Jan Phillips - Marry Your Muse: Making a Lasting Commitment to Your Creativity

T his book is an exploration into possibility, an exercise in dissolving the line between the mundane and the mystical, the sacred and the secular. It begins with the assumption that we are all inherently creative and that we have only learned to think of ourselves as anything less than that. As much as this book is about doing, it is about undoingundoing our self-doubt, undoing our fears of self-expression, undoing our illusions that creativity belongs to a chosen few. It celebrates not only the joy of creating, but also the joy of being re-created ourselves as we draw upon our depths and tap into our Source.

In the process of creating, we are attempting to transform one thing into anotherour experience into words, our dreams into dance, our fears or fantasies into poems, songs, or plays. Once we start the work, a new energy arises as the piece takes on a life of its own, passing through us on its way to fullness. We become, then, not so much creators as collaborators with this form, this idea, this new life that seeks expression.

We shape it, we give it color and texture, we break it down into notes on a musical staff, but the melody, the power, the soul of the piecethis comes as a gift of spirit. And this, to me, is the sacredness of creativitythis bubbling up of newness from the space within where our emptiness is home to All That Is.

I have read that all life and energy are generated from the union of two polar opposites. Before thought is born, two hemispheres of the brain must combine forces. Perhaps too before art is created, the mortal on some level must merge with the Divine, opening up to the essence of what seeks to be created. Our creations, then, would become manifestations of divine union, much as our bodies are manifestations of divine thought. If all parts seek the whole, and we in our mortality seek the Divine, perhaps divinity finds its rapture in merging with the mortal.

Throughout the centuries, the Muse, the goddess of creativity, has been seen as an angel hovering over the shoulder of the artist at work. We see her outside ourselves as we have been taught to see God, as a force transcendent, above and beyond us. But imagine that she is immanent, within us, of us. Imagine that spirit is seeking to create through us, to regenerate itself into this culture, word waiting to be made flesh through our creative expressions. Imagine the Muse ever poised, constantly ready to cocreate, full of grace and awesome beauty. Imagine yourself the vessel of transmission, the one chosen to birth the sacred, in word, song, clay, image, or dance.

Do not doubt that you are born to create. Do not believe for a minute that the realm of art belongs only to others. Do not believe what you have been told or think you heard: that you are incapable, unimaginative, not artistic. This is blasphemousit denies the potential to create, which is your birthright. If you have believed these things and woven your garment from doubt and fear, disrobe and look within. Find what brings you joy and go there. That is your place to create, to move with the spirit, for the Muse lingers near the home of your joy.

There is no absolute truth about the Muse or the creative process. Creativity is of the inner realm. Each of us becomes our own expert. In our seeking, we find what was never lost. In our creating, we ourselves are created, added to, enlightened. What matters is the movement, the union with spirit, that subtle drive that wakes us from our sleep, takes us from our dreams, and invites us to become the dream expressed.