Finding My Muse

Making art has been healing for me; I've used it throughout my life to explore my grief and my hopes. But I've felt disconnected from inspiration for quite a long while now.

Lately I've been wondering how I can use my art skills (and teaching art skills) to help heal the rift in our human connection to the Earth. I've opened myself to that possibility for the last month, and finally have just a glimmer of insight. This week I'm practicing all the ways I can think of to connect to my muse, and see a path forward for me and art.

Agenda:

1. Read "Healing with the Arts"

2. Weekly lesson

3. Guided meditation

4. Make a medicine wheel

5. Look for signs & omens in nature

1. Read "Healing with the Arts":

I'm reading "Healing with the Arts" by Michael Samuels and Mary R. Lane. This is a "12-week program to heal yourself and your community." The basic assumption is that everyone is an artist and everyone is a healer and that using art frees your healer to heal. The book is framed for all kinds of healing, and my hope is to, first, heal my own relationship with the earth, then teach others how to heal our community connection to the earth.

Equanimity

I'm on the third chapter: The Spirit in Art Healing. This week I'm asked to tell my spiritual history, and to honor all spiritual traditions. The core of this work is that art heals by "promoting spiritual experience", and with the help of art I can achieve spiritual transcendence.

"Art-healing is about recognizing the energetic body in addition to the physical one. ... As energetic beings and bodies of light, we reside in an infinite field of energy. This is really the 'body' we work when we make healing art. ... We tap into a source of higher consciousness within ourselves".

They talk next about intentionality, and making art along WITH a divine presence; tapping into this connection with guided imagery, breathing and centering exercises. "You, as the healing artist, are part of an experience based on the worldview that everything is connected".

"Creativity is the expression of the universal creative force, and universal love is its source. ... As the higher consciousness flows into us, we express the infinite creative energy of that love as art. ... Art leads us to the emergence of the sacred process: life itself".

2. Weekly lesson:

None of this is new thought for me, but it's helpful to hear it stated clearly. Being a Quaker, I'm familiar with the higher consciousness and inner Light, centering myself in the spirit of Love, and finding unity through that corporate connection to God. And as an artist, I've touched on the sense of being filled with creative energy.

The take-away this week is that when I tell the story of my own spiritual history, I can enlarge the sacred space in my life, and amplify "the intelligence of my heart". That sounds like a good plan.

This week I'm instructed to: 

• Journal about my spiritual evolution, as a pilgrimage,  story or myth; remember my ancestral ties (my spiritual DNA), my upbringing, important spiritual moments, teachers, and practices.
• Meet my Healing Spirit Muse and Guide. This is a palpable presence in my life that feels like a beloved ancestor, or angel, or perhaps more like a feeling of love. 
• Make a medicine wheel.

3. Guided meditation: 

I am instructed to go to my sacred art place again, which is a spot in my front Sanctuary Garden, slow my breathing, sit in silence; then ask a higher power to come to me. Here's my prayer:

I call on the Creator of all life to be with me, and bless me. And I ask Nature to guide me, give me images, and insight, as I seek to heal myself, my community, and the Earth.  

Next, the authors have written a guided meditation to follow, Meeting Your Healing Spirit Muse and Guide. I decided re-write it and tape it, and the audio files are here:

(I'm not sure how helpful this meditation will be for you, but within the first moments I had a strong image of an older woman with reddish matted hair and a kind face, an ancestor or Goddess, who just took my hands and held them, and I felt so loved that the rest of the meditation just flowed over me.)

One of the ways I like to connect to my muse is a journal dialogue: I write my greetings and questions with my right hand, and write my muse's responses with my left. It works surprisingly well.

4. Make a medicine wheel:

The medicine wheel was (supposedly) used in many ancient cultures, but I think much of the historical information might be a made up. It doesn't matter, though - if it has meaning for you now, you should use it.

According to the authors, a medicine wheel is like a compass to help you find your center in spiritual space, aligning you to sacred energies, the seasons, and universal symbols. I'm instructed by the book to create a wheel with objects, but I'm more of a symbol person. I've discovered this rune that I like, that was used by my early ancestors: 

ᛞ Dæg or Dagaz - Day or Dawn; symbolic of awakening, awareness, balance, or transcendence. 

That has become the center of my medicine wheel. Now I'm collecting other symbols for the rest of the wheel.

5. Look for signs & omens in nature:

Symbols are the language of the Universe, and the most powerful symbols come from the natural environment. I know that in every moment, the Universe is whispering to me; the wind carries a suggestion, the birds sing a message, a dragonfly lands on me, I trip over a rock that holds a clue.

An omen is a happening that (if I notice it) I can take as a sign of how things will go in the future, or a reminder of how to be in the world. It might be something I see, hear, or find. It appears as a key, beyond words, to the mystery of life; it encourages a mystical reaction in me, and a closer connection with Spirit.

For example, I've lately noticed a hummingbird visit me in the mornings as I greet the dawn. A hummingbird is a symbol of joy, and a reminder to be awake in the moment and fully drink the nectar of the day. Anyone who sees a hummingbird will naturally have something like that message, but if you pause and let the meaning settle in your heart - every time you see any message from nature - you can't help but become more grounded with the earth.

In order to find nature omens, I put myself outside often, with the right attitude of openness. I might have a particular question in mind, or I might simply look for a clue to the questions I should be asking. My higher self will know when I have found an omen- it will feel weighty and significant. If I don’t quite comprehend the meaning, I just need to have patience and wait for understanding to dawn - my unconscious mind knows the answers.