The MeadowSong Podcast: Recent Episodes
Lee Saville-Iksic
The MeadowSong Podcast taps into the healing and transformational potentials of music and myth. Reflecting on everything from current events and nature's rhythms, to folklore and the dreams of listeners, each episode offers a poetic take on our inner and outer experiences alongside piano music improvised as a nurturing, supportive response to the ideas discussed, as well as stories shared by listeners.
Billy Joel’s debut album, ancient Mayan initiation, and a dream of the God-Woman.
“Falling of the Rain” by Billy Joel
Long Life, Honey in the Heart by Martín Prechtel
Review of Cold Spring Harbor
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, artificial intelligence, and things we fear.
FULL TRANSCRIPT: meadowsongpodcast.com/meadowsong-backend/episode22
NOTES:
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice by Goethe: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sorcerer%27s_Apprentice
Open letter from AI experts: https://futureoflife.org/open-letter/pause-giant-ai-experiments/
Sam Altman’s congressional testimony: https://www.youtube.com/live/TO0J2Yw7usM?feature=share
Photo by Maximalfocus on Unsplash
Birth, a heart split in two, and threads of fates and destiny.
============
Radiolab Episode on breath: https://radiolab.org/podcast/breath
Produced with deep gratitude to Michael Meade, from whose work I've learned much of what I know about the myth of Er and the Moirai: https://www.mosaicvoices.org/
Photo by Huanshi on Unsplash.
================
FULL TRANSCRIPT: meadowsongpodcast.com/meadowsong-backend/episode21
WORK 1:1 WITH LEE: meadowsongpodcast.com/work-with-lee
SUPPORT THE SHOW: patreon.com/meadowsongpodcast
Billy Joel, dreams of exotic instruments, and the myth of Er.
FULL TRANSCRIPT: meadowsongpodcast.com/meadowsong-backend/episode20
WORK 1:1 WITH LEE: meadowsongpodcast.com/work-with-lee
SUPPORT THE SHOW: patreon.com/meadowsongpodcast
UPCOMING WORKSHOP: meadowsongpodcast.com/love
BILLY JOEL INTERVIEW: https://youtu.be/31TIbOlm9kM
Veterans Day, apartheid, and the Hymn of Thanksgiving.
FULL TRANSCRIPT: meadowsongpodcast.com/meadowsong-backend/episode19
WORK 1:1 WITH LEE: meadowsongpodcast.com/work-with-lee
SUPPORT THE SHOW: patreon.com/meadowsongpodcast
SUBMIT A STORY: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfsT5DYQXjCP1dkVbjZZ9ClpMfHosWa23yKbHx7MlIa4bR5sg/viewform
Fall foliage, the consolidation of political power, and the transcendence of duality.
FULL TRANSCRIPT: meadowsongpodcast.com/meadowsong-backend/episode18
WORK 1:1 WITH LEE: meadowsongpodcast.com/work-with-lee
SUPPORT THE SHOW: patreon.com/meadowsongpodcast
SUBMIT A STORY: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfsT5DYQXjCP1dkVbjZZ9ClpMfHosWa23yKbHx7MlIa4bR5sg/viewform
Romantic poetry, cross-linguistic parapraxis, and Love as a revelatory force.
FULL TRANSCRIPT: meadowsongpodcast.com/meadowsong-backend/episode17
WORK 1:1 WITH LEE: meadowsongpodcast.com/work-with-lee
SUPPORT THE SHOW: patreon.com/meadowsongpodcast
SUBMIT A STORY: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfsT5DYQXjCP1dkVbjZZ9ClpMfHosWa23yKbHx7MlIa4bR5sg/viewform
Election deception, dream interpretation, and the cracks in consensus reality.
FULL TRANSCRIPT: meadowsongpodcast.com/meadowsong-backend/episode8
WORK 1:1 WITH LEE: meadowsongpodcast.com/work-with-lee
SUPPORT THE SHOW: patreon.com/meadowsongpodcast
SUBMIT A STORY: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfsT5DYQXjCP1dkVbjZZ9ClpMfHosWa23yKbHx7MlIa4bR5sg/viewform
NOTES:
Trump etymology: https://www.etymonline.com/word/trump
Presidential approval ratings: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/statistics/data/final-presidential-job-approval-ratings
History of ‘swing states"‘: https://time.com/5906415/swing-states-history/
Photo by Michael Carruth on Unsplash
Lawn mowers, exile from the Garden, and drought in the American West.
================
FULL TRANSCRIPT: meadowsongpodcast.com/meadowsong-backend/episode8
WORK 1:1 WITH LEE: meadowsongpodcast.com/work-with-lee
SUPPORT THE SHOW: patreon.com/meadowsongpodcast
SUBMIT A STORY: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfsT5DYQXjCP1dkVbjZZ9ClpMfHosWa23yKbHx7MlIa4bR5sg/viewform
===============
NOTES:
Radio story about the drought: https://www.npr.org/2022/08/11/1117019883/water-week-how-to-farm-in-a-drought
Conch shells, West Indian emancipation, and the value hidden in what we discard.
FULL TRANSCRIPT: meadowsongpodcast.com/meadowsong-backend/episode8
WORK 1:1 WITH LEE: meadowsongpodcast.com/work-with-lee
SUPPORT THE SHOW: patreon.com/meadowsongpodcast
SUBMIT A STORY: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfsT5DYQXjCP1dkVbjZZ9ClpMfHosWa23yKbHx7MlIa4bR5sg/viewform
=======================
NOTES
Michael Meade on the use of the word ‘myth’: https://youtu.be/42TdzPkMx8M
About plastic recycling: https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/plastics-material-specific-data
More about plastic waste: https://opdera.org/recycling-is-a-myth/; https://www.rfa.org/english/commentaries/asia-plastic-09112020142248.html
Picture of the Conch Shell Blower: https://bolongobay.com/july-3rd-emancipation-day-in-the-u-s-virgin-islands/
Moving the bust of King Christian: https://stthomassource.com/content/2021/03/29/danish-kingss-bust-removed-to-make-way-for-emancipation-history/
Symbolism of the spiral: https://www.amazon.com/Book-Symbols-Reflections-Archetypal-Images/dp/3836514486
Street performers, Tevye’s daughters, and a young man embracing his gift.
FULL TRANSCRIPT: meadowsongpodcast.com/meadowsong-backend/episode13
WORK 1:1 WITH LEE: meadowsongpodcast.com/work-with-lee
SUPPORT THE SHOW: patreon.com/meadowsongpodcast
SUBMIT A STORY: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfsT5DYQXjCP1dkVbjZZ9ClpMfHosWa23yKbHx7MlIa4bR5sg/viewform
Spiders and flies, interwoven etymologies, and an old story from West Africa.
================
FULL TRANSCRIPT: meadowsongpodcast.com/meadowsong-backend/episode12
WORK 1:1 WITH LEE: meadowsongpodcast.com/work-with-lee
SUPPORT THE SHOW: patreon.com/meadowsongpodcast
SUBMIT A STORY: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfsT5DYQXjCP1dkVbjZZ9ClpMfHosWa23yKbHx7MlIa4bR5sg/viewform
Endangered fireflies, the summer solstice, and the energetic bridge between opposites.
================
FULL TRANSCRIPT: meadowsongpodcast.com/meadowsong-backend/episode11
SUPPORT THE SHOW: patreon.com/meadowsongpodcast
SUBMIT A STORY: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfsT5DYQXjCP1dkVbjZZ9ClpMfHosWa23yKbHx7MlIa4bR5sg/viewform
Guns, heroism, and a musical lament for the victims of shootings.
===================
FULL TRANSCRIPT: meadowsongpodcast.com/meadowsong-backend/episode8
SUPPORT THE SHOW: patreon.com/meadowsongpodcast
SUBMIT A STORY: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfsT5DYQXjCP1dkVbjZZ9ClpMfHosWa23yKbHx7MlIa4bR5sg/viewform
===================
Gibran, On Houses: https://poets.org/poem/houses-0
Gibran, On Crime and Punishment: https://poets.org/poem/crime-and-punishment
Mud, the stone of Sisyphus, and the state of vocational morale in America.
================
FULL TRANSCRIPT: meadowsongpodcast.com/meadowsong-backend/episode8
SUPPORT THE SHOW: patreon.com/meadowsongpodcast
SUBMIT A STORY: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfsT5DYQXjCP1dkVbjZZ9ClpMfHosWa23yKbHx7MlIa4bR5sg/viewform
================
Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat%27s_Cradle
Clinging to the knees of giants, the scaffold, and support from the inner other.
================
FULL TRANSCRIPT: meadowsongpodcast.com/meadowsong-backend/episode8
SUPPORT THE SHOW: patreon.com/meadowsongpodcast
SUBMIT A STORY: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfsT5DYQXjCP1dkVbjZZ9ClpMfHosWa23yKbHx7MlIa4bR5sg/viewform
Tolkien's Ring, the dissolution of all things, and a thought for Earth Day.
REFERENCES:
Symbolism of the Ring and the Lake: https://www.amazon.com/Book-Symbols-Reflections-Archetypal-Images/dp/3836514486
Caroline Elliot’s take on Kore: https://www.amazon.com/Existential-Kink-audiobook/dp/B081QVG9LW/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1A4P79RAZR65K&keywords=existential+kink&qid=1651067924&s=books&sprefix=existential+kink%2Cstripbooks%2C48&sr=1-1
LIVING MYTH, Episode 275: https://www.mosaicvoices.org/episode-275-the-weight-of-the-world
===========
FULL TRANSCRIPT: meadowsongpodcast.com/meadowsong-backend/episode7
SUPPORT THE SHOW: patreon.com/meadowsongpodcast
SUBMIT A STORY: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfsT5DYQXjCP1dkVbjZZ9ClpMfHosWa23yKbHx7MlIa4bR5sg/viewform
The Shoemaker and the Elves, the inner voice of young people, and an old hymn tune.
REFERENCES:
About Robert Lowry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Lowry_(hymn_writer)
About “How Can I Keep from Singing?”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Can_I_Keep_from_Singing%3F
===========
FULL TRANSCRIPT: meadowsongpodcast.com/meadowsong-backend/episode6
SUPPORT THE SHOW: patreon.com/meadowsongpodcast
SUBMIT A STORY: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfsT5DYQXjCP1dkVbjZZ9ClpMfHosWa23yKbHx7MlIa4bR5sg/viewform
Being a father to sons, balancing the inner opposites, and a psychodynamic analysis of Disney's MOANA.
REFERENCES:
Critique of the depiction of Polynesian culture in Moana: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/how-story-moana-and-maui-holds-against-cultural-truths-180961258/
Robert Moore and Archetypes: https://robertmoore-phd.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=page.display&page_id=33
===========
FULL TRANSCRIPT: meadowsongpodcast.com/meadowsong-backend/healing-masculine-healing-feminine-episode-5
SUPPORT THE SHOW: patreon.com/meadowsongpodcast
SUBMIT A STORY: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfsT5DYQXjCP1dkVbjZZ9ClpMfHosWa23yKbHx7MlIa4bR5sg/viewform
The equinox, Ukraine, and an act of beauty in the midst of violence.
FULL TRANSCRIPT: meadowsongpodcast.com/meadowsong-backend/beauty-as-defiance-episode-4
SUPPORT THE SHOW: patreon.com/meadowsongpodcast
==============
NOTES
Episode 269 of Living Myth: https://www.mosaicvoices.org/episode-269-the-edge-of-nobility-and-despair
Women playing her piano in Kyiv: https://fb.watch/bLEjPyiFLg/
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Not too far from where I live, there’s a beautiful park consisting of a mile-long walking trail that follows along a small run of water. The park is somewhat hidden, surrounded by winding roads all lined with suburban mid century homes. The small run flows down through a gorge that was obviously cut over thousands of years, and from any of the houses that border the park, you would need to walk down a significant hill before finding yourself on the walking path.
I was visiting the park the other day, and while walking along in the direction of the water, I was reminded of how psychologist Carl Jung described the flow of human psychic energy as existing on a gradient, a slope that declines in a certain direction so that our energies naturally gravitate towards some image in our lives. He called it libido, the sense of desire and will we might have for anything in our life (not just sex). What Jung was getting at is like the psychological version of what the yogis of India call prana – the Sanskrit work for breath, also translated as “life force” and “vital principle” – a universal energy that flows in currents in and around our human bodies.
Standing on the path in the park that day, and looking up to see the houses around me, I thought how it’s often true that, in order to get in touch with our own personal flow of vital energy, we must somehow get below the structures of our personality that have been constructed as a response to cultural conditioning – the roles we are expected to play as we go throughout our days, the influence of media, advertisements, etc.
Thinking again on the water, I was reminded that, though it may take a while, all water eventually makes its way to the ocean; and the ocean, in many an old poem and story, is thought to represent eternity, the Great Spirit, or the collective unconscious; and as we know from the natural history of our planet, as well as many creation myths, the ocean is also the place of origin for all life on Earth.
Reflecting on my walk alongside this little stream reminded me of a guest teaching experience I recently had. I was brought into a high school chorus class to conduct a songwriting workshop, and I had started the whole process by asking the students to do a stream-of-consciousness writing exercise. They were simply to keep writing whatever came to mind – in other words, to follow the gradient of their own thoughts and feelings – for a solid ten minutes. Afterwards, they would send me whatever they felt comfortable sharing, and I would use ideas from what they wrote as the basis for lyrics to a song that I would write and then workshop with the students.
The students were all together in their classroom, and I had joined them by video call. After they had begun to write, I got off the call knowing that I would see them again in a few days after reading what they sent to me. Their teacher, however, sent me a text message shortly after I got off the call, astonished at how focused the students were on what they were writing: “You could hear a pin drop in here,” the message said. Just like the little run of water that sits below all the houses that surround the park, the exercise seemed to give the students permission to drop down beneath the various social expectations that might govern the majority of their waking lives, and they were moving with the flow of what they were feeling.
When I read the writing, I was struck by the pain, frustration, and boredom that rose out of an overwhelming majority of the submissions. In particular, the theme of betrayal – by friends, teachers, and parents – was evident. Betrayal is a strong word. But it seems like the best word to characterize the loss of trust that seemed to be at the heart of the stories I read. It was clear to me that these students were aching for connection with other people, and that a year of social distancing (while important for keeping everyone safe) had made that need all the more dire.
Wanting to honor the struggles they were experiencing, I began to write words and music that rang out with a sense of desperation. To be honest, I was afraid that the song might turn out to be a real downer. But when I sat longer with what the students wrote, I picked up on something else… a more subtle destination towards which their collective energy seemed to be flowing… and that was hope.
In the middle of the park that I keep describing, there is a waterfall. It’s small as waterfalls go – about 25 feet – but it’s the biggest one in the area. It’s beautiful to look at, but to fall from the top of it would be quite damaging to a human body. I would venture to say that the songwriting workshop found many of the students in a ‘waterfall’ moment. With such a sudden change in psycho-emotional elevation – such as the shifts we have all been experiencing over the last two years – it’s perfectly normal to feel pretty tossed around, even battered. And… it’s also true that, after traveling over the waterfall, we are that much closer to the ocean. The time that we (the students and I) spent together putting these feelings into a song seemed to give them the chance to step back from the waterfall, consider where it is leading, and recognize the beauty – bittersweet though it may be – in all of it.
I am going to share the song from that workshop as our listener submission for today’s show, after this first excerpt. When I went to the piano with all the ideas and images related to the flow of water – the flow of energy – it occurred to me how the ocean can be churning and teaming with life, and also peacefully calm and expansive, all at once. Here’s a little except of that improvisation. You can hear the whole thing by going to patreon.com/meadowsongpodcast and find the post titled “Where the Water Flows”. The post is public and accessible to anyone.
===============
For today’s episode, I’m sharing a solo piano version of the song that came out of the workshop I shared about earlier. I also happen to have a little clip of the students singing the song, but first, here are some of the lyrics you’ll hear them sing:
Sometimes I wish that I could just be left alone
People seem to be so cruel
Sometimes it’s painful, just wanting to be known
So here I am, left feeling like a fool
I want you to be near me
I’m longing to see clearly
I’m looking for where I belong
The time when I can just be
The person who’s inside me
A place where I’ll be safe my whole life long
And sometimes when I hear the voice of a friend
I know what I am feeling must be true
There’s something in this life on which I can depend
The promise of the birth of something new
And hope is here with me
Thank you, all, for listening, and I’ll leave you now with the piano music. Until next time, I wish you all things best and beautiful.
FULL TRANSCRIPT:
I wrote my first poem when I was twelve. I was standing in front of the bathroom mirror in my childhood home, studying my reflection as if it was something I had never seen before. I had been suddenly compelled by the imaginal idea that the mirror could be a window into some other realm running parallel to the life I was living. And so the poem I wrote described my reflection as some other version of me, whose life was somewhat of a mystery to me… a mystery that I longed to better understand. I wanted to crawl through the mirror and see the world he lived in. And I had the notion that doing so would help me learn something about myself.
This whole experience was more than two decades before I would learn about the Platonic concept of the daimon, the inner figure the ancient Greeks thought us all to have, existing in a space somewhere between the mortal realm and the Divine. Assigned to us at birth, this soul partner was believed to hold the secrets of our destiny and the Divine gifts we came into the world to share. Our daimon is responsible for the little clues, hunches, and synchronicities that let us know that we are on the right track in following or pursuing our life’s purpose.
By the time I was fourteen, the bathroom mirror was no longer a window into the realm of the daimon, but a device for seeing myself the way others saw me. I had lost the inner image of who it was I might be becoming, only to have it replaced with a preoccupation of what other people might see when they saw me: Does my hair look OK? Do my clothes fit alright?
Of course, it is between the ages of twelve and fourteen or fifteen (when the body is becoming sexually mature) that the boys and girls of many ancient cultures would be initiated into young men and women. I imagine that our ancestors were aware of the delicate state of the inner image during those earlier teen years, which is why they protected its emergence into consciousness with initiation rituals that secluded those coming of age from certain members of the tribe, especially those of the opposite sex. Some ancient initiation practices involved the initiate leaving the village or tribe altogether to seek a vision from the spirit realm that, once brought back into the community, would be recognized by all as the way the young person had been called to contribute as an adult to the community. And of course, nearly universal in the initiation of young men and women is the presence, instruction, and mentorship of elders who helped to evoke and draw out the inner image of their initiates.
There are many old stories in which a mirror plays a key role. Perhaps the most well-known in the West is “Snow White,” in which Snow White’s wicked stepmother possesses a magic mirror that always spoke the truth when asked a question. Because the stepmother was so vain, she asked everyday to know who was most beautiful in the land and is furious when one day the mirror replies with the name of her stepdaughter.
From Japan, there is the story of The Matsuyama Mirror. It begins with a loving, kind, and humble family who lived in the countryside. One day, the father was required to travel to the capital city on business. He was gone for many days, and his wife and daughter were both very glad to see him return safely. Upon his return he gave his wife a gift. She opened the box he handed her to find a round piece of metal with decorative flowers on one side and clear, smooth crystal on the other. “What do you see?” the father asked, and she replied, “I see a beautiful woman looking back at me, and she’s wearing a dress just like mine.” Her husband said, “That is you, my dear. This is a mirror; we have never seen one here in the country, but everyone has one in the city.” After some time, the mother fell ill and knew that she would soon need to leave her husband and her daughter. The mirror, which she had believed to be too special a thing to use on a daily basis, had remained shut up in its box, and the daughter did not know of it. Before she died, the mother called her daughter to her and said, “Look into this mirror every day, and you will see me and know that I am still with you.” The daughter, believing the mirror to be magic, dutifully did as her mother had asked, and she confided in the mirror with her every hope and concern, thinking the face in the mirror to be her mother in her young, vibrant youth. In doing this, she grew into a strong and confident young woman.
There is a modern story with a mirror which is fresh on my mind right now, because the choir I work with is rehearsing it for an upcoming production. It is called Crossings, and it was written by the American multidisciplinary artist, David Roussève. It tells of a young Black girl who is raised by her grandmother, who keeps no mirrors in the house. The grandmother wants to be sure that the girl develops a self-image that is shaped by her grandmother’s love… and not the fact that her hand-me-down clothes don’t fit quite right, or worse, the ugly things that society had to say (and still has to say) about people with skin the color of hers. After she is called a racial slur and her grandmother dies, the girl catches sight of her reflection in a darkened window. At first, she sees herself as ugly and poor, but upon turning inside and calling upon the image of her grandmother, she finds the truth of her own inner beauty and strength.
The mirror is, of course, a symbol of how we see ourselves. We might even think of the mirror as a bivalent archetype with the triangular structure described by psychologist Robert Moore. On one side – the upper peak of the triangle – is the beneficial positive, aspect of the archetype. In this case, this is the mirror’s ability to show the truth, to reflect who we truly are. The word reflect means ‘to bend back’. Not only does this point to the way the mirror bends back the light so we can see ourselves in it, but we also might see that reflection, in a psychological sense, is how we bend back towards ourselves, perhaps getting a glimpse of our own inner image, our own daimon.
The base of the archetypal triangle represents the archetype’s bipolar shadow aspect. At one end, we have the mirror’s tendency to evoke vanity and self-absorption, like the wicked stepmother in “Snow White.” At the other end is the mirror’s capacity to throw us into the tumult of other people’s judgments – a sort of being absorbed into someone else… anyone else except our own self – like the young Black girl experienced in Crossings.
In looking back to the beneficial aspect of the mirror archetype, we might consider an old usage of the word mirror. A mirror was ‘a person worthy of imitation – a role model.’ This points again to the role elders play in the initiation process, as well as the inner figure of the daimon itself.
One of my favorite musicians, Moira Smiley, recently announced that she is working on creating a set of songs that looks at the phenomenon of smartphones as a modern version of the gazing pool in the old Greek myth of Narcissus, wherein, of course, the beautiful youth, upon first catching sight of his own image in a reflection pool, is unable to look away and thereby wastes away at the spot. I haven’t heard any of the songs yet, but I can see how the way in which we interact with our phones and social media platforms evokes both poles of the archetypal mirror’s shadow; we become self-absorbed, unable to look away and see the people around while, while also obsessing about how we appear to others via our various online profiles and personas.
This causes me to ask: Where then is the modern equivalent of the beneficial side of the mirror archetype? And I’d like to suggest two places where we might look for it. The first is in the relationships we can form with our elders, and the second our capacity for creative expression and doing something with that creative energy, just for its own sake.
While sitting at the piano with the image of my twelve-year-old reflection in front of me and the feelings conjured up by the ongoing revelation of the mystery of the daimon, three further insights came to me through the music. The first is that making contact with one’s daimon, not surprisingly, leads to a strengthening of the soul and an infusion of virtue and vitality into one’s character. Secondly, establishing a relationship with the daimon is somewhat of a dance, and like dancing with a new partner, it can begin with hesitancy but can eventually develop into a satisfying flow of energy with ever–increasing synchronicity. Finally, this richness born out of that relationship is likely to bring something new into our waking life, and that new thing will likely ask us to make space for it to grow and develop in our life.
Here’s a little excerpt of that improvisation. You can hear the whole recording by going to patreon.com/meadowsongpodcast and find the post titled “The Other Side of the Mirror”. The post is public and accessible to anyone.
==========
So today for this second episode of the show, I’m featuring my first listener submission. This is an intention – inspired by the Winter Seeds project we featured in Episode 1 – submitted by a female listener, 37 years old. And here’s the intention:
To grow stronger... in body, mind, and spirit. To feed that spirit by continuing to pursue my passions – the things that bring me great joy, like creating art here and there. To care for my body as it demands of me so that I can thrive and keep on giving to others. To grow a garden, food for me and nourishment for body, mind, and soul. To grow my little humans with intention better and better every day, even on days when I don't feel like I am any good at it... to keep believing that I am enough, that trying, truly trying, is enough... for them and me. To grow stronger, and for this strength to show on me as a fully open, yet wildly strong, shining aura of peace, patience, and love that radiates out from me, coating anyone close enough with calmness and joy.
This is such a beautiful intention, and what strikes me the most is this image of the aura at the end. This is the image I start with for this improvisation. I also get this sense of vitality from the way she describes her desire to grow stronger. Finally, she spends a good deal of what she wrote on what I imagine are her children: her “little humans”. The importance of this came to me mid–playing, and so there’s a tender moment that emerges near the end. I imagine these little humans might be some of the key people who might be backing in this peaceful, loving aura.
Well, I hope that this little piece might be a blessing to you and your intention. Thank you, all, for listening, and I’ll leave you now with the music. Until next time, I wish you all things best and beautiful.
Notes:
Robert Moore and Archetypes: https://robertmoore-phd.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=page.display&page_id=33
Today is Groundhog Day, and I am reminded of another Groundhog Day many years ago, and being in the car with my father that morning, and him saying that we’d be having six more weeks of winter before the arrival of spring because the Groundhog saw his shadow that morning. As years went by, I learned more about Groundhog Day and continued to delight at this quirky ritual, especially since Punxatawny Phil and I shared the same home state.
My father has always had a certain reverence for Nature’s holidays. On solstices, he would comment to my sister and I about it being the longest night or the longest day of the year, and on walks in the woods behind our house, he modeled a respect for the natural world, not only as an rich ecosystem to admire and preserve, but as a source of wisdom from which we might learn if we could quiet ourselves enough to listen to what it had to say.
When I was in high school, my father held a Candlemas celebration with some other naturalist friends of ours. On the night of February 2nd, we lit candles and voiced intentions we had for the new year. That dinner was, for me, the beginning of a far deeper appreciation for the significance of early February, as I began to learn more of the cultural and spiritual traditions that have centered around this time of the year.
But it wasn’t until later, when I had my own home and held my own Candlemas dinner with friends, that I learned that Candlemas was a feast day in the Christian Orthodox calendar. Also called the Feast of the Presentation of Our Lord Jesus, and the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, it marks 40 days after Christmas, when the baby Jesus would have been brought to the temple for presentation. Today, observers of the holiday light candles in dedication to the God-bearing mother and feast in celebration.
The lighting of candles in early February, however, precedes Christian tradition. The ancient Romans had the festival of Lupercalia which involved rituals of fertility. Celtic tradition had Imbolc, an homage to the fertility goddess Brigid (who the Catholic Church later adopted as St. Brigid, patron saint of, among other things, newborns and midwives). These early observances included the blessing of seeds and the purification of planting fields. It is also said that shamans of ancient villages would set out in early February to scour the countryside in search of hibernating rodents that may have left their dens – a sign of the approach of an early spring – coming full circle to our present day celebration of Groundhog’s Day.
February 2nd is halfway between the Winter Solstice – representing death in Earth’s lifecycle – and the Vernal Equinox, representing its birth. So, as my father suggested when we spoke of it recently, we can think of early February as the point of conception for the new year.
Groundhog Day falls on the second day of the second month of the year. The number Two, of course, is the number of partnership. It represents the relationship between who we have been and who we are becoming, and the relationship between the ego and the soul. In the case of most life on Earth, it takes a partnership to conceive of new life.
Two is also the number of duality, and to be conceived and made manifest in the world is to come into a world of duality – light and dark, good and bad, life and death. Following this logic and the teachings of the mystical traditions, two is also then the number a paradox, and wholeness is never found on one side or the other of duality but only in the space in between. And so we find ourselves, presently, living in the spaces in between the opposites of duality: we are somewhere in between birth and death, heaven and earth, and our souls are experiencing life somewhere between the space of consciousness and unconsciousness. Of course, new life is conceived in the space in between… in the merging of opposites.
As a boy, the material logic of the Groundhog’s prediction system never made sense to me. I thought the presence of a shadow should mean more sun, and more sun should mean spring is closer. Of course, this isn’t how the astronomy works. But I also wonder now if the shadow isn’t also representative of something new that we might be conceiving during this time of the year. Indicative of one of those great dualities, the psychologist Carl Jung used the word “shadow” in reference to repressed parts of our psyche that have fallen into unconsciousness due to the ego judging them as unsavory. For example, if I learn as a child that it is bad to get angry, feelings of anger fall into my shadow (the part of me that I don’t want to bring into the light). The thing about our shadow, is that it is also the part of us that possesses great power and potential for transformation. When we can bring our shadow into consciousness, we are giving birth to a new part of ourselves and we become more whole.
Isn’t it true that, when we are setting intentions for a new year, we are choosing to become more conscious of something that has been neglected, or perhaps some untapped potential waiting to be developed? So perhaps the Groundhog seeing his shadow, only to return to his burrow for another six weeks, is a way our culture has chosen to represent our capacity to see a cast out, or latent piece of ourselves (which, by the way, could cause mischief in our lives, should we choose to ignore it) and then sit with that shadowy part of the Self as it gestates and incubates in preparation to emerge as new life.
So to celebrate February 2nd this year, I’ve asked friends and family to share with me intentions they have for the new year, so that I may hold a space for those intentions and let them come out through the piano.
In future episodes of the show, we will feature (in the same fashion) stories, dreams, and intentions submitted by listeners. But today, I will leave you with a little sampling of the improvisations that resulted from this project… Winter Seeds, as I’ve been calling it.
To listen to any of these pieces in their entirety, go to saville-iksic.com/piano.
Until next time, I wish you all things best and beautiful.