Definitions HQ

Inspiration (n.) implies ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠something that inspires — a spirit or ghost — an inference the modern mind will not draw, though the primitive draws it from every dream of the dead.

Inspiration (n.) comes, ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠like enthusiasm and our best flashes of intelligence, from the same source as the ego itself — unconscious life, out of which the child's sense of "I" slowly grows.

Inspiration (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠what the forgotten does when it links up below the surface: high-intensity associations rising into consciousness as intuitions and lucky ideas.

Inspiration (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠the conviction that the ideas forming in us are made not by our intellect but by an authority above consciousness, which the Church calls the Holy Ghost.

Inspiration (n.) seizes ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠the author's hand: the work brings its own form, rejects what he adds, thrusts back what he rejects, and he must admit it is his own self speaking things he would never have entrusted to his tongue.

Inspiration (n.) is, ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠as Nietzsche described it, hearing without seeking and taking without asking who gives, a thought flashing like lightning with necessity; Jung called it the impotence of consciousness before the automatism rising from the unconscious.

An Inspiration (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠a sudden irruption of an autonomous complex into consciousness, common in somnambulism and among religious people, whom modern Protestant theologians say have "inner experience".

Inspiration (n.) seizes ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠its bearer as a will beyond his consciousness and is naturally felt as divine; but since most inspirations are half-true, a benevolent God would hardly explain them, and a psychoid factor in man serves better.

Inspiration (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠exactly the same process in an artist as invasion is in a patient, which is why Jung avoided calling either pathological.