How Not to Kill Your Creativity! An Irish tale shows us the way
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- Опубликовано: 11 сен 2024
- Get ready for a wild tale of a rather hideous poetic genius nearly extinguished by all that is fearful, jealous, and status-oriented in the world - and in us.
Please tell us:
1. What protection or fostering does your inner Creator require from you?
2. Share any other insights about this wild tale. We'd love to hear from you!
NAMES and SOURCE
Athairne - the chief poet
Amairgen - the hideous but ingenious 14-year-old poet
Ecet Salach - Amairgen's father, and a blacksmith
Greth - Athairne's servent
"In ith Greth gruth?" = Does Gruth eat curds? The first words spoken by Amairgen and which convince Greth that he is facing a poetic genius who must be stopped!
The Book of Leinster
This version of the tale is translated by Professor Patrick K. Ford in his wonderful book, The Celtic Poets.
WHAT IS THIS CHANNEL ABOUT?
It's about how creative people like us can draw on the resources of Irish folklore and tradition to create your unique art with more JOY, freedom, and prizes. Poetry, seasonal lore, words and wordsmithery, music, storytelling, and traditional customs are all on the menu here!
WHO AM I?
I'm a poet, singer, storyteller, and scholar and teacher of Irish language and folklore with a PhD in Celtic Languages and Literatures from Harvard University where I've been teaching for the past 25 years. I also run the Bardic Academy, a school for singers, harpers, poets, and pianists, as well as the Celtic Wisdom School where we study Irish folklore with an eye to growing in creativity, wisdom, and joy.
MY LINKS
To learn more about me, please visit www.katechadbo....
To learn about my new Celtic Wisdom School, please visit: www.katechadbo...
If you'd like to stay in touch and receive my charming, once-monthly letters, I'd love to have you in my community: eepurl.com/cb8BLn
#ireland #mythology #poetry #magic #creativity #competition
Inner battles between creativity and criticism or judgment have often been defined as a
battle between the left side of the brain (critical), and the right side of the brain (creative).
Lewis Caroll wrote about 'crossing the veil'- that moment he could almost perceive the shift
from left to right brain function. Can we sense that change of brain function as we immerse
ourselves in a creative activity?
The critical left brain may then kick in with criticism of the creation (art, music, story, etc.)
and may successfully do away with those attempts. Or, will often whisper taunts about all
the practical things that should be done ( mow the lawn, do the dishes). And the first fires
of imagination are extinguished!
The book 'Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain' is still, for me, the best revelation of this
duality ( drawing= double entendre). Interesting that in the 12th century they maybe had a
glimpse of this, and told it as myth/story. Thank you so much for this tale! 💚
Wow - what a helpful insight into this dynamic as one of critical left brain and creative right brain! That's fascinating about Lewis Caroll sensing the moment of "crossing the veil." Like many others, I experience hypnagogic imagery before sleep, and now I will think of Caroll's phrase which is exactly what it feels like when the language part of my brain subsides, and the "pictures" begin. I'm so glad you liked the tale, and I'm truly grateful for your reflection. Honestly, I hadn't even thought of it this way, so I'm very grateful - and I think you're exactly right, too.
Kate, it seems like each week you are asking more and more profound questions. I think this one requires additional pondering before I can offer a sage comment. Keep them coming!
I will indeed, a chara, and thank you for the encouragement! I'm always interested to hear what you think when the time is right.
This was uplifting and worth the full tale. And I am intrigued by the dormant gifts in Amairgen! One way I see to protect the "becoming" self means giving myself more space to write candidly and boldly vs. writing for a particular audience member. Thank you for the many rich connections you made
Thank you so much for your great idea about protecting that Amairgen-self by giving it free rein to write solely for its own pleasure and according to its wildness and instinct. YES. This is an ongoing negotiation, isn't it? And worth it. Always cause for celebration to see your name and thoughts here!
This was an interesting one Kate & I appreciate the reminder to reflect on it as aspects of our own psyches -- it reminded me of a statement I long ago wrote in my journal from Gilles Clément who is a French botanist/designer of public parks *"All* *management* *generates* *an* *abandoned* *area"* which I think is operable in social & psychological systems just as much as in gardens. It strikes me that Amairgen was largely 'abandoned,' left unsocialized to develop along the patterns the story describes, but which also means that he's a container for all the riches that are left behind by social assimilation. It hearkens back, I think, to the story you told about the 'power of the small' -- that's where the power is in us and in the world as well. ❤
I love that - "a container for all the riches that are left behind by social assimilation." It's interesting that his father is a smith, himself a person situated between the wild and the cultivated, and a father who seems to appreciate on some level that his son is developing in his own time and provides him with what he needs - a combination of cooked and raw foods. He understands instinctively that Athairne - representative here of "official" poetry - will wish to harm him as soon as he ventures into speech. That first utterance seems small indeed but it is potent as so many small things are!
It's interesting that poets may be called "wordsmiths". Literally poetry is a refined art; you don't want charcoal smudges on your parchment. Parchment would only serve the smith to light his charcoal. Nonetheless there is metre in his hammer blows and figuratively a poem may be wrought.
In the story the smith acts quite creativity between his primal son and the refined, yet brutal, poet.
Is the smith our beating heart? that we might follow, thus preserving a protean wildness whilst refining our art.
I give myself the open wonder of youth, that sees and feels all anew, to protect my years from stultifying.
🍀🙏🍀
Oh my friend - I love the idea that the smith is our beating heart. Wow. That mediator in the middle of our chest between the often-active mind (Athairne) and the instinctive, primal body. What a marvelous reading of that. And when I read your vow of protection, I felt a chill of beauty run through me. Powerful! Thank you!