[allisonstieger]

I really enjoyed this piece. As a mythologist and an artist, I’ve been consumed for years with the ways in which myth can inform and inspire us all in our creative processes. I appreciate the distinction between creating just for fun and the demands that truly pursuing the deeper form of art that can involve.

Dr Tellez, I wonder what you think about this idea. I’ve felt for years that Jung’s quote from MDR about the gods coming down from Mount Olympus and lodging in the solar plexus is about more than just the generation of psychological symptoms. It seems to me that experiencing “true” art has an effect on that part of the body as well. I’ve noticed for most of my life that when I was standing in front of a painting that moved me, or if I read a novel or watched a film that was transcendent, I would feel the effect of it in my gut. My reaction to the art was creating a feeling that happened in my gut. So, if the gods did come down off of Mount Olympus to lodge in the gut, that we could look at art as being something that is outside of the ordinary world of the human, that belongs to the world of the gods. Thus, it makes sense for those of us who aspire to create art to look to any interactions that humans have with the world of the gods in myths for guidance.