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Living atop Mt. Helicon in Boetia, the Muses only rarely descended to
earth. Nevertheless, they were lovers and protectors of earth, particularly
of earth's waters. As goddesses of fountains and springs, they remain the
patrons of numerous springs and sanctuaries throughout Greece, such as
Aganippe, Hippocrene and Castalia, all reputed to provide creative
inspiration to those who drink their waters. The Muses were also associated
with milk and honey, with their sacred animal, the swan, and with the
willow and laurel trees.
Greek myths portray the Muses as singing, dancing and playing their lyres
and flutes at weddings, banquets and funerals. Their first song was at the
victory celebration of the Olympians over the Titans, the birth of the new
order. When the Maenads dismembered Orpheus, the Muses collected his limbs
and buried him at the foot of Olympus, where nightingales would forever sing.
Although the Muses are most often remembered for inspiring poets and
musicians, they are also known for sparking the genius and inventiveness of
scientists, and for guiding politicians. They accompanied kings and queens,
inspiring them with eloquence and imparting to them the gift of gentleness,
which enabled them to settle quarrels and maintain peace.
DISCOVERING AND NAMING OUR MUSES
"If men have always named the sacred out of their experience what would
happen if women dared to do the naming?" Elizabeth Dodson Gray asked,
in Women of Power. "Instead of distancing ourselves and withdrawing
from reality to find sacredness, we go toward that reality, toward bodies,
toward nature,.toward transitory moments in relationships...And wherever
we look, we find that which nourishes us and deepens us."(5)
Contacting our Muses is a first step. One means of doing so is to identify
twenty or thirty peak experiences of our lives - times in which we have
felt most at peace, most empowered, most joyful, most creative and/or most
alive. Are these times of attunement to the earth, of loving connection, of
sexual fulfillment, of mastery or success, of insight, meditation or group
communion? Can we identify the kinds of experience which in the past have
most inspired us, and have enabled us to contact life-affirming energies
inside and outside us?
For my "Find Your Passion: Make it Happen!," and "Journal Writing for
Personal Growth" workshops and in my "Becoming Your Own Heroine"
women's empowerment programs, I use numerous exercises to help women
discover, re-experience and categorize the kinds of experiences (past,
present and future possibility) which help them regain contact with their
sources of inspiration and meaning. First, we must know what these are;
second, we must understand the attitudes, choices and actions which
contribute to them; third, we must choose to create more of these kinds
of experiences, rather than succumb to the familiar patterns of attitudes,
behaviors and relationships which are comfortable but lead us away rather
than toward our Muse energy.
Some of our most fulfilling memories may be of moments - moments of
insight, communion, inner peace, appreciation, or competence. Others may
be long-range satisfactions, such as the self-esteem which results from
working toward a master's degree, or the growth in our relational abilities
through commitment to a long-term partnership. Sometimes we are active
and accomplishing; other times, we are simply being and appreciating, or
mutually participating in a meaningful interaction.
Understanding the nature of our peak experiences may help us to create
more of them. Having a system of categories or labels can enable us to
access more of our memories, and also to under- stand the kinds of
circumstances which most fulfill us. For most people, the most common
categories include:
BODY: appearance, pleasure, sexuality, sports/physical activity
RELATIONSHIPS: love, friendship, family, children, co-workers,
mentors/counselors, students, animals
GROUPS: social groups, professional organizations, growthoriented/therapy groups, service groups, community groups
SUCCESS: work achievement, experiences of competence/mastery
world: politics, service
PERSONAL LIFE: home, neighborhood, daily experiences
LEISURE: travel, nature/outdoors, play, entertainment
THE ARTS: creative expression, artistic/literary appreciation
LEARNING: formal education, insight, study, reading
INNER DEVELOPMENT: insight, psychological growth, psychotherapy,
meditation, prayer, spiritual experience
Once we have identified and categorized our peak experiences, the next
step is to select a name for facets of the Muse/ goddess which each
represents. Naming is important, enabling us to inwardly access each Muse
as a goddess figure in whose presence we can live. A useful tool in the
naming process is a baby naming book, which lists thousands of names and
their derivations. Matching the energy of our experience with a name that
expresses that energy for us will help us to utilize that name in the
future as a means of invoking that Muse into our lives.
Naming my Muses began for me a lengthy period of awakening and
transformation. The catalyst was an evening in my first "Becoming Your Own
Heroine" group, when the women each presented to the group a goddess or
spiritual heroine who was particularly meaningful to them. To those who did
not know who to choose, I suggested naming for themselves their own
personal goddess energy, and creating their own rudimentary history or
mythology. The several women who chose to name and create their own
representations of the goddess shared creative work which moved us all.
After choosing as my own presentation the nine Muses of Greek mythology,
I decided to reassess my own sources of inspiration, and to rediscover and
name my personal Muses. Later, I traced their history in my life.
Who are the Muses that awaken my life energy? Tia is my personal
Mnemosyne, the mother of my Muses; their father was Philemon (phile
=love). Istara, her eldest daughter, the Muse of creative writing, and
now creative expression in all forms, was my greatest source of joy as
a child and adolescent. Shantih, the Muse of the Ocean was also present
early in my Florida childhood, as was Shoshannah, my Muse of wisdom.
Shoshannah has fueled my lifelong quest for understanding and insight,
and has expressed herself at times interpersonally, through the meeting
of minds; I also call her Keldri when she is joined with Istara in the
creation of psychological and spiritual articles and books.
Desiree was my primary Muse during my 20s - my Muse of lovemaking,
of the joining of hearts and bodies. Early in my 30s, she began to lose
significance as Willow appeared, who has for nearly a decade now been
my primary Muse. Willow is heart-to-heart communion, the tender, empathic
and loving connection between persons able to connect on a soul level
and honor each other's essential being.
Tammany has also become an important Muse for me in recent years
- so significant that I have even named her nine ladies-in-waiting.
Tammany rules the appreciation of beauty and the arts. Her ladies-in-
from pursuing and from remembering our deepest dreams. Wanting what
we dare not believe we can have is painful, and becoming large enough to
move through our fears is difficult, so we stop wanting and then question the
emptiness of our lives. Or we focus unduly on our suffering, our problems,
and deprivations, and blind ourselves to the potential joys within us and
around us.
Inspiration does not merely happen; we block it with our own negative
attitudes, inner messages and self-sabotaging behaviors. In order to
recover our inspiration or passion, we must choose to create the inner and
outer conditions which awaken and fuel our life energy. We must want to
experience greater aliveness; we must care enough to make choices which
enliven us; we must dare to create the changes in our lives which will
enable us to hear and live in close contact with our sources of inspiration.
"I've been absolutely terrified every moment of my life," said Georgia
O'Keefe, "and I've never let it keep me from doing a single thing that I
wanted to do." (6) When we choose to attune ourselves to our deepest
inspiration and to hear our Muses, our desire for life, real life, becomes
greater than our fear of change.
Reconnecting with our life source is possible. Our Muses live -- in their
own unique, personal forms within everyone of us. They may lie buried in
our past; they may appear when we open our inner or outer eyes to the
present moment; they may awaken when we embrace our visions of the
future and dare to dream.
We can experience our Muses, we can learn to listen to their melodies, and
to the sacred silence from which their songs are born. We can, as we
discover them, uncover and recover our lost and latent selves, and begin to
live again.
--------
Sources of Inspiration
self-development
body
love
children
organizations
work
and Fulfillment
creative expression
sexuality
friendship
home
groups
work relationships
arts appreciation
sports
family
daily life
politics
success/mastery
craftsmanship
hobbies and play
spirituality
education/learning
entertainment
insight
service
nature
travel
continue muses7.htm
Afterwards, consider:
1) What kinds of experiences fulfill you? How would you categorize your
primary sources of inspiration, meaning/fulfillment?
2) How might you NAME the personal Muses associated with these
experiences in your life?
3) What is your life history in regard to your peak experiences? At what
times in your life were you most fulfilled? How have your sources of
fulfillment changed?
4) What sources of meaning/satisfaction have been missing from your
life? What areas of life have you yet to explore?
5) To what extent are you creating fulfilling experiences now? What
sources of fulfillment are present? Which ones are noticeably missing
from your life?
6) How do you want to create greater fulfillment now? What kinds of
experiences (and which of your Muses) do you wish to invite life now?