Have you ever felt that intuition and poetic inspiration come from the same place?

Grizabella

I know just what you mean and it does come from the same place, I'm sure. To illustrate what I mean, it's like when you step onto an escalator or one of those moving things in the San Francisco airport. You kind of hesitate and then finally step on and off you go, only you're surfing the Universal Mind or something like that.

I'm a writer and it's especially true of my writing sometimes. Have you ever been reading something and thought, "Wow, that was well said---good points---pretty impressive. I wonder who wrote that" only to find out it was you? lol

I have and I feel so silly when I find it was me and I didn't remember it.

I think there's a Universal Consciousness and that we tap into it with divination, writing, art, sculpture etc. I don't think it's specific to poetry or any other expression, I think it happens across many of the creative things we do. I also think it happens more easily once we learn to get ourselves out of the way, if that makes sense. When we put aside the unhealthy traits we can fall into egotistically and become open to the flow of whatever the energy is so that we're just purely creating, not doing it for any reason like making money or gaining fame.

liveandbloom

Grizabella said:
I don't think it's specific to poetry or any other expression, I think it happens across many of the creative things we do. I also think it happens more easily once we learn to get ourselves out of the way, if that makes sense. When we put aside the unhealthy traits we can fall into egotistically and become open to the flow of whatever the energy is so that we're just purely creating, not doing it for any reason like making money or gaining fame.

I definitely believe you need to get out of your own way for this flow to occur.

liveandbloom

chaosbloom said:
A definition of poetic inspiration is hard but not impossible. I should have at least tried to include an example in my first post but given it's hard, I didn't even try. For me, it has come in many forms and it tends to relate to the medium I'm using at the time. I've had sudden inspirations in writing, going on for many many pages until the inspiration ran out. Then you look back at what you wrote and you find that the eloquence and the patterns that you've put there are yours but not exactly yours. They're enhanced and polished, like you're on speed or some other upper.

Or in music, you'd start to play a piece but there's a flow in the melody that you don't usually get. You'll still make mistakes but everything eventually clicks. You don't stop playing but in the end, sometimes you don't even remember what you played or even the melody. You get lost in the process of creation that you stop paying attention to it.

I realise that this doesn't make sense to anyone who hasn't experienced this, which is why I didn't originally try to include a definition. Maybe it's different to everyone who has experienced it?

I can relate to this, so it makes sense to me.

It sounds similar to what Grizabella says, too. I see a common idea here, one that I agree with, that in these states, some part of you has gotten out of the way, or that you've been able to get outside of yourself. One way you put it was, "You get lost in the process of creation that you stop paying attention to it [emphasis mine]". I do think of this as a "universal" human experience, and also, like the experience of colors and other sensual perceptions, there may be nuances across the experiences that are difficult to put in words.

liveandbloom

Lucas Prince of Cats said:
Also, inspiration and intuition are like two types of the same; epiphanies, or things suddenly coming to mind. AAnd often times, creativity has a meaning.

Yes, I think epiphany is a type of inspiration/intuition at work, too. I wasn't thinking of that earlier, I'm glad you brought it up.

liveandbloom

Another kind of intuition: https://youtu.be/-rvU_aEayh8 (my focus is on the middle of the clip)

chaosbloom

Grizabella said:
I'm a writer and it's especially true of my writing sometimes. Have you ever been reading something and thought, "Wow, that was well said---good points---pretty impressive. I wonder who wrote that" only to find out it was you? lol I have and I feel so silly when I find it was me and I didn't remember it.

I usually remember that I wrote something so I'm not too surprised by the content even if I don't remember any details. But I've had people quote things I've said years earlier that I don't remember at all and I'm always puzzled when they tell me that it was me who said those things. Must be amusing to watch. Nice ego booster but it also makes you think that the impression you give others might be made up of things you're not even considering.

Grizabella said:
I think there's a Universal Consciousness and that we tap into it with divination, writing, art, sculpture etc. I don't think it's specific to poetry or any other expression, I think it happens across many of the creative things we do. I also think it happens more easily once we learn to get ourselves out of the way, if that makes sense. When we put aside the unhealthy traits we can fall into egotistically and become open to the flow of whatever the energy is so that we're just purely creating, not doing it for any reason like making money or gaining fame.

Getting out of the way makes perfect sense. It's probably like meditation in some way although more focused? Or in a non-verbal way in mediums that don't involve language? It's definitely something getting out of the way or something taking over. All these things coming from the same place doesn't just make the process of divination clearer to me but the process of art as well.

liveandbloom said:
I can relate to this, so it makes sense to me. It sounds similar to what Grizabella says, too. I see a common idea here, one that I agree with, that in these states, some part of you has gotten out of the way, or that you've been able to get outside of yourself. One way you put it was, "You get lost in the process of creation that you stop paying attention to it [emphasis mine]". I do think of this as a "universal" human experience, and also, like the experience of colors and other sensual perceptions, there may be nuances across the experiences that are difficult to put in words.

I've long held the view that these things that we find hard to put into words like you say, give rise to the need for artistic expression to express non-language things in non-language ways. Actually not just non-language, a novel is still language but there's more structure and shape to it than just speaking.

And that brings me back to Tarot and divination in general. Could it be that divination is sensation that we get but we can't really conceptualise so we use all sorts of ways to help us give it form? I've noticed that there are some people who start with Tarot but then develop their ability and in a way abandon it or rely less on the cards and more on some inner ability.

liveandbloom said:
Another kind of intuition: https://youtu.be/-rvU_aEayh8 (my focus is on the middle of the clip)

I've got a hunch that David Lynch actually believes in intuition like that.

liveandbloom

chaosbloom said:
Nice ego booster but it also makes you think that the impression you give others might be made up of things you're not even considering.

Oh, for sure.

chaosbloom said:
I've long held the view that these things that we find hard to put into words like you say, give rise to the need for artistic expression to express non-language things in non-language ways. Actually not just non-language, a novel is still language but there's more structure and shape to it than just speaking.

Yes, there are ways of playing with form and expression that really push language beyond the limits that normal communication remains confined within. Poetry can do that. It's using words in a way that bursts beyond the words themselves.

chaosbloom said:
And that brings me back to Tarot and divination in general. Could it be that divination is sensation that we get but we can't really conceptualise so we use all sorts of ways to help us give it form?

Yes, I do. I think of it as cognition/knowing that doesn't have an apparent process, but I believe we're talking about the same thing. I do think that Tarot is one way of facilitating it, or giving it form, as you say.

chaosbloom said:
I've noticed that there are some people who start with Tarot but then develop their ability and in a way abandon it or rely less on the cards and more on some inner ability.

I believe this to be true, but for now it's something for me to aspire to, and hopefully something I can work towards with practice.

Is this something you've noticed for yourself?

chaosbloom

liveandbloom said:
Yes, there are ways of playing with form and expression that really push language beyond the limits that normal communication remains confined within. Poetry can do that. It's using words in a way that bursts beyond the words themselves.

Yes exactly that. The most critical information that language was meant to convey in the beginning was where the buffalo herd is, how large is it, where are all the tasty plants and so on. But since language evolved on that track, it has remained pretty imperfect in expressing things that go really beyond the rudimentary. That makes poetry the language of the hidden and the unspeakable.

liveandbloom said:
I believe this to be true, but for now it's something for me to aspire to, and hopefully something I can work towards with practice.

Is this something you've noticed for yourself?

On a relatively small level yes. I'm trying to figure out what intuition feels like to separate it from other feelings without names, mostly the many shades of secret desires. Clear as mud? For example, I get more dreams that feel like they carry a message and are very descriptive. Some other things seem to fit intuitively but not necessarily in an obvious way. Would it make any sense if I said that it's like discovering and being barely able to notice that there's a hidden side to situations, mostly made up of indescribable impressions and that if you start paying attention to it, you realise that you can feel it more strongly and start to understand it?

There is also the cynical part of me that says that "just knowing" things might be a synonym for being full of crap. That's definitely true sometimes but I'm pretty sure it's not always true so I'm very careful with it.

Grizabella

chaosbloom said:
Yes exactly that. The most critical information that language was meant to convey in the beginning was where the buffalo herd is, how large is it, where are all the tasty plants and so on. But since language evolved on that track, it has remained pretty imperfect in expressing things that go really beyond the rudimentary. That makes poetry the language of the hidden and the unspeakable.

It has to do with the two sides of the brain. What I found when I first tried to read for someone out loud is that I could look at the cards and know the message but putting it into words seemed so hard! I thought a lot about it and I think it's because when we look at the cards, we're absorbing the images, which is the realm of the right side of the brain. What we learn factually about Tarot, though, is a left brain act where math and other concrete things live. Trying to use the two sides of the brain in tandem as well as putting words to the ideas is what's difficult for a lot of people. We're not used to using both sides of our brain at once, maybe.

chaosbloom said:
I'm trying to figure out what intuition feels like to separate it from other feelings without names, mostly the many shades of secret desires.
There is also the cynical part of me that says that "just knowing" things might be a synonym for being full of crap. That's definitely true sometimes but I'm pretty sure it's not always true so I'm very careful with it.

For me, intuition is just a sudden thought that enters my mind.

Give that cynical part of you a sedative and stack him up in a corner. I've always just "known things" and I don't see myself as full of crap, so take heart and just go with it.

The sudden flashes I get when reading the cards are often the key to the readings I do. It's when I second guess it that I find myself going way off course.

liveandbloom

chaosbloom said:
On a relatively small level yes. I'm trying to figure out what intuition feels like to separate it from other feelings without names, mostly the many shades of secret desires. Clear as mud? For example, I get more dreams that feel like they carry a message and are very descriptive. Some other things seem to fit intuitively but not necessarily in an obvious way. Would it make any sense if I said that it's like discovering and being barely able to notice that there's a hidden side to situations, mostly made up of indescribable impressions and that if you start paying attention to it, you realise that you can feel it more strongly and start to understand it?

I think that secret desires (and fears) have so much power to muddle. The trick indeed is to recognize them and their influence. I think discerning is tantamount to knowing.