Ecstatic Poetry, Hafez, and Mystical Inspiration
Summary: This conversation explores the emergence of spontaneous poetry, prayerful experimentation, and the sense of being creatively moved by something larger. It also touches on truth, sensitivity, relationships, embodied spirituality, and the way mystical experience can shape ordinary life.
Questions This Interview Explores
- How can poetry arrive spontaneously, as if it is being received rather than composed?
- What happens when prayer, intention, and experimentation are brought into a creative life?
- How do sensitivity, vulnerability, and truth-telling become strengths rather than liabilities?
- What can hypnosis, relationships, and parenthood reveal about consciousness and growth?
- How do mystical experience and embodied spirituality inform daily work and artistic expression?
Chelan Harkin has been channeling ecstatic poetry for years and has now published two books in the past seven months, Susceptible to Light and Let Us Dance!: The Stumble and Whirl With The Beloved. Her publishing journey has been mystical and transformational and filled with “prayer experiments” gone right. Chelan has regularly been compared to the great mystic poets, Rumi, Hafiz, and Rilke. She lives in a geographically spectacular region of Washington State, The Columbia Gorge, with her husband and two small children. In her poetry and in her life, Chelan continually invites the fumbling, suffering parts of our nature and our divinity to meet for tea in the heart, to have a great laugh, and share a big hug.
- Website: chelanharkin.com
- Facebook page
Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group.
Transcript, summary, and key takeaways from this interview
Interview recorded July 3, 2021
YouTube Video Chapters:
- 00:00:00 – Introduction to Buddha at the Gas Pump
- 00:04:59 – Connecting with Hafez: Inspiring Poetry and Publishing Success
- 00:09:55 – The Spontaneous Poem
- 00:14:14 – The Feeling of a Coming Poem
- 00:17:55 – Unleashing Our Inner Genius
- 00:21:48 – The Birth of Creativity
- 00:26:12 – Healing through Hypnotherapy
- 00:30:33 – Reframing and Reclaiming “I’m Too Much”
- 00:35:15 – Inspiration from Night Walks
- 00:39:32 – The Humility of Relationships
- 00:43:15 – The Worst Thing We Ever Did
- 00:47:36 – Opening Up to Vulnerability
- 00:52:09 – The Strength in Sensitivity
- 00:56:56 – The Essence of Infinity and Connection
- 01:01:11 – A Serendipitous Connection with Daniel
- 01:05:35 – Summoning Poetry with Hafez
- 01:09:32 – Chelan’s Spiritual Upbringing
- 01:13:31 – A Sacred Experience in Bahala’s Prison Cell
- 01:17:04 – Chelan’s Aneurysm Journey
- 01:20:33 – The Impact of Diet and Social Media on Channeling Abilities
- 01:24:39 – The Thirst for Intellectual Knowledge
- 01:28:52 – The Potency of Embodied Spirituality
- 01:33:28 – The Power of Prayer
- 01:37:34 – Finding Joy in Work
- 01:41:18 – The God Who Made the Octopus
- 01:45:28 – The Cosmic Wallop and Cosmic Timing
- 01:49:19 – Discovering the Poet Within
- 01:52:33 – The Power of Language
- 01:56:21 – Living an Authentic Truth
- 01:59:41 – Openness to Opportunities
- 02:03:11 – Farewell and Good Wishes
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