Steven Pressfield, a writer I admire greatly, starts his work sessions with a prayer to the muses. He uses Homer’s Prayer to the Muses from Homer’s Odyssey. That prayer didn’t work for me, so I wrote one inspiring to me for my work days. I share it here with you below. Write your own or feel free to use mine or adapt it!
A Prayer to the Muses
By Sean MaryHelen Johnson
O Dear Muses, one and all, you mighty Creative Forces—
Guide me by your Wisdom and your Experience of the Ages in my efforts today.
Help me to be your Servant.
Help me to hear your Voices within, and in all that is around me,
Help me to act out with strength, the Direction you give.
I will do my best, but remember my shortfalls:
My chaotic mind and unstructured self,
My shyness and tendency to introversion,
My defensiveness, impatience, reactiveness, resistance, lack of self control, and so on.
Help me to overcome these and other shortfalls and be faithful to your Calling.
I have no conscious knowledge of ‘my calling’ other than what you send to me today.
I have no idea where this is leading, but I trust you to reveal the steps I must take
To come to the start of each creative project,
To make it through the muddled middle stages to find and create its structure,
And to bring to completion each project as directed by you.
I am old enough so that I beseech you —
Send me Healing Energy to sustain my strength and the ability to do your Work.
Help me to care for my mind, my body, and my spirit.
I am grateful to you and All that Is for my life, and for your Presence and Guidance.
Your Inspiration gives me strength and courage.
Thank you, oh Divine Presence, Dear Gracious Muses.
May I become more worthy daily through my loyalty to your Call.
So Be It.
Or if you prefer—
Here is Homer’s (the one Pressfield uses):
“O Divine Poesy, goddess, daughter of Zeus, sustain for me this song of the various-minded man who, after he had plundered the innermost citadel of hallowed Troy, was made to stay grievously about the coasts of men, the sport of their customs, good and bad, while his heart, through all the sea-faring, ached with an agony to redeem himself and bring his company safe home. Vain hope – for them. The fools! Their own witlessness cast them aside. To destroy for meat the oxen of the most exalted Sun, wherefore the Sun-god blotted out the day of their return. Make this tale live for us in all its many bearings, O Muse.” – from Homer’s Odyssey, translation by T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia)” (Quote from Steven Pressfield’s book, The War of Art)
Find out more about Steven Pressfield at http://www.stevenpressfield.com.