Lake Night Stereo

I roll myself a nice fat spliff; then with coat of long canvas like
material and me mate Ben - step out the door; slapping on my 'tranced
out' tape - to begin long stoned musical walk heading for the lake. The
sky is clear, with stars like ancient diamonds, telling me about lost
knowledge: days long gone when man built stone circles to map and
commune with the earth. I walk past old church of statue vibes, hear
that sorrowful angel calling me, feel sad in reply. Then head down
creepy haunted lane. Into dark woods illumined just by the grace of the
stars and the moon; the woodland path like a journey into another
world. Two trees grow side by side, the same height, same species, yet
there is a gap between them just wide enough to let me through. A fairy
gate it is, a portal to the underworld. It takes me to grassy silver
birch hilltop; where before me I see a great dual carriageway that
traverses a river and the cars zooming up and down it, even at this
late hour. Their red and white tail/head lights create an optical
illusion of two seperate streams flowing side by side in different
directions. I stop to ponder this for a moment and roll another spliff.
Then descend from woodland hill to a little wooden bridge. It stands
silent and still, yet I get the ominous feeling a troll is waiting
beneath it; waiting for poor old Billy Goats Gruff to pay his toll;
like those corporate business men do with their tolls. Tolls and
trolls...

Then I begin to feel very stoned, and the vibes here make me wanna
walk a bit quicker. I start to feel like I'm in another world, at times
a bit darker, creepier; at other times full of ethereal light, just
depending on which realm I focus on the most. Strange shadows dance to
the music coming from my 'tranced out' tape, which only I can hear, or
can I? Can the whole world hear it too? Even though it's in my
headphones. Whoa what a cool thought man, but no it's just me, I know
this, however convincing that thought might like to be - I am an
introspective listener tonight.

The beats go deep into my head... so deep... deep... deep... deep deep
deep down deep deep down deep deep deep down deep deep down down down
deep deep down...

How does music work? I don't know, I don't understand it; yet at the
same time I do understand it, as bizarre as that statement may
sound.

How can electricity produce such haunting melodies?

"Ar but not all haunting melodies are created by electricity, " I say
out loud to the night sounding like a nutter.

I mean man hasn't always had electric. Man hasn't always had hifi
stereos and electric guitars, synthesizers, walkman's, mp3's and
playstation 2's. No for many years man went without.

Maybe music began with the stars, when the celestial bodies danced all
waltz like and circular. Like that geyser Pythagoras reckons...

But I reckon it all started like this, and I could be wrong here so
don't take this to be fact, it is based on fiction; and is just the
insane imaginings/ramblings of a 27 year old poet wannabe.

Well for me, the closest and most romantic tale of how the world was
created comes from J.R.R Tolkien in the very beginning of his book:
'The Silmarillion' and this is the tale which I like to think is the
true one. It's the only one that felt like the real thing to me, like
coca cola is the real thing - not talking diet coke man. I mean like
the real macoy potato crisps; but don't let that jabber jabber convince
you, form your own ideas, this is just my opinion like.

Anyway this tale briefly involves a being called: Eru. A bit like our
God in the bible; who is alone, thinking, meditating, and whatever it
is that God's like to do. Anyway he decides in the end to divide up his
thought and from each part of his mind creates these beings called the
Ainur: a bit like the angels in the bible, lots of them. They all stand
newly created before God, and begin to sing one by one. At first they
sing alone a bit unsure of everyone else, but as they grow to
understand one another, they sing more and more in unison; and as they
sing in unison: the universe gets created - and that's why it's called:
uni-verse.

Stars are formed, gases made, big bangs happen, planets get started;
till eventually we've got our titchy little planet: earth, going round
and round the sun. The angels begin to sing into being the rocks and
the sea, sing into being plants, animals, myriads and myriads of
biological life forms. Till finally humanity lies sleeping in the clay
of a field; and the angels stop singing and grow quiet suddenly. God
stands up at this point and declares that human beings are his precious
children, and that he wants them to find out who they are on their own;
he wants them to do this through exploring the physical universe the
angels have just created. (the angels are really God though, because
they are the personification of his thoughts.) So he breathes a bit of
his spirit into humanity and they all open their eyes and come to
life.

And so his children - humanity, walk upon this earth and some learn how
to create beautiful melodies together, start to discover more about
themselves and each other; whilst others grow a bit dark in thought and
want to control their brothers and sisters and the music; believing
that being in control of the music will give them power over
everything; but rarely does, for the music cannot be controlled really,
only channelled.

So humanity begins a new kind of melody, and it is a harsh melody of
man fighting against man. And God in his wisdom and hindsight knew this
might happen, but cannot interfere, for he knows they must all learn to
come together and be one, and they must come to this realization
themselves. So he watches with tears in his eyes, watches each musical
story unfold. Sees people suffer and die; answers prayers occasionally
- one's he feels have good cause; but mainly answers in ways that push
people to walk in the right direction, without interfering too much
with their growth and development. Sometimes there are people who beg
him for some kind of guidance; so he sends messengers to help them.
Then weeps when some of the messengers get killed and humiliated by the
control freaks. He tries to contain his anger, sometimes unable to,
sometimes unleashing fury on his children, usually in some way shape or
form to try and humble them, to bring them back into the reality of the
spirit and the elements. At times his judgements can be very harsh and
not easy to understand.

And for most of the time his children are just wandering lost in their
own labyrinth world of politics and money, a world they created for
themselves to escape from nature; lost in lies and deciet unable to see
they can be so much more.. if they would just listen.. only listen to
his spirit as it tries to communicate with them. He can't interfere
though and so he waits and waits patiently for that day to come. That
day he knows will come, the day when his children will grow up to
become Gods, people like himself, adult entities of pure mind; cause
you see I think maybe God is into cell division, you know: go forth and
multiply he said. Perhaps he wants to multiply himself - perhaps each
one of us is creating a whole new universe with our minds right now;
one's governed by our thoughts, perhaps oneday we will be strong enough
to rule our universes with knowledge and wisdom.

Yes and oneday maybe when he feels he has had enough, he will gather
all the angels, all his children, and have them stood before him; and
then they will all sing a song with one heart and soul, and he will
show how all the things that have ever happend since the universe began
have an important purpose: which is to create this new music, which
will be the most powerful music ever; yeah and it will be like a full
on rave party and everyone will be off it, nutted and having a good
time; dancing and singing and feeling that great feeling that comes
from being together and being free, sailing those psychedelic seas as
one crew; and from this music a new universe will be born and all
things will go there: humanity, angels and God - everything will become
one.

Yeah the beats go deep into my head.

I arrive at the lake, it's surface shining and glistening in the
neon/moon light. I sit down on a nearby parkbench, roll myself another
spliff and gaze into the lake. The consciousness of the world is
reflecting it's pictures back at me in the water. The trance beats in
my head giving me surreal visuals and patterns. I turn off the
headphones for a moment... and... Ah the music of the night greets me -
a slow silent lament of speedy energy and soft euphoria. The wind
speaks of forgotten memories and future prophecies; speculates that the
future is never fixed; the future is constantly being shaped by us, as
we dream our way through the story of life. The wind, how I love the
wind.

I start to sense another world here, another reality weaved secretly
into this one. It is a great pool of mind; containing strong telepathy,
and unconscious seas are contained deep within every atom: Great
Spirit, God, Universal mind, interwoven into the fabric of our human
world, our human nature. I see for a brief moment the wiring underneath
the board, and how it all works.

I stand up feeling a bit strange suddenly, I'm getting over-cosmic and
I need to calm down. I look around for some sort of anchor. Something
to calm my mind, help me back to reality. And it's with the trees, the
trees I find my anchor - they pull me to them, call me with their
voices and their branches. I ask if it's ok to sit with one, I feel a
peace about doing so. And I sit there in silence, feel a connection
with my earth nature. With my warrior nature, I am a warrior. I
remember. I feel my energy go deep into the ground like the roots of a
tree, exchange with the energy of mother earth. I see a vision of an
eagle flying in my mind's eye, and I hear the tree speak to me, it
says: that the eagle is me, and that I should not be afraid of
anything, that I am just beginning to find my wings.

I thank the tree for being kind enough to share this insight with me.
I remember reading long ago that it is good to give something back in
return to nature when you take from it - as it balances out the energy;
so I sprinkle mixed herbs round it's trunk and as I leave I feel a warm
glow inside. And I notice everywhere there are trees, standing silent
and watching, and I sense they have great power, great telepathic
abilities, almost as if they are God himself watching us. The standing
people, our elder brothers and sisters of the nature riddle.

How marvellous is the tree. How truly blessed of all things. Strong and
useful, it's wood do we take, but how often do we ask the tree if we
can take from it? Yet it sacrifices itself for us, lets us use our axe.
It is sacred, a sacred living thing that lives in symbiosis with all
animals through the most intimate of expressions: the breath. We
breathe out Co2 which they breathe in and from their nourishment they
create oxygen which they breathe out, which we breathe in to feed our
nourishment, and then we breathe out Co2 again - the cycle turns round
and round. And so we exchange our breath with one another to keep
alive. Man and tree were made for each other. In the bible it was fruit
from the tree of knowledge which caused Adam and Eve to discover the
joy and pain of self-consciousness, to go beyond their animal
instincts, to discover thought; and it was from another tree they could
have obtained eternal life, only God would not let them... not
yet..

Yeah two different worlds, plant and animal; yet all part of the same
family.

We each of us walk this riddle of life, this puzzlebox of nature.
Somedays we struggle, somedays we fly; yet each of us are free to solve
the puzzle and walk it any which way we like.

I am nearly home now, I feel at peace, but also quite strange; too much
introspection makes me feel the need to reach out and connect with
someone, so I send a flurry of text messages suddenly, but then realize
perhaps that was the wrong thing to do: to be so fiery - and it is
late. I remember my lesson of earth and I use the power and knowledge
of that lesson to contain my fire and be like a hearth. I am learning
now, learning not to relate to the world with so much intensity as
before, fire can burn, can destroy if you're not careful. There is a
time and place for it. Yes fire can bring warmth and energy... can keep
you alive, all living things need the sun.. and fire can be a
candlelight of contemplation; but it is an element which should be used
wisely. I am learning to greet the world with peace now. Ben catches up
with me from wherever he has been and walks by my heel, I'd forgot
about him: Ben my faithful friend. Gentle Ben, as my friends call him.
I think he is wise, and often I see the great spirit in him; even if he
does sneak on my bed when I'm out and leave muddy pawprints on it; and
sometimes he does my head in by staring me out as I eat my food; but
such is the way of the dog, a dog is a dog; and perhaps there is a
lesson to be learned through all that. Friendship is a beautiful thing,
a magical thing, despite the differences. Which reminds me I'm hungry
and that's enough philosophy man, my box can't take no more. Though I
did my best to write all this out, as much of it as I could; even if it
is the most boring drivel in the whole world, I like it, and maybe
someone else will like it too.. and that's what matters..

respect