The “Clairs” in Action
"I have a feeling that I don't invent anything. That, somehow, I discover things that are from another dimension. They are already there, and my job is to find them and bring them onto the page.”
~ Isabel Allende
I know the feeling — elusive as it often is — when a muse or spirit shows up, a voice on the page, with a story that wants to be told.
I’ve lived this for years, devoted to an ongoing conversation between two characters — muses, really — I call Lucy and The Poet.
I was thinking about them the other night when I sat outside in the dark beneath the stars.
It was the stars that first brought them to me, in what I experienced as transmissions — a frequency of energy from another time and place.
(I know, I know. But stay with me.)
I confess, I’ve neglected them.
Not only my muses, the stars, too — especially through the long, light nights of summer.
So this week I went outside to one of my favorite night-sky viewing spots, a side porch where the city lights can’t find me. I settled into my familiar, overstuffed chair, turned my gaze upward to the sparkling view, and it wasn’t more than a moment until a shooting star burst across the sky, as if to say, Welcome back.
It was only a tease, but it worked.
I stayed there for quite a while, opening to the infinite possibilities the stars represent.
And then I thought about Lucy and The Poet.
Here’s the thing I want to tell you about my characters, these muses:
Their story is incomplete.
“The idea that there's a little light that will illuminate only parts of the story until it's all done.” ~ Isabel Allende
And like most spirits and muses, I trust they are timeless and are not counting the months or years since I last communed with them.
Their original story is set one hundred years ago, in the 1920s, in an old, enchanted inn called Uccelli della Notte, in the Italian countryside.
The unexpected arc has taken them away from there, and far from each other.
At my last awareness, Lucy was in Sicily, The Poet was in Morocco.
They had each departed from the inn, and somehow, when I return to the page, they let me know where they are.
How do I know?
Sometimes their locations come through my senses — a snapshot, a scent, the color of rich red dirt, the sound of the sea crashing against rocks.
I see them. I hear them. I feel them.
These are the "Clairs" in action.
I admit, I’ve wondered:
Am I making this up?
But some things are simply too uncanny. They feel too familiar, and true. Like the sound of a man's voice I've never met. And his scent.
Well, that’s the fun part.
“There is something magic in the storytelling. You tap into another world.” ~ Isabel Allende
Perhaps this is what fascinates me most about writing with muses: I don’t always know what I’m going to discover, or where they're leading me.
The story is theirs.
Each time we meet, they tell me something more I didn’t know yet.
So I hold the pencil and listen.
I have a feeling it's that time again.
After all, it’s the season of darkness and stars, the most enchanted time of year.
“In archetypal lore, there is the idea that if one prepares a special psychic place, the being, the creative force, the soul source, will hear of it, sense its way to it, then inhabit that place.” ~ Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes
REFLECTIVE WRITING PROMPTS: ✨✍️✨
I have a feeling …
Tapping into another world …
Like another dimension …
Discovering things …
Bringing them to the page …
My chair is right outside the back door.
Thank you for reading my "Divine Inklings" ... I always love to hear from you.
And please feel free to share this blog post with anyone who might enjoy it. 📧💫
💖 Janet
P.S. Do you, too, have a story that wants to write through you? Are you collaborating with spirits and muses? Have you met the "Clairs"? These are some of the things that we explore in Soul Work and also through my Writing Consulting practice.
P.P.S. Are you ready to awaken your senses, and even the "Clairs," through writing? That's why I created 30 Days of Delight ~ Writing Through the Senses. Begin anytime!
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