Cave
Of The Jaguar
This album is a vaguely programmatic montage of music tracks that are sometimes
deeply introspective and, at other times, dramatic and intense while still
remaining ambient in nature. I don’t intend to tell a particular story
with the music here, just suggest certain moods and settings that, taken as
a whole, tend to illuminate the base story of the shamanic dream I had about
the Cave of the Jaguar. This dream (retold here)
is a true story that happened to me on a 2002 trip while seeking a ‘vision
quest’ in the deep deserts of Utah and New Mexico.
By “remaining ambient in nature,” I mean that traditional melody
and harmony structures and traditional instrumentation are not prominent -
in fact rather avoided - in favor of a more subtle mix of mood and atmosphere.
When melodic elements or rhythmic elements occur, they tend to be repetitive
and flowing. This keeps things smoother and lets the listener’s mind
enter more readily into the soundworld being presented. It also allows for
a certain level of “entrainment” for those interested in meditative
practices or shamanic journeying.
In fact, the loose theme of the entire album is one of an extended shamanic
journey - that is, a spiritual/mental journey into another non-ordinary realm
of existence where the laws of nature are often quite different from our everyday
reality. From time immemorial, shamans in all native cultures have made such
journeys to effect healings and learn needed information to help their people.
Track 1
Moving Above It
The introductory track begins the shamanic journey in a distinctly entraining rhythm pattern that might depict one’s “flight” above the ordinary reality and into a higher realm. There is great energy and power involved in such journeys, and the mood, while neither sad nor ebullient, is appropriately contemplative.
Track 2
Passing Under
The shaman can journey above to higher realms, or below, to lower ones. Here, the pathway goes below, into underground passages that lead their watery way to some other reality in space and time.
Track 3
Gazing at the Reddened Sun
This piece has an eastern feel that serves as a meditation on the setting sun. It speaks of vast timelessness, but an eternity which is caught up in the essential nowness of that solar event.
Track
4
Unexpected Clearing
The clearing here is subjective. It might be literal, like a clearing in the forest, or it might be an unexpected insight or understanding or perception within the shaman’s journey.
Track
5
Cave of the Jaguar
The
title track is more closely tied to the story of the shamanic dream I had
on my vision quest. Again, however, it is not meant to be literal, but rather
a mood-setting for that dream.
The piece plays out in two distinct, yet structurally similar sections. Film
music for the soul!
Track
6
Asleep but Awake
Perhaps the most “ambient” piece in the album, this is a floating meditation that speaks of the peaceful, yet powerful, state of mind experienced when the voyager is fully engaged in his or her journey. In trance states, the individual may seem to be asleep while actually actively working and perceiving in a nonordinary realm.
Track
7
Ritual
A challenging piece that takes us deep into a spiritual state through the common catalyst of a tribal ritual. Percussive striking and rattles are tools used by the shaman to build up a state of meditation and nonordinary perception. We journey there and find the truths that were hidden.
Track
8
A Place Inside
The place we come to in our journeying is always a place inside – a special place that seems subjective and yet more real than ordinary reality.
Track
9
Another Geometry
The final track is the aural setting for and takes its name from a poem titled, “Truth In A Strange Land.” The poem is printed in the CD booklet, and I will give it here as well:
Truth in a Strange Land
Truth alone shall appease this needful thirst.
Aloof and intimate.
Content with only that roaring revelation -
Hard and cold.
It stings like disappointment - the price
extracted from my past.
Closing and opening.
Deep and serious mystery. Clear light glory!
Laid out before me - seeker and supplicant to
That God only.
I shed my dear beliefs as rent clothing
slipping from straining muscles.
Naked.
The new Truth is old. Shining and disturbing.
Old and very new.
Raw-nerved, I reach forward to hold, delicately,
The next awe -
An unexpected vista stretching on to newer rules.
Another geometry.
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Please put "Jaguar"
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Thanks!!
