Do you have questions or topics you’d like me to respond or cover to on the Spark My Muse podcast?
I’d like to hear from you! :)
Questions about wine? (or vineyards, viticulture, wine grapes, managing a tasting room, etc)
About Christian spiritual practices? (pray forms, spiritual growth, discipleship, the Bible, etc)
About Creativity? (productivity, being “in the flow”, inspiration, overcoming discouragement, etc)
Something from a blog article you’d like me to expand on?
Or, “other”….
Leave a voice message and I’ll pick the best ones to feature in future podcast episodes. If you want to, you can leave your website and reach a few thousand more people too.
(Microphone shy? Just use the “contact page” and type something to me.)
Episode 5 – The god of Wine and re-thinking the nature of creative process
Today’s episode is about the Greek god of Wine and rethinking our ideas about the process of creation, and a better understanding the notion of “creative genius”:
The is show is brought to you by a resource called
Sparky’s Marketing Jump-Starter Kit.
• Click here to get it free when you use the promo code “spark“.
This kit is a quick way to understand the best free tools for digital marketing and make them work for you when you’re trying to promote your projects and creations.
(There’s only 100 available for this offer. So hurry to get yours.)
wine segment
What the Greeks thought about wine is reflected in the god of wine that they worshiped. (I don’t recommend worshiping the god of wine, or any god except the benevolent Creator.)
• Dionysus was the Greek god of wine and grape harvest
• The only god to have a mortal parent. Born from Zues’ thigh. That’s because his mother burnt to a crisp when Zues showed himself to her in his glory. Whoops.
Symposium means “drinking together”.
Additional note: These originally-small gatherings were for upper class men and with carefully imposed rules about consumption. They occured for leisure and thoughtful discussion.
• I will be offering a symposium-stlyle web-event where we will all have a glass of wine at the same time and discus a topic–possibly in July. Only patrons will get to come. This is your invitation. :)
If you want in, or you are curious about the rewards for being a sponsor of the show, go to Patreon.com/sparkmymuse
• Most of the great Greek plays were initially written to be performed at the Spring feast of Dionysus. . . .when the buds of grape leaves start to open. It was a most sacred festival.
• Dionysus was a patron of the arts!
For Greeks, Dionysus was credited with creating wine and spreading the art of viticulture (the horticulture of grapes).
• He had a dual nature; on one hand, he brought joy and divine ecstasy; or he would bring madness, brutal and blinding rage–a good depiction of the dual nature of wine.
• He was brought back to life…like grape vines that undergo brutal pruning and look dead, but then burst back to life.
• Blood and red wine are often linked for the ancients.
(Blood gives the body life, wine has powerful bodily effects.)
“All the products of a man’s genius may be temporal and corruptible, but the creative fire itself is eternal, and everything temporal ought to be consumed in it. It is the tragedy of creativeness that it was eternity and the eternal, but produces the temporal, and builds up the culture which is in time and a part of history. The creative act is an escape from the power of time and ascent to the divine…”
Today we’re thinking of the creative process as re-imagined and being “divinely co-operative”.
We (commonly) think of genius as applied to us in a personal way like a characteristic. A natural capacity, but the Greeks seem to have a much healthier view of what the process of creation is truly like…
• For the Greeks …divinity is always present.
• A genius = an unseen guardian, or custodial and protecting spirit…who gives a human inspiration: For the Greek, we each have one. (It’s not us; but it will help us.)
Three reasons why depersonalizing our part in the creative process is helpful:
1. Failure is not personal
2. Success shouldn’t cause arrogance
3. Patience and giving up control (not forcing it) will reinvorgate your creativity
What do you think?
Is the creative process a “divine cooperation”?
In the next episode we will cover “the proper rites of friendship” and skinny on “wine spritzers”.
By the time you are thirsty, your kidney’s have sent an emergency signal to your brain. Now the brain tries to regain health for your body with urges to drink. It’s better to provide for the body ahead of time, of course. The same is true for a thirsty soul. Don’t let yourself get morbidly parched. It’s not healthy for you or anyone in your life. It’s terrible for your art and your creative muse, and your mission in the world. You have to be well to do right by others. You have to be well to do well. But most of all you have to properly BE.
Getting it wrong:
A retreat that’s more of a social gathering with activities…That’s a Protestant, Western, answer to a problem that misunderstands the question.
Catholic tradition with it’s long history of spiritual retreats and spiritual guides was too much spurned by Protestant protest against it in favor of being busy at work and productive, while too often letting the soul starve for want of divine tranquility and peace.
God is best found in stillness and when the boisterous yammering of our heart and mind are soothed by rest and unplugging in every way.
The real question is not how can I find a party so I can feel whole….but How do I find my whole way home?
Home is within.
You become quiet and you go inside. God is within. You won’t find a God of Sabbath rest “out there” or at a place.
3 Most Important Tips:
1. put it on the calendar. mark it off. It’s a vacation day.
Or as the British say it (better) “you need to go on holiday!”
HOLY DAY.
Holy means set apart. That’s exactly what retreat should be.
If you take take off from work for doctor’s apps, then think of it like that.
Block off 4-6 hours at minimum
8-10 is better and 24-48 is really when things get very beneficial.
AND Go away from home and people. A retreat center, a natural setting, a private room at a church or someone’s home.
2. Do all you can to minimize all distractions and obligations.
Plan ahead. Tell people you WILL be off the grid. Not able to be contacted. at all.
Leave your phone in your car. A few hours won’t kill you. If you think that it might, or that you can’t possibility be out-of-contact…or maybe that you are too important and busy to do this.
Then you have to be even more serious able doing it. Delusion has set in. You have become blind. You are starting to die a soul death. Get away RIGHT away!
(You may be afraid of what thoughts are going to come up when things get quiet. Be brave!)
3. Let the chatter die out.
If your mind is clamoring…and it will be if you have a lot to be responsible for….then you really can’t get to a place of rest.
• Jot everything down quickly and put it to the side. It will be there when you get back and you will be able to deal with it better.
A simple Worksheet that’s perfect for retreats:
• The SHARPENING Ritual
• The SHARPENING Ritual
(PRAYER-centered VERSION)
Special perks and rewards are available too. Join with the Spark My Muse community at the Spark My Muse page at Patreon! Click the image for more info.
Below are some of my “field notes” I collected from this extended and uncut interview with Brené Brown on Krista Tippet’s show “On Being”
[emotionally toxic / unhealthy] people suffer from similar traits:
• Perfectionism
• Self-righteousness
• Tying self-worth and personal value to productivity and success
• Wanting to perform and get validation
• Using exhaustion as a badge of honor
• The quest for certainty
Quote/snippets
• The enemy of creativity is comparison.
• Vulnerability is the core the heart and the center of meaningful human experience.
For woman the biggest fear/risk looks like this: “do it all and do it well and look perfect doing it”.
For man it looks like this: “do not appear to be weak”.
If people have never really struggled with adversity it shows up as hopelessness.
Hope is not an emotion; it’s a cognitive behavior process that is a function of struggle [and resiliency]. It doesn’t happen in the absence of pain or when we are spared pain.
Our defining moments (what makes us who we really are) happen not in joy but in adversity.
(Vulnerability is uncertainly, risk and emotional exposure ….and it’s courage. —my note: all things artists and innovators MUST have.)
When we don’t have space to be vulnerable and have fears we become dangerous.
If these sound like helpful, juicy nuggets to you, listen here:
She included a cool graphic (adapted from a creation by Hugh MacLeod, see below) that gave a keen picture of the difference between knowledge and experience. (Cooper inserted knowledge in place of MacLeod’s information and experience in place of knowledge, in her version.)
By Hugh MacLeon(Belle Beth Cooper’s adaptation of original work by Hugh MacLeod’s.)
COOPER’S SUMMARY:
• Experience works like rods–connecting the dots that are the bits of knowledge we gain. Don’t you love it, too?
That means, people who are good at connecting (knowledge bits) dots are creative types.
Creativity, then, is not the stuff of genius, it’s the stuff of connection.
It got me to thinking and using my creativity, thus defined as “connecting dots”.
It’s like my brain had a baby. Here’s what I created to go a step further than Hugh and Belle Beth:
Tell me if it makes sense.
I’ll call it THE PROWESS WHEEL
Skills are knobby tires for the wheel. Traction, baby!
You can embed the graphic by copying the code below, if you’d like. I’m happy to share.
More great things are coming, want in? Please sign up for direct email delivery through Feedburner in the sidebar!
Below are some of my “field notes” I collected from this extended and uncut interview with Brené Brown on Krista Tippet’s show “On Being”
