The River of Inspiration
“There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. We give them a turn and they make new and curious combinations. We keep on turning and making new combinations indefinitely; but they are the same old pieces of colored glass that have been in use through all the ages.” - Mark Twain
“In Druidry, we often hear the word, awen, being used, but what exactly is awen? Loosely translated from Welsh, it means flowing spirit, or flowing inspiration. Awake to our own energy, and stretching out towards the energy of nature around us, we begin to see just what awen is. It is an opening of one’s self, of one’s spirit or soul, in order to truly and very deeply see. When we are open, we can receive that divine gift, inspiration that flows, whether it is from deity, nature, or whatever it is that you choose to focus on.” - Joanna Van Der Hoeven
We stand, poised upon a precipice, breath hurtling into our chest expanding outward into every cell of our being. Our wide eyes intaking the majesty of the scars left upon the soil by a force much larger than ourselves. Whether these scars be cavern, mountain, river, ocean, gnarled and aged Oak, we know this rising feeling of our hearts beating loudly in our chest as we look over the edge of a canyon, down from a treetop, out from the boat’s edge, or between our toes as we float along a 50 foot deep tropical river looking for anacondas. The wild edge of wonder, coupled with the shrinking awareness of exactly how small we are in the turning of the ages, the moving of mountains, the carving of rivers and the motion of oceans. We feel it when we look out at the stars and think in billions of years of burning, those stellar engines out there forging elements, moving mountains, carving canyons, holding everything together and tearing it all apart in turn.
It is in these moments that we remember our place in the dance of life, and our respect for the incredible power of those intelligent, dynamic, balanced, creative forces which exist outside of us. We have an opportunity to be aware of our ignorance, to be awed by what we have yet to learn and experience, and to be reverent of this grand symphony of life living through, before, beyond and around us. We can care for it, participate in and with it, or simply observe and be enriched by it. This is the wisdom which is missing when we assert knowledge we do not possess - an understanding of how this all came to be, when, by whom, for what, and under what circumstances. We do not even understand our own bodies, how they work, how to keep them in optimal health, why they age, become ill, etc. We have many theories, and practices, as well as more unsolicited advice than anyone could possibly stomach. What we do not have is answers, certainty, or any reason to claim our human arrogance.
We try to possess our place in life, grasping for it like so many droplets of water shifting in the tides. We are attached to a social construct - hierarchy - which doesn’t exist anywhere except our collective imagination. We have to own ideas, to preserve our status in this imaginary hierarchy. We trademark, we brand, we copyright. Nature has no such artificial limitations. She uses the same pattern in her river systems as the branching of trees, neurons, and mycelium. We endlessly drive ourselves to cultivate an original idea - which doesn’t exist - in order to market ourselves and start raking in our imaginary currency. All for the IOU notes - printed at a deficit with a promise to pay back more than was given. To turn IOU notes into more IOU notes, generating an endless cycle of striving for more that never existed to begin with.
The raw materials are all already there for our use, churned out in the bellies of stars as they burst forth in stunning supernovas. The recipes for beauty, wonder, growth, and development are all laid out for us and available for our use. The lizard will not sue you for taking a nap on a warm stone at the beach, though they have surely been doing it longer. The water in your body will surely nourish you, just as it nourished the dinosaurs. The air that goes in your lungs will vitalize you, and the air out will vitalize those green and growing things. Nothing is wasted, nothing is owned, and everything is recycled. This is the way of nature, though we often forget our place within Her, trapped in our concrete boxes in our concrete jungles isolated from the edge of wonder.
Ideas do not occur within you. They are not emanated by you. You are not the creator of inspiration, you are the receiver of it. Inspiration flows as a river of raw creative life force energy which permeates all of existence. When you are a clean and clear receiver of this energy, you become inspired to co create along with this vast symphony of life living through, before, beyond and around us. You are attuned to inspiration. You become enlivened, energized, passionate, and radiant with life force energy. What is unique is not the idea, the life force energy - because that is everywhere. It is not only abundant, it is infinite. Omnipresent. The plant life had the idea to make the flower long before we decided to paint it and stitch it on our clothing and tattoo it on our bodies.
What is unique is you. You are new. Your experiences, perspective, understanding, skills and talents all a wonderfully individual lens to capture and bend inspiration into your own personal expression of Awen. The idea is not original, the inspiration is not new. You are.
I hope you never withdraw from doing what you are inspired to do because it has been done before. Perhaps you perceive it was done better than you perceive your own capabilities - may you do it anyway. It’s never been done your way, by you, before. That makes your expression valuable, because your expression is unique. If you do not express the idea, it will surely be expressed by another. The idea is not yours, if you recall, you are only receiving. Another will also receive.
It is not important that you thought of something, if you failed to act upon that inspiration. Your thinking of the inspiration is not ownership of the creation. Your grandest plans will amount to nothing if you fail to execute them. If you never try, you never know success.
When I was a clinically depressed teenager, I used to write poetry. Years later, I heard my poems expressed in the world through a band known as Five Finger Death Punch. This was my first experience with this phenomena. I can’t say I’ve ever been able to be a fan of Five Finger Death Punch, not because I am bitter they “stole my idea” - as I respect that they had the courage to act on the inspiration instead of leaving it in a notebook on a shelf. In reality, their music reminds me of a sad little girl I once was, and that’s why it’s hard to be a fan. I am unable to disentangle their tough guy appearance from a soft teenage girl, and it’s uniquely hard for me to take them seriously.
I’ve had uncountable experiences since then, where inspiration has flowed to me or others yet been acted upon by another. I’ve even had the experience of acting on an inspiration which was unknowingly received by another only to become the punching bag for their ire at themselves for not being the one to act upon the inspiration. I’ve been told I’m not allowed to create, to preserve another’s status as creator. “You can’t do that, I do that”. This is cowardice and insecurity in action, and should have no bearing on the ceilings you place for yourself.
I would thus encourage you to express yourself, to live your life, to make art, music, writing, poetry, to dance, to heal, to be - as you are. Uniquely you. It isn’t what you are doing, or any of your ideas that are new. You are new. You can’t do anything the same as anyone else because you are not the same as anyone else. You cannot effectively duplicate someone else, because you are not them and they cannot copy you because they are not you. The river of inspiration is flowing through all of us. Let go of your grasping, your holding, your ownership, and find yourself floating in this river instead of sinking.
I can’t wait to see what YOU create.
