A Course in Demonic Creativity
Where does creativity come from? Why do ideas and inspiration feel as if they come from “outside,” from an external source that’s separate from us but able to whisper directly into the mind? Why have so many writers throughout history — and also composers, painters, philosophers, mystics, and scientists — spoken of being guided, accompanied, and even haunted by a force or presence that not only serves as the deep source of their creative work, but exerts a kind of profound and inexorable gravitational pull on the shape of their lives?
These are all questions addressed by A Course in Demonic Creativity: A Writer’s Guide to the Inner Genius. The book’s starting point is the proposition that we all possess a higher or deeper intelligence than the everyday mind, and that learning to live and work harmoniously and energetically with this intelligence is the irreducible core of a successful artistic life. We can call this inner force the unconscious mind or the silent partner. We can call it the id or the secret self. But muse, daimon, and genius are so much more effective at conveying its subversive and electrifying emotional charge, and also its experiential reality.
Your unconscious mind truly is your genius in the ancient sense of the word, the sense that was universal before it was fatefully altered several centuries ago by historical-cultural forces. Befriending it as such, and interacting with it as if it really is a separate, collaborating presence in your psyche, puts you in a position to receive its gifts, and it in the position to give them to you.
Download the free PDF edition
Additional formats, including Kindle and epub, will be announced here in the future.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
- Introduction
- Chapter One: Perspiration Meets Inspiration, or The Return of the Muse
- Chapter Two: A Brief History of the Daimon and the Genius
- Chapter Three: A Writer’s Guide to the Psyche
- Chapter Four: Getting to Know Your Creative Demon
- Chapter Five: The Practice of Inner Collaboration
- Chapter Six: Divining Your Daimon’s Rhythm
- Chapter Seven: The Art of Active Waiting
- Chapter Eight: The Discipline of the Demon Muse
- Conclusion
- Afterword
- Bibliography
As a bonus, here’s an organized list of links to additional Demon Muse articles that were not revised and expanded for inclusion in this book, but that amplify and extend its themes. I’ll probably turn some of them into a separate book in the future.
- The Daimonic Insight: Creativity Is a Force Separate from You
- Creativity, the Greek Daimons, and the New Consciousness Revolution
- Theology, Psychology, Neurology: Is the Muse Real?
- Part 1: On Divine Voices
- Part 2: Aleister Crowley, Robert Anton Wilson, and Contact with “Higher Intelligence”
- Part 3.1: Mysteries of the Pineal Gland
- Part 3.2: You and Your Inner Neanderthal, or The Muse in the Cerebellum
- When the Muse Becomes Monstrous: The Demonic Modern History of the West
#1 by Henry on October 1, 2011 - 9:38 am
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I just finished reading your ebook, and I wanted to thank you, because it came at just the right time as I wrestle with some of my own blockages and coiling/uncoiling inner ways. I raise my hat to your demon.
#2 by Henry on October 1, 2011 - 9:39 am
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Oh..incidentally…the share on Facebook button on your site doesn’t seem to work.
#3 by Matt Cardin on October 1, 2011 - 4:12 pm
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From my demon to yours, you’re quite welcome, Henry. Great to hear that the book came to you at just the right time. More than one person has said that very thing to me in the past few days since I published Demonic Creativity, so this makes for a nice validation of both its content and its timing — something for which, again, credit properly goes not to me.
Thank you, too, for the heads-up about the problem with the Facebook share button. It acts like it’s working right now when I test it. Maybe there was a momentary glitch? I’ll keep an eye peeled for further issues.
#4 by Kari on October 15, 2011 - 7:33 pm
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Matt, I kinda feel like I’ve been waiting on this. Just downloaded it and will be reading it tonight. I’ll write a review on my blog and let you know what I think when I finish. Thank you for making this free — I’ll figure out how I can do something in return
#5 by Matt Cardin on October 16, 2011 - 6:33 am
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I hope the book proves worthwhile, Kari, and I’m glad it appears to have caught you at the right time. Thanks in advance for your review — regardless of the verdict!
#6 by Tracy on October 24, 2011 - 5:52 am
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Passed on to all my writer/creative type friends. Thanks Matt.
#7 by Matt Cardin on October 24, 2011 - 6:11 am
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Glad you liked it, Tracy, and thanks for spreading the virus. I mean, the word…