My muse is a shapeshifter. She’s indiscriminate: a divine whore and angelic trickster up to her knees in mulch and butterfly cocoons. She’s in sunshine and dogs and fleeting thoughts and pain. She isn’t something other than me, but I can’t control her. She is my daemon, my guide. She would also like me to… Continue reading Musings on the Muse
I was always odd, the resident freak or weirdo in any situation. And then I became a sound engineer. As a woman, that makes me exceptional. There aren’t many of us, so when I heard about Laura Marling’s latest project, Reversal of the Muse, I gave a cheer. It’s about time there were more ladies… Continue reading The Only Girl: the search for female sound engineers
Last week I talked about how I stumbled into joy and how strange it was to be so happy for no reason. It shouldn’t be strange because joy is my true nature. But as anyone who has suffered with depression will know, that’s not an easy thing to remember. Especially on a bad day. Depression… Continue reading Unreasonable Happiness: or How to Be a Dog
Music plays an important role in my novel Addled because the heroine, Zoe Popper, learns so much about how to be present and in the moment from her musician boyfriend, Jonah and his band Dionysus Wept. She first hears Jonah sing in Chapter 5 and is transported, amazed by the way the individual band members… Continue reading Music opens a secret door in time to eternity
Extracts from the last chapters of the classic mystical text The Cloud of Unknowing. Here our anonymous author explains who the book is for and offers some final words of encouragement to those called to the contemplative life: from Chapter 74: The author takes his leave “Now if you think that this kind of prayer… Continue reading Cloud of Unknowing: Final Words
Life is mostly an exercise in escapology and humiliation. You want to be happy. You don’t want to suffer or experience pain, but life rarely cooperates. The harder you run from the inescapable, the faster it pursues you. The monster is always one step ahead, waiting around the next bend in the road. It knows… Continue reading What I Learned About Joy on the Sofa
Extracts from some of the later chapters of the classic mystical text The Cloud of Unknowing. Here our anonymous author explains how to forget the self and some of the dangers of the contemplative path and how to deal with them: from Chapter 43: A naked awareness of self “Make sure that there is nothing… Continue reading Cloud of Unknowing: Death of the Ego
Everyone knows that pain is inevitable and suffering is optional. It’s not always easy to remember, but recently I had a surprising breakthrough just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse – which may be the point. Six years ago my health collapsed and I began collecting auto-immune disorders as a hobby. It’s basically… Continue reading The Difference Between Pain and Suffering
Extracts from chapters 26 and 32 of the classic mystical text The Cloud of Unknowing. Here our anonymous author explains the work of contemplation and gives some tips on how to focus (and these tips work really well, in my limited experience): from Chapter 26: God will pierce the cloud of unknowing “Set to work,… Continue reading Cloud of Unknowing: Techniques to get rid of distractions
I’ve struggled with Morning Pages for years. I would do them for a bit and then quit. Start again. Quit again. Repeat. Then last week I finally worked out why: I understand the problem with Morning Pages and I know how to fix it. If you don’t already know, Morning Pages is a writing practice… Continue reading Getting the most out of Morning Pages
This is a beautiful passage from Divine Beauty: The Invisible Embrace by Irish poet John O’Donohue on the importance of taking the time to slow down and smell the roses. Life can’t be swallowed in one big gulp… you must sip and savour… “Often we approach things with greed and urgency. We do not like to… Continue reading On the Journey of Life Be Everywhere You Are
Extracts from chapters 6, 7 and 9 of the classic mystical text The Cloud of Unknowing. Here our anonymous author explores the nature of God and how to go about your contemplations: Chapter 6: What is God? “But now you are going to ask me: ‘How am I supposed to think about God himself? What… Continue reading Cloud of Unknowing: What is God?
Jessica Davidson 