Today’s post is excerpted from Breathe. Write. Breathe.: 18 Energizing Practices to Spark Your Writing and Free Your Voice by Lisa Tener.
When my husband Tom and I began dating, he took me to his mom’s house one weekend and invited a couple he knew. As the four of us walked down the road, I spied an owl, high up on a branch in a distant tree. “Look, an owl!”
“Where?” Carol asked. No one else saw it until we walked much closer.
“That’s not an owl,” Steve said. It clearly looked like an owl to me.
“It’s too exposed to be real. It must be a plastic owl to scare away the birds,” Tom offered.
I decided he must be right, but Steve tested the theory and threw a rock at the leaves near the owl, causing it to stir. Owl, indeed. And alive. (But, come on, Steve. Who throws a rock at an owl? Just no. Don’t do that.)
I have an uncanny sense for seeing animals in nature, animals that normally hide from humans or disappear in the light of day. I believe we all have this ability when we open our awareness to the previously hidden world around us, the world that our harried, productive, modern selves insist we don’t have time to explore. It takes quieting our mind chatter and slowing down to natural rhythms for us to see this world.
On one level, the owl incident immediately showed me that not only did I discount my knowing, but I stifled my voice and didn’t speak up when Steve threw the rock, despite how wrong his actions felt to me.
My interaction with the owl continued to reveal a new understanding about my life. As I recalled the owl while lying in bed that night, I had a kinesthetic experience. I felt myself on one side of the owl, representing divine feminine energy, and Tom on the other, representing divine masculine energy. The owl perched above us in the center, as we wound around each other like ribbons on a maypole. I felt the power of this interweaving of masculine and feminine. It conveyed to me that every romantic relationship has a dimension greater than the experience between two people. In our off-kilter world, each relationship holds a healing power to balance and harmonize feminine and masculine.
This understanding was not so much a linear thought; it came as more of a felt sense, full mind-body-spirit kind of knowing.
Although we’d only been dating for a couple of weeks, through this experience with Owl I knew Tom as my soul mate, our relationship as part of our personal healing and a planetary healing. This may sound grandiose, yet many cultures view the everyday world as full of symbols and guidance.
Life speaks to us through symbols that help us learn, grow, heal, and create, if we slow down and listen. Jesus spoke in the symbolic language of parables as did many prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures. The Hindu stories in the Bhagavad Gita and other spiritual texts are meta-metaphors, full of symbolism.
When I walk a client through my Meet Your Muse exercise, the muse often speaks through symbols, both by how the muse shows up (and in what guise) and by providing symbolic images in answer to our questions.
Paying attention to symbols in your life
Pay attention to what you see and hear today:
- Animals that cross your path
- A word you hear several times from different sources
- Song lyrics that pop out
- Sensations or pain in your body
- Objects or people that spark something within you
- Numbers that show up repeatedly
If each experience appeared in a dream, how might you interpret the symbols? First tap into your intuition for answers. After that, you can look up symbols on the internet. Kari Hohne’s dream dictionary at Café au Soul is my favorite resource.
What does the symbol or symbolic event have to teach you about your writing or other areas of your life?
You can also seek out a symbol. You can close your eyes, ask a question, and see if a symbol comes up. Or you can find an inspiring animal totem card deck, like Jamie Sams’ Medicine Cards or the beautiful Spirit of the Animals by Jody Bergsma. Think of what you plan to write about today and ask for an animal spirit guide to support you. Or pick a card without any specific plan, and write about what the card means to you or seems to communicate.
Using symbols to inspire and enrich your writing
While writing is an inner journey, you can add elements of the outer world to make it more concrete. Bring some fresh cut lilacs to your writing space, light a candle, or breathe in the scent of your favorite essential oil. If you have a deck of animal spirit cards or any other divination deck, choose an image that speaks to you and place it in your writing space. These outer prompts serve you in several ways:
- Symbols in your writing space underscore the message that this is your special writing time, connecting you to your creative source.
- These brief rituals connect you with your senses—smell, touch, sight, sound, and taste—the magic talismans for your authentic voice.
- Such brief rituals become part of your writing habit, making it easier and easier to groove right into writing from a place of wonder.
- Simple rituals provide an easy way to bypass the inner saboteur.
- Rituals can add an element of fun and play. And the muse loves to play!
- Writing rituals have a way of making our writing time feel more magical. Bringing in symbols can open you more fully to the creative magic within you.
Creating a writing ritual
Create a writing ritual incorporating the steps below:
- Choose a symbolic object and hold it in your hands. Feel its weight, shape, and texture.
- Close your eyes and imagine carrying your sacred object with you as you open a gate to your creative inner garden.
- Imagine your object soaking up the good qi of the garden, and being able to bring that good qi back with you in the object, to inspire and support your writing.
- Imagine bringing back your sacred object as you return through the gate to present time.
- Open your eyes and imagine placing the object near you to nourish your creativity.
- Write about the experience and what the sacred object means to you, and use the writing to segue into an ongoing project or new piece of work, such as a short poem, blog post, or story. How does the ritual affect your writing?
- End the ritual with a feeling or prayer of gratitude.
- If you want a simpler ritual, you can light a candle or smell a special essential oil or flower and imagine it giving off creative energy to support your writing session.
Symbols at work
Is there a character trait that’s holding you back at work or a skill or trait that might help you succeed on a work project (or in your career, in general)? Close your eyes and look for an animal or other symbol that might embody the skills or traits that would help you in this endeavor. Write a dialogue with the animal/symbol. Ask it questions and answer as if you were the animal/symbol. What might you do differently?
Note from Jane: If you enjoyed this post, be sure to check out Breathe. Write. Breathe.: 18 Energizing Practices to Spark Your Writing and Free Your Voice by Lisa Tener.
Lisa Tener is an award-winning book coach, author and creativity catalyst. Her clients have signed 5- and 6-figure publishing deals with dozens of publishers, including Random House, HarperCollins, Hachette, and have appeared in national media such as Today, Good Morning America, Oprah, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. An MIT graduate, Lisa teaches on the faculty of Harvard Medical School’s women in healthcare leadership and publishing courses. She’s the author of The Joy of Writing Journal: Spark Your Creativity in 8 Minutes a Day. Learn more at her website lisatener.com.
I love this! Especially because it speaks to what we are trying to create in our writing, which is meaning. Every object in a piece of prose ideally should be a symbol, and carry a charge that adds to both the texture and the momentum of the narrative.
Thank you also for your notes on ritual, Lisa — such an overlooked element to regular practice. Looking forward to reading the book!
Oh, thank you Stuart! It means a lot coming from you! I think, too, we don’t have to overthink our symbols. Most come subsconsciously and we don’t even have to realize the symbolism of everything, but it can be empowering and helpful when we do.
Love the post. There are so many important cues and triggers for writing. Symbols is a great one that I don’t often think about. I wonder what symbols are people’s favorite to help them write? Mine is seeing the lake or ocean!
Ah! Mine is probably my muse who usually shows up as a wise woman stirring alphabet soup for me in her cabin in the woods!
I love paying attention to symbols that seem to appear out of nowhere. The other day, a garden snake was staring at me on my doorstep as I approached. I can’t count the number of times I look at the time and it’s 11:44 AM, the time I was born. And the day after my father died last month, I entered his living space to begin sorting through his belongings, and the song, “A Thousand Years” was playing on the TV (from a channel that had only been playing instrumental music the three days prior). As I entered the room, I heard, “I have died every day waiting for you. Darling, don’t be afraid. I have loved you for a thousand years. I’ll love you for a thousand more.” I got emotional on the spot. Those were words my father never could have said when he was alive, but I wondered if he was sending me a message from the other side. The TV channel returned to playing instrumental music for the rest of the day when the song was over. Something to write about, perhaps? Thanks for this great post, Lisa. You’re a wise one. 🙂
Wow, Portland! Absolutely write about that. I’m so moved.
I am captivated by this post! The excerpt from Lisa Tener’s latest book, Breathe. Write. Breathe., is a treasure trove of inspiration. Lisa encourages us to still our minds and truly listen to and trust our inner voice and pay attention to the symbols in our surroundings that can ignite our creativity and unleash a flow of new ideas.
Thank you, Tamara!
My all-time favorite college course I took as an undergrad was Symbolic Anthropology, where we learned about symbols that appear throughout different cultures and then analyzed texts and even movies (we watched “The Graduate” multiple times) looking for what symbols were used and how those meanings added to the stories. Thanks for this reminder to staying open to symbolism–in our lives and on the page.
You’re welcome, Kate! Now I’m curious to watch The Graduate again! Plastics!
This is a wonderful post. I often try to find hidden symbols within manuscripts that wind up tying the whole thing together. More often than not, they are animals. This post’s author invites us to simply pay attention to what is before our eyes, so what is hidden can reveal itself. Tapping into nature allows us to remain grounded in our writing. This is more important than ever during this strange, transitional time.
I love that as a way of editing. I’m going to remember that Danielle.
Beautiful essay. I recall several years back when taking a walk, my mind on a future that looked rather bleak, thinking of my deceased parents, wishing they could help me in some way. I looked up, and in the distance, saw a pair of eagles soaring in circles over a tiny village along the water. Eagles rarely soar in pairs, so I took this moment as a sign from the spirits of my parents that the answer would be found in that village. Shortly after, through a series of unexpected fortunes, I was able to buy a home in that very village. Now, every afternoon (at least when the rains let up), I walk down to the shore and honor the eagles that brought me to my home. Lisa’s new book is filled with inspiring insights to illuminate the unexpected wisdom residing in each of us and get us writing. For some, it might be an owl, for others, a pair of soaring eagles. But for all of us, nature has a message, just waiting to be revealed. And what better symbols to conjure these messages, than our words.
Wow, Janice, what an inspiration! When my mom passed, a luna moth landed on the side of his house. It had a lame leg, as had my mom (hers from polio). Dad was convinced the moth was my mom come to comfort him. And then we read about how many ancient cultures view the luna moth, in particular, that way.
I really appreciated this article. I am an artist, and each of these actions and principles can be applied to my work. This helped me stop and examine what each of my art pieces has in common. What are those symbols and ideas that keep cropping up in my work? And why? Thank you, Lisa!
I’m so glad. While I focused on writing in the book, these practices defnitely work for any creative endeavors so I’m not surprised, Kim!
Lisa, I loved your essay. For seventeen years, my cat Olivia was my constant companion and soulmate. I felt she knew what I was thinking and I knew what she was thinking. I grieved her passing for months. Eventually I asked a medium, who knew nothing about my writing endeavors, if she could channel Olivia for me. She did and boy was I surprised! She told me Olivia wanted to help me with my writing and that if I typed her name at the top of the first page of my project, she would help the words flow out onto the page easily. Since then, I have welcomed Olivia’s help by starting every writing project with her name (Removed only from the final draft). Even from cat heaven, Olivia continues to be an inspiration!
How lovely. Olivia became your muse!