STOKING THE CREATIVE FIRES
Stepping Stones, Kyoto Rock Garden.
Photograph by Phil Cousineau, 1986.
BOOKS BY PHIL COUSINEAU
The Hero's Journey: Joseph Campbell on His Life and Work 1990
Deadlines: A Rhapsody on a Theme of Famous Last Words 1991
The Soul of the World: A Modern Book of Hours (with Eric Lawton) 1993
Riders on the Storm: My Life with Jim Morrison and the Doors (John Densmore with Phil Cousineau) 1993
Soul: An Archaeology: Readings from Socrates to Ray Charles 1994
Prayers at 3 a.m.: Poems, Songs, Chants for the Middle of the Night 1995
UFOs: A Mythic Manual for the Millennium 1995
Design Outlaws: On the Frontier of the 21st Century (with Chris Zelov) 1996
Soul Moments: Marvelous Stories of Synchronicity 1997
The Art of Pilgrimage: The Seeker's Guide to Making Travel Sacred 1998
Riddle Me This: A World Treasury of Folk and Literary Puzzles 1999
The Soul Aflame: A Modern Book of Hours (with Eric Lawton) 2000
The Book of Roads: Travel Stories 2000
Once and Future Myths: The Power of Ancient Stories in Modern Times 2001
The Way Things Are: Conversations with Huston Smith on the Spiritual Life 2002
The Olympic Odyssey: Rekindling the Spirit of the Great Games 2003
The Blue Museum: Poems 2004
Angkor Wat: The Marvelous Enigma (Photographs) 2005
A Seat at the Table: Struggling for American Indian Religious Freedom 2005
The Jaguar People: An Amazon Chronicle (Photographs) 2006
Night Train: New Poems 2007
The Meaning of Tea (with Scott Hoyt) 2008
First published in 2008 by Conari Press,
an imprint of Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC
With offices at:
500 Third Street, Suite 230
San Francisco, CA 94107
Art permissions can be found on p. 222
Copyright © 2008 by Phil Cousineau. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC. Reviewers may quote brief passages.
ISBN: 978-1-57324-299-8
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cousineau, Phil.
Stoking the creative fires : 9 ways to rekindle passion and imagination / Phil Cousineau.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-1-57324-299-8 (alk. paper)
1. Creative ability. 2. Imagination. I. Title.
BF408.C674 2008
153.3—dc22
2007049625
Cover and text design by Brooke Johnson
Typeset in Sabon and Scala Sans
Cover art: Fire Dream, oil on linen, copyright © 2002 by Gregg Chadwick
Printed in Canada
TCP
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials Z39.48-1992 (R1997).
CONTENTS
Introduction: The Creative Journey
Chapter 1: Fires of the Imagination
