Lichtenbergian Precepts: Ritual, part 5

We’re in the middle of an extended discussion of the Lichtenbergian Precept of RITUAL, looking at each phase of RITUAL in order. We’ve looked at INVOCATION (acknowledging our need to Make the Thing That Is Not); DRAWING THE CIRCLE (preparing a time and place to Make the Thing That Is Not); TAKING THE PATH (setting out on the journey); and today, we look at the most nebulous of the stages: NUMEN/CONNECTION.

NUMEN is the Latin word for “divine presence.” Lichtenbergianism uses it to stand in for the Universe — you know, the great spirit all around us that surely is going to give us the answer to our creative problems.

This never happens.

There is no Muse out there waiting to shovel our symphony, full and complete, into our heads and onto the page. Our novel is not going to pour out of us in one perfect stream. It just doesn’t happen.

However.

The Universe is a huge playground of ideas and spare parts, and that’s what we need to keep our “antennae” tuned to. Sometimes that idea will show up as if from nowhere, and it’s just as well to regard that as a gift — and to be grateful for it — as not.

In this way, NUMEN looks back to the Precept of GESTALT, in which we step back from our work to see if we can where it needs to go next, i.e., “What’s missing?” Sometimes the next step is obvious, but often it’s not, and that’s when we have to let ourselves be open to suggestions from the outside.

Likewise, the other half of this stage, CONNECTION, looks forward to STEAL FROM THE BEST and AUDIENCE: Does our work connect to other work — either our own or others — and does it connect to our AUDIENCE(s)? As we TAKE THE PATH, as we Make the Thing That Is Not, we need to keep checking our CONNECTIONS to the work that has come before and to others in our world.

To recap: we INVOKE our own desire to create; we DRAW THE CIRCLE into which we will venture; we strike out on THE PATH to do the work; and while we’re on THE PATH, we keep our antennae tuned for suggestions from the NUMEN, the Universe, and for CONNECTIONS to our artistic heritage and to our AUDIENCE.

Next up: Getting out.