Re-discovering the Muse

Women today are searching for meaning, passion and inspiration.
We devote ourselves to a spiritual path, become politically active, or immerse
ourselves in our chosen art or career. We enter psychotherapy, join women's
groups, and attempt to cultivate loving, enduring relationships. Sometimes,
for moments, for days or even weeks, we feel content, whole, complete. But
then the emptiness returns, and the longing; once more, we question the
purpose of our lives, and seek another inner or outer means of experiencing
substance and joy.
This continual pursuit may leave us restless and unsatisfied, particularly
if we never become attuned to our deepest sources of fulfillment, and learn
to replenish ourselves by evoking our inner Muse or Muses.

Each of us has at least one personal Muse, perhaps as many as the
legendary nine, or more. In ancient Greece, the Mother Goddess, when
referred to as the White Goddess, was the original Muse, the wellspring of
all forms of inspiration. Later, she became worshipped as a threefold
goddess, and eventually as nine smaller, less significant goddesses.

Most people, when they think of the Muse, associate her with poetic
inspiration. But the original Muse encompassed far more than poetry and the
creative arts. She was associated with nature, healing, music, celebration,
fame, comedy, tragedy, astronomy, and erotic expression. Indeed, she was
the catalyst for all forms of inspiration.

The Muse today can be the means by which each of us discovers our own
personal sense of meaning, our creativity, our aliveness, our passion. By
contacting the sources of inspiration in our lives - through reconnecting
with experiences of serenity, pleasure, and empowerment in our past and
present (as well as awakening to new forms of meaning) - we can begin to
create lives which are in deeper attunement with our own needs.

The Muse is the original creative force. We depend upon her energy for
creating and recreating ourselves and our world, so that we live in greater
harmony. As stated by Alyce Cornyn-Selby, in an interview for WOMEN IN
UNISON magazine, "Creativity is not restricted to the arts. Creativity is
an approach to living life." (1) In order to discover, cultivate and
continually live from our creativity, we need to find and name our own
personal Muse or Muses.

Let us do so. Let us, along with Carlos Castaneda, find our "path with the
heart," and with Joseph Campbell, learn how to"follow our bliss." But
first, let us understand the history and meaning of the original Muses, and
what messages they bring to us as women today.

copyright 1989 by Tracy Marks
Rediscovering the Muse

Song of Yourself

Lately, my dad has been telling my sister and me stories from when we were little: pranks that we pulled on unsuspecting new parents, the times we were difficult, the cute things we said, the terrible messes that we made. I think he’s feeling the passing of time. It won’t be long until I’ll be leaving home for good, and my sister soon to follow.

Help someone know the song of their past; remind them of times they may have forgotten. Speaking from the perspective of a child, I find that many of the family stories I "know" are not things that I actually remember – I was too young to recall when they first happened. But with subsequent telling, it becomes a part of me, and I can see how it must have been. It is a wonderful way to establish a connection – to yourself, and to your family.

Not to mention that any form of story-telling is good practice for writers! Pick up an interview or autobiography of almost any writer, and they will tell you that they were known from an early age to tell a story, any kind of story, to anyone who would sit still long enough to hear it. So go ahead and reminisce; you might find good material in those old anecdotes.

Follow Your Bliss

I have been so busy being busy that I have let some things slip through my fingers these last few weeks. My cat told me she needed my attention by scratching me viciously for the first time in 8 years of love and affection. My family would do the same if they could!
I have made myself so busy that the individual moments of each day bleed together; their unique hues and textures become muddled and gray. What have I been rushing through? How many small moments of joy have I trod upon in such haste?
I have been at work on my new website Manymuses Studio. I am pleased with the constantly evolving results but appalled at how much time is consumed creating a web site. Each tiny aspect must be selected, added, then saved and published. It is an exhausting process and not one I am likely to undertake again soon.
I am currently at work on a special links page called Dream Images that incorporates my most recent artwork with the flotsam and jetsom of surfing the web.
Here you will find random and seemingly unconnected links to an eclectic array of websites that may or may not have influenced or inspired my work.
I am a person who acquires knowledge by osmosis so everything, anything is fodder for the creative engine. I have been on a creative high these last few months- churning out more work in the average week than I have in the last five years combined. It is a time of great connectedness- an attunement with my true role in the world. Joseph Campbell says "Follow your bliss" and I have been following my art and my writing, but just for today on a blissful summer afternoon, my cat and I are going out to follow the sun as it plays in the dappled leaves above the softly swaying hammock.