Some know it as the Muses, daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne. Some know it as Sarasvati (or in her Japanese name, Benzaiten), queen of inspiration and all that flow. Some know it as Brigid, she of the high flame, high craft, and high wisdom.
The creative spirit is known by many names and many faces. Whichever you like is fine by me. But in so far as the worship of deities goes, I’m of the opinion that the best way to worship a deity is to do their work.
Want to worship Dionysus? Prayers or altar-building are very nice but it seems to me the best way is to throw a good party.
Want to praise Aprodite? Offering incense and fruit is all very well, but caressing your lover (a lover of the moment or of a lifetime) strikes me as more powerful magic.
Certainly the world would be a better place if those who claimed to worship that poor old apotheosized carpenter-rabbi from Nazareth did his work, followed his example, fed people and helped heal the sick and intervened to stop violence; but perhaps that’s a rant for a different time.
And if you want to praise the creative spirit, by whatever name you know it, the best way is to follow Neil Gaiman’s advice: make good art.
And one concept, one motivating structure, I’ve found for that is the “fun a day”, which was started (I think) by the Artclash Collective in Philadelphia. The idea is simple: every day in January, you make a piece. Since you’re making one a day it follows that you’re aiming for a reasonably small and simple piece.
I did it last year and posted the results to Facebook; I’ll be doing it again in 2016, and posting the resulting work here too.
So, for January 1, 2016: “Black Hole Susan”.
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