Free ebook: Demonic Creativity for Writers
Where does creativity come from? Why do ideas and inspiration feel as if they come from “outside,” from an external source that’s separate from us but able to whisper directly into the mind? Why have so many writers throughout history — and also composers, painters, philosophers, mystics, and scientists — spoken of being guided, accompanied, and even haunted by a force or presence that not only serves as the deep source of their creative work, but exerts a kind of profound and inexorable gravitational pull on the shape of their lives?
These are all questions addressed by A Course in Demonic Creativity: A Writer’s Guide to the Inner Genius. The book’s starting point is the proposition that we all possess a higher or deeper intelligence than the everyday mind, and that learning to live and work harmoniously and energetically with this intelligence is the irreducible core of a successful artistic life. We can call this inner force the unconscious mind or the silent partner. We can call it the id or the secret self. But muse, daimon, and genius are so much more effective at conveying its subversive and electrifying emotional charge, and also its experiential reality.
Your unconscious mind truly is your genius in the ancient sense of the word, the sense that was universal before it was fatefully altered several centuries ago by historical-cultural forces. Befriending it as such, and interacting with it as if it really is a separate, collaborating presence in your psyche, puts you in a position to receive its gifts, and it in the position to give them to you.
Download the free PDF edition
Additional formats, including Kindle and epub, will be announced here in the future.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
- Introduction
- Chapter One: Perspiration Meets Inspiration, or The Return of the Muse
- Chapter Two: A Brief History of the Daimon and the Genius
- Chapter Three: A Writer’s Guide to the Psyche
- Chapter Four: Getting to Know Your Creative Demon
- Chapter Five: The Practice of Inner Collaboration
- Chapter Six: Divining Your Daimon’s Rhythm
- Chapter Seven: The Art of Active Waiting
- Chapter Eight: The Discipline of the Demon Muse
- Conclusion
- Afterword
- Bibliography
As a bonus, here’s an organized list of links to additional articles from my blog Demon Muse that were not revised and expanded for inclusion in this book, but that amplify and extend its themes. I’ll probably turn some of them into a separate book in the future.
- The Daimonic Insight: Creativity Is a Force Separate from You
- Creativity, the Greek Daimons, and the New Consciousness Revolution
- Theology, Psychology, Neurology: Is the Muse Real?
- When the Muse Becomes Monstrous: The Demonic Modern History of the West
Err..where do I start?
I say I really enjoyed, was educated, was refreshed and was moulded by this book you wrote. You made a call at the end to readers to drop by and leave thoughts and experiences. Such a swell way to connect to readers you and get into a mutually educational discussion. I just love that. I’m sure you know me quite well by now.
My daemon: I realized I had something like that quite a long time ago but didn’t know of any concept as what you call it. I just used to call it intuitively “my real self”. For me, he takes on the form of a boy of around 10 years old but possessing such prodigious wisdom that he has a dual nature to my mind, both young and old at the same time. He’s forever young and profound as an ancient sage. To me, I would think that he was my teacher and also I was too stupid to well-comprehend what he administered to me. Recently, through some experiences I had, quite cataclysmic in fact, I gave him the name ‘Young Old Master’. ‘Old Master’ as an allusion to the great artists of old. I was always aware that my ‘mind’ (that’s what I called it) was far older than my own age. I have a visual way of thinking so these ideas of him weren’t difficult to come by. Also, I’m a visionary type of person just that my drawing skill is average or just above that. I suppose I’ll take your advice and “be a good channel for him”. However, I compensate by putting it into words – the visual poetic style similar to Blake’s.
Like you, I liked to say profound things. This found its way into constructing aphorisms and telling my mom about them. Or just writing them within poems or on my bedroom wall or my schoolbooks or producing them on-the-fly when I talked or advised somebody (I’m very good at that). It was through such a process, writing a poem, that I discovered Carl Jung. It seemed my daemon had outlined the map for me to really be engaged in Jung’s thought, sort of like finding a discussion partner in Jung because I understand Jung on a very ‘deep’ level. I also was always drawn to the contemplative life despite my happy-go-lucky attitude or sanguine personality – the contemplative life as personified by monks.
Another theme I have always been drawn to is the Supernatural and Fantastical. Also, I prefer my settings to be medieval or rustic like in historical fantasies. I like sci-fi too but it doesn’t get my attention as much as fantasy.Generally, I’m attracted to ideas, so I’m omnivorous there, sans the preference. A movie like Pan’s Labyrinth was like a turning point in my life. Philosophical movies tend to have that effect on me e.g. Vanilla Sky and Mr. Nobody. They express some profundities that need to be unlocked.
Recently, after the cataclysmic experience I mentioned, I identified with that daemonic part. It was as Jung would say, a compensation for the neglect of the unconscious. And, there was much that needed to be unloaded into me so the process was necessary. It was hugely satisfying, you know. I talk about it like it’s past when it’s really an on-going process. But, I have successfully, to some extent, separated me from him so that the synergy is there and the ‘worldly’ me can communicate his cryptic messages so that the unloading is a more background process as it should be. The entire experience was like being born again. Like I had to adapt to the world again, but with the aid of friends and family (who were really very oblivious of it), I have remembered a lot of myself but with the lot of the insecurities removed. Benjamin Steele, one of your regular customers
was one of the friends who were ‘in the know’.
For some people, they have to find the daemon, mine’s in reverse – I’ve always been the odd one out
. I knew my daemon already but needed to find myself more. The eruption into me disoriented me so that I didn’t know who I was any longer. It was punishment for the long neglect, I think. The relationship needed to be formed and the one-sidedness to cease. In childhood, the unconscious energies are milder as they have more liberty but as we grow and we repress, ah they grow in power.
What’s left to say? What kind of person am I, the conscious one? I mostly tend towards the trickster character. I like to open situations up, to create ways where there aren’t, a “bringer of hope to the hopeless” kinda person and, living by wit. A very experimental person – like to combine things and ideas and see what results. Also, a questioner. It isn’t an elaborate picture but I think the gist is satisfactory.
Thanks for the book and the chair (at the table of your blog)
By the way, my avatar is partly supposed to signify my personal experience
Excellent to read of your experiences and insights, Monarc. Many thanks for the good feedback about the creativity book, and for sharing something about yourself. There’s a kind of underground mainstream of people who are keyed into what you, I, we, are talking about here, and making explicit contact — as opposed to the implicit contact that always exists among us — is, I think, something much to be cherished.
I agree.
This sounds very interesting , Matt. As soon as I get the time to read it I will let you know what I think. Looks fascinating, just at a glance. Thanks for posting the free PDF.
You’re welcome, Larry. I hope the ebook proves worth your while.