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Music has been a major inroad into my shamanic awareness, and I regularly use it to help me connect between the worlds, or – to verify via synchronicity between the worlds.
When I was young and open, I remember “record albums,” large LP’s that you opened up and sat, alone or with friends, and read the entire cover while listening to both sides of the LP.
It opened up worlds of light and possibility.
One of my favourite journey albums is Olias of Sunhillow, by Jon Anderson (of Yes), from 1976. It speaks of a journey across space and time – across the abyss – to a new home when the old one is destroyed. This can be the Shamanic Death, or it can be an allegory or prophecy of the Earth and Humanity.
Another album which is more of an Urban shamanic journey, is Genesis, Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, from 1974.
It is the story of a man who is looking for his brother on the streets of New York City, when an alternate or parallel world opens up to him, carries him away – and he has to resolve a number of inner conflicts – and choose. Does he rescue his brother? Or does he save himself?
There are myriads of webpages discussing the music and story of this album, and no two people agree on what it means – or is it just theatrical drama? It was performed live with costumes and props.
Wikipedia says of the story:
One morning in New York City, Rael is holding a can of spray paint, hating everyone around him. He witnesses a lamb lying down on Broadway which has a profound effect on him. (“The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway”) As he walks along the street, he sees a dark cloud take the shape of a movie screen and slowly move towards him, finally absorbing him (“Fly on a Windshield”), seeing an explosion of images of the current day (“Broadway Melody of 1974”, the song’s title being a reference to MGM musical films of the same name, such as the 1936, 1938 and 1940 films) before he wakes up in an underground cave and falls asleep once again (“Cuckoo Cocoon”). Rael wakes up and finds himself trapped in a cage of stalactites and stalagmites which slowly close in towards him. As he tries to escape, he sees his brother John and calls for him, but John walks away and the cage suddenly disappears (“In the Cage”).
Rael now finds himself on the floor of a factory and is given a tour of the area by a woman, where he watches people being processed like packages. He spots old members of his New York City gang and John with the number “9” stamped on his forehead. Fearing for his life, Rael escapes into a corridor (“The Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging”)[31] and has an extended flashback of returning from a gang raid in New York City, (“Back in N.Y.C.”)[32] a dream where his hairy heart is removed and shaved with a razor, (“Hairless Heart”) and his first sexual encounter (“Counting Out Time”).[33] Rael’s flashback ends, and he finds himself in a long, red carpeted corridor of people crawling towards its exit via a spiral staircase (“Carpet Crawl”). At the top, he enters a chamber with 32 doors, surrounded by people and unable to concentrate. He finds a woman who leads him out of the chamber and into another cave, where he becomes trapped by falling rocks (“The Chamber of 32 Doors”, “Lilywhite Lilith”, “Anyway”). Rael encounters Death (“Here Comes the Supernatural Anaesthetist”) and escapes the cave.
Rael ends up in a pool with three Lamias, beautiful snake-like creatures and has sex with them, but they die after drinking some of his blood (“The Lamia”). He leaves and finds himself in a group of Slippermen, distorted, grotesque men who have all had the same experience with the Lamias, and finds that he has become one of them (“The Arrival”). Rael finds John among the Slippermen, who reveals that the only way to become human again is to visit Doktor Dyper and be castrated (“A Visit to the Doktor”). Both are castrated and keep their removed penises in containers around their necks. Rael’s container is taken by a raven and he chases after it, leaving John behind (“The Raven”). The raven drops the container in a ravine and into a rushing underground river. Rael walks alongside it, remembering his days in New York, until he sees John in the river, struggling to stay afloat. Despite being deserted twice by John, Rael dives in to save him (“The Light Dies Down on Broadway”, “Riding the Scree”). Rael rescues John and drags his body to the bank of the river and turns him over to look at his face, only to see his own face instead (“In the Rapids”). His consciousness then drifts between both bodies, and he sees the surrounding scenery melting away into a haze. Both bodies dissolve, and Rael’s spirit becomes one with everything around him (“it.”).
This one is Yes from 1973, Tales from Topographic Oceans.
It is based on the Vedic Scriptures. It contains 4 x 20 minute tracks, or journeys, each one unveiling expressions of Divine Experience.
“The Revealing Science of God” is based on the shruti class of Hindu scripture which Yogananda described as scriptures that are “directly heard” or “revealed”, in particular the Vedas.
SHRUTIS: The Revealing Science of God can be seen as an ever-opening flower in which simple truths emerge examining the complexities and magic of the past and how we should not forget the song that has been left to us to hear. The knowledge of God is a search, constant and clear.
“The Remembering” relates to the smriti, literally meaning “that which is remembered”. Yogananda wrote the smritis were “written down in a remote past as the world’s longest epic poems”, specifically the Mahabharata and Ramayana, two Indian epic poems. Anderson described it as “a calm sea of music” and aimed to get the band to play “like the sea” with “rhythms, eddies, swells, and undercurrents”.[
“The Ancient” is attributed to the puranas, meaning “of ancient times”, which contain eighteen “ancient” allegories. “Steve’s guitar”, wrote Anderson, “is pivotal in sharpening reflection on the beauties and treasures of lost civilisations.” The lyrics contain several translations of the word “Sun” or an explanation of the Sun from various languages
NOTE: Not for the faint of heart!
And this – is a thing called “RITUAL” –
“Ritual” relates to the tantras, literally meaning “rites” or “rituals”
It is rare to find others who love Yes Music, if you didn’t “grow up” with it, it may not be for you. But in sharing how I came to be a Seidr, I would be remiss if I did not give credit to the influence of the uplifting music and lyrics of Yes.
Each of these videos have suitable visuals for doing journey work.
Another one I cannot overlook is Yes, Awaken, 1977.
Jon Anderson: While I was in Switzerland I had a chance to read a book called The Singer, it’s about this Star Song which is an ageless hymn that’s sung every now and again and that inspired this song.
The book is The Singer by Calvin Miller. It’s an allegorical Christian novel.
To me, this song brings together prayer, hope, connection to the One & All, and the yoga practice of bringing the kundalini energy up through the spine (“Awaken Gentle mass Touch!” and “re-regaining the flower of the fruit of his tree”, and “re-release inhibitions so that all is left for you!”) to Awaken us – higher and higher.
Additionally, I have been informed by hubby that the chord sequence is a perfect “Wheel of 12,” which I have yet to learn – but when you speak to me of 12, you also speak to me of Medicine Wheel, the Zodiac, the Year, and the hours of the day. He wants to teach me the chords, and I’ll have to get back to you on what that is and how it might tie into the lore of the Medicine Wheel.
When I saw this live in 1991, I was not as familiar with it, and it felt like we entered a spaceship which took us to a marvellous land of beauty and truth, awe and splendor, and in that place, we were all One, we were all Alive and Awake.
To me now, it is an anthem, a call to Awaken.
I recognise that not everybody can enjoy Progressive Rock Music!
So here is something for everyone.
It is a journey from Alpha to Theta, through gentle, beautiful music.
Breathe with the music, feel your body relax, and at some point, the music will swell and offer you a gateway into theta consciousness (needed for Journey).
It is not long enough to offer a Journey, but I like the way this music gently guides you through relaxation and into Theta.
Kate Bush was very important for opening me to my understanding of Shamanic Death.
I’m going to try and share it here, using her music as illustration – but I am humbled in her work (and the work of the video artist MrMarrs), and hope to do it justice.
Language is not the best for describing inner states. Better with music, art, dance, expression. But I’ll try, here goes!
This is the playlist for the “Ninth Wave” Please skip the first 1:30, it’s some sort of intro which has nothing to do with this.
The story of the Ninth Wave is about a girl who skates on a frozen river, falls in and nearly dies. The Ninth Wave describes what she experiences in this Near Death State.
There are a number of reasons this feels more like a Shamanic Death (or Dark Night of the Soul) than an actual Near Death Experience (NDE)
Starting with “And Dream of Sheep”
(remember to skip the first 1:30, I think the filmmaker put that in to avoid copyright infringement)
This speaks to me of the innocence of waking slumber, of sleepwalking through life – hiding the things which hurt, comforting the pain, and hoping for the oblivion of sleep, pain-free living. It is innocent, but it is not healthy, either.
At 2:25, there is a storm brewing, an indicator that things are not well under the surface – there is weather, and it threatens the peacefulness of “sheep” (an image for following blindly) with a potential spiritual emergency.
At 3:00, the adult woman who was sleeping has become a vulnerable, frightened child (who wants to be soothed by the radio, “talking about stupid things.”). She has regressed, and the emergency is immanent.
I love the line, “I can’t be left to my imagination.” It is in feeling, thinking, letting the mind wander that we confront our demons. But she does fall, deeply into the water, and drops into her own bed.
I love the image of falling underwater into bed, asleep.
The poppies – represent to me the desire to numb, to escape.
And the song ends with her going deeper, and deeper (as if into trance).
“Under Ice”
The Spiritual Emergency is immanent.
All of the imagery of the first song (and this was before I saw Mr. Mars) was gentle, watery – but now it’s frozen over.
“The River has frozen over – under ice” The texture of Kate Bush’s voice here is so soft, tenuous, velvety.
You know the feeling. It’s something so monstrous that you have encased your heart in ice, locked the demon under the river. And you – skating fast along the surface – knowing that there are depths there – but you skate over the surface.
The raven comes into play in the video. Raven represents deep magick, connection to ancestral magick (I spell with a “k” because it’s not a stage trick, it’s real transformation).
There something under the ice – it’s moving. A threatening feeling – I get chills just thinking about it, hearing it again. It’s trying to get out of the cold water! Something – someone – help them!
Oh no! It’s me…
It’s me! (I am the monster, I am the demon, I created this Thing and now I must face it.)
I am dead on the ice. The raven is dead with me. It has begun. (the Shamanic Death).
and – there it is – the little voice: “Wake up!”
“Waking the Witch” WARNING: Creepy!
All the different voices saying “Wake up!”
Wake up wake up (and the Raven says, “You must wake up!”)
But the peace of death cannot last – you must wake up! And when you do – you will confront all of those fears, the darkness, the horror that is the wholeness of being human.
Most of all, you must confront what Karen Alexander, In “An Ancient Whisper” and “A Gift from Daniel”, calls “The Social Mind.” Carolyn Myss calls it the Tribal Mind – this is all of the conditioning which has been laid upon you from birth. It is a vital part of being a social animal – but it also overlays and scars your essential self.
All of that must be lifted in order to be born again, in order to identify with the Divine Self instead of the expectations of others, or even your individual self.
She hears chanting, and the Raven arrives in flight. “Look who’s here to see you!”
And the demon says to the dead girl: “YOU WON’T BURN. YOU WON’T BLEED. COME BACK TO ME GIRL.”
Note the “Wind and Water” theme – comes up in many of the key tracks of the sequence. I think this is personal to Kate Bush – how the wind, the water represent the fears of thought and emotion. It can be universal – but sometimes our fears are different.
She/I/we are confronted with the demon directly. “Red red roses, go down!”
We even see a woman go into a hole in the earth. This sequence has elements of Lower, Middle and Upper world. In Shamanic Death you must survive all three.
The demon says, “OY. THAT HURT!” I think she has decided she would rather be dead than do as the demon says.
So the demon takes it to the next level – horrible images of loved ones, suffering, entrapment, and the demon declares, “I QUESTION YOUR INNOCENCE,” and asks the chorus: “WHAT SAY YOU GOOD PEOPLE?” and the demon chorus declares, “GUILTY! GUILTY! GUILTY!”
It is this sequence which makes me certain that this is about Shamanic Death rather than Near Death Experience (NDE). In NDE, the judgement is released, and the person is taken to light and support and love. In Shamanic Death, you must defeat and integrate the Darkness – and this is definitely dark!
She/I/we must stand in the face of the accusations and pull out something whole – the Raven – the Soul – the Magick.
She cries out, “NOT GUILTY! Wake the Witch! Help this Blackbird!”
She chooses to LIVE. To embrace her whole self, her Magick, her Power.
And then hears the voice, “Get out of the Waves, get out of the Water!”
Interlude: I have been exploring the transformation of Demon into Daimon.
Historically, the Daimon was a Helper Spirit, an Inspiration, a Muse.
But as Christianity took over the old ways, the Daimon became a threat to the authority of the Church, and the Daimon was relegated to being a mere Demon.
In our Inner life, we have our Demons, our fears, our conditioning from the Social/Tribal mind.
But in exploring these Demons, we can transform them into Power and Inspiration.
Daimon – a mediator between the Earthly and the Divine.
Carolyn Myss talks about our Feelings as Guides which point us to our Divine Selves, our better selves. By listening to our Feelings (before we judge them into “emotions”) – those initial instincts – that tensing of the gut – we guide ourselves to our purest state.
The Daimon is a connection to that Divine, the ultimate Helper.
So – an example of transforming a Demon to a Daimon. I don’t like going out among people, and I still feel sometimes like I am driving in a foreign country. All of these sleeping people hurtling around in two-ton metal machines can make me fearful. I’ve been in nearly 15 automobile accidents over the course of my life, and I know that disaster can strike at any time.
The Demon here is fear, anxiety.
But the Daimon is Diligence, attention. Because of the Demon Fear, I pay greater attention. I take responsibility for my two-ton machine in the midst of the others with sleeping drivers – people who are distracted by phones, children, drama, relationships as they hurtle around in traffic. I watch out for all of them. I cannot do it all – but this Demon of fear (think adrenaline, fight, flight, heightened awareness) gives me the Daimon of Diligence to make me safer.
It’s no guarantee – there are no guarantees in this life.
But the transformation means that the Demon will not eat me alive – instead, like a tame dog, it has been given a job to do. The Daimon becomes useful, helpful, even essential.
This is a key piece to surviving Extreme States. It doesn’t really belong here in Music – but – it is a part of understanding the Ninth Wave sequence, in my opinion.
To Waking the Witch, to bringing our Selves into our Full Power.
Also an Interlude – a rest from the intensity of the last track.
Watching You Without Me:
I see this as a Middle world thing.
As far as she knows, she’s dead. Her body is there, but she is travelling the Middle World paths.
At 0:40, there are 2 ravens. For me, these mean Huginn and Munin, Thought and Memory, the Ravens which ride on Odin’s shoulders. Thought and Memory are like the hemispheres of our brain – rational ideas (thought) and intuition (memory). Both are required for intelligence. It’s just a flash, but it feels like synchronicity when I seem them.
It affirms that feeling that the filmmaker MrMarrs made this film for me. It’s not possible – he made it for himself – and yet (reading the comments, I’m not the only one), it is as though he has captured the feel and flavour of this journey. It must be a Common Human Experience, then. Synchronicity.
She looks around at her life, and it looks so comforting, even though she’s not there. She feels loved and missed. Her loved ones are worried, this time between times seems to drag on forever (“You watch the clock – the slow hand.”
“And I’m not here.”
She is a ghost in her own house. She can travel – but they can’t hear her, can’t see her.
At 2:19, the magick of the Middle World unfolds for her, creating her Totem, her Medicine, her Helper, the Raven. The raven has the moon in his left eye, and the sun in his right. Like Huginn and Muninn, he has integrated Thought and Memory.
At 2:49 The Raven takes flight, along with Kate Bush’s voice.
The stars obey commands, the whole world is infused with the amazing magick of life force. All life is touched with the same magick of the Raven.
At 3:39, the voice to “wake up! wake up!” calls out – but it’s fragmented. Is it enough to reach the (dead) sleeping girl?
He sends his Raven out.
Jig of Life
The Raven flies free – she/I/we embrace life again.
All that is familiar is a comfort – and yet it is new.
And the driving force within from the awakening – all the mysteries which were hidden before, are enlivened and appreciated in everyday life.
“Never never say goodbye to that part of your life!”
Integrate, accept – the depths are part of her/me/we. That driving force is the force to LIVE. The choice to live. After going through this, suicide has no power over you/her/us. You want life, you know why you are here, and you know what you want to do.
Your crises are not so important. You realise – “This moment in time, it doesn’t belong to you – it belongs To Me” (the Divine). When your awareness embraces the All, your little moment, your little dramas are grains of sand on a cosmic beach. Even the “one hand clapping” is enough to remind you of that All, associate with that All.
She/I/we fight our way to the surface. “C’mon let me live!”
You see the force of life – the magick of the flight of ravens becoming a wind of passion – flowing through all the cities and the countryside, connecting us all to that numinous experience – even the ones who are still asleep, are dancing the Jig of Life together. The beat of the jig – very much like a shaman’s drum.
At 3:00, the flowing life force finds a Witch, who, now freed from her restraints of the Social Mind and her Shadows – can choose what to do with the Moments. She can control time itself! (I’m still working on that one!)
The jig starts up again, and a man chants about dancing the life you’ve been given. He is joined by others, and the Witch realises she is not alone in her dance, she never has been, but now feels the intense connection she has with All Life, and the gift of this thing called Life.
Hello Earth
With this song, she is welcoming back her life. She has chosen life, and needs to find her way back to her body. She finds herself in astral travel, above the Earth.
The descent into the Underworld has brought her to a place of new awareness – a recognition of the tinyness of her life, her planet:
“With just one hand, held up high, I can blot you out – out of sight”
In returning to Earth, she realizes how vast and unknowable the world is, and this Mystery is what keeps her alive, keeps her present.
The Male Chorus in the middle is a beautiful Georgian folk song (a little bawdy), called “Tsintskharo.”
“Get out of the wind, get out of the water.” The time has come for her to return to the situation that threw her into the Shamanic Death, or the Near Death Experience.
The danger that started the crisis is still there – but she has seen the Earth as a tiny thing, and she has faced her Darkness, integrated her Shadow, and she can now face the danger – and get help. “Why did I go?”
The music becomes serene, as she drifts to the surface, returning to her body.
She whispers (in German): “Tiefer, tiefer, irgendwo in der tiefe. Gibt es ein licht?” which means: “Deeper, deeper, somewhere deep. Is there a light?”
She has been deeper, she has seen the darkness, and it is this knowledge, this awakening which enables her to follow the Light.
The Morning Fog
Now that she is returned to life, she is much more appreciative of what life has to offer her.
“You know what? I love you better now”
“I kiss the ground
Tell my mother
Tell my father
Tell my lover
I Tell my brother – how much I love them!”When you go through the Wave, into the darkness – into the Shamanic Death – the return is ecstatic, and the dew on a leaf, the buzz of an insect, the returning of senses, of breath, of life. Even if you forget what happened in the deep – the appreciation of Life is enough to sustain, to motivate, to bring the fire to the surface.
To love.
I’m trying to go easy on you, really I am, but here is
Todd Rundgren and Utopia, performing an uplifting little ditty (only 18 minutes long!) called
“Singring and the Glass Guitar”
What is marvellous about this (besides the virtuosity of the players)
Is the story.
Harmony – the world was in Harmony
But Harmony was broken
And the Heroes had to go on a Quest –
Through the Medicine Wheel
Air, Water, Fire, Earth
(that’s East, South, West, North – the way the wheel is often opened in the Northern Hemisphere)
And as they conquer each of the elements – they gain a key.
All of the keys together unlock Harmony (Spirit)
and Balance is restored.
It reminds me of the balance of the Medicine Wheel, and how all parts are important to make up the whole, and they must be in balance with each other.
I’d rather attract and charm and love the elements than conquer them like the song – but – it was an early piece of my education in the Medicine Wheel (this song is from 1977!)
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