March 19, 2007
A MUSE MOMENT
I was thinking about the muses today — those boys in the basement, as King would have it. Or the girls downstairs, as Crusie might call them. Or the connecting with the universal subconcsious in a Jungian sense. And I was thinking about the symbols some artists give their muses.
I don’t have a specific image for my muse per se, but I do have a totem — two actually — that embody my ‘passion’, my will to create or ‘do’, or ’strive’. They capture the essence of drive and inspiration and tenacity for me – when I find it — and I realized I’d neglected summoning their images this past winter.
One of my totems is a great buffalo. He thunders alongside me on my left, hooves striking earth hard. Connecting with rhythm. Forecful. Primal. Dark. Wild. Both gentle and fierce. He doesn’t judge. The other is a fire sprite — something ephemeral, mischievous, light, fast, sometimes wicked. She finds things amusing a lot of the time, she plays with meaning, and she can burn if you try and contain her. She hovers up in the air on my right.
The buffalo came to me in a dream last year. Call me weird, but I began to feel him running at my side when I ran very far, and long, and very alone in deep mountain forest. The sprite arrived shortly after. I liked their company (yes, I know, the men in white coats will be here soon), and I began to work at conjuring their images and drawing on their forces while I ran. I guess it’s because I haven’t been running for a while that they left me. But when I remembered them today, I realized why I’d been missing running so badly.
It was more than just the run. I’d lost my spirit guides. I need to get back. I start tomorrow, baby steps, to see if my knee will hold. If not, I’m going to be one sorry puppy.
What about you? Do you have a muse, or totem that inspires you?
Posted by Loreth @ 7:43 pm | THE WHISTLER LIFE, THE WRITING LIFE
Toni Anderson Says:
The sea. I feel stranded away from it. And yet I am not a boat person.
The sound of the sea can lull me to sleep like nothing else on earth. It made me study its secrets as a marine biologist and now it is like a friend who lives too far away to visit. I really miss the sea, but I have pictures and such clear images of so many great oceans.
So glad your muses found you.
Meretta Says:
I love how you describe your muses, Loreth. I hope your knee does you well and you’re back in stride soon!
Bailey Stewart Says:
Half-nekkid muses work for me.
Your’s are mighty powerful.
Loreth Says:
LOL — nekkid sounds good
Ah yes, Toni — the sea. It’s my element, too. I wish you guys could find a way to live near it.It would just seem more right … you know, with the shark thing and all.
Thanks, M