Scout Bear-Brave Hand- wildblueyodel.com
Brave Hand, or "Wee Bairn," as he was known in Lancashire, England, was born one John Charles Hudnall. Close to the border with Scotland, "Ye Olde Country," and shipping port of Liverpool to the west, his personal ancestry in America began with the modern-day immigrations of descendants to the United States. Traveling across the United States, a few generations removed from England, his family settled in the Great Plains state of Texas.
His English heritage could be traced to the vale of Hud in the hills of Lancashire, East of Liverpool. He inherited as well American bloodlines from the Cherokee Indians of Oklahoma who were forcibly relocated from North Carolina following the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Many Cherokees suffered and died from exposure, disease and starvation in route on the ill-fated "Trail of Tears," from 1838-1839.
Somewhat a stranger to the cowboy culture of the Plains and rodeo life in Texas, he adapted to Fort Worth, or "Cowtown," his karmic birthplace. The city was was self-named: "Where the West Begins." The Lone Ranger, the fictional television character of the ex-Texas Ranger who was masked and rode a white horse, "Silver," was given the name ("Ke-mo sah-bee") by Tonto, his Indian companion, who rode the pinto, "Paint." The Lone Ranger was one of Brave Hand's friends as he grew up. His silver bullets served as a calling card in the fight for law and order against crime and injustice.
C. G. Jung, the Swiss psychoanalyst and colleague of Sigmund Freud, had conceived a psychological practice of "active imagination," where upon one was able to discover important relationships with imaginary beings, who were nevertheless real. A medical doctor himself, Jung did not consider the reality of imaginary beings to be a sign of mental disorder.
Brave Hand was heartened in his early years with the "folk boom" of "natural instruments" (acoustic guitars) as well as the "British Invasion" in the 60's of rock-and-roll bands from England. The Beatles reminded him of the accent and dialect of Scouse in the Merseyside, closely associated with Liverpool, not to mention the birthplace of Scouse in the area of Lancashire. The Mersey River flowed through him with the dialect and music of Liverpudlians, or northwestern "Scousers," related to the original and historical Scouse of Lancashire.
He became interested in playing the guitar and singing the harmonies of the British groups. The irreverent slapstick of the bands and comradarie also influenced his developing personality. He did not know lexicon could be twisted and changed so wittily: "fab," "gear," "bird," "cheeky." With their Nehru jackets, Beatle boots and paisley shirts (the droplet-shaped vegetable motifs of Persia) as well as bob (Beatle) haircuts from their beginnings on the Reeperbahn in Hamburg, Germany, they were over-powering and destined for success. Wee Bairn was even sent home from junior high school one day when his one inch flat-top, combed down in the bob fashion, created an uproar at the school. Not a full-fledged protest, it was rather a gesture of affirmation for a unique time, later referred to by musicologists as "The Sixties."
II. Bell Hammer Song
Ranger Bear-Big Hand- bellhammersong.com
Big Hand developed from Brave Hand as the latter grew up and matriculated through modern society and culture. Not satisfied as either a psychological physician or western spiritual teacher (psychology and eastern mysticism shared interpretations of the mind), a dream suggested Big Hand consider a career in art. An answer to a prayer, it allowed him to reconcile his conflicting interests in science and religion, that is, the science of tantra, or vajrayana, and shamanism. A shaman achieved altered states of consciousness in order to encounter and interact with the spirit world. Shamanism was well-known in Turkey, Mongolia, Tibet and Siberia. Dr. Mircea Eliade equated shamanism with religious ecstasy, perhaps the oldest religious experience known to man. Shamans were not only medicine men or sages but artists in their own right.
After his totem, the grizzled bear, made himself known to him in a dream and vision, he awaited further guidance from elders and mentors as to where his artistic (shamanistic) journey should begin. The Mexican artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera appeared to him in a dream with handfuls of silver milagros and Tibetan amulets. They both encouraged him to start with the Kokopelli project of the Anasazi Indians, the paleo-Indians, or Old Ones, of the southwest desert maize culture. Thus, he had located the first of three artistic mothers to come. After Frida, Emily Carr and Georgia O'keeffe appeared also. Without conventional knowledge, he had located his artistic den, a lair to practice his new vocation.
Big Hand was also destined to journey to a secret, or hidden, mythical kingdom called Shambhala, or more commonly, Shangri-La. It was considered a Himalayan utopia which people happended upon as if by happenstance. It was ruled by a king who was also enlightened, with a lamasery at his call in a land of mountain snows. Shangri-La evoked the mystical power of the Orient, an idyllic place of refuge for Buddhists during times of conflict and war. The Dalai Lama referred to it as a"pure land" for those chosen by fate as well as the bodhisattvas, the righteous, heroic warriors of dharma. Joined by Horse Jaw and Bear Claw, his lifelong companions, Big Hand found his way there with friends old and familiar, imaginary beings who were companions in terms of the spirit.
In addition to his years of medical school training and education in Buddhist scholasticism, he came to see through visions and dreams that his music was related to a post-modern shamanism. By the early 1990's, he found his personal sound while re-learning the six-and twelve-string guitars and re-visioning ancient ideas as original works of art with wisdom for eras to come. The Old Ones' bells, drums and chants seemed to harmonize sound and verse in an archetypal, or ancient, music refreshed by modern entertainment for a new age of culture and entertainment. An inner faith grew in him that the music would endure and help other people in the future.
On the fabled Orient Express to Shambhala, he met Miss Ylse Bering, previously known as Missy Ching with her son, a descendant himself, of Vitus Bering, the Norwegian explorer known for his discovery of the "Northwest Passage" via the Bering Strait, the latter named in his honor. Miss Ylse, a professional ornithologist and part-time lepidopterist, took to Big Hand and his imaginary company on the train, trading stories and singing songs into the night. She and Big Hand discovered her son was his son as well, his identity unknown to both of them. He was "Long John (Silver)," a fictional pirate in the Stevenson novel,"Treasure Island." A reincarnation of a Buddhist lama, he was very sympathetic to the spiritual way of his parents including mystical literature and intuitive experience. He enjoyed the train ride to Thunder Mountain, not knowing he would meet the King of the hidden land.
III. Old Shaman Prayer
Grizzled Bear-Bear Hand- oldshamanprayer.com
As life turned clockwise with the sun, the Wild Blue Yodel of Brave Hand yielded to the Cowboy-Indian fusion of the Ranger Big Hand and the creation of Bell Hammer Song, the songs of justice, freedom and love for brothers and sisters, "all over the land." The folk song "If I Had a Hammer (The Hammer Song)," described the same feeling. In turn, Big Hand's song cycles gave way to the Old Shaman Prayer of Bear Hand, the grizzled devotion of the elder for his world. His bell hammer songs were the whispers of dakinis, sky beings, heard in the oral tradition of transcendental voidness and the luminosity of the beyond.
Gone were the days of high altitude yodeling in a youthful sense, an alpen folk technique of herders and villagers in mountainous Europe. The Oriental train ride of Big Hand and his companions, as well as the companionship of Miss Ylse and Long John, both of whom were "real," marked his later years and eventual return to Shambhala.
The saga of Thunder Mountain included the stories of Brave, Big and Bear Hand (the Scout, the Ranger, the Elder) on their spiritual journey to complete enlightenment. Old Shaman Prayer, concluded the spiritual adventure. It recounted the historic train ride as well "the end of the line" for the train on a mountain side beside the ocean. There, the King of Shambhala (Shangri-La) came forth from a hidden cave with his otherworldly retinue to greet Big Hand and be introduced to his companions. The King, Big Hand, Miss Ylse, Long John and the imaginary companions set out to travel beyond the headlands to the Mountain of Thunder.
Anecdotal information may be found about Brave Hand at the wildblueyodel. com website, the first panel of the triptych of "Three Bears." The website of oldshamanprayer.com documented the third panel of the triptych with the transition from Big Hand to Bear Hand. The middle panel of "Three Bears" covered the journey of Big Hand the artist to Bear Hand the elder, from his original career as a psychological physician and spiritual teacher to a shaman, or tantric (vajrayana) artist. Portents of a mystic nature, unique visions and special dreams with intuitive suggestions guided the overall saga, especially during main events and turning points that changed the course and direction of the path. In the end, the destination of the three was fated from the beginning of Thunder Basin to Mountain Gate to the ending at Thunder Mountain.
