Finding the Muses:
A Four Week Meeting with Inspiration

Online Course
January 29 - February 23, 2006
$225
Taught by Leigh Melander, Ph.D.
Click here to register online.
Or email us at learn(at)imaginalinstitute.com if you prefer to pay by check.

Meet the magical, mythical women who, since ancient Greece, have been waiting for us to beckon them. Each has a purpose: to help us imagine and create our lives more fully. Become a-mused!

In this online course, we will be meeting and greeting the nine Muses, and musing upon their imaginal role in our lives. The cast of characters includes:

Calliope: The Fair Voiced
Muse of Epic Poetry: What Is Your Story?
Calliope is an image of the unfolding story in your life. What are the myths that you weave and live in? She is the overarching image, and the eldest and most respected of the muses: the meta-muse, as it were.

Clio: The Proclaimer
Muse of History: Where Do You Come From?
What are your origins?  Roots? Starting points? Context?  Family/Ancestors?  In the US, we’ve got a passion for re-inventing ourselves.  Clio provides an invitation to remember where you began as you do so.

Erato: The Lovely
Muse of Love Poetry: What do You Love?
What and whom do you love?  And what is lovely in your life? Erato invites those who hear her to muse upon relationships, affections, beauty, and aesthetics.

Euterpe: The Pleasure Giver
Muse of Music: What Do You Make?
What brings you pleasure?  What is melodic and musical in your life? Euterpe celebrates the discipline in making, and the pleasure in play, as well as reminding us to listen carefully to ourselves and the world around us.

Melpomene: The Songstress
Muse of Tragedy: What Are Your Challenges?
What challenges and hardships do you face?  How can you face your own shadow? Melpomene evokes what we work against – the sand in the oyster that produces the pearl.  She sings beauty, seeing the beauty in what is difficult or painful, and celebrates it.  

Polyhymnia: She of Many Hymns
Muse of Sacred Poetry: What Do You See When You Look Inwards?
Polyhymnia sings the sacred poetry of words, and of geometry, meditation, and things growing. She brings us an opportunity for introspection, looking at the patterns in our psyches.

Terpsichore: The Whirler
Muse of Dance: Where is the Movement In Your Life?
Terpsichore evokes the joy of movement, whether is in your own body, your life, or in the world around you. She presents dancing as a metaphor for that movement – with joy, grace, passion, abandon, delight, discipline, pleasure.

Thalia: The Flourishing
Muse of Comedy: What Makes You Laugh?
Where is the play and laughter in your life?  Where is the quicksilver lightness? When are you frivolous? Thalia brings us the wisdom of silliness.  What makes you flourish?  How do you define that in your life?

Urania: The Heavenly
Muse of Astronomy: What Is In Your Future?
Urania imagines the future, the stars, and infinity. How do you imagine yours?

 

How This Course Works

Week One: Reading, writing, and conversation about the Muses, historically and mythologically. We'll explore some of the myths about them, and look at Greek and Roman writings about them, learning about how they were imagined within their original cultural context. This will create a baseline for us to look at the Muses imaginally in our own lives.

Week Two: We'll dig into the Muses as archetypal images of creativity in our lives. We'll begin to do some writing on the images that have caught our imaginations. This writing can take any form: memoirs, fiction, poetry, and/or essays. It can be about something in your own life, a reworking of an image or a myth, or whatever you can dream up.

Week Three: We'll discuss how we might invoke the Muses in our own creative processes, and explore some ideas about creative/rational thought and internal/external inspiration. Musers will share your initial writings with the group, and choose a particular Muse, myth, image, or element that intrigues you, to go deeper into your own imaginings about your creative process.

Week Four: We'll share this next phase of writing with one another, and do some more. We'll finish the course by imagining what inviting the Muses into your next creative process might look like, be it the next step in your life, your next creative process, or your next professional endeavor. We'll be asking ourselves the question: how can we imagine the archetypal energies of the Muses forward into our lives?

Note: As with all creative efforts, we recognize that imagining the Muses in this way and sharing those imaginings takes a certain kind of courage. This experience is about your creative and intellectual process, and is not designed to be some scary encounter group where you'll be required to share your deepest insecurities with people you don't know! You are invited to go as deep into the creative aspects of your psyche as you wish, and can share those pieces of your thoughts that you're comfortable sharing.

Click here to register for Finding the Muses online.
Or, email us at learn(at)imaginalinstitute.com for directions about how to pay by check.