On May 25th I went to sleep with the intention of making contact with the local spirits of the land. This is part of my ongoing work to tune in to the genius loci of the land I live on. Around 2 AM I awoke from dreams about Wesleyean Cemetery where my wife and I had walked earlier in the preceding evening, for the first time. Next I found myself walking down a street. I see a bunch of Asian people standing in front of a building, which I take to be a kind of lodge. Then I see a man in a suit with an old gnarled elephant head, with a hat on, and smoking a pipe. He walks past and gives me a very strange look. I think that the people outside the lodge are part of the Elephant mans group -he is the leader of the lodge. I pass them, and they all seem to be involved and knowledgeable of martial arts. They make threatening gestures at me. I go on, and now I have a pipe. I get it lit from someone sitting and start puffing away on the pungent tobacco. Very nice. I’m standing on the corner smoking my pipe thinking of the elephant man.
When I wake up I start to think of this elephant man as a Ganesh figure, and draw a sketch of him in my journal. I don’t smoke, except the very occassional cigar (maybe one or two a year when hanging out with “the guys”). I used to smoke a pipe in high school. Haven’t touched one in quite awhile.
Come saturday I go out to see my friend Christian’s band, Mayan Ruins, play at Tribal Stomp IV at the Cincinnati Yoga School. I’d never been there before, but wasn’t surprised to learn it had been a Masonic Lodge in previous years. I’ve been to a few local lodges which have been repurposed as music venues or community centers. Mayan Ruins plays great world-fusion, tribal psychedelica, and I hadn’t seen them in awhile. But opening up the event was Karen Johns, a kirtan singer who sang a number of mantras, accompanying herself with a wondrous drone on the harmonium. The last mantra-song segued into the Mayan Ruins set, as one by one the members of the band came on stage and joined her. Sure enough her last mantra was for Ganesh to Open the Ways of the evening. Again she asked the audience to participate, as many had already been doing with the previous mantras. The tuvan throat singer from Mayan Ruins stepped up first, and deepened the trance with his harmonic overtones. Then the hand drummers came up and started tapping out rhythms. Christian welded it all together on his bass guitar, and another band member followed along the harmoniums line with her flute. It was gorgeous.
As I started to chant the Ganesh mantra I visualized the figure from my dream opening the ways for me in my life. I also thought of the tobacco connection, and how living on America soil, if I want to make contact with the spirits of the land, I might first be required to offer some tobacco to the native spirits to open the ways. I’m going on a camping trip with the guys in a few weeks, and was going to head to the local tobacconist to pick up a few cigars for the trip. I’ll also be picking up some tobacco which I can leave as offerings. In a dream, one of the great Gods of India came to my aid to help me open the ways to deeper communion with the spirits of the Miami Valley in Ohio. This is the kind of world-fusion I relish not only in music, but in magical praxis. Namaste.
