Channeler

A channeler is a person who can move large amounts of primary anima, the direct energy of life, through themselves and into the world, most often through art. The definition does a second job: it draws the line between art and craft. Craft is skilled making, and art, in Marsh's account, is craft plus the channeling of primary anima, and the channeler is the person in whom that added feature is present. This connects directly to her definition of art as work that channels primary anima or acts as a capacitor for it. A highly skilled maker who does not channel anima is a craftsperson, while a channeler is one through whom prolific primary anima passes, which is what raises their work from craft to art. The term names the human source of that energy, the counterpart to the capacitor that stores it.

Channeling ordinarily refers to a medium transmitting messages from spirits, a sense unrelated to Marsh's use. Older ideas of the artist as a conduit for inspiration, the muse, genius as something that flows through the maker, are nearer. Marsh gives this a specific place in her energy model: the channeler moves primary anima, and that capacity is the exact feature distinguishing art from craft.