I Believe In Art By Victoria Lynn Hall: Bewitched By My Muse

There are many muses that have visited me at one time or another in my life. Friends, Family, artists and celebrities; characters both real and imaginary who have been sources of inspiration and motivation for me and who I continue to look to as guides and gurus. However, there is one apparition who appears to me on a regular basis, especially when I am trying to squelch, delay or reason away a creative impulse and she closely resembles a character who was brilliantly portrayed by Agnes Moorehead from 1964-1972 on the TV series “Bewitched”. Yes, that's right, I am being haunted by Endora!

I don't know why but it is only recently that I thought to question this phenomena. I mean, why can't I conjure a muse in the form of a cool rock star or a swoon worthy classic movie actor to encourage me to embrace my creativity? Why is it a smart ass immortal witch from a sixties sitcom who was seemingly sent to harass me into submitting to my every creative whim?

So the last time I saw her floating around in my mind's eye commanding me in her “exasperated with mortals” tone, I decided to ask her.

“I'll make you a deal,” she replied, “I'll stop being like Endora when you stop being like Samantha.”

Whoa. Almost instantly I understood exactly what she meant. I remembered that as much as her doppelganger acting as muse annoys me now, Endora herself was always my favorite character on “Bewitched”. I suppose that was partly because she was just so darned funny but it was also because she wasn't afraid to use her magic. It was Samantha that was always trying to fit in and be normal and actually use the vacuum cleaner when all she really had to do was wiggle her nose. I mean, God bless Elizabeth Montgomery but how annoying was that? It was Endora who was always encouraging her daughter to be herself and use her gifts. It was Endora who essentially seemed to be saying, “Use your magic, stupid.”

I guess that is also what my Endora is saying to me whenever she pops into my life. I can truly see how she, who no doubt has infinite powers and wisdom, would be scratching her head whenever she sees me wrestling with mundane activities or problems when I could be using my magic, not the nose wiggling thing because I haven't gotten that down yet, but the closest thing to magic we mortals can have, creativity!

So maybe if I stop listening so much to my inner Samantha and listen even more to my muse I can graduate from Professor Endora's class and move on to a gentler, kinder muse who looks like Jim Morrison or Errol Flynn.

Probably not, but a girl can dream...and I'm going to keep working on that nose wiggling thing too, just in case.