Wandering Aengus and Singing the Swan's Songs

What is the source of creative ideas and guiding visions, and how do they come to us? How do our creative ideas change and how do we change along with them? 

In this episode I share a Celtic story that offers an opportunity for meditation on these questions. The story of Aengus and Caer is based on myths that inspired the poet William Butler Yeats to write his poem “Wandering Aengus.” Here are a few words from Yeats about the creative life:

“The greater energies of the mind seldom break forth but when the deeps are loosed. They break forth amid events too private or too sacred for public speech, or seem themselves, I know not why, to belong to hidden things.”

Creative inspiration is commonly linked to artistic and poetic endeavors and yet, it is an essential ingredient for anyone who understand that a good life is made, that it is an adventure with purpose, form, beauty, and meaning. 

This is the life of the engaged imagination and fully utilized powers of perception, the life of the soul.

A transcript of this episode is available at www.mythicmojo.com. Thanks for listening!