(Special thanks to Rachel Jank for suggesting I write this.)
The practice of invoking the Muse is an old one. Centering yourself in the morning with writing is an old practice as well. Combining them is a healthy path for building momentum in your writing practice.
How do we invoke the Muse? First, let me assure you that this is not a religious practice. It is a ritual. In their book, Rituals for Work, Margaret Hagan and Kursat Ozenc define ritual this way:
I was introduced to writing rituals through Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art. He characterizes writing as an inner, creative battle against what he calls “Resistance“. Or as he notes, “It’s not the writing part that’s hard. What’s hard is sitting down to write. What keeps us from sitting down is Resistance.”
One of the tools to tear down Resistance is ritual, specifically the invocation to the Muse. Pressfield uses the invocation taken from T. E. Lawrence’s translation that opens “The Odyssey“.
Pressfield explicates how this works for him. Invocations are idiosyncratic. You can create your own calling it what you will. I use William Blake’s invocation from his epic poem, “Milton” as my invocation.
This is too long for my short attention span so I have shortened it to this which I wrote on a blank playing card.
I read this after I create my ritual setup. The video that follows shows how I set my props up. Oftentimes I will do a 3-minute meditation before I begin this ritual, varying as seems apt. The key to this is be intentional as you do it and try not to let it become ordinary. It is a prayer of sorts to yourself.
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I’m glad you shared this out here — I loved it in the summer writing space.
Kevin
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I couldn’t find where it was on nwp so I just started from scratch because Rachel Jank asked me to post it again. Rituals for work are very powerful in part because they become habitual but mostly because they involve keeping promises to yourself.