1 container
2 Fascination
3 Permission
4 Continuation
5 Trust
6 Divine

Acknowledgements

Big Magic, a wonderful and great magic that enriches life buried in everyday life.
Ignite the fire of creativity hidden deep within you!

I don't know what's hidden inside you.
There is no way for me to know that.
Maybe you yourself don't even know much about it.
But I guess you must have felt a vague sense of shape passing by.
I don't know your abilities, your aspirations, your longings, your secret talents.
But there is definitely something wonderful inside you.
We all have treasures buried deep within us, and each of us is a walking treasure trove of such treasures.
The universe buries strange gems deep within each of us, and it stands back to see if we can discover them.

The journey to discover those jewels, that is the creative life.
The courage to take the first step on that journey.
That is the point that distinguishes between a being that has become hardened and buried in everyday life and a being that is captivated by a more wondrous ecstasy.
The amazing results that the journey sometimes brings are the great magic of the creative life, what I call 'Big Magic.'
-In the text

Immediately after its publication, it became the #1 bestseller on Amazon and the New York Times, and was recommended by influential media outlets such as USA Today and O Magazine. Following Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert's ambitious new work, Big Magic, which once again captivated readers around the world, has been published by Minumsa.
This book was conceived as a clear answer to a question that the author, who achieved unprecedented success with Eat, Pray, Love, had been 'struggling' with for the past ten years.
“Liz, how did you write a bestseller that sold 10 million copies?”, “You wrote a huge bestseller, so you must be under a lot of pressure to write your next book!” Gilbert began to be faced with ‘problems’ that he had never seriously considered before.
Why did I become a writer, and why was I compelled to write that book? What drives me, and indeed writers and artists, to create? What is the true nature of creativity?

Humanity has truly lived as a creative being for a very long time.
So long and persistently that creating something has become a completely natural human instinct.
I want you to consider this fact to get the point of my story right.
The oldest recorded evidence of human artistic activity dates back 40,000 years.
In contrast, the oldest evidence of human agriculture is only 10,000 years old.
This proves that in our collective evolutionary consciousness, we have placed much greater importance on producing surplus products that are attractive but unnecessary in real life.
-In the text

What is the most important factor in sustaining human life?
It would seem that issues such as making a living, which is directly related to life and death, and being able to rest and live comfortably in a safe place, are among them.
For tens of thousands of years, humanity has faced the harsh and harsh forces of nature and has been constantly striving to solve and overcome this fundamental problem.
Even in the midst of all this, there was a primal desire that made humans human, a fundamental instinct that could never be ignored: creativity.
Even modern people living today are so caught up in the struggle to make a living that they turn a blind eye to the value of this 'creativity.'
However, since this is also a clear instinct, if you do not properly face ‘creativity’, it can cause great flaws in your life.
Nevertheless, numerous factors, namely fear, suppress the expression of 'creativity' and gradually push it away.

For example, the fear of failure, the fear of having no talent, the fear of wasting time and effort on trivial things, the fear that something we create will be of no use… All these fears block the possibility of true joy and self-realization that can arise in our lives when we reveal our ‘creativity.’
That means we won't be able to enjoy life to the fullest.
It is not only the 'tormented souls' and 'genius artists' that we have seen so far who can demonstrate 'creativity' and achieve the achievements that are appropriate for it.
‘Creativity’ is of course sacred and great, but it is not necessarily so.
Because everyone has a jewel called 'creativity' deep within them, and discovering and mining it is not a matter of talent, but of having the courage to take a step forward.


“We are scared and brave at the same time!”
Everything we need to know to live a bold, confident, and creative life

Being a genius in and of itself vs having genius resources.
I think this is a very clever psychological mechanism.
Recognizing that genius exists as an external spirit helps the artist continually examine his or her self-consciousness.
And he can keep an appropriate distance from the psychological burden of glory or blame given according to the results of his work.
In other words, if your work is successful, you can avoid falling into narcissism by giving thanks to your own external genius that helped you achieve it.
If your work fails, it's not entirely your fault.
You can shout like this.
“Well, I can’t help it.
“My genius didn’t come to work today!”
Either way, our fragile and vulnerable human self-consciousness can be safely protected.
We are protected from the corrupting influence of the sweet praise of success, and from the soul-gnawing shame and embarrassment of failure.
-In the text

"Big Magic" assumes that "creativity" is the most important human instinct, and provides a detailed explanation of the attitude needed to satisfy it and further live a true life.
Gilbert begins by listing his own experiences, discussing the diverse aspects of creative work and the doubts and prejudices that anyone can harbor during the process.
Most people probably think of some grand, abstract concept when they think of a creative life.
This problem will be especially burdensome for those who aspire to be writers or artists.
When the author himself first dreamed of becoming a writer, he compared himself to renowned writers like Ernest Hemingway, Annie Proulx, and Cormac McCarthy, hoping to write excellent works easily, and was sometimes discouraged when the results were not so impressive.
It is said that only when he realized that the value of 'creativity' was not determined by some great result or innate talent was he able to forge his own path.
It is about enjoying your own 'creativity', which you have courageously discovered, with true interest and joy.
If we believe that 'creativity' can be controlled solely by individual ability or talent, we will not be able to fully express 'it' because of the sweet praise that success brings and the shame that failure brings.
But if we consider 'creativity' as something that is realized through the action of some 'inspiration' that may sometimes succeed and sometimes fail, we can enjoy 'it' without fear.


My friend Susan hasn't skated in 15 years.
Why bother if you can't be the best anyway? Then she turned forty.
She fell into a state of lethargy.
I was so tired.
I felt like my days were dull and dull.
As is often the case with every significant birthday that changes the first digit of her age, she had a brief soul-searching conversation with herself.
I asked myself when was the last time I felt truly free, my heart filled with joy, and my creative life felt so alive and alive.


So she followed the path her curiosity took her.
She bought a pair of skates, found a suitable rink to skate at, and hired a coach to give her personal instruction.
Three times a week, Susan would wake up before dawn and skate in the wee hours before a grueling day at work.
She kept skating, and skating, and skating.
And she really loved it.
Perhaps the reason she loved the activity even more than before was because, now that she was an adult, she had finally realized how valuable it was to enjoy her own joy.
Skating made me feel alive and made me forget my age.
She began to break free from the self-deprecation that she was nothing more than a passive consumer, obligated to do the tasks assigned to her each day.
She created something out of herself and as herself.
-In the text

Author Elizabeth Gilbert believed in her own 'creativity' and just wrote.
Of course, it's not that she's indifferent to success and not afraid of failure.
Rather, I simply believed in the jewel within me, that is, ‘creativity’, and pushed forward steadily.
It is already reward enough in itself.
This is something that even you, ordinary neighbors, can practice, and it is something that even great artists who have left their mark on history and great writers who have won the Nobel Prize for Literature have already done.
Toni Morrison, who also had enormous success with J.
Even K. Rowling, Orange Prize-winning novelist Anne Patchett, and even Raymond Carver, who ruined his life with excessive drinking, knew this.
‘Creativity’ is neither a threatening curse nor a mysterious miracle, as the Romantic poets thought.
Just as you reach for water when you are thirsty, when the sparkling jewels within you cry out for light, you can calmly bring them out into the open.
We must each return to our own place, reveal our own 'creativity', and freely mingle with various inspirations so that it can shine more brightly.
Perhaps the clearest and most important way to approach a creative life is to faithfully engage in ordinary daily life, to live each day fully, without being swayed by the pressures of success or the fear of failure.


Creativity is both sacred and unsacred.
What we create has tremendous meaning, and it doesn't matter what it is.
Art is a very miserable labor and at the same time a wonderful privilege.
Leave enough space in your soul for all these paradoxes to be equally true.
Then I promise you, you can make anything.
So now calm your mind and get back to what you were doing.
Got it?
The precious treasures hidden within you are desperately waiting for you to say, 'I understand.'
-In the text

In this way, 『Big Magic』 is full of countless inspirations and fascinations.
The meaning of 'creativity' that author Elizabeth Gilbert personally realized throughout her life, the successes and failures of countless artists and the lessons they teach, and the vivid and surprising experiences shared with acquaintances and friends from around the world are all contained in one place.
When we doubt ourselves, worry about the future, and are overcome with fear, hesitating and wandering, "Big Magic" will be a strong advisor, a guide, and a source of wonderful and inexhaustible inspiration.