Wednesday, August 31, 2022.

In one of my favourite writing books, The War of Art, Stephen Pressfield shares his prayer to the muse which he recites before he sits down to write each day.
 
Pressfield literally uses “The Invocation of the Muse” from the very beginning of Homer’s Odyssey (T.E. Lawrence translation). You know, the one that ends with: “Make this tale live for us in all its many bearings, O Muse!”
 
Honestly, I hadn’t heard of it before reading The War of Art, and, if I’m really honest, that last line is the only one I like from the entire poem. Maybe the rest of the poem sounds better in the original Homeric Greek.
 
I already had been using a short prayer before writing, which I had adapted from a prayer credited to a Hindu monk: “Muse Divine, I will to reason, I will to will, I will to write, but guide thou my reason, will and writing to the right thing that I should write.” I liked it better than Homer’s but it wasn’t moving me.
 
Then a friend of mine encouraged me to sing a Sanskrit chant she uses before painting. I tried that for thirty days, but that Vedic hymn wasn’t invoking my Muse anymore than Homer. And, well, the melody was about as catchy as a pond of ribbiting frogs.
 
A bit dejected, I finally figured: Hey, I’m a writer, why don’t I write my own prayer to the Muse and use that?
 
So, I did. You can read below:

Muse Divine,
Make me an avatar of Thy creative energy.
May mind become like still water
Reflecting the moon of imagination,
Heart a quiet place
In which to hear enchanting tales,
Hands a medium for transcribing whispers of truth,
Cloaking them in delectable diction,
Filling pages with stories
That inspire, guide, amuse
Meandering man
In this challenging play of life.

Do I really believe in the Greek Muse? Yes and no. I see the Muse as a more approachable way for my mortal mind to attune itself to the creativity of the One Supreme Being.
 
Whether you’re a writer, a homeschooling mom or a door-to-door shoe salesman, I hope it inspires you to come up with your own DIY invocations (whether to the Muse, Jesus, the Buddha, Light or whatever works for you) to inspire you to make something big, fun and unique happen with what time we have here upon earth.

I know feel that that prayer carried me through nearly two years of daily work on Much Ado About Corona. Something similar might help you, too.

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