I. Introduction
The songs were created in cycles. The effort was devoted to one cycle at a time. Each cycle had ten songs, all sixty songs related to the central theme (spoke/axle/wheel) (song/cycle/motion) of the project at hand. The songs offered unique perspectives on cycle themes to enhance artistic appreciation and experience. The titles of cycle and song were researched in detail. Contemplation and visualization were reassessed often so themes remained coherent through twists and turns of an unknown path. The last cycle was quite different, a completion cycle of the prior cycles. The seventh returned to well-developed themes of the previous six, even as the Great Beyond was introduced.
II. Cycle Rotations
The cycles were devoted to visionary explorations of the geographical and historical eras in North America. The circumpolar globe orbited pointed to Polaris, the North Star. Polaris was in the constellation of Ursa Minor, the Little Bear. Canada, the United States and Mexico were places central to events in the history of North America.
The six song cycles were divided into two major sets of three cycles (thirty songs each). They formed inverted triangles over North America. The first triangle was devoted to pre-historical, paleo-people, often equated with pre-literate cultures. The second inverted triangle was devoted to the modern historical tribes of North American Indians.
The historical, literary cultural centers of the modern era were anchored by the environments and major cities of their regions. The metropolises of Mexico City, New York City and San Francisco were the large city centers which functioned as triangle points for education, commerce, science, art and sport. These cities were located at the hinge points of the triangles, the southwestern desert country of Mexico (Mexico City), the maritime provinces of northeastern Canada (New York City) and the volcanic northwestern Pacific Rim (San Francisco), which went all the way up to the Bering Strait, or "Berengia." The "land bridge" over Bering Strait in the Ice Age enabled the first peoples to cross over North America, along with the mammoths and saber-cats.
The Strait within the territory of Berengia was located by surprise by the Russian navigator and world explorer, Vitus Bering. His countryof Russia was interested in the global search for the fabled "Northwest Passage," a nautical opening between the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans. Instead of the voyage to round South America at Tierra del Fuego, the Strait of Magellan, the Northwest Passage connected the Pacific with the Atlantic Ocean more easily and economically. The benefits to trade and commerce was obvious.
The old Russian territory of Siberia and Alaska was once connected by "the land bridge" before the Ice Age ended and the oceans rose. The three migrations of people from Asia over the land bridge led to the differentiation of the North American Indians from their ancestors in the East: the Amerindian, the Athabaskan and the Inuit.
III. Totem Power
My totem for the artistic journey was the humpbacked grizzly, or grizzled bear (ursus arctos), the silver-tipped brown bear of the circumpolar sky. The totem power was a given identity, like the grey-grizzled and arctic-frosted bear. The Viking hero, Leif Erikson, a silver-tipped bear himself, made land on his famous voyage of exploration and discovery. He came ashore at Newfoundland, the island home of the settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows, long before Columbus was stranded in the West Indies. The World Heritage Site remains the most compelling case for trans-atlantic oceanic contact of the American Indians in a pre-Columbian timeline.
The Norse god, Odin, or Wotan, a greybearded warrior and magician prototype for other wizards, such as Merlin at King Arthur's Camelot or Gandolph in Tolkien's vision of the Third Age of Middle Earth, including the Hobbits, guided Erickson on his voyage, “steering to true north," “by the midnight sun." Often encountered in "high seas breaking west," "whales migrating/near the salmon run" were frequently spotted. The world was young, and the wild life was abundant, if not closer to man.
In a vivid dream, which coincided with writing the verse surrounding Leif's sea-trip, I was attending a party. For the moment, I was alone in a room with beautiful views of the lawn and garden. I walked to the balcony overlook and then went outside to the lawn below. When I looked up at the heavens, I saw runes, or "dominoes," (the tiles colloquially nicknamed bones, stones, spinners, sticks, all sounding rather, "runish," one might say, for runes were traditionally carved on bones, stones, et cetera.) my word in the dream to describe awkwardly the dominoes witnessed in the moment. With time, I would not say it was oafish, or clumsy in nature but an apt message from the unconscious mind. Being what dreams bring to life, and more, a soothsayer quite superior to our superficial selves, we do well to listen. Most likely, the dominoes were the bones of the old ones, a non-consuming heavenly fire burning always.
Odin had hung on the World Tree, Yggdrasil, nine days and nine nights in order to gain the ultimate wisdom of the runes. When he touched them, however, he howled. In a bargain struck with the dwarves who lived in the roots at the bottom of the tree, he agreed they could take one of eyes in exchange for knowledge. Transformed, he rose from Yggdrasil, the runes his secret endowment, “long in the tooth, one eye his own.” (“Greybeard”)
IV. Anasazi Dream
The story of my late-developing career in music began in the early 1990’s with a strange dream about a preliterate, Native American culture who were were the indigenous people responsible for building the National Park, Mesa Verde. In the dream, I was visiting native vendors in the southwest, not unlike the tourists in the plaza of Santa Fe today who buy Pueblo Indian crafts: torquoise jewelry, silverworks, textiles and pottery, all displayed around the plaza square.
A vendor approached me because I was interested in beaded, buckskin vests. The first vest I tried was very beautiful in its workmanship but nevertheless too tight. When I asked the vendor what tribe made the vest, he replied “Comanche.” Interestingly, the historical tribe in west Texas near Fort Worth was the Comanche tribe. The vendor told me he had another vest, however, that might be better suited to my nature, if not stature. He returned, handing me the second vest to try, smiling mysteriously. The buckskin was more beautiful than the first and fit perfectly, to my surprise! When I asked him the name of the tribe, he replied somewhat mischeviously, “Anasazi.”
V. Frida
The example given above became more common on a daily as my career developed. Miss Ylsa Bering (Missy Ching), my future wife and recording engineer on the Big Hand projects, told me to cease playing “covers” and trust my own creations. We chuckled years later when we recalled the early experience of “Big Hand.” Neverthess, I still felt I had no idea of where to go with my music until a dream gave me a clear indication.
In the dream of reckoning for this artist, I was in a room with a lively woman I knew somehow, although I could not place her face. She seemed to be a Mexican person with intense character. She dressed in the colors of Old Mexico, with native adornments of jewelry, cloths of many colors and old Mexican hair arrangements, her face either sardonic or inspired. I chose the latter. A large man stood behind her in the shadows who was gently protective. Her hands reached out to me. They were cupped with milagros, or silver ex-votos, as well as Tibetan charms from shamanic deities of Buddhist lineages, which she offered me.
Ylsa and I raced to the public library to search for the identity of this unusual woman. With few clues, we came upon a book with her picture. Of course, it was Frida Kahlo, the famous Mexican folk artist (my benefactress) and her husband, the muralist, Diego Rivera (my benefactor). As my artistic journey progressed, I was “guided (not only) by the dust of stars" and the "wind of fires” (“The Ancient Way”). Key figures emerged from dreams and visions to point me in the direction of my future work. Inspiring an inner confidence and certainty for the entire project, I felt myself to be like the hero, or protagonist, in the film, “Field of Dreams,” who followed unmistakable signs to discover his fate.
