Divine inspiration
Creativity as a spiritual practice & befriending your internal present self.
Where does divine inspiration come from? I don’t know. But I’m curious. I’ve been thinking within the realms of creativity and the belief system that “creativity is a spiritual path” and I find myself coming back to this exploration, like the Dunnocks in my front garden returning to the seeds in the makeshift bird feeder mum and I made over Easter.
It’s hard to talk about divine inspiration without sounding religious. But I do feel that I am connecting to something beyond myself that connects us all and gives life and energy to those searching for it.
Queen of Creativity, Julia Cameron describes God as an acronym for “Good Orderly Direction”. I haven’t yet found my own words or acronym to describe the thing that is beyond my vocabulary - by naming something you’re also containing it and what we’re talking about here is beyond our five senses even; it can never be contained by us. The uncontainable doesn’t quite have the same ring to it. But you get my point.
You could say though that creativity is my religion. Because like religion, my creative process does have rituals and rites and discipline and unexplainable mysticism and illogical, coincidental serendipity that reassures me that I’m on my artistic way.
When it’s said in The Bible that Moses received divine inspiration and downloaded The Ten Commandments, that’s sort of like the creative process somehow — receiving an idea, having a lightning bolt moment of creative clarity - that’s sort of biblical isn’t it?
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When I’m in the process of (attempting) writing - it’s a scary process. You have to face yourself. But you cannot keep avoiding the page when you have a fire in your belly and warmth in your heart — and a desire to connect your inner world with the outer world. You summon the strength within you and trust in the holy higher power of self and the uncontainable and you flow.
I am more naturally fearful than I thought. To be fearless really is an active state for me. It requires active courage and my foot on the proactive pedal. Following my sequence of wonderful recent life experiences (followed a creative impulse to go to Berlin, experienced India for the first time, reunited with family for brother’s wedding, had my life-long goal of leading in a feature film come to fruition followed by another leading role in another dream role - first time, aside from our films that I’ve had a writer WRITE something with me in mind), I feel I’ve been spiritually surfing - and it’s been wonderful to slow myself down to enjoy the thrill of waves carrying me.
You’ve been surfing for so long, building confidence, even enjoying your hard-earned muscles and maintaining a playfulness, an openness, and willingness to connect through authenticity and “playing [in this case with life] beautifully” (as the Brazilians say about the art of football), and at some point you just stop trying and let the energy of the wave just take you wherever it takes you and you’re still very much on your surfboard but there’s so much ease and relaxation that you even have time to realise you have a smile on your face and life is happening to you, with you, for you. This is the dream you always wanted and you’re actively not imagining your future because you are enjoying the here and the exact now — like I just realised now that I’m laying on my bed typing this and watching myself type, like an awareness of my presence. That makes it sound (in my head at least) like there’s two (or maybe multiple?) versions of ourselves; our present self who is enjoying everything this moment has to offer, and the action stations go-go-go doer that is so fast paced she can often leave her Present Friend behind.
We all have our own internal Present Friend Self who is patiently available for our fast-paced-go-go-go-action-station selves — whenever we are ready. Perhaps being with our Present Friend Self is the ultimate Gift to self.
I want to spend more time with my Present Friendly Self.
Addendum: Does divine inspiration within the creative process come from taking action? Is it the responsibility of the artist to first ask the question? How do we go about receiving answers? It seems a myth to me that it “just arrives” — as realised in my writer’s block etc. I think this might be what some artists refer to as co-creation, something we do in tandem with the creative forces at play.
Questions I’m slowcooking ^
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I love reading your words, as always.
Michaelangelo apparently said when viewing the block of marble from which he carved the statue of David that he could see David in the rock and it was his calling to release him.
He spoke also of painting the Sistine Chapel ceiling as a communion with God.
God's hand was always guiding him.
Perhaps most of us don't live with that level of spiritual certainty but I definitely know what it feels like to experience a sudden inspired idea and to then write it down, in what is often referred to as the 'flow state'.
I feel sure that great acting must come from a 'flow state'.
I wonder if the 'flow state' might be described as a connection between your true self and the creative force that is beyond the ego.??
When you described watching yourself type I believe you are experiencing the realisation that the observer is actually the real you. This is not really a duality, although it appears to be.
The real you is both observer and creator. When the ego (the thinking critical mind) gets out of the way real creativity just seems to arrive.
It's never forced.