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| Flight. It's time. |
"There is an art, it says, or rather, a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss."
~ Douglas Adams
"But it is a thousand times better to make every kind of mistake than to slide into the habit of hesitation, of uncertainty, of indecision."
~ Aleister Crowley
Stop the words now.
Open the window
in the center of your chest,
and let the spirits fly
in and out!
~ Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī
The cumulative effect of 10 minutes of even mediocre effort each day is greater than all the epic imaginations of perfection & awesomeness which never leave the machinations of the creative mind. Forty five years into the deal I am seeing how that actually works.
When I look at it from a mystical standpoint -- that is, if things are more deeply interlaced than they might superficially seem (a mindset to which I subscribe) -- I must recognize the disservice I am committing to the Muses, the Magick, the Work (let alone mySelf). Thoughtforms, beasts of creativity forever imprisoned... by me.
Art imprisoned... by me. What?!?
"Khallas!" she would say to me, or to anyone who spends their time bursting at the seams with ideas, dreams, visions & held back by an obsessive desire not to make any errors.
Khallas!
Open the window.
2 comments:
Thanks for sharing as always! An aside not a counter-point...
I suspect that 'what is striving to come out, or go in' generally finds a way, but the degree of resistance determines the shape of what becomes...
There's also a distinction to be made - perhaps - between inner resistance and outward challenge. Generally, in art and the arte, less of the former and more of the latter seems to produce the superlative outcomes. I've noticed a lot of great artists lose their edge as increased inner freedom has led them to ignore outward challenge. From our earth-bound domain we can easily forget that the wind and air are to a flying thing what the floor is to a dancer's feet.
Agreed, in particular, this: "Generally, in art and the arte, less of the former and more of the latter seems to produce the superlative outcomes." I believe that is often said with the phrase 'necessity is the mother of invention,' a proverb which has often reminded me of the ingenuity you see when you hand a great chef a handful of seemingly incompatible foods & in the face of all culinary contradictions, magic results.
Part of the function of this entry is to establish a new beginning. All my arts & artes have suffered from a variety of complications, some of which have been life/logistical unavoidables, but as I have examined the mind addling swath of projects-incomplete, I see more of the issue is my own doing. Perfectionism, hesitation, doubts are huge muzzles. (Even here, with this blog, after all these years, seriously!)
There is also a lack of prioritization & general order which I suspect is common with creative people. But the result of complete disorder is the same as hesitation & doubt -- it all leads to a lack of action, follow-thru, culmination.
So, in retrospect, I am seeing that had I not been so obsessive about the writing (or painting, or dancing, or decoupage or photography) & just gotten things written down, I would now have a year's worth of records, even of middling quality at the very least, rather than... nothing? Or not much, anyway.
Most of the real 'arte' in Art is in the doing. The end result is so much less than the process. But one must engage the wheels & cogs to enter the process & that seems to be my sticking point(s).
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