“Sing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story.” —Homer
The classical Greeks describe the Muse, as She Who Knows All That Is, Ever Was, or Will Be. Mousa is the ancient Greek word for the Muse, the archetypal goddess of the mind, representing the forces of intuition, inspiration, and creativity that lead to wisdom and self realization. She is also the power of language in all of its many forms — the power of communication at its most exalted and divine manifestation through words, song, music, dance, and art.
“Happy is he whom the Muses love: sweet flows speech from his mouth.” — Hesiod
The Divine Muse taught the use of intuition and prophecy as a way to self realization. This is knowledge gained through hypnogogic reverie, self-induced trance states, meditation, chanting, singing, dancing, and dreaming. They fused prophesy and poetry with inspiration — the creative energy welling up from deep within the mind. The word inspiration means breathing into, inhalation, the breath of life, to be filled with the breath of life, to be inspired, to show genius. The Divine Muse is inspiration — the sacred breath, the life force in the air that is the power that makes consciousness possible.
The breath of life — the qi flowing through us — is influenced by the energies of the earth and the heavenly bodies. This prana — this breath we use to chant, to sing, to pray, to align with the sacred, to unify the energies of heaven and earth — is the power of the Muse.
The Muse taught that vibration and music are the gateways to knowledge of the universe, of reality, and of ourselves. The Pythagoreans structured their colleges as temples dedicated to the powers of the Muse. Both Aristotle and Plato created shrines to the Muse in their colleges of philosophy. The word museum originally meant the shrine or temple of the Muse, designating a place of transformation of consciousness, a place of research, scholarship, and learning, a place where sculpture, painting, art, and sacred texts were kept.
“Musikos,” the Greek word for music, meant, “relating to the Muses.” Plato used musikos to refer to the quality of being, “well educated and versed in things of the mind.” Plato taught that the concept of music encompassed all that relates to the mind. He believed in revealed knowledge as a path to knowing ultimate truth, describing the channel of flowing creativity between the human and divine as the Muse herself. This channel has been symbolized since ancient times as the Tree of Life, with roots in the earth and branches in the heavens, or the serpent goddess Kundalini Shakti, who rises from the base of the spine to the crown of the head traveling through the seven dimensions of consciousness, the chakras, within our minds and bodies. Through this channel we unite the earth energy of the first chakra, Gaia, at the base of the spine with the heavenly energy of Uranus in the seventh chakra at the crown of the head.
In Greek mythology the Muse is the power in the sacred spring at the foot of Mount Helikon, the mystical mountain at the center of the world spiraling up through the hierarchical realms of consciousness into the highest heaven. Here the Muse, chanting and spinning in a trance, splits into her nine-fold form, creating a chorus of mystical singers. As we follow the band of Muses up the spiral path of the mountain we remember who we really are. The sacred Muse leads us into the world of spirit, transcendent beauty, and immortality, united in glorious, beautiful song, whirling around the peak of the cosmic mountain. Like Kundalini Shakti, the Muse is the spiraling sacred energy raising us to the place of enlightenment.
Within the brain there are unused areas of potential energy and psychic awareness. The power to awaken these dormant regions is within us. We can open the gate to wisdom and consciousness through study, meditation, chanting, and dancing — the rituals of the Muse who lies hidden in our memory, waiting to lead us to the highest states of knowledge, blessedness, and being. Once the Muse reveals the truths within us, we understand who we are and what we are supposed to do.
”[The Muses] are all of one mind, their hearts are set upon song, and their spirit is free from care.” —Hesiod
Our culture is sacrificing satisfaction, contentment, happiness, real and lasting security, and peace in the world by building its foundations on technology, the scientific facts, the external, material side of reality. Bringing intuition and inspiration into our lives is as necessary as breathing and eating if we are to be truly happy.We have forgotten that music, dance, and song are the way back to the inner treasures.
The Muse is not a mythological figment of the ancient past, she is the inner source of wisdom and the force of creativity within our own minds. Invoke the Muse and she will come.
We invoke thee, Mother of Memory and Giver of Dreams, grant us the power of concentration and the strength to remember.
Layne Redmond will be leading a workshop October 16-18. Click for details.
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