Words of Wisdom from a Four

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There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique, and, if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium; and be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how it compares with other expression. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open.'

- Martha Graham

It is interesting to me how often our Type is revealed through what we say. There are clear indicators of Type in what Martha Graham says, above. Fours are in many ways about the expression of uniqueness. Here she makes it clear that what is unique about us is valuable because no-one else is us so if we do not express ourselves the world will be forever deprived of what only we can express in the way in which only we can express it. She talks about it being our business to 'keep it yours'. Here we see where artistic integrity comes in to play. Artists can often find themselves subject to the values of others, told to change their work in some way to make it less 'this' or more 'that', to be more pleasing to others or to make it more commercial or to fit in to someone else's idea of what they are looking for. But her response is 'no', that your responsibility, above all, is to remain true to you. And this neatly sums up the two main quests of the Four - to find who they are and to be truthful to themselves. Emotional truth is very important for Fours - more important than acceptance. And this is often the difficulty of the Four's journey because it is difficult to have confidence in who you are and what you want to say if you feel different, misunderstood or the feedback you get is to change in some way. But through this process Fours also learn what they are prepared to compromise on, or not, so they learn, ironically, how to be more themselves and who they really are. Fours are not afraid of revealing aspects of themselves that others may consider 'unattractive' or 'strange' but that is not their concern. For a Four the main drive is, as Martha Graham says here, to keep your expression 'yours' - to be, in other words, truthfully you.