Metaphors, Inspiration is like?

A Magnetic Chain (Socrates/Plato)

In the story Ion, Socrates talks with Ion about the nature of inspiration. Socrates describes it like a magnetic rock, which magnetizes a chain of metal rings. The gods are  the first rock and the poet and audience are like the following rings of iron. The first ring laying against the magnetic rock represents the poet and it becomes a magnet or in other words, becomes inspired. The next ring laid against that ring becomes magnetized, and so on. The ultimate source of inspiration is the gods. 

A Fountain
          He is like a fountain where the water is allowed to gush forth unchecked.  (Plato, Laws)

Spring

The ancient Greek metaphor. Hippocrene the spring on Mt Helicon, in Boeotia, was sacred to the Muses and Apollo

A Bolt of Lightning

Inspiration can strike like a bolt of lightning out of a clear blue sky. You have to be open and receptive to attract the bolt.

A Well (from Artist's Way)

•  Inspiration is like a well: Julia uses the metaphor of the well as a source of inspiration. "Art is an act of tuning in and dropping down the well. It is as though all the stories, paintings, music, performances in the world live under the surface of our normal consciousness. Like an underground river, they flow through us as a stream of ideas the we can tap down into. As an artist, we drop down the well into the stream. We hear what's down there and we act on it - more like taking dictation than anything fancy having to do with art." (pg. 118)
• She says that if you do a lot of art work you are drawing from the well.  You need to restock it. Everyone is different. "showering, swimming, scrubbing, shaving, steering a car," can all help fill the well. (p.20)
• Art is an act of tuning in and dropping down the well. It is as though all the stories, paintings, music, performances in the world live under the surface of our normal consciousness. Like an underground river, they flow through us as a stream of ideas the we can tap down into. As an artist, we drop down the well into the stream. We hear what's down there and we act on it-more like taking dictation than anything fancy having to do with art.
• This metaphor finds its bases in the idea of the unconsciousness as the source of inspiration.

Receiver for Radio Waves (from Artist's Way)

"Some people find it easier to picture the stream of inspiration as being like radio waves of all sorts being broadcast at all times. With practice, we learn to hear the desired frequency on request. We tune in to the frequency we want. Like a parent, we learn to hear the voices of our current brainchild among the other children's voices."

A Conduit for Electricity (from Artist's Way)

"Some people find it easier to picture the stream of inspiration as being like radio waves of all sorts being broadcast at all times. With practice, we learn to hear the desired frequency on request. We tune in to the frequency we want. Like a parent, we learn to hear the voices of our current brainchild among the other children's voices."

A Prism  (from Artist's Way)

People are like a prism. The light of inspiration strikes you. The clearer you are the better the light shines through you. You need to clear out the blocks to let the light shine through.

A Breath of Fresh Air

Inspiration is like a breath of  fresh air after driving in a city congested with traffic. anonymous
 

An Aeolian harp

    An Aeolian harp makes sounds from the wind blowing on it. Something like chimes.
 

Giving Birth

Opening of Sluices - "the opening of the sluices, so that those waters of  truth in which all life is bathed may rise to the level of consciousness" p63 laski 1968

A Whack on the Side of the Head

Gary - a whack on the side of the head.

An Inner Voice

A Message from a  Muse

A Message from a God

A Guardian Angel Whispering in Your Ear

A Cherub Whispering in your Ear

A Ball in a Pinball Machine  
from Neil Simon,  (can't remember the source of this )

A Ray of Light Shining Through the Clouds

Cauldron of Inspiration - this page contains other metaphors as well

Fading Coal
"The mind in creation is as a fading coal, which some invisible influence, like an inconstant wind, awakes to transitory brightness; this power arises from within." Shelley

Childbirth
This view has been suggested by Melanie Klein. Simon Stuart, New Phoenix Wings.

Bubbles, bubbling up from an underwater spring.
Each idea is like a bubble, it rises up to the surface into awareness.

A Super Nova of the mind.

Road of Found and Discarded Inspirations:  
A long road. People walk along it and drop their inspirations to the ground when they're done with them. People coming from behind pick up the  inspirations and drop them when they're done, and so on. Where does the road lead to? Where is it coming from? What are the inspirations?