Living the Creative Life: an interview with Angeles Arrien by Jane Lister Reis "Come to the edge," he said. They said, "We are afraid." "Come to the edge," he said. They came. He pushed them — and they flew. The author of this quote, Guillaume Appolinaire, a French writer of the early twentieth century, was known for his attempt to synthesize French poetry and the visual arts. Does his metaphoric message have meaning for us today? Can we too, fly; have we merely forgotten how? What keeps us from flying, in today’s age of material wealth and accumulations, is the fear of lightening up our lives and, realistically speaking, many years of not flying. Musing about what my life could be like if I could fly (metaphorically speaking) began because of a recent interview I did with Angeles Arrien. As we talked, I learned that she is not only an educator, anthropologist, and author, but also a woman who is remembering how to fly. When I spoke with Angeles, she was on retreat at her home in northern California, working on her writing. I liked that right away: on retreat in her own home. For me, "retreat" means getting away from it all, going somewhere, and escaping my normal routine. For Angeles, "retreat" means hunkering down and connecting with her inner creativity, her fire, and her muses. Her muses are her newest teachers on how to live creatively, both the inspiration for and the objects of the book she is currently writing, The Nine Muses: A Mythological Path of Creativity (due out in late fall or early spring). When I talked with Angeles, I can’t say that I wasn’t a little jealous. Angeles seems to be doing exactly what she feels called to do; in other words, she’s flying. In case you need a definition of flying, Webster’s defines flying as "to move in or pass through the air with wings." The verb "to fly" comes from the Old English word flowan, which means "to flow." That’s it: Angeles is in the flow of her life. I personally define flying as the ability to live creatively, which means to be fully alive in each moment, not hanging on to the safety of our "edge," instead choosing to be open to the moment and all its potentiality. Living creativity is to choose to live with faith, deep breaths, and an open heart. I don’t know about you, but just resonating with the power of those words starts my wings a-flappin'! Is a creative life for everyone? Yes, according to Angeles; living creatively is not just for the brave of heart. According to her, it’s for all of us edge-clingers. "We’re all creative," she told me. "Unfortunately," she says, "everyone usually puts creativity into a box, like writing, art, performance, or theater. Instead, it can be the high use of creativity in conversation, relationship, or in the workplace. Creativity is about bringing the mystery of the deeper feminine into all aspects of life." Human beings are here for two reasons: to learn about and express love and to create. Nor is the creative way gender-specific. As wannabe flyers, this is not the time, Angeles said, "to negate the masculine or the power of the masculine that lives within us, whether we’re male or female. The masculine is the energy of generosity and creativity, but the feminine is really committed to beauty, to nurturance, and to original perspective." Now that our excuses are out of the way (since we now know that we’re all creative and that creativity is not gender-exclusive), we can look at our deeper life purpose. According to Angeles, human beings are here for two reasons. "One is to learn about and to express love. The other is to create…From a traditional society’s point of view, our gifts and talents come from the mystery, and not bringing our gifts and talents into the world is a way of desacralizing the mystery." And creativity is needed. Creative energy, Angeles told me, is really being called for in the world at this time because the old forms aren’t working. In other words, it’s flying time! But what does creativity have to do with the nine Muses? According to Greek history, the Muses were the goddesses of inspiration, learning, the arts, and culture. In ancient times, all learning took place under the patronage of the Muses; there were even shrines in their schools dedicated to the Muses. Interestingly, our word "muse" comes from the Greek word musein, which literally means "to initiate into the mysteries." Our words "amusing," "music," and "museum" all come from that root word. When I asked Angeles why she thought that writing about the nine Muses was important, she told me that she had "wanted to take a look at the creative forces that have been recognized in Greek mythology." "It’s very interesting that little has been written about the nine Muses. You have to really look to find anything about them. All nine of them are women, which ties in with Jung’s anima. All of them are stewards of some form of creativity, whether it’s poetry, history, sacred hymns, comedy, tragedy, astronomy, or science. All of the nine Muses were born out of the Goddess of Memory, and Memory was the daughter of Urania, the sky and Gaia, the earth." Through the publication of her book, Angeles hopes to "put the reader into a place of time travel, enabling them to go back and track their creativity." "The book," she says, "helps people become aware or remember where their creativity opened up and flowered in their life. It also is to be used as a source of inspiration." "Most importantly," Angeles said, "I want people to learn how to invoke the different Muses to assist them in their current problems and their creativity." Ah! I believe that Angeles might have given us the secret to remembering how to fly: we need to call upon the part of ourselves that is cloaked in mystery, so that we might shed our cumbersome, limiting patterns of fear and soar to new heights of possibility, thinking, and inspiration. As practical responses to our daily problems, the Muses are a source of fire; the energy needed to lift us above the heaviness of ourselves into the lightness of being and the unexplored potentiality of human life. They are a part of our past that is being called into our present in order to better create our future. We’re being asked to live creativity, in the moment and fully alive. "If more people could understand and embrace their deeper gifts," says Angeles, "then collective wisdom becomes more easily grasped…The more that people show up with their gifts and talents, the more wisdom and creativity they can access. And of course if we follow what has heart and meaning in our lives, we will access what has fire. Fire, then, will naturally connect us with more creativity and wisdom, so that we can move out of a power-driven, ambitious society into a wisdom society." Now if that isn’t a good enough reason to jump off a cliff and trust that we can remember how to fly, I don’t know what is. I’ll see you at the edge! Angeles Arrien will be speaking on creativity at the Body & Soul Conference, September 17-19 at The Westin Hotel in Seattle. For a listing of the times and dates of her workshops, as well as a conference brochure, call toll-free (877) 944-3003. Jane Lister Reis is a staff member and frequent contributor to The New Times, and a newborn flyer.