Preamble

How, I ask myself, can I start a lecture that has already had a separate introduction? That very sentence, laid out with a clause "I ask myself", is in essence a fine example of the concept of Creative, Positive Musing. I have mused in "I ask myself" and thereby effected an entrance into a once impenetrable lecture. I have overcome my dilemma. I have started a lecture that had already had a separate introduction. At this point I am now free to begin an examination of the drive and motives that have inspired the research that has gone into this lecture.

Musing, the pen stops still, only my thoughts are moving. What are the drives and motivations that power this lecture?

I suspect that those of you who are not familiar with my previous work will by now be finding my style a little difficult to follow. In my first lecture I explained the phenomonen thus: "... every individual is the victim of the linguistic tradition into which they were born, which only serves to confirm the belief that reduced consciousness is the only consciousness, I shall be freeing the word from the dictates of conventional meaning, as is only appropriate to the subject in hand."

This is not a new concept; other, older, more competant men than I have already cleared a track through the territory, that verdant tropical jungle of words. I stand on this lonely path I Muse in wonder at the myriad meanings flitting through the green solidity of words. Sunlight dappling the leaves fluttering in that humid breeze. Spring has come, life has been reborn. Myriad meanings, so many delightful diversions that I find myself drawn away from the subject in hand. I am losing myself in musing.

This is Positve, Creative Musing in action.

"I shall be freeing the word from the dictates of conventional meaning, as is only appropriate to the subject in hand."

Yet, those of you who are not familiar with my previous work will, no doubt, be unaware that although this lecture may appear directionless, perhaps even meaningless, my earlier lectures were, and remain, significantly freer of meaning. I find my work is becoming increasingly coherent; for example, my first lecture contained the sentence: "The widespread occurrence and use of ?? mystical and possession states and aesthetic and creative experiences in homeAltered States ? of Consciousness PZ the doc's lectureQasc Ffunctions.docÿCOSymbolSymbol." - a frivolous naiviety that could never find its way into my present work.

Tangents. Inappropriate co-incidences. Inconsequentialities. Diversions. Deviations. Tantalising hints. Suggestions. Implications. Gossip and guff. Lines of thought that end in a brick wall. These, of course, are all examples of Negative, Pathological Musing. And it is part of the aim of this lecture to examine how musing can be experienced as a Positive, Creative Act.

Part One

The concept of Musing is directly and intricately bound up in the mythological symbol of the Muse.

Musing on the Nature of Musing, I resort to the OED, which tells me:

muse¹: To study in silence, to be absent-minded, to meditate, deep thought, contemplation. "To hold the muzzle in the air, as a dog that has lost the scent", perhaps influenced by Muse².

Muse²: A goddess that inspires a creative artist, an inspiring goddess most vaguely imagined.

Muse³: One of the nine goddesses, protectoresses of the arts and sciences, daughters of Mnemosyne and Zeus.

Musing Muses while surfing the Web, I come across this disparate information, lead-heavy with symbolic resonances, which I edit and re-arrange to form this following formless mélange. Extrapolated rather than explained, as is the Nature of the Internet (but that is another lecture, yet to come):

The Muses were nine daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne. The Nine Muses of Greek Mythology were the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory. Mnemosyne, in Greek mythology, the goddess of memory. She and Zeus, father of the gods, were the parents of the nine Muses. The nine Muses are the daughters of the Zeus and of Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory. Zeus lay with the Titaness Mnemosyne ("Memory") for nine days, and she gave birth to the Muses, who rejoice in their bright dancing places on Mount Helicon. Mnemosyne was a Titaness who was the Goddess of Memory. Her mother was Gaea (Earth) and her father Uranus (the Sky). She was the mother of the Nine Muses. Mnemosyne was one of the pre-Olympian Titans, who were the children of the god of the heavens, Uranus, and the goddess of the earth, Gaea. Muse means: the one who remembers. The Muses were trained by Apollo to sing with the Graces on Mt. Olympus. They played and sang all of the time and entertained the Gods and Goddesses on Mount Olympus. They also inspired creativity in everyone. Their collective name is probably linked with the men- root that gives Greek mnesis, 'memory' and English 'reminder' and 'mind', the argument being that in early times poets had no books to read from so relied on their memories. These famous sisters dwelt on Mount Helicon, and drank of the fountain Hippocrene. Hesiod tells us that he encountered them on the slopes of Helicon one day and that it was they who bestowed the gift of poetry upon him. Socrates says the locusts used to be men before the birth of the Muses. They are the daughters of Mnemosyne who is the personification of remembrance. Mnemosyne means memory and that is what this Titan, daughter of Gaea and Uranus, stands for. She is more the personification of memory than the goddess. Mnemosyne represents the passive remembering of the lost world, the world that existed when the Titans ruled. She protects the already existing. According to tradition, when the gods defeated the Titans they asked Zeus to create a group of new divinities whose task would be to sing the praises of that great victory. As Zeus' mistress, Mnemosyne spent nine days and nights with him in the fertile land of Pierien. Zeus therefore lay nine nights on Mnemosyne, daughter of Uranus and Ge (the name means 'memory') and the Nine Muses were born. The result of these nine days and especielly nine nights were the nine Muses. -- "nine voices united in one song." They are the embodiment of the classical idea of the poetical faculty as a fragile and divine gift.

In many ways the concept of the Muse and the sacred state of Musing may seem to be lurking, deep within our European Cultural Mythology, buzzing with Creative Empowerment.

The question remains, how to contact the individual inner Muse intentionally? In this lecture I aim to move someway towards resolving this dilemma.

Part Two

I can now state that the aim, of the research that has gone into this lecture and this lecture itself, is to create a more or less reliable methodolgy to capture, retain and converse with a sympathetic Muse - a Muse-Trap - hence the title of the lecture.

(why bring down a muse)

... Bringing thoughts down to the earthy, material plane, grounding the Muse experience in some kinda practical expression.

One method is to keep pen and paper ready at all times, attempt to write the Musing Process as you experience it, write it all down. Direct the current of your consciousness intot he process of articulating each thought-word into its physical manifestation in ink on the page.

This effectively slows the influx of creative energy into a steady, useable stream. How? I state again. This effectively slows your thoughts down, as it is never possible to write atthesamespeedasyoucan think. Stop. Write it down, and you begin to recognise and then understand the dynamic relationship that exists between your consciousness and your creative drives, You and your own inner Muse.

This, of course, is working on the assumption that you are comfortable with the contents of your imagination, that you experience Musing as a Positive, Creative Act.

Often it happens that Musing so fills the Muser with Horror, Fear, Surprise - whatever, Energy - that they are unable to Get A Grip, to set down an Anchor, and they are sent off swirling in inchoate forms and abstractions, unable to focus on their objective amidst the tormenting Echo-Fragments of their fried consciousness. This may be seen as Negative Musing. If the symptoms persist the Muser may become lost, falling into permanent in Obsessive, Pathological Musing.

Again, Earthing the experience can be useful.

Sudden Feeding Frenzy often spontaneously occurs at this point, and copious eating is as good as any grounding; reconnecting you with your animal instincts as you tear, like a lion, into a hummous salad bap.

If a more therapeutic grounding is required we need look no further than Towards 2012 magazine. A solid, therapeutic methodology, derived from Magical Models and aimed at the working Techno-Shaman, is outlined in an article entitled Grounding Exercises from source material by Jan Fries.

Imagine that the Earth's surface opens, revealing a deep tunnel... get down on your hands and feet... combine your exhalations with the vivid image of energy release, the power washes through your body and rushes out. As it passes through you it takes all your restrictions and burdens... keep voiding until you feel clear, light and well. Then close the tunnel again.

The article also recommends developing the ability to laugh at yourself, and I personally can vouch for the pitfalls of Taking Yourself Too Seriously. It is a path I have trodden too many times be flippant about it. The parable of the Slippery Elm Herbal Enema is always a touchstone for me in times of crisis (Please refer to my second lecture for an examination of this myth).

Part Three

Another, perhaps therapeutic, approach may be to, in the words of the song "Ride the funky beast", Let the feelings of Confusion, Horror, Surprise - whatever, Energy - to swirl within you, searing through your ego-protection, burning away your barriers, revealing and exposing to you the deepest lies of your self-awareness. In this heightened state you should begin to discern the patterns of mistakes you have made with your life, and thereby gain control of the tools of your own self-elected destiny.

If you experience any kinda difficulty at any point, Ground The Energy.

Imagine that the Earth's surface opens, revealing a deep tunnel... get down on your hands and feet... combine your exhalations with the vivid image of energy release, the power washes through your body and rushes out. As it passes through you it takes all your restrictions and burdens... keep voiding until you feel clear, light and well. Then close the tunnel again.

Try again at a later date - I have found that the phases of the Moon are a good guide in this context.

Better by far than pushing against the boundaries of your consciousness to effect a cataclysmic breakthrough, is the practice of short, regular sessions of a highly structured nature, building up to a no less devastating, but better prepared for, revelation over time. The method is to direct the thoughtflow - whatever, Energy - into particular, highly defined and focused directions. Thinking through the potential consquences of a particular act, thinking out problems, examining and resolving internal conflict, that kinda thing.

Regular practice will enable you to Encounter, Examine, and finally Experience the depth of your consciousness a number of times before enlightenment dawns. The controlling structure of the sessions will enhance your powers of concentration, which in turn will improve your creative capacity. This method is Practical, Positive and Creative, as always, time spent on yourself is time well spent. You can't change the world if you can't change yourself.

Through building up a regular, creative Discipline you can create Pockets Of Time, or Windows in your Time Schedule, when your only activity revolves around seeking out and Channelling your Muse. In time you may find that your Muse grows accustomed to your habits, and will begin to arrive, unbidden at the appropriate hour. And much luck to you too, Squire.

Part Four

The concept of Muse that gives me most concern at the moment, is that tendancy which unthinkingly transfers the nature of an ethereal Muse-Goddess onto an earthbound mortal person or image-object. This is utter Foolishness, we must remain clear here : A Muse is only an Allegorical Symbol, expressing a fundamental nature of your own Creative Will. Living, flesh and blood Women may come and go, but if you have trapped your Muse, you have her for life. She becomes part of you, she is within you, and really, it is all just in your head, and your head alone.

What now follows is an edited version of a diary that I kept during Two full Lunar months of solid Creative Musing. My account of an encounter with my proto-type Muse.

"I am feeling unnaturally inspired", so I adopt the method described in the earlier part of this lecture, and arming myself with pen and notepad, I lie down on the day-bed in my study. I allowed my Muse to come for me. It was not long until I feel into the rhythm of my own breathing, in, out. The day-bed seemed to dissolve away with each breath, dissolving away beneath me, so that I soon percieved that I was floating down, like a feather from the sky. A wide verdant plain began to materialise below me. Rising out of that plain, like a girder and glass Glastonbury Tor, stood a huge candle lit dome, glittering and winking. Emananting from that gorgeous sight were strong and full vibes, which filled me with happiness, contentment and pleasure. I drifted gently down, and began to discern the shapes and networks of underground rivers, bubbling and tumbling under the surface of the fertile plain. One, which I named as River A, ran its lively coursedeep in subterranean rock caves, deeper and more intricate than I could measure. I followed the under-surface river through the tribulations of its twisting destiny, until I was washed up on a beach, bordering a boundless sea. I am lying for a long time, the scenery gen wafting around me. I was lying mindless on a beach, and a beautiful woman with a mandolin is singing wild songs of nature and love. I wonder how long she's been sitting there.

I had been pasively riding on the flow of my thoughts, but at this point I decide to intervene in order to approach my Muse.

Nonchalantly I said, "Are you my Muse then?"

"Maybe", she said, pouting.

"What kinda mandolin is that, that you've been playing so delightfully?"

"It's a dulcimer", she replied. And then I understood.

Through my Musing I had accidentally entered that very same vision-world realm that Coleridge had previously stumbled across.

Then I heard the insistent knocking at the door. I turned to the Muse, for I am sure that it was she, "There's someone at the door."

"Ignore it."

"How?"

With a rustling of fine silks across naked skin, she raised her arm in the air, and as she did so a tunnel opened up in the ground and we pair plunged deep into its cool, still waters.

Images tumbled around me, trapped inside air bubbles rushing for the surface. It was utterly peace-filled there, and I lost awareness of sensation, weight, sound and time.

Later I stumbled through a door, exhausted.

And later still I was sat, wrapped in a blanket, by a roaring fire in the Muse's kitchen. She was handing me a cup of sugary weak tea, and asking me to explain it all again.

The Muse says "That could contain the beginings of a new Lecture within it." I scold her. "What I've written is nothing but chaff."

Muse: "perhaps, but there is at least one jewel in there, hidden. An acorn, a seed from which the new Lecture will grow."

But it was like looking for a full-stop in a compost-heap of discarded sentences.

And suddenly I found myself alert, aware, awake. And lying sweaty on the old day-bed.

So in conclusion, I would refer all those interested back to the opening of this lecture, and heed sweet Sonja Spike-girls words. Dare I say more than that? Anyway, ultimately the two purposes manifest in the existence of the third, that is to say, the living experience of this lecture. Are there any questions from the floor?

INTERNATIONAL EARTH ROTATION SERVICE

Paris, 28 January 1999

Bulletin C 17

To authorities responsible for the measurement and distribution of time

to confirm that there will be no time step at the next possible date.

thank you

Summer 1999