Demon Muse

Embrace your inner genius

Posts Tagged Elizabeth Gilbert

Theology, Psychology, Neurology: Is the Muse Real? (Part One)

Aug 30

Posted by Matt Cardin in Creativity and Consciousness, Creativity and Society | 8 Comments

Image: Angel of FateAn ever-increasing segment of the population is becoming aware of and interested in the muse-based or genius-based model of creativity. More and more people are discovering the idea that creativity can rightly and fruitfully be viewed as an external or independent force that influences and works through a person in the manner of the classical muse, that divine spirit — or, for the ancient Greeks, the several divine spirits — whose function is to whisper inspiration directly into the human mind and soul.

And this all leads, eventually, to a crucial question: What exactly are we talking about? Is it more correct to say that creativity really is an independent and autonomous force, or that it can be viewed as such?

In short, is the muse real? Read the rest of this entry »

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Tags: Elizabeth Gilbert, francis bacon, leigh schmidt, muse, religion, the enlightenment, unconscious mind

The Muse in the News

Jun 21

Posted by Matt Cardin in Creativity and Society | No Comments

inspirationAs recounted in part two of “Embrace Your Creative Demon’s Rhythm,” the poet Amy Lowell once compared poets to radio antennas. The poet, she said, is someone who “is capable of receiving messages on waves of some sort; but he is more than an aërial, for he is capable of transmuting these messages into those patterns of words we call poems.”

Lately, if you consciously fashion yourself into a different kind of antenna — specifically, one that’s set to detect references to the daimon/daemon, the genius, and the creative muse in current cultural discourse — you’ll find that you receive a lot of signals indeed. There’s a diffuse conversation afoot about this ancient view of creativity and selfhood, and paying attention to it can reap some serious rewards in terms of clarifying your crucial relationship to your own inner partner.

Here are some choice items from the past few weeks, months, and years. Read the rest of this entry »

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Tags: amy lowell, creativity, daimon, demon, edward hirsch, Elizabeth Gilbert, lawrence staples, meredith wickham, mike nichols, muse, nick laird, Steven Pressfield, sunni brown, thomas moore, tony white, unconscious mind

The Daimonic Insight: Creativity is a Force Separate from You

Feb 1

Posted by Matt Cardin in Dealing with Creative Block, Tapping the Creative Unconscious, Techniques for Enhancing Creativity | 5 Comments

The fundamental truth about creativity and human selfhood has been stated to profound and beautiful effect by many people in history, but few have put it as concisely and effectively as Elizabeth Gilbert did at the 2009 annual TED Conference in Long Beach, California.

Gilbert, the celebrated author of Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia, spoke to a rapt audience about the damage caused by the modern-day view of creative genius as a quality that a few privileged humans possess. She said this view puts enormous and undue pressure on us all, and that we would be better off regarding creativity in the way that our pre-Renaissance ancestors did: as an external force or entity that visits people to inspire and help with some creative act, and then moves on to visit somebody else. In other words, it’s not the case that a few special people are geniuses, but that all of us have a genius.

Here’s her entire talk, which I strongly encourage you to watch:

On being or having a genius

Some of the more potent highlights of Gilbert’s speech include: Read the rest of this entry »

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Tags: Elizabeth Gilbert, genius, muse, TED Conference

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