Act IV ~ Loving The Wetikó
Episode Music ~ The Purest Part
Means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek.
-Martin Luther King, Jr.-
He alone loves the Creator perfectly who manifests a pure love for his neighbor.
–The Venerable Bede–
To begin at the beginning…let us take a journey in the “WAAAAAY Back Machine!”
The seeds of this song’s musical origins were implanted in my mind while I was still living in San Antonio, Texas…all the waaaay back in 2014!
Two ideas were offered to me…by two separate friends…both of whom are, in my opinion, masterful guitar players.
The first seed, was the idea that musical composition does not have to follow any specific rules.
At the time, I was FAR less proficient with my guitar playing and my friend wanted me to understand that I REALLY did not need to know very much at all to make a song.
In fact, he explained as he demonstrated on his guitar, one can create a song by playing a single chord and then modifying that chord by simply pulling off and/or hammering on!
“Pulling off,” means lifting a finger off a string while playing…which changes the sound that string makes while it is still vibrating. “Hammering on,” is when one does the opposite, bringing a free finger down onto a string, to modify the tone that the string is emitting.
So…in varying a single chord by pulling off and/or hammering on…a song can “easily” be created without having to know much more about playing guitar.
He usually…effortlessly…created songs in the moment, singing about whatever it was that was inspiring him to pick up his guitar and start playing…usually incorporating elements of the conversation we were just having…mixed with humorous references to broad-sweeping metaphors, various items in the room, the angle of the sun outside, and/or other…seemingly mundane or peripheral…details of the environment in which we found ourselves.
With 40+ years of experience playing…the guitar just seemed like an extension of his body!
He always had me…and whomever else might be there to witness his impromptu performances…laughing out loud at his witty and insightful lyrics, combined with simply beautiful guitar playing. He wasn’t doing it to “be” somebody…he already knew exactly who he was.
He was just being himself…and we all Loved it!
It was Pure!
The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship.
–William Blake–
Looking back over the various experiences I shared with him before moving to California…at the end of 2014…I feel that his underlying intention with our friendship, besides always sharing guitar wisdom when we got together, was to encourage a spark of confidence and passion within me…so that I would not get too discouraged or “put off” by the musical learning process and…simultaneously…so that I would enjoy the journey more, in general. He is a wonderful teacher and friend…but I digress!
The other seed…offered by the other masterful guitar-playing mentor/friend…was the idea that there is something “special” about the “C” chord.
Meow, this idea is exclusively his perspective and is not based on anything “scientific”…as far as I know…but he once said that when one plays the C chord (He said this as he strummed the C chord once on his guitar.)…that the sound travels from your guitar to the other side of The Universe and back in an instant!
This…he explained…was due to the essential energetic positioning that “C” holds in all of creation.
Again, no way to prove this, but somehow…to me…what he said that day just made sense. It may have just been his endearing and charismatic delivery, as he relayed this concept to me, but the seed was planted.
It was then approximately three years of me mostly doing my best to NOT make a song at all!
Occasionally…during those years…when I picked up the guitar, I found myself simply playing the C chord and thinking about the sound going to the other side of The Universe and back…over and over again.
Then…over some time…I started using my pinky finger…which is not initially being used when one plays the C chord…to hammer-on the various strings I could reach while holding the chord…those being the high E, B, G, and D strings.
Annnnnd, at some point, I started to enjoy the sound of moving my pinky from high E down to B, and then the G, and then to the D string…and that was it…just a progression of hammer-ons, as I played only the C chord over and over again.
Later still, after playing the various hammer-ons with my pinky, I then added a pull-off of my index finger…which covers the B string when one is playing the C chord.
SUUUUUPER EXCITING and fancy…HIGHLY technical artistry…I know…I know!!! 😉 😉
Then…yeeeeears later…okay it was only a year or two later…while visiting my family in Maryland, at the end of November 2017, my nephew…1 Earth Leo01…being an excellent guitar player in his own right…provided the final musical seed!
As he patiently listened to my hammer-on/pull-off progression of the C chord…he said that he felt something was missing and mimicked my chord progression on his guitar a few times. Then, he switched to the A minor chord and did a similar hammer-on/pull-off progression, while holding that chord for a moment.
Something shifted inside of me that…within the context of this being a birth process…was akin to a baby’s kicking in the womb!
It just sounded perfect to me in that moment…going from C to A minor…and I felt the tendrils of something stirring in the ether.
As it turned out, it was less than a month later that the entire musical progression of the song unfolded…while I was on The Big Island in Hawaii for my birthday!
This was my first visit to Paradise on Earth…which is how I feel about Hawaii meow that I’ve been there.
Well…The Big Island anyway, since that’s the only island I’ve experienced…so far!
I immediately fell in Love as soon as I walked out of the airport. I noticed an overwhelmingly familiar and deeply “soul-calling” feeling once I landed on The Big Island…even before I had my rental car, I was buzzing with excitement for where I found myself in those precious present moments!
Being a Sagittarian during the month of Sagittarius…I was FIRED UP!
I felt like I was in a dream…FOR SURE!
I had NO idea how profoundly I would be affected by the energy I sensed on that island!
During the week I was there, literally every single place I went on The Big Island…I felt like I was coming home…even though I’d never been there before…in THIS lifetime anyway!
I have a strong sense that I’ll live on that island someday…
Probably most people would like to visit Hawaii…but I certainly had always wanted to go…someday…
Why I chose to do so for the first time…for my 43rd birthday, in December of 2017, was highly motivated by the fact that my favorite artist…Nahko Bear…was playing not once, but twice in two days!
On December 14th, he had a concert scheduled on the eastern side of The Big Island…in a sweet little coastal town NAMEd, “Hilo”…and then again on December 15th (My birthday!) in Kona…an equally sweet little coastal town on the western side of the island.
After seeing Nahko play in November of 2017…a month earlier…I looked at the rest of his tour dates and when I saw that not only was he playing on my birthday…but IN HAWAII!!!!…yeah…it was a “no-brainer” for me that I was gonna be there!
Synchronously, this decision was made during Scorpio…in mid-November…and when I shared my plans with two of my friends…both of whom happen to be Scorpios…they both, separately, asked if they could join me!
I honestly wasn’t planning to ask anyone to come with me…I was just excited to go!
So it was a beautiful gift from The Universe, from my perspective, that two of my good friends wanted to join me!
Little did I know that one of those two friendships was going to end the day after my birthday!
If you ask pretty much anyone who lives on The Big Island, they’ll likely tell you about the legend of Pele, the Goddess of volcanoes, lightening and fire…who inhabits and, in fact, is continuously creating The Big Island…as the lava has been dropping off the edge of the southeastern portion of the island and into the ocean…since 1983…creating new land as the water and lava meet…
…all four elements working together to generate new Earth!
Energetically/metaphorically-speaking, fire is the great purifier…removing anything that is not True and Pure…Spiritually-speaking.
So…as it turned out…while my friendship with one of the two Scorpios (3 Reed Scorpio85) was True and Pure…the other friendship (3 Serpent Scorpio93) was not…and so, Pele burned that energy right out of my life! Sat NAM!, Pele! Thank you for Your Pure Divine Truth!
Go To The Volcano!
All three of us were VERY excited to “I Mua” (“To Go Forth”) to Mauna Kea the day after my birthday!
It was one of the anticipated highlights of our trip, to reach the observatory on the summit…which was our goal that evening…to see the stars while standing on top of the tallest mountain on the planet…if you count the height from the sea floor…~33,500 feet below our feet!
As we left the Airbnb, I put the following Nahko song on in the car and…as we pulled out of the driveway…we all excitedly whispered the first line of the song, “Go to the volcano!“
Nahko is whispering of Mauna Kea in this song…so…yeah…we were “fired up”…pun intended!
After driving for a couple hours, from the western coast into the center of the island, we came to the turn-off which ascends the dormant volcano and…after another 20 minutes or so of winding up the mountainside…we found the road blocked off for the night, as the entire peak was shrouded in clouds!
We were expecting something more like this…
But after pulling off into a dirt parking lot for a few moments…we accepted defeat.
My friendship with 3 Serpent Scorpio93 began ending, synchronously, only moments after we surrendered our efforts to reach the summit!
As I started to drive back down the dirt road leading out of the parking lot…I drove over some dips and bumps a little faster than was necessary and 3 Serpent Scorpio93 let me know how unhappy she was about that.
After we got back onto the paved road, I quietly pulled over, parked the car, and got out so that she could drive…which she happily took on and we drove home…me sitting in the back seat and the two Scorpios up front.
There is a significant amount of context and backstory needed, here, to properly explain why this moment was the beginning of the end of our friendship…but that’s not relevant to the Spirit of this piece. Suffice it to say…it was a very emotional experience for all three of us.
The next morning, still bummed about how she’d reacted the evening before, I felt like starting my day alone with my guitar and I secluded myself to a little spot in the grass on the front of the property where we were renting. It was a beautiful view, looking down across the lush mountainside to the ocean…maybe 3 or 4 miles away and probably 800 to 1,000 feet below.
I began “noodling” with the C chord hammer-on/pull-off progression mentioned above and then I began incorporating the A minor chord that my Nephew added a few weeks earlier…with the same progression. Soon, I felt the need for another chord and I chose F…using the same hammer-on/pull-off progression as the previous two chords.
Liking the way it sounded…I then added the G chord.
I didn’t know it at the time…but with those four chords, I’d discovered the entire guitar part of the song…laid out before me in a matter of moments…after nearly 4 years of “slow cooking” inside me.
I started playing those four chords…with the progression for each…over and over again. It just sounded beautiful to me in that place…at that time…and I could feel that it was soothing my pain and sadness.
Then…while I was progressing through the F chord…without any effort or intention on my part, the first line of the song spiraled through me!
Not the line that ended up being first IN the song…but the first lyrics of the song…when none were there in my mind moments before.
Considering it had only been about 10 minutes since the idea presented itself to me to play the four chords with the progressions…it hadn’t yet occurred to me that I had a new song…much less that there would then be lyrics to accompany the music!
While I was playing, I was thinking about the emotional pain I was feeling..the “sting” of Scorpio… and how I wasn’t going to allow it to ruin the rest of my time in Hawaii. That…instead…I was going to channel this burning energy so that it would fire me up further…to “ride the burn” inside of me to a higher place.
And then…
Scorpio’s burning ascends us up into the stars.
Just that one line…another seed being planted in my mind!
It was about a month later, in January of 2018, that the reaming lyrics came through me in the span of a few days…maybe a week total…and the complete song manifested itself into my reality!
After returning from Hawaii, I kept playing those four chords, with the hammer-on/pull-off progression for each, over and over again…and the lyrics simply spilled through.
It was SO obviously not coming FROM me…but THROUGH me…that I merely witnessed all of it…similar to my experience while the Cosmic Flow lyrics spiraled through me a few months earlier, in September of 2017 (Episode Music ~ Cosmic Flow).
The difference, in this case, was that these lyrics spiraled through me across a number of days vs. how it happened in a few hours with Cosmic Flow.
Partially inspiring the context of the song’s message, another friend…7 Storm Cancer83…was staying with me during this time.
She already wasn’t a fan of 3 Serpent Scorpio93, so I imagine it wasn’t hard for her to be consoling of my lost friendship…but something about the comfort I felt in returning home to my Cancer friend’s gentle warmth…I feel…nurtured the idea of Cancer’s energy embodying the role of “savior”…emotionally-speaking.
And…thus…
Cancer, my savior, you generate Love for this “start“
Once this line came through me…I knew the song was going to somehow be incorporating all three of the water signs from Western Astrology.
Cancer
Scorpio
Pisces
As I played the chord progressions and began attempting to match the in-spiraling lyrics to the music…I also realized that some of the lessons I’d learned over the years, regarding the “modes” or “qualities” of the Zodiac…Cardinal, Fixed, and Mutable…were also going to be central within the song. (Episode Astrology, Section A, Part 3 ~ The Qualities of Creation: Cardinal, Fixed, & Mutable.)
Not knowing it at the time…the Hawai’ian lyrics in the chorus actually manifested earlier on that fateful, friendship-ending, day…while I was still in Hawaii…
…before we drove to Mauna Kea…
…before the “Scorpio storm” that evening!
Since it was not until the next day that I realized I had a song…these Hawai’ain phrases were not lyrics to me just yet.
Needless to say, getting to see Nahko perform on my birthday was very special. Anyone who knows his music will recognize that the second line in the chorus for this song…
Aloha Ke Akua
…was inspired by his song of the same NAME!
The next morning after the concert, the family we were renting from…Airbnb-style…offered for us to join them at a nearby beach they thought we’d enjoy.
As we walked onto the sand from the parking lot, I noticed an elderly native Hawai’ain woman sitting at a picnic table to the right of the entrance to the beach.
Inexplicably, I was drawn to go speak with her and…in the course of our conversation…she explained that she was sitting there that morning to educate anyone that cared to speak with her and listen.
She explained that she was a “Wahi Kūpuna” – “Wahi” (wrapper/protection) “Kūpuna” (cultural history/ancestors). She was protecting the cultural history…by sharing its truth as often as possible.
She taught me that all of us are “Keiki O Ka Aina” (KK o k-I-Nay) “Children of The Land.”
She taught me about their concept of “Ho’ohanohano” – The value of integrity, and to conduct yourself with honor, distinction and respectfulness in all that you do.
And, when I explained to her that I had learned a few Hawaii words during my short time on the island and from listening to my favorite artist (Nahko)…since he sometimes sings in Hawai’ain…she explained their concept of “Kuleana,” when I mentioned that word.
This word was familiar to me from Nahko’s song above, as well, but I hadn’t learned its meaning until I met this mysterious Wahi Kūpuna woman.
“Kuleana” means “responsibility.” Kuleana encourages us to be accountable for all that we do. It is the “ability to respond” to whatever is happening.
Already knowing that “Mahalo” is how Hawai’ians say, “Thank you,” I asked her how to say, “You’re welcome,” and she explained that in the Hawai’ian language, they did not have words that were a direct translation for “You’re welcome.”
She explained further, that what they say instead is, “Mahalo nuiloa.” This translates to “Thank you back to you.”
At the time, I did not know why her words felt so important for me to grasp…but I actually pulled out my phone and made notes about each of the phrases as she shared them with me.
Sitting with the completed song a month later…it was astonishing, confirming, and beautiful to me, to look back at the path that led to the formation of the lyrics and the messages spiraling through this piece.
Another integral aspect of this song’s message, spirals through a series of lessons that have been central to navigating the emotional dimension of my Spiritual awakening and Spiritual purification journeys…that being…the concept known as “The Precession of The Equinoxes”…which is also known as “The Great Year”…and where we find ourselves in the longer arc of HIStory.
Specifically, the current shift we are living through, as we move from The Age of Pisces into The Age of Aquarius. (Coming Soon! Act II, Episode Seven ~ 10,000 BC: Before And Beyond…The Ever-Spiraling “Great Year!”)
And lastly…but CERTAINLY not leastly…the NAME! of the song was co-inspired by the concept of the emotional Spiritual Purification process…distilling ourselves down to “The Purest Part“…AND it was co-inspired by that “other” significant Scorpio who traveled with me to Hawaii…the Pure and True friendship that Pele blessed and honored when we came before Her…as the other was burned away…
As you may have noticed, I do not include the given NAME! of those who appear in my pieces…instead I combine their Mayan Astrology with their Zodiac Sun Sign and their birth year. So she is 3 Reed Scorpio85.
But the meaning of her given NAME! translates as “Pure!”
So, as I was deciding on the title for the song…she spiraled into my awareness and the discernment I had in that moment, was that it was highly important to honor her in the song’s NAME!
After all…she is the one who introduced me to Nahko’s music, in April of 2017!
So without her Pure and True influence in my life…I likely would not have even been in Hawaii for my birthday later that year!!!
Sat NAM!, 3 Reed Scorpio85, I LOVE YOU!!!
Please click on the YouTube video below to enjoy the lyric video for The Purest Part! I recommend watching it in “full-screen mode!” 😉
If you would like to download an mp3 of this song, please click the download button below:
The Purest Part
Werds & Music By: NAME!
I was brought here to learn how to fly
Unfurl my wings and open my Third Eye
Flower of Gaia my soul spirals into the sky
So high
To end this “Age Old Fight”
It is our Sacred RIGHT
To lift up off this hallowed ground
Our Mother’s gift of flight
Sends us to Father’s Heights
We soar to roar our grateful sounds
Rising to shine by design…an emotional art
Reveals The Purest Part
Keiki O Ka Aina
Mahalo Nuiloa
Alhoa Ke Akua
Ho’ohanohano a kuleana
Hawai’ian energy
Mystically transformed my heart
Showed me The Purest Part
Although my tears still show
At least I finally know
We are not meant to see their start
After I’m torn apart
Emotion overflows to heal
The Death within my heart
Cancer, my savior, You generate Love for this “Start”
Creation’s “Hard Part”
Keiki O Ka Aina
Mahalo Nuiloa
Alhoa Ke Akua
Ho’ohanohano a kuleana
Cancer Your energy
Mystically transforms my heart
Creates The Purest Part
The sting might swell and grow
But then I know you know
This pain is meant to take us far
The fires rage inside
Fixating Trust aligns
To form another Divine Spark
Scorpio’s burning ascends us up into the stars
So far
Keiki O Ka Aina
Mahalo Nuiloa
Alhoa Ke Akua
Ho’ohanohano a kuleana
Scorpio energy
Mystically transforms my heart
Fixing The Purest Part
Washin’ it all away into a spiral haze
We simply cannot hold too tight
The time has come to know
What we choose not to show
Is never hidden from Her Sight
Pisces’ Age ends with intent and with Love for our hearts
Mutation’s “Our” Part
Keiki O Ka Aina
Mahalo Nuiloa
Alhoa Ke Akua
Ho’ohanohano a kuleana
Piscian energy
Mystically transforms my heart
Spirals me back to the start
No need for thoughts here
We are stars made of light
Intuitively guided from an etheric “Night”
Wings spread beyond my head
Descending straight from the sky
After ascending so high
Keiki O Ka Aina
Mahalo Nuiloa
Alhoa Ke Akua
Ho’ohanohano a kuleana
Emotional Waters I sail
For my transforming heart
Becoming…
Becoming…
Becoming The Purest Part
P.S. ~ Synchrony With Intention ~ Energetic Alignment
Synchronicity is an ever–present reality for those who have eyes to see it.
–Carl Jung–
Today is November 26th, 2021. On the Mayan Tzolk’in calendar, today is 3 Wind.
As you may already know, the Tzolk’in is a 260-day, never-ending “energetic tracking system,” spiraling through time. You can learn more about it here, if you wish!
Abundant synchrony! That is what I’m feeling this morning, as I write the closing section for this piece.
I prefer to compose the “Synchrony With Intention” section of my pieces ON the day of publication…so I can feel the energy of the day, as I write about it.
As it states in the images above, both 3 and Wind involve communication. So today’s combination of energies is akin to a double dose of Divine Communication! 3‘s communication is often described as “hearing the vibration of our inner voice” vs. external communication with others.
As this song’s central message is about our emotions and the Spiritual Purification process we can choose to engage related to the emotional dimension of life…today feels like THE purrrrrfect day to publish this piece and the accompanying YouTube video.
Whatever else we may think about our emotions…fundamentally, they are energy in motion within us. (E–motion).
Emotions move us and, it is my perspective, that what we feel in our emotions, is literally Spirit moving through us.
Thus, they are the inner vibrations of Spirit that we are designed and tuned to experience and, potentially, to express. This, in my understanding, is the essence of what 3 teaches us…how to tune ourselves into the messages that Spirit moves through us! How to align with and…thus…how to purify ourselves through e–motion!
Synchrony across multiple Astrological systems!
Switching Astrological systems to Western Astrology…and then shifting into the 13 constellation system vs. the 12 sign system of the Zodiac, another synchrony is revealed!
As you can see in the image above, the 13th constellation of the Zodiac, Ophiuchus, overlaps both Scorpio and Sagittarius…but mostly it overlaps Scorpio. In fact, as you can see, Ophiuchus’ right foot is placed firmly on the back of the scorpion of the Scorpio constellation!
Ophiucan Astrology, as I have come to NAME! it, shifts all of the “traditional” 12 sign dates around…usually an immediate source of distaste and distrust from those who have not been introduced to this version of the Zodiac.
Where 12 sign Astrology equally divides the signs into 30 degree segments for each sign, Ophiucan Astrology uses the size of the actual constellation, as it appears in the sky, to assign the number of degrees.
Thus, as you can see in the image above, Scorpio…being a relatively small constellation in the night sky…shrinks down from 30 days in “traditional” Astrology to only 6 days in Ophiucan Astrology! Not only that, the dates for Scorpio move from 10/24 through 11/22…in “traditional” Astrology…to beginning on 11/23 and ending on 11/29 in Ophiucan Astrology!
Sooooooo, while “traditional” Scorpio ended four days ago…today also happens to be the exact center day of Ophiucan Scorpio!
As this song’s origin and message are heavily related to the 3 stages of Scorpio (Episode Scorpio ~ Take Flight Or Continue To Fight) and since the first lyric that manifested specifically references the third stage of Scorpio, The Phoenix, which…in my view…IS Ophiuchus…it feels Divinely synchronous to be publishing this piece during the “super short” 6 days of Ophiucan Scorpio!
Sat NAM! and Mahalo, Great Spirit!
Sat NAM! and Mahalo, Pachamama and Papa Cielo!
Sat NAM! and BEYOND, My Beautiful Human Family!
I truly hope you enjoy this song…from my heart to your heart. From my heart to the other side of The Universe and back…in an instant!
Next Piece: Episode Music ~ Strawberry Skies
Back To: Act IV, Episode Music ~ The Ultimate Expression Of Art
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