

Don’t create just for results, approval, or recognition. These things may or may not come, and they will certainly go.

Create because it’s the best way to stay connected, healthy, and whole.

Create because it’s who you are.

Create because it’s what this world—and your soul—needs.

Utilize these creative archetypes to challenge invisible woman syndrome.