Journey into the Soul: Dealing with your Dark Muse

If eyes are the windows to the soul, then masquerade masks frame these portals. Eyes transform into mystical moorings when we see them peering through a mask. We might find this inexplicable desire to venture inside the mind of the masked person.

A creative person opens the portals to his or her soul through the process of sharing artwork, writing, or music etc. If we accept the invitation, we push-off from the dock and embark on a journey into mystical realms. We may even wonder: What was he or she thinking when she made this piece of artwork?

Yet the greater adventure the artistic person presents to us is to face our own dark muse that drives us to create. If we journey into our soul, we confront the pleasure and pain resident there; we wrestle with our need for unconditional love that motivates us to create to mask our lack. 

A visual of this journey into the soul can be visualized in the Phantom of the Opera scene where the Phantom takes Christine to his underground cavern. Christine’s anxiety grows as he rows the boat through the mist to his underground hide away.

Once there, she confronts the truth about her muse, an impostor posed as her deceased father. She sees the Phantom’s tortured soul fleshed out in material forms. The mirror symbolizes his vanity, only possible when a mask hides his gnarled face. The closet, flush with his desire for unconditional love; A mannequin replica of Christine clothed in a wedding dress hides inside. The bed, his tortured, unmet passion that drives him to control another.

It is there in this soul chamber that Christine realizes she must take ownership of her artistry. She can break free from her dark muse; she doesn’t need him to pursue her gift of song. She rises inside and does the unthinkable. She tears off his mask and exposes his shame. She repudiates his confession of love that masks his control. She agitates his compulsion to overpower her. In the end, she escapes from his inner madness, and in doing so, severs from her muse, the dark angel who released her gift of song.