Sarasvati - Hindu Goddess of Creativity
I was just reading through one of my favorite blogs, Magpie Girl, who linked here. Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love) talks about creative work, and the pressure that comes with being an artist of any kind. It is an excellent speech, and I highly recommend listening to the whole thing. But one bit truly spoke to me. She says, in looking for a way to deal with the anxiety of being a successful writer, she studied the ancient Greeks and Romans. The Greeks did not believe that creative genius was an internal quality in a human being; it was actually an external entity called a "daemon." The Romans believed much the same thing, only they called this divine being a "genius." Not a "genius" as in really clever, brilliant person, but "genius" as in a wholly separate entity.
I have always thought of myself as an artistic personality, in a non-artistic body. You can imagine the frustration that comes from having the personality I have, with the urge to create something, anything, but not having the talent or imagination to bring these urges to fruition. I do not draw well, and my photography and writing are merely average - nothing amazing, nothing striking. I want nothing more than to find myself working in a creative field of some sort, making something beautiful that touches somebody.
Perhaps I have a daemon; some separate, divine, creative entity that has attached itself to me. Perhaps I have only to discover this entity, get to know it, and allow it to inspire me to find that creativity I know has to be buried deep inside, somewhere.
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