Kissing the Muse: A Messy, Magical, Creative Adventure (part 1) \\ with Robbyn Layne

Do you hear a faint but familiar call to create whispering in your heart?

A quiet, unmet yearning to explore, tickling your soul? Whether it's painting, poetry, true love, travel, or adventure, your muse is calling you to create your most spectacular life.

Are you willing to leap into love with your muse?

Or will you resist, jilting her for your daily to-do list instead?

The muse is a mirror of your inner artist — she reflects your innate creativity, wisdom, and power. It doesn’t matter whether you dabble with watercolor or cake decorating, write poetry or prose, or can’t draw a stick figure to save your sister — kissing your muse can illuminate your most authentic path to happiness and help you navigate along the way. 

This course casts you in the starring role of your own life's adventure story. What's working for or against your soul’s purpose? What makes your muse want to sing? We make meaning of our lives through our stories, living them out as dramas and comedies, tragedies, and thrillers, interacting with a cast of characters that we adore, deplore, or don't even know. But we can experience alternative storylines and learn to reframe and rewrite them with themes and plot twists that are more satisfying, empowering, and hope-filled.

Through a mash-up of stories, musings, and Creative Invocations (expressive writing Flirts, mixed-media making Tickles, collage-creating Kiss & Tell rituals, and experiential muse Dates), you'll embark on a journey of self-discovery to creatively kiss the first 6 of 12 different inner muses. Each muse represents a phase in the cycle of change — otherwise known as life's Messy, Magical, Creative Adventure.*

Approach each encounter as playfully or seriously as you would any romantic entanglement: Simply FLIRT with Words to find out what makes your muse want to sing; tease an idea with a Mixed-Media TICKLE; find your sparkle again during a Muse DATE; or conduct a KISS & TELL Ritual to gain insight whenever your life changes course — or needs to.  

Whatever your passion or commitment to pursue it, kissing your muse fans the flame. But be forewarned, the muse has a mind of her own, and even a peck on her cheek could change your life – for the better!  

* Note: It's not necessary to kiss all 12 muses to benefit from this messy, magical, creative adventure —  however, you will have the option to sign up for Part 2 at a later date with TLAN.

Week by Week

Each week, you'll discover a different inner muse, prompted by readings, writing, and a meditative, collage-making Kiss & Tell Ritual. Each lesson includes a collection of additional Creative Invocations, which you can also "do" to summon (and kiss!) that particular muse. Remember, each muse represents a phase in the messy, magical, creative adventure (of life!) — so your weekly, creative Kissing Practice can also reveal the insight and direction you need for navigating your way to authentic happiness. 

Week One: The Daily Dance — Kiss Your Home at Heart Muse

“Fill your daily dance with more joy.”

• OPENING ONLINE session: SATURDAY, JAN 27 - FIRST LIVE INTRO SESSION—10:00 am to 12:30 pm, Pacific Time Zone 
• Course Introduction 
• Kiss & Tell Ritual: Home at Heart Muse
• Creative Invocations, reading, and poetry to inspire and support you during the Daily Dance phase of your creative adventure.

Week Two: Creative Call — Kiss Your Seducing Siren Muse

“Rekindle your passion through change.” 

• Kiss & Tell Ritual: Seducing Sire Muse.
• Creative Invocations, reading, and poetry Creative Call phase of your creative adventure.

Week Three: Critical Resistance — Kiss Your Reluctant Rebel Muse

“Resist critics and take a stand.” 

• Kiss & Tell Ritual: Reluctant Rebel Muse.
• Creative Invocations, reading, and poetry to inspire and support you during the Critical Resistance phase of your creative adventure.

Week Four: Open to Learning — Kiss Your Magical Mentor Muse

“Receive what you need to act.”

• Schedule your 1/2 hour, one-to-one personal coaching session with the instructor.
• Kiss & Tell Ritual: Magical Mentor Muse.

Week Five: Bridge to Engagement — Kiss Your Bold Bride Muse

“Commit to your own path and Self.” 

• Kiss & Tell Ritual: Bold Bride Muse.
• Creative Invocations, reading, and poetry to inspire and support you during the Bridge to Engagement phase of your creative adventure.

Week Six: Strange Unknown — Kiss Your Daring Explorer Muse

“Venture into the unknown for insight.”  

• ONLINE session: FINAL LIVE CLOSING SESSION—Saturday, March 2 (10:00 am-12:30 pm, Pacific Time Zone)
• Commitment ritual/closing send-off into the Strange Unknown.
• Kiss & Tell Ritual: Daring Explorer Muse.
• Creative Invocations, reading, and poetry to inspire and support you during the Wild Unknown phase of your creative adventure.

**Course discussion board remains open until at least March 9, 2024. 

Who Should Take This Class

Kissing the Muse: A Messy, Magical, Creative Adventure is a fun, fresh approach to the craft of creative writing and self-improvement. Designed for creatives from all walks of life, this course is an inspiring, safe space to explore and express your artistic voice through a variety of mediums. Through an inventive method of self-inquiry, participants embark on a personal journey of transformation and integrate insights into their own creative practices and projects. Open to all arts disciplines, writing skill levels, and genres.

Format

This is an online class hosted on the online teaching platform Wet Ink, with additional online meetings (see week-by-week description above for dates and times). Students should expect to spend 4-6 hours per week perusing resources and readings, engaging in several writing/creation prompts, and briefly responding to peers’ work. From our interactions, we sustain a welcoming and inspiring community together.

About the Facilitator

Robbyn Layne is a freelance writer and transformative teaching artist who helps individuals and organizations embrace creative well-being. She forged her messy, magical, creative career path by chasing her passions, wandering wildly, and kissing her muse. By her mid-20s, she had realized that living spiritually connected to whatever “turned her on” creatively was far more important than proving herself professionally. So, she quit her job as a corporate video producer in Kansas City and followed her heart to San Francisco. There, she met a wild band of creative bohemians who epitomized her idea of what it meant to be an artist. She soon began crafting her own personal, poetic film collages using found 16mm footage, eventually earning a spot in an MFA program. 

Upon graduation, she stumbled upon her dream job: associate professor of transformative art for a university’s Arts & Consciousness department. So, like any aspiring, naive academic, she decided to write a self-help book based on everything she “knew.” And, so, right on cue, her muse threw her directly into the transformative experience she needed to succeed in this creative endeavor. Her hybrid memoir, The Messy, Magical, Creative Adventures of Kissing My Muse, will be available in February 2024.

Robbyn holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in New Practices (painting and cinema) from San Francisco State University (2006), a Master of Arts degree in Transpersonal Psychology from John F. Kennedy University (2013), and a Bachelor of Science degree in Journalism from the University of Kansas (1993). She is also the author of The Magical Art of Kissing Your Muse (an online creative mentorship course) and creator of The Messy, Magical Muse Deck - Illuminate Your Creative Path to Happiness (available December 2023). She lives in Amsterdam with her British love and Dutch cat and works at Kissing the Muse. Founded in 2014 in the Netherlands, her consultancy company provides writing, editing, and transformative arts programs for clients internationally.

Visit Robbyn's website.