One of the things that makes me uneasy is how often certain things are described in supernatural terms. This is something that is incredibly common when talking about creativity and art. Terms like Muse, God, Resistence, Forces, all bring to mind conscious entities that exist outside our realm.
I have come to realize that my perspective of these things as supernatural (and subsequent rejection of them) is short-sighted.
I can believe in Muses, Inspiration, God, even a sort of desire by these things, and still reject the idea of the supernatural. Now, that isn’t to say that everything we don’t understand is supernatural, there are certainly forces at play that we simply don’t understand. Just because humans didn’t understand that light was doesn’t mean our eyes didn’t work. There may be things out there that we are receptive to and may impact our lives that we simply don’t understand yet.
What I’m realizing is that a prayer or meditation or whatever to the Muses is really tapping into our own subconscious, it is opening up previously under-used or unused neuro pathways. I don’t need to believe in a conscious force to recognize that the practice of creativity leads to results or that when I follow my “intuition” things start to just work out. It isn’t magic making them work out, it is human nature. We may be “wise men” (homo sapiens), but we are also “creative men” and “exploring men” and “loving men”. Our nature is multifaceted and beautiful, and with that nature we can follow many paths to fulfillment.
Wandering Oak 