What Casts the Shadow Blog Tour (+$50 Amazon GC)

Title: What Casts the Shadow?

Author: Seth Mullins 

Series: N/A

Pages: 241

Date Published: January 4th, 2014

Publisher: Create Space

Format: Kindle 

Source: Goddess Fish Blog Tours

Synopsis:

A troubled young rock musician, a mystic mentor, and a generation of lost souls longing for a new voice to emerge from the wilderness...

When an altercation outside of a performance venue nearly proves fatal, Brandon Chane begins to realize how far his life is spinning out of control. His efforts to channel his pain, frustration and thwarted loves into his music may not suffice to save him. Then he meets Saul, a crisis counselor with the soul of an ancient medicine man, and a far-reaching journey of healing - one that may teach him how to steer away from the very edge of the abyss - begins.

~Guest Post!~

Pondering the Muse by Seth Mullins 

The Greek god Dionysus was a music-maker. He was associated with both intoxication and creativity. The Greeks referred to him as “the One who comes, who arrives.” I think of the Muse in similar terms. She “arrives”. We can’t book her, or try to bind her to a schedule – or even, for that matter, to our own conceptions of time. The best we can do is see that the space is made ready, that the clutter of our minds is cleared – or at least managed to such an extent that the voices of inspiration can ring through unhindered.

I think a lot of this has to do with our own mental habits. They’re strongly tied in with what is known – or what we think we know – whereas ‘The Muse’ is a term we give to that phenomenon when the Unknown intrudes upon our orderly daily lives and throws everything into a state of creative chaos.

Dionysus had a similar effect upon the folk of the Grecian countryside when he arrived among them.

The reasoning mind wants to keep us where we feel safe. But if the Muse is to usher in the new then we must, of necessity, be pushed out of our comfort zones. We lose sight of all familiar shores for a while in order that we may discover things we’d not known before, insights we’d not pondered, wisdom we’d not attained. It’s the Hero’s Journey, every time we set out along the path that our creativity bids us to take.

Some people fear creativity for this very reason. It feels reckless, out of control. Even those of us who are acclimated to this path, who have chosen it for our life’s vocation, can feel the edges of that fear sometimes. Where might our Muse sweep us away to – what far, fair country? Will we still recognize ourselves, and our world, when we get there?

Ah, but without that kind of movement the individual, and society at large, would never grow and change. And standing still is not as safe as reason and prudence would have us believe. We must evolve. We must seek new sensations and insights and ideas or else we will surely perish of stagnation. It is in our nature to move, no matter how comfortable and secure we may believe we are in the places that we’ve staked out for ourselves at the moment.

The Muse is capricious because She well knows how limiting our conceptions of ourselves and our world can be. She playfully prods us to step out from the apparent safety of our own ideas and embrace some more expansive visions. She is our Way Forward in every uncertain age; and for this reason, She is the goddess that every creator must inevitably pray to.

~Try an Excerpt!~

The Edge

I suppose you could compare it to driving on a high mountain road. You don’t realize how close you are to free-fall, or how sheer and far is the plunge, until you go around a bend where one side is exposed to open air and then there it is: The Abyss.

There’s this edge that you can come to – I imagine it’s a different place for each of us – and you just know that once you get swept over it you won’t be coming back. By the time you’re close enough to see it it may already be too late. You could find yourself teetering, suddenly hearing the warnings that life had been giving you all along, knowing that it’s become impossible to step back; because by that time, those other forces – the ones pounding like the rapids at your back, always trying to push you towards that edge and then over it – have grown too strong.

Tommy and I first talked about forming a band together before either of us had learned to play an instrument. We both perceived music – particularly, its heavy, extreme underside - as the ideal vehicle for our personal salvation. The first guitar that I purchased, a Fender Telecaster that I immediately spray painted black to my father’s horror, became my refuge. It was my best friend and confidante. It gave me a convenient excuse to avoid social situations that, more often than not, would only remind me of how far off the beaten path I really was.

~Meet Seth!~ 

Seth Mullins draws upon the great sweep of human soul-journeying to weave his tales. He's inspired by music, shamanism, dreams and the mysteries and miracles of our inner life. His greatest love as a writer is for fiction that depicts a journey towards self-awareness in the deepest sense.

"Probably the most valuable thing that I learned throughout my spiritual journey in this life is the importance of trusting in one's self. Many of our cultural lessons encourage us to ignore or even fear our inner reality. And yet it is this realm that really does hold the answers to all of our questions, and can point the way towards the most fulfilling life experiences possible for us."

Mr. Mullins has lived in Maine, Connecticut, New Mexico, Oregon and Vermont. 

Seth will be giving away a $50 Amazon giftcard to a randomly drawn winner! 

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