ARCHETYPE
of
THE MUSE
and
HER 3 FACES
of
THE MUSE
and
HER 3 FACES
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At Gibbous moon, I am the Dreaming Muse, waking your imagination with evocative songs, enchanting visions, and enthralling ideas. I inspire you to create. To enrich. To amuse. To give meaning to your daily life. My energy surges like a siren’s song through your veins, enticing you into the rapture of your own creativity.
My lunar phase expands and fills out the form of whatever has been growing within your imagination. I help you claim your unique power of self-expression, self-esteem, self-confidence. I inspire your self-determination to succeed.
With the coming of summer, the sabat of Beltane brings in my season of newly budding creative energy. Now I am the Clown, inciting enthusiasm for the games of life; helping you to communicate what you believe, see, think, feel. I am the Star, helping you master skills and talents; an entertainer, who dramatizes your hopes and fears. I am the Siren, who captures Soul, through art, poetry, song, and dance-- evoking the unspeakable, the dreaded, the hoped-for dream.
Do you remember when you created something from your heart? When you competed with skill and excellence at a talent you love? I inspired you then, and showed you that creative and erotic energy are One.
Throughout all the seasons of our lives, the Muse rules the power of evocation-- she is the calling-spirit. Poetry wells up from the roots of our soul, imbued with her passion. On wings of inspiration, she sails above our limited ego-minds, to show us the splendor inherent in all Creation. The inner Muse drums the rhythms of a universal cadence that leads us into an ecstatic dance with Life.
The Clown is witness to the capacity for soulful play. She teaches that, in the great web woven from time’s memories lies the power to heal all wounds with laughter, wit, and good humor. She helps us recapture our appreciation for the ridiculous, to reclaim our own sublime comic-self who looks at life and chuckles. She reminds us that laughter is always good medicine, for it keeps us young at heart.
In the painting, the Muse rides “bareback” with all puns intended. She brings laughter and good humor into our daily lives by means of her tricks and jokes. In this painting, she is a “spider grandmother” sitting in the web of life, catching the grinning moon in one hand, while a chattering magpie sits on her shoulder and gossips in her ear. She laughs at the absurdity of civil rules of conduct and sits spread-legged, flashing a clown’s comic face, composed of her nipples, belly-button, and vulva. A butterfly in her hand promises transformation, and a spiraled shell on her breast holds secrets of female power. The bear gazes with serene amusement at the those who look in on them.
Here is the goddess of laughter and lifted skirts, Baubo, who brought mother Demeter out of mourning for the loss of Kore, her daughter, to womanhood. In just this way, old women of wisdom-- within and outside of ourselves-- can help us to find the humor in everyday trials and tribulations; bring out our laughter at times of boredom or despair.
Invocation to the Clown:
Help me open myself to the jokes and comedies of life all around me
every day. Let me learn to see the humor, even in tragedy, and to
make of life a continual source of amusement and delight. Help me
avoid stupidity, while enjoying the absurdities of my own foolish
being.
With the guidance of our inner Star, we have the power to rise above limitations and reach for the stars. The Muse Star carries the torch that lights our creative fire. She elevates our level of aspiration and magnifies our performance. She calls us to stretch our limits, master our craft, triumph in our field, and win the rewards of excellence.
In this painting, rising in flames of glory, the Star seems unbelievable, unreachable, and unimpeachable. She rides the fiery dragon of feminine powers unleashed, which is assumed by patriarchal forces to be evil, but is essentially healing. The starry heavens pale in the glow of this goddess-light. The dove of peace wings its way, sheltered in the cool breeze of the Star’s self-confidence. She wears a rainbow-snake, like a ribbon of shimmering satin, a symbol of all-transforming, ever-regenerating, and perfected power.
This may be the goddess of wisdom, Sophia, who is God’s own muse. She rides the skies in veils of arcane knowledge, and disperses creative talents to those with wit and stamina to fly with her into the un-inhaled ethers, the untried heights of imagination. She may be one of the starry goddesses-- Astarte, Ishtar, Atargatis, Esther, or Tara-- all icons of inspired creativity and dedicated devotion to high ideals. The Star within every woman contributes light to the star-fire egg cradled in this cool-hot goddess’ outstretched hand. In her other hand, she has the dragon-- guardian of the “Flaming Pearl” (spiritual perfection)-- by its tail.
Invocation to the Star:
Help me perfect my talents and bring them forth to enrich my life
and that of others. Let me believe in my ability to achieve my best,
and to perform without false modesty or debilitating self-doubt.
Help me to overcome my fear of genuine fulfillment.
The Siren Muse is a sorceress. Her song is mesmerizing, captivating, enchanting. She beckons, and we jump the ship of status-quo, diving to the depths of an inner psychic sea that reveals treasures visible, uniquely, to our own soul. The Siren distracts us from the assigned order of things, and calls us to pursue secret inner longings, faraway visions, untried solutions, unexplored horizons. We hear her voice above the din of our daily life, enticing us from routine tasks, to follow an instinctual trail into our personal Dream.
The Muse, as Siren, can take myriad forms, including those of fairies and angels. In this painting she appears as a mermaid, rising through swirling blue waters of a magical island cove. Like all creatures of the ocean’s depths, the mermaid is associated with dangerous otherworldly powers that are used to trap and enchant innocent men. Perhaps she is the sea-nymph, Calypso, swimming toward the Greek hero, Odysseus, drifting becalmed in her mystical waters. Captivated on her island, he will forget how to make war, and learn how to make love.
Like fabled naiads in wishing wells, Aladdin’s magical djinni, or the holy grail quested by knights of old -- the Siren Muse presents a “calling” for heroes to find and unite with their own female principle in order to become whole. Perhaps this is Minne, a Celtic mermaid muse-goddess (her name means love’s desire) evoked by troubadours in ballads for Medieval court-ladies, where seduction was the name of the game.
Invocation to the Siren:
Help me to accept that I, too, have the ability to enchant and entice
others to my desires, and help me remember that my wishes are not
always best for others. Yet help me dare to follow the call of my
own dreams, in order to discover the deeper purposes and meanings of
my life.