blog 5

Methinks I’m going to love this book. When I first glanced over the pages, I thought wow, Lennon, Nietzsche, Freud, Dostoyevsky, and Alice in Wonderland all in one psychedelic voyage. But what I underestimated was the density of the material. I find this both excellent and problematic. The first four chapters of this book provide a beautiful key-holed image of the big picture, but I find myself wanting more of each topic.

My favorite section of the book thus far has been the relation between the Shaman and the circus. Black Elk states, “A man who has a vision is not able to use the power of it until after he has performed the vision on Earth for his people to see.” The parallel to the circus is almost so shocking; it’s amazing that we all haven’t been looking at the mysticism behind the circus all along: “clowns embody the trickster elements of the spirit world, while the ringmaster is identified with the master shaman who seeks to bring disparate elements under control. The performing animals reflect the shaman’s power over wild beasts, and perhaps also the spirit familiars themselves.” A circus almost in fact shows that we do have an extensive control over nature, but of course, most of society denies the mysticism and spirituality that can be found behind it.

In addition, I loved the brief section describing the shaman’s relation to rock n’ roll. This brings in the question” What is creativity? How much of a relation do we have to another world (if that’s the most suitable terms)? And how are we able to bring sometime entirely new into this one? “Creativity is about the use of imagination to transmute the inner world into external reality, and has both an objective, material component and a subjective, invisible component. It begins as an imaginative construct and ends as an external object.” Also, what source do we use to determine what is good creativity, and what is bad creativity? Picasso states, “All art is magic,” but, it is often the critics who determine was is good and bad. What makes us feel what we do when we look at art and music? You would think that we would all be wired to hear the same song and agree of its greatness, but this is entirely not the case. What I’ve noticed is that it is almost impossible to describe how I feel to others in relation to art. I personally feel that Igor Stravinsky’s “Firebird Suite” is the greatest musical composition of all time, but when I show it to others, they simple can’t see it. “Can’t you feel it?” I often ask. “Feel what?” is usually the response. I encourage others to try this sometime: explain what moves you and why.