The muse

What is it

The muse and sexuality

The historic muse - the origin of the concept

Origins of the muse

What does the muse look like

Using the muse

The muse as an alternative path of enlightenment

Fear and the muse

Summary

The muse is something or someone that has the ability to excite our creative passion and call forth our creative spirit to create. It in an interesting character. At one level it is a figment of our imagination and doesn’t exist. At another level it is very real and vital to our creative endeavor and without them we are robbed of our creative power.

What is it ( Top)

The muse is the manifestation in the physical world of what we need to experience to manifest what we desires to create. The muse is the physical manifestation that supplies, or rather is the occasion for, the passion to act in the world. In this regard, the muse acts as the external sources of our creative life energy. Although the sources lies within, the inner is reflected in the outer and the muse is the reflection externally. In seeking and obtaining the muse we find the Source within our self.



The muse is something external to us on which we can focus and seek. The muse is that external focus that stimulates us and excites us and keeps us motivated to push into the world. It is what call forth our energy or which causes our energy to flow. Although the inner marriage allows us to operate and find a source of energy that never runs dry to move into the world from within our own being, we need an external focus. The muse is that coupling point or grounding point were the offspring of the inner marriage is more or less exactly matched with a point in the external world. It is what allows us to simultaneously both to hold a single point focus and ground the flow of our creative life energy externally. The external focus helps to continually pull us past mind to step out of mind and to confront the limiting beliefs of mind



The phenomenon of the muse to call forth our creative spirit and creative passion is what lies behind using mantras, objects of focus, individuals of focus, and the like in meditation. Seeking that soul mate or the beloved/Beloved are things that catalyze our actions. The muse is an identifiable or identified “beloved.,” That is, where as the beloved/Beloved are something we seek but don’t really know what they look like, the muse is a real person or issue that we desire to obtain in our lives or we seek to address. Creating the seed condition is to realize what it is that will ground our energy.



The journey we take to find and obtain this muse is only a reflection of the inner journey of finding the Source of our own being. The object for which we long to release this energy from within our being that arises from the separation we feel is the basis of the muse. The muse becomes both the inspiration for the creative passion to keep the source of the energy flowing and it is also the relief and release of that energy to allow the energy to dissipate. Hence the muse become both the source and grounding for the creativity and completes the flow path of the energy in an unencumbered fashion.



The muse also functions in another way. By focusing our attention and awareness on it, whether the muse is in our life or not, we keep before our mind a focus which is reflective of what is symbolized by our heart desires to create - our heart’s desire. Hence whenever they think of the muse or have them in their life, our focus is on what the heart desires to create. On this note, sometimes we will never get the muse for if we did get it, we would not complete the creation process carrying it out to the end because we have what you seek. It is only in tension of “not having” that then energy flows.

The muse and sexuality ( Top)

A true muse can exist for any deep creative effort and will be different for each creation for the energy needed for the creation will be different. It needs to be noted here the muse does not necessarily have anything to do with sexuality although traditionally it has links to sexuality. The sexual aspect tends to appear when we creates from the passion of what is symbolized in our heartto recreate our life.



Many find the passion to create arises in their life as a result of an individual with whom they find somewhat sexually attractive. It is as though one needs a muse to call forth the creative passion. Yet if one looks carefully, many will find that as they become more creative about what they feel is close to their heart, they feel more sexual. In this regard, many have a passion to create that does not depend on any other particular individual in their life yet the sexuality is there. This then brings up the issues of how to freely express the creative passion that is arising within our being but not become trapped by the sexuality it causes to arise.



Often someone is needed to call forth the creative spirit and there will be and passion to create as that creative spirit finds itself free to play. Frequently that passion to create includes sexuality. More often than not, the sexuality which arises from the passion to create and freely express onself becomes confused with the individual who calls forth our creative spirit to create. That individual may or may not be someone with whom one can be sexual yet still remain creative free. It is not uncommon that the individual who calls forth the creative spirit is also the one who kills or deeply wounds the creative spirit they called forth. That in turn, requires the individual’s creative spirit to literally be resurrected and/or go through a long period of deep healing. Sexuality is one of those areas where this frequently if not routinely is seen to occur.

The historic muse - the origin of the concept ( Top)

The original concept of the muse come from the Greek Mythology. The Muses where seen to bestow artistic gifts and talents in the creative arts. It has long been recognized that creative inspiration is accompanied by something that seems to come from outside the individual, such as a divine inspiration to enthuse the creator’s being and something to cause the creator’s passion to arise.



The Myth of the Muse was any of the nine daughter of Mnemosyne (memory) and Zeus who presided over the arts and sciences. They included Calliope (eloquence and epic poetry), Clio (history), Erato (lyric and love poetry), Euterpe (lyric song and music), Melpomene (tragedy), Polyhymnia (sacred song), Terpsichore (dancing), Thalia (comedy and pastoral poetry), and Urania (astronomy). The more modern definition of the muse sees the muse as that a spirit or power regarded as inspiring poets and artists. However this concept of the muse, whether it be the Greek Myth or some other definition, embodies the muse as a female providing inspiration in an artist’s life, or as a spirit or power regarded as inspiring poets and artist. From a creativity perspective, it is the feminine nurturing energy which enthuses our entire being, including our organs of sexuality, and gives rise to our creative passion to create. Hence the association of the muse with a female.



It is interesting to note that in the Greek understanding, Zeus is the supreme deity. He is the ruler of the celestial realm and it is the offspring of Zeus and Mnemosyne the goddess of memory which gives us the muse. Symbolically what is being represented is that we need to go into our memory to find the muse which brings forth our passion. We already possess the key to our enlightenment and passion. It lies within. We only need to go within to find it, to remember it. Going into memory can be done two ways. One way is to recall and look at all those activities that have given one passion in the past. What activities have you done that has given you a passion for life and for living. The second way is to look at what encoded on our heart. That is, “For what does our heart long to create or experience in life?” These question are outlined as experiences under the topic, “Calibrating Your Internal Compass” and further discussion on these questions if found below.

Origins of the muse ( Top)

In understanding the creation process and how energy manifests physically, we know there is an ebb and flow into a created form and out of form. The discreation of an existing form allows for a release of energy which is the Source Itself and the raw material for a new creation. We also know our inner world and this annihilation process will be accompanied by an outer reflection. There will be an inner desire rising from the dissatisfaction with what is and a tension between that desire and the world as it is, that existing form, which must be annihilated to provide the energy for the manifestation of the desire into a physical experience. That is, we experience what it we desire. The annihilation of the existing form returns one to the Source of Being and the object of focus externally that will allow this transformation process to occur is the muse.



Normally the muse arises from, or is related to, the intention for our life, the dream we carry in our heart and other intentions that have great “heart” feelings. The reason for this is the muse is what give a passion for life and for living and these types and kinds of feeling center around the heart. Intentions held in the mind do not readily produce a muse because there is less feelings associated with the mind. In actually, mind has no feeling.



In the realization there is a dream that we hold, an intention for our life, a beloved in our heart, or something similar that causes passion to arise within our life, we are faced with a either consciously or subconscious choice that we want what we dream to manifest. That is, we choose at some level of our being to energize or put emotional energy into that dream. If we can’t do it consciously for whatever reason, we do it subconsciously.



The desire and choice to act to want what we dream starts a process of manifestation. One subconscious aspect to manifesting such a dream is that we continually places ourselves in a set of experiences that will cause the dream to manifest. In this process, there is no conscious realization as to why we keep exposing ourselves to the particular set of life experiences. In the subconscious process, the muse will not be recognized for what it is. For such a dream of the heart to be held subconsciously, there will be an outer reflection of the longing in the heart in a set of experience where we are continually and seemingly attracted to the same type and kind of experience. We may not consciously recognize it as such until we stand back and look at our life as a detached witness For example, such as when we draw a life map and review the events of our life with another.



It needs to be realized that the creative tension can be such that the pull to the object, person, or attribute we seek to manifest a new creation can be experienced as though we are seeking a beloved/Beloved. Yet, it is not really a person we seek. Rather, we seek to experience the dream or intention within our heart that may need another to help fulfill that experience.



In remembering that our inner world is reflected externally, the beloved/Beloved can be, and most probably will be, manifested in some physical object or person that represents this beloved for that is how our mind is characterize what we feel. The physical manifestation of this beloved is the muse. To characterize the muse as a beloved is the mind’s best interpretation of what the energy looks like that needs to be experienced to manifest the desired creation. Hence, the beloved is the interpretation provided by the mind. The true muse will not necessarily look like the beloved/Beloved and often individual end up seeking a beloved/Beloved at the expense of their own heart.



The muse is what is as it is for the given world we inhabits. In a different environment, the muse can, and most probably will, be different. The muse is really the manifestation in the physical world of what we need to experience to manifest what one desires to create. The muse is what draws one forward into the external world. When we are able to become the detached witness we will then be able to see how the muse as the beloved only provides the experiences one needs manifest their intention. The answer is not the beloved/Beloved but what the beloved/Beloved allows us to create.



The object for which we long to release this energy that arises from within our being as a result of the separation we feel from the source/Source of our being is the basis of the muse. The muse becomes both the inspiration for the creative passion to keep the source of the energy flowing and it is also the relief and release of that energy to allow the energy to dissipate. Hence the muse become both the source and grounding for the creativity and complete the flow path of the energy in an unencumbered fashion.



The source of energy and the grounding of the energy are two interconnected phenomenon. As discussed in the topic entitled, “Implications and Observations from Pair Annihilation,” the annihilation of a particle and its antiparticle will result in the release of energy. The muse is a very special entity. It is analogous to the antiparticle for the inner beloved that is calling us to annihilate our inner and outer world. It allows for both the generation of the energy. It is a sorcerer. That is, one who allows contact with the Source of the creative life energy itself.



However it needs to be remembered you are a multidimensional and infinite creative being. For any creation we manifest on the physical plane only a portion of our energy will become involved in any transformation. The muse and its environment only reflect that portion of the sacrifice necessary for us to create that for which we long for in our heart. Since the creation process reflected in annihilation is to move towards the muse, it also acts as the grounding of that energy. That is, it establishes the flow path for the energy. On this note, sometimes we will never get the muse for if we did we would not complete the creation process carrying it out to the end because you have what you seek. In this case the energy flow stops.



A true muse can exist for any deep creative effort and will be different for each creation for the energy needed for the creation will be different. The muse will change depending on that creation we are trying to manifest. If we change our intention in the process the focus as reflected in the muse changes. This is true because the internal world is reflected externally and this is true for every level of our being. Whenever we set an intention or desire from the heart to create a physical experience or a particular physical creation we will probably encounter a muse of some type. Alternatively said, the more our creative efforts come from a deep feeling and deep longing typically characterized by the heart, the more the muse will take the from of something that will give us a great feelings such as a person of the opposite or our preferred sex. The more our intention is cold, dispassionate and calculating of the mind, the muse will become rather cold, impersonal and innocuous like “the system.”

What does the muse look like ( Top)

A muse is no more than an external reflection of that internal intention and desire being made manifest. As such, muse can exist on every level of being or a different one can represent every level of our being. However, it is the physical muse that is most interesting. The muse can be seen manifested both in synchronicity and synchronous event and would include what many indigenous traditions would call familiars - objects, entities or life forms of nature that manifest as signs or indicators of one’s path.



The muse may be of either sex or an object and it may be a teacher, lover, an adversary or some other object of focus, animate or inanimate, that allows us to manifest the intention that we have. The muse causes us to focus our attention and awareness in a passionate way and hence accelerates and fuels the creation process. The muse also functions in another way. By focusing our attention and awareness on it, whether the muse is in our life or not, we keep our mind focused on what our heart desire to create. Hence whenever we think of the muse or have them in their our, our focus is on what the heart desires to create.



Ideally the muse is someone or some object who would give themselves to us totally as that beloved. A human muse is very difficult to find for as a human, the person who is seen as the muse will have their own interests and desires and few individuals are freely able and willing to set their personal interests aside to surrender to the needs of another. Although this is the ultimate feminine act, to give oneself to nurture and sustain a creation, that fear of being used and abused prevents most individuals from stepping into the creative feminine role and surrendering.



The closest place where the feminine surrenders and gives freely to a creation is probably the way many mothers surrender their lives to their children although it is not always done in a way that is best for the children or the mother. Most mothers, as fathers, never leave and/or transcend their ego to give their child what it truly needs as opposed to what they think it needs. Nevertheless, it is possible for an individual who happens to function as a muse to have their own interests and desires fully expressed yet fully and freely function as a muse. This is possible if they are both the muse and the one for whom they are the muse. Both can then surrender to the same objective of focus and that objective is much larger than themselves. In this case both individuals allow their individual creative efforts to merge together to create a larger objective. That is, the larger goal is the offspring of their individual goals and the both surrender to the offspring of their energy that transcends both their egos.



This muse will most probably change as our intention manifest though its different stages of its life. Yet we may only find the muse itself seems to evolve where as it is our intention and internal life that is growing and evolving.



One of the difficulties in manifesting a creation, if not the most difficult piece, is becoming attached in either a positive or negative way to a particular form the muse takes. That, in turn, causes us impeded our own journey frequently resulting in pain and suffering. When we begin to understand what the muse actually is and that there will always be a muse of some type we will being to decouple from the muse and be able to use it as the tool that it is.



However, if the muse is a person, they may take offense at “being used.” One of the most difficult things for us to accept is that both our bodies and our consciousness are only tool the Universe is using to manifest Creation and recreate Creation from within Creation. We have a role to be played and it may very well be to be the muse for one or more individuals. The creation process for a particular creation is not something mind will fully comprehend and we must be willing to surrender to the process itself. That of course takes us to the feminine aspect of our being which we all have and the fear of being used and abused arises for how much the feminine gives in any creation Although there are things the feminine does it is a risk we all must take and each of us must choose our own creation path.

Using the muse ( Top)

To use the muse we need to look at what the heart is trying to express in our life or be willing to access the intention for our life When we look carefully, we will find activities that actually make us feel alive, and the desire of the heart, what gives us as passion for life and for living are one and the same for they arise from the same Source. It is just that we have no tradition or understanding to relate the early memories associated with passion as the heart expressing its essence and the intention for our life.



The muse is that reflection of heart’s desire and makes us feel alive with life. We only need to follow it to find enlightenment and unconditional love. But, to do so, we need to get the mind completely out of the way. We need to step out of mind of what we think and believe and what our journey will look like. We need to rid ourselves of any judgements and prior conditioning as to who and what we think we are, how we can or can’t be, or how we should or shouldn’t express ourselves. Pursuing the muse will bring us into a conscious awareness of the flow of the creative life energy within ourselves. It can be called the path of indulgence but not as simple as indulging. There is the need for a very fine discernment as to what direction is actually coming from the heart as opposed to the mind.



What needs to be understood is that the entire concept of the muse has been too narrowly defined and this narrow definition has permeated our society about creativity. If you look at the Greek myth it describes only a very limited portion of the diverse ways creativity can be expressed. They are essentially, poetry, dance, music and astronomy. However, there are innumerable ways that our creativity can be expressed and give a passion for life. Needle work, gardening, sailing, baseball, understanding nature, going to the moon, understanding the human psyche, card collecting and myriad of other ways that we express ourselves can be our muse. The understanding needed here is that the muse is that person, object of focus, activity, or way of being in the world that causes such an intense passion for that activity to arise within the individual that there is no other activity in the person’s life such that the activity and the person become one, fully focused, fully absorbed. The muse is the reflection of an internal energy and an internal desire.



The muse can take as may forms as there are individuals on the planet for the muse is unique to each and every individual. What this means is that individuals can be, and will be, a muse for another. Or, at other times, the muse is that immoveable obstacle that one is driven to conquer. It all depends on how our energy needs to express itself. As such, the path of the muse is a very individual path and requires to individual to look very carefully within themselves to find it. Since the muse arises from an internal energy, it is embracement of desire. As such the path of the muse is a path of indulgence and is quite different than many of today’s spiritual disciplines which teach denial of desire and suppression of desire.

The muse as an alternative path of enlightenment ( Top)

Although the sources lies within, there is reflection externally. That external reflection is the muse and in seeking and obtaining it we find the Source within our self. The journey we take to find and obtain this muse is only a reflection of the inner journey of finding the Source of our own being. A journey one takes to find the Source of Being is a journey of enlightenment



The muse is a different kind of teacher and master, and is probably the most effective way at revealing the life path encoded within our heart and the intention for our life. Unfortunately in today’s world, the concept of the muse is generally unknown and fallen into serious disuse. In many ways it has become distorted, and even judged as somehow evil by some. We have our many stories of artist and painters who could only produce great artistic works when in the presence or stimulation of what people would call their muse. In this context, the muse most often seen as being that female who somehow inspires or brings out the artistic passion out of the individual to be manifest in the individual’s artist art, music or poetry.



The muse is the physical manifestation that supplies the passion and/or acts as the sources of our creative life energy. The muse has been seen as a female but in actuality it is that feminine side that calls forth and excites the masculine within. In many ways the muse is the reflection of the beloved where the beloved steps into its masculine aspect of being and causes a creation to occur. It is that holding presence, that womb within ourselves that births that gift we incarnated to bring. It holds our creative life energy allowing it to form and to grow. The muse is that which allows us to have an experiential knowing of unconditional love for the muse, the reflection of our internal. can give us exactly what we need the way we need it. The muse is the kind of love that the feminine gives that child that grows within their womb.



Seeking the muse is the alternative path to enlightenment and unconditional love for it awakens us to our own true and internal creative abilities. It is a path of joy and embracement of life and to some, it will be seen as a path of indulgence. The muse probably is the quickest way to get one into the experience of being one with the task at hand where the doer and the action are one.



For us to dance with our muse is a dance of oneness. It needs to be noted here the muse does not necessarily have anything to do with sexuality and will only appear when one creates from the passion of the heart with all their being. The guru, the spiritual teacher who is seen as the embodiment of God, and the love the disciple has for the guru in their search for God would be one such example of a nonsexual muse. The spiritual teacher is the muse who the disciple seeks to obtain and become. However, the gurus is only the muse. It is the individual’s heart who brought them to the guru. If their mind was involved in the selection of a guru, then the guru cannot be the muse. The mind has no say in who the muse will be and what the muse will look like. In many ways the path of the must is to use the feminine aspect of being at access the Source of Creation but is seen different because of the perspective that is held.

Fear and the muse ( Top)

Normally we do not consider indulging a desires that arise from within our being as facing our fears. However, the path of the muse takes us directly into our fears. There are two level of fear we faces when we uses the muse as a teacher or guide for our life.



The first are our internal fears. When we follow the energy that flows from within we must first become very aware and very discerning that we have not over laid our mind and its expectation in interpreting the energy or judging the energy. If we truly desire to honor our creative spirit, there will always be the fear we may be misreading the energy and are simply indulging wants and desires of our mind, our ego and/or our enculturation. However, we really do not have to worry about this issue.



The energy that flow from our creative passion will most probably take us directly into experiences which in the past we somehow judged as non-pleasurable. They were judged non pleasurable not necessarily because of physical discomfort we experienced. Rather, they tended to take us into our belief structure and reveals beliefs that we would rather not know we carry and/or makes us aware of things we believe which we will need to change. In particular, we will have to face taking responsibility for what we experience in life. The muse has to take us into our belief structure for this is what discovering and exploring our unique truth is all about. That is, to discovery and explore the uniqueness of our own being as an individuated consciousness which arise as described in the Creation Story for the Creativity Perspective. You will have to face beliefs about ourselves and the nature of the reality around us that our mind would rather not face.



The second issue that we face is will have to face external fears. That is, we will need to face the fears of society and the collective unconscious, both the societal collective and the human collective. These fears are real and will come screaming at us (sometimes literally in the form of individuals in our life) from directions we never expect.



When we seek to discovery and explore our own uniqueness we will find ourselves on the left hand path. We will find ourselves being lead other than way individuals in our life and/or society desires. The issue, however, is not these individuals. Rather to truly unfold our uniqueness is to go against what the collective holds true about the nature of what it means to be human. There is the fear that anarchy will regain if each lives their own truth. However, nothing is father from the truth. When one accesses the truth of their own being all they can do is share that opportunity with others. All that is desired is to create that space of freedom for another for we know not to live in that free unfoldment of our own creative spirit feels like.



Facing a fear of the collective is much like trying to escape the pull of gravity to send a space ship to the moon or to explore the solar system. Society wants individuals within society to follow the rules of that society whether it be the family, the church or the state. To live our uniqueness that the muse pulls out of our being will always cause us to live differently in some way. How much different depends on our own individual uniqueness.



The path of the muse, although it fills us with tremendous and undescribable bliss, requires a courage, strength of will, trust in oneself and the Universe, and discernment much beyond what any of normal human paths require including the most rigorous spiritual paths to enlightenment or salvation. Its practice has generate just too much opposition in the past because of the fears at all levels.



Yet, in many ways today the world is desperate and it seeks solution to problems that only our creativity can provide. The world has too long denied and too long failed to balance the path in life where the mind is exalted and we deny our body wisdom and our reason for incarnating with the path of indulgence and we indulge our own truth. As such, we are tremendously unbalanced as both a culture and as humanity to the point that we continually threaten the existence of the planet by continually denying the energy that needs to be manifested to restore the balance. In spite of the fear the muse will cause to arise, the muse is probably the quickest and gentlest way to enlightenment and unconditional love.

Summary ( Top)

There is a path of enlightenment that is of great creative passion and enthusiasm and it lies within our own heart. If we can allow ourselves to feel and be true to our feelings and the truth of our being we will find a beloved in our heart that is reflected in an external muse. If we follow that muse while keeping true to the beloved we feel in our heart we will find that we can be lead to the Source of Being that lies within our being in a most pleasurable way, one suited exactly to and for our uniqueness. It only needs to be remembered that the beloved and the muse will not necessarily exactly look like each other for the beloved and what it looks like is the best characterization of what is felt by the mind. The muse is reality as it is. It is what will guide you to the Source of our being. All we need to do to ensure we have manifested the correct muse is remain true to the feelings about the beloved and see what appears in our life calling us forth to live deeper in our own truth and to discover and explore the truth of our own being in spontaneity and innocence of creative play.

Related topics

Implications of Pair Production in Our Creative Endeavors

Path of indulgence

Path of the muse

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