Currently listening to...

..."Milking The Cow" by Scottish group Mouth Music, fronted by Martin Swan. I wrote about this song here on Oh, By The Way ten years ago and the song just popped up on my playlist. I am still so hypnotized by it and it certainly deserves a re-post.

"Milking The Cow" is a stunning anthropological study, from Mouth Music's second release, 1993's "Mo-Di" (a phonetic spelling of the French word "maudit" which means "cursed"). It is one of the most profound pop songs ever recorded; it reminds me a lot of Peter Gabriel's work on "Security" in which he examined the lives of African tribesmen through the lens of Carl Jung. Here, Mouth Music, in a phenomenal blend of Scottish and African sounds, sing about the most fundamental relationship: that of human being to animal and earth. Indigenous people have always drawn their mythology and cosmology from the environment around them and this is a beautiful, breathtaking expression of that. If a tribe comes from the jungle, they will have a pantheon of plant-based gods and jungle animal spirits in their cosmology. If a people come from an island or a seaside area, you can bet that their cosmology will include the sea, as well as sea creatures, as a spiritual force. If a tribe comes from an arid savannah with not much vegetation and only a handful of animals, then their cosmology centers on what sustains them and gives them life, much like the relationship between the Plains Indians of the United States and the buffalo. Take a listen to this powerful, moving song that abandons itself to the idea of the exhilarating, painful cycle of life, including death in all of its mess:

Spirit moving, living, breathing
Healing motion, feeling devotion

Under the desert sun
Two hearts beat as one
Rhythm of the living drum
Milking the cow
Pray for the rain to come
Blessings from the one
Milking the cow

Behold the shifting sand
The riches of our land
Life flows through our hands
Milking the cow
Beneath the darkened sky
Hear the spirit cry

To feed the cow is to praise the hand of God that moves before us
To milk the cow is to worship the spirit that breathes within us
To kill the cow is to accept the darkness deep within us
To spurn the cow is to spurn the gift of God that gives us life
Milk the cow and feel the rhythm that beats inside us
Touch the cow and feel the spirit that moves within us
Kill the cow and feel the sorrow that lies before us
In blood we are born, blood of the cow redeems us

Spirit moving, living, breathing
Healing motion, feeling devotion
Spirit moving, living, breathing
Healing motion, feeling devotion
Milking the cow

http://www.mouthmusic.co.uk/

"Krigsgald" by Heilung

How fascinating that there is a whole sub-genre of music dedicated to pre-Christian Northern European culture! Heilung are a band from Denmark who play a very specialized kind of music. Their official information says:

"Heilung is sounds from the Northern European Iron Age and Viking period. We used everything from running water, human bones, reconstructed swords and shields up to ancient frame drums and bronze rings in the songs.

The lyrics contain original texts from rune stones and preserved spear shafts, amulets and other artifacts. Furthermore poems, which either deal with historical events or are translations/ interpretations of the originals.

Every attempt to link the music to modern political or religious points are pointless, since Heilung tries to connect the listener to the time before Christianity and its political offsprings raped and burned itself into the Northern European mentality.

Heilung means healing in German and describes the core of the sound. It is supposed to leave the listener eased and relaxed after a sometimes turbulent musical journey."

I can see a wide audience for their music: people who listen to ethnic music or folk and neo-folk music, people who listen to spiritual music, people who listen to alternative music or even Goth music... I get a bit of a Dead Can Dance (previously here, here, and here) vibe too.

Fascinating.

Take a look at this video of the group singing "Krigsgald" live in concert. Believe it or not, this spectacle is their first live concert performance ever. Filmed at Castlefest, a medieval/fantasy festival in the Netherlands, the live recording album called "LIFA" is available.

https://www.facebook.com/amplifiedhistory/
https://heilung.bandcamp.com/

We Need A Phurba NOW!

Tribal ethnographic art site Primitive Inc. is showing a beautiful antique Buddhist object whose use is desperately needed now!

"In the summer of 1900 a Daoist monk traveled to the edge of the Gobi Desert on a retreat. Locals had told him about some unusual caves on the eastern slope of Echoing-Sand Mountain. They sounded like the perfect place to meditate. However, upon his arrival he discovered more than caves. In front of him lay a series of grottoes containing complete temples carved into the mountainside. Meditation gave way to exploration. He found fantastic frescoes covering walls and ceilings, deities carved into bedrock, and evidence of a once vibrant, now abandoned community. Inside one cave he found a vault containing thousands of documents dating all the way back to the fourth century. In time, exploration gave way to knowledge and he uncovered ancient instructions on how to magically wield this week’s New Arrival.

This week’s New Arrival features a Yak bone Phurba from Nepal. Also known as a Kila or ritual dagger, it is really a ritual implement used by shamans. Yet, who uses it is less important than why it is used. The documents discovered in 1900 revealed how the Phurba could connect heaven and earth; obliterate violence and aggression; and vanquish ignorance, intolerance and insensitivity. Capable of destroying negativity through transmutation, if used properly it can neutralize prejudice, anger, and hate; whether those thought forms are generated by an individual or a group. Although the Phurba is not a physical weapon, it is the only weapon demanding deployment now."

YES! PHURBA NOW!!!

http://www.beprimitive.com/past-new-arrivals/phurba

BEAUTY: Sculpture--Leah Fraser

Sydney-based painter and sculptor Leah Fraser makes deliberately naïve- and tribal-looking figures she calls Shamans which incorporate crystals and gem stones into their bodies. The effect is totemic, appearing as ethnic objects a Shaman might actually use in practice.

Crystal Mountain Shaman, earthenware and assorted crystals

Ongon Shaman, earthenware and assorted shells and crystals

River Song Shaman, earthenware, selenite, and lapis lazuli

These Things Take Time Shaman, earthenware and assorted crystals

Turn Your Body To Light Shaman, earthenware, citrine, and apophylite

She also makes "Magic Bottles," which, again, look like something in which a Shaman would store herbal remedies or healing powders.

Crow Magic Bottle, earthenware and turquoise

Flight Magic Bottle, earthenware and chrysocolla

Swallowtail Magic Bottle, earthenware and sea shell

White Stone Magic Bottle, earthenware and assorted crystals

Fraser does not have a dedicated website that I can find but her work is featured at and sold by Arthouse Gallery in New South Wales.

http://www.arthousegallery.com.au/stockroom/fraser_leah/

Fraser's Shamans remind me of "River Man," a fantastic song by the incomparable David Sylvian from his 1986 opus "Gone To Earth."

I see your eyes light up like fire
It's medicine to me
But as the hunted live their lives
You're keeping out of reach

So I keep running, falling
Till I reach the water
Run with me, holyman
When I reach out I find I'm
Standing right beside her
Now we're living blessed with
All the thunder in the world

Should you ask me to come home
To wake up from the sleep
Like a boat inside a storm
Is there no hope for me?

So I keep running, falling
Wade into the water
Run with me, riverman
But when I reach out I find I'm
Standing right beside her
Now we're living blessed with
All the thunder in the world

So I keep running, falling
Till I reach the water
Run with me, holyman
An' when I reach out I find I'm
Standing right beside her
Now we're living blessed with
All the thunder in the world

Blessed with all the thunder in the world
Blessed with all the thunder in the world
Blessed with all the thunder in the world
All the thunder in the world
Blessed with all the thunder in the world

http://www.davidsylvian.com/

Bracelets

I have always been a fan of grouped and stacked bracelets...I wore a ton back in the day. Based on these photos, I think it is time to start again.

Currently listening to...

..."Milking The Cow" by Scottish group Mouth Music, fronted by Martin Swan.

This song, a stunning anthropological study, came from their second release, 1993's "Mo-Di" (a phonetic spelling of the French word "maudit" which means "cursed"). It is one of the most profound pop songs ever recorded; it reminds me a lot of Peter Gabriel's work on "Security" in which he examined the lives of African tribesmen through the lens of Carl Jung. Here, Mouth Music sing about the most fundamental relationship: that of human being to animal and earth. Indigenous people have always drawn their mythology and cosmology from the environment around them and this is a beautiful, breathtaking expression of that. If a tribe comes from the jungle, they will have a pantheon of plant-based gods and jungle animal spirits in their cosmology. If a people come from an island or a seaside area, you can bet that their cosmology will include the sea, as well as sea creatures, as a spiritual force. If a tribe comes from an arid savannah with not much vegetation and only a handful of animals, then their cosmology centers on what sustains them and gives them life, much like the relationship between the Plains Indians of the United States and the buffalo. Take a listen to this powerful, moving song:

Spirit moving, living, breathing
Healing motion, feeling devotion

Under the desert sun
Two hearts beat as one
Rhythm of the living drum
Milking the cow
Pray for the rain to come
Blessings from the one
Milking the cow

Behold the shifting sand
The riches of our land
Life flows through our hands
Milking the cow
Beneath the darkened sky
Hear the spirit cry

To feed the cow is to praise the hand of God that moves before us
To milk the cow is to worship the spirit that breathes within us
To kill the cow is to accept the darkness deep within us
To spurn the cow is to spurn the gift of God that gives us life
Milk the cow and feel the rhythm that beats inside us
Touch the cow and feel the spirit that moves within us
Kill the cow and feel the sorrow that lies before us
In blood we are born, blood of the cow redeems us

Spirit moving, living, breathing
Healing motion, feeling devotion
Spirit moving, living, breathing
Healing motion, feeling devotion
Milking the cow

http://www.mouthmusic.co.uk/

BEAUTY: Men--Exotic Style

BEAUTY: Tableaux--The Society Inc.

Gorgeous global groupings courtesy of The Society Inc.

http://thesocietyinc.com.au/