Where Does Inspiration Come From?

Where does inspiration come from? 

How does the imagination work? 

Is there a difference between religious/spiritual inspiration, and artistic/creative inspiration?

I suggest there are three aspects to understanding what inspiration is:

1. The source: where did the inspiration come from.
2. The result: what is created or written or said or painted because of inspiration.
3. The instrument: what facet of our human nature receives and processes inspiration. 

All three are important questions but here I will only focus on the last question.

Here are two quotes about inspiration:

William Blake: “The imagination is not a state: it is human existence itself.” 

For Blake equated imagination with human existence itself, human nature itself, not just a dimension of it. What makes us human? Blake would answer: imagination.

A second quote:

 “My heart is stirred by a beautiful theme…

    my tongue is the pen of a skillful writer.” 

That is from Psalm 45, which many considered a divinely inspired work. And the Psalm refers to the “heart”, our total inner human life, as the channel for inspiration, which in this case would be divine inspiration.

Therefore, my current theory about all this is that whether we are considering the inspiration behind a holy text or the inspiration behind a work of art, it all comes to and through the same dimension of our humanity. It the same capacity that enables the one, enables the other. 

Which suggests there is wisdom in approaching religious texts as we do art, and art as we do religious texts.

And perhaps sheds light on what you and I do as we seek to cultivate the ability to listen for inspiration in our own creative (and spiritual) lives. Regardless of how we view the “divine”, or don’t, we are inspired by something bigger than ourselves…