BTW, I am using Blogcast to create a podcast of the post I submitted to the NWP Write Now Teacher Studio for an event, “Education Futures: A Civic Imagination Workshop for Teachers”

Here is a rough transcript as well:

I have been using these tools that you see in my photo to invoke the Muse off and on for many years. The idea of an invocation originated with Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art and his use of the invocation taken from Homer.

My invocation has evolved from one written by William Blake:

“Come into my hand
By your mild power; descending down the Nerves of my right arm
From out the Portals of my Brain, where by your ministry
The Eternal Great Humanity Divine planted his Paradise…”

The box in the picture includes objects that remind me of the power in my own heart that I can call upon to create. It takes less than five minutes of intentional work to invoke the Muse and then I write for as long as the energy lasts. You can see from the notebook below that it was a short writing, but it can be “mined” for so much more.

One thing I mine for is stories. I use a Google Form to write down potential stories that arise here that that I might pursue in the future. So you see why I call this introduction “the future as ritual”. I am drawn into the future by a ritual practice in this present space, drawn into potential adjacent threads that might happen.

I don’t think of this as a sacred practice. It is just a way to prime the pump. Anybody can do it. And I don’t always draw up clear water, but that’s OK. Muddy water just needs to settle for a bit to clear.

This invocation practice has bled over into lots of other parts of my life especially where I have to make important decisions.