A couple of nights ago I heard an interview on NPR with David Best, the artist who makes a temple every year at Burning Man and has since 2000, I think. The same day the news was that President Obama sent a video message to the people of Iran wishing them a Happy New Year. To talk about how these two media events relate will be a classic example of media magic. To add to it a discussion of St. Patrick's Day / Leprechauns / All Snakes Day makes it also a discussion of fairy magic, or Oz magic as I call it. And tying it go “G.U.Y.” and to “Gaga Day” makes this Oz magic specifically Gaga magic. While I still had a gagablog left to write for “G.U.Y.” before moving on to “Sexxx Dreams”, I had a place for more magic to happen. But the real cause of this writing is the inspiration from these events, and wanting to write about it in this week of the Ides of March and Leprechaun Day/All Snakes Day.
The interview with he artist had some points that really stood out to me, especially when she asked him how he felt about the temples he made being destroyed, burned at the end of the event. I was curious how he answered it because the question “what will become of this art?” is something that, as an artist, I feel has helped paralyze me from really making art. I was hoping his answer would help me see through that, and it did, and more. He said he was in the basement of the Smithsonian and other famous museums, meaning I suppose that his art was in their collections but not on display. He said he did other forms of art, ceramics and mentioned painting large canvasses. At this point I recognized that these are some of the signs of being what I think of as a successful artist: being able to do whatever works you want, or even afford large materials, (as I typed that I thought “surely I could find large thrown-away things to paint on.”) or being paid for your art, even enough to only do art. But it seemed like he had all of these things but it did not add up to fulfillment, especially not compared to what he had found since then, making the temples. And that story was born out of grief and sadness, because a young artist he worked with died before the first temple was erected, so it stood and burned in his honor and that temple and the one he makes every (or most?) year since then becomes this kind of spiritual vehicle for people's healing, grief, and emotions of every kind. He talked about people in the hundred or so crew who are coping with loss and make the temple to heal, and also about how the thousands and tens of thousands of attendees leave messages, mementos, and the ashes of their loved ones all over the interior of the temple before they burn it all. He said the burning of the Man was a loud, dancing, drumming event, the night before, then the burning ot the Temple was a quiet, solemn, calm event. To me there was so much magic in all of this, and hearing it that day.
I had done a spell the day before to get Herzog to win the Israeli election, and it didn't work. There was a big scandal when the Republicans in Congress invited Netenyahu to speak to them, trying to undermine Obama's deal with Iran. They also sent a letter to the leadership of Iran to discourage a deal and throw doubt on it, suggesting they could reverse it after Obama leaves office. Obama responded with a video message to the people of Iran. He wished them a Happy New Year, and then appealed to them to support a change in the relationship between our countries (the coach of Arizona State just said “country” on TV as I typed that word). He said this is the best time ever for us to have a new course. It seems like breaking through the 50-year estrangement with Cuba is a good example. How does this connect with the Temples at Burning Man? In a few ways. First is the fact that any transformation takes magic and an inversion of things. This is exemplified by the difference between the Man and the Temple; between the pride of an artwork that exists with some status and the shared feeling of art that is experienced; between the Republican letter to the “hardline rulers”, the Man, and Obama's video to the people, the community; and between, hopefully, the past of animosity between our governments and a future of cooperation. All of this is happening while fighting against the terrorist state in Syria and Iraq has actually brought the US and Iran together, cooperating more or less militarily and aiding the Iraqi military. Just typing that makes me think that if we rebranded them as the Terrorist State it could have some magical effects and help end the situatuation plus discourage anyone else from doing anything similar – just as no one ever wants to be the next Nazis no one will ever want to be the next Terrorist State. But since there already are islamic states, governments, around the world and hopefully, like all forms of government and religion these states can progress towards “more perfect union” there will be an Islamic State or states worthy of the name, but this isn't it, and should not even be associated. Just like republicans shouldn't be allowed to call themselves christians as they are terrorists of society and the environment. Or if the other, liberal (actual) christians changed their name and diverged, they would become more perfected versions of the christian religions and contribute to a more just society based on those principles and cohesive, democratic action.
I've gotten off the intended track but at the same time the theme is the same, this rebranding of things, and transformation of things. Another parallel between the Burning Man Temple and the US/Iran relationship is this idea of sacrifice, even the death of a Giant or a God or the End of a Time of Grief. It makes me think of my professor in college, Glen Wallis, who was telling us about the belief from Japan in what is called kami, or a spirits. He said everything had kami but while some were small, others were big. His example, from the news of the day, was that from this belief the conflict in Iraq was between two powerful kami, between Bush and Hussein. I bristled at this idea, that Bush could represent anything powerful besides the power of stupdity. But it does make sense, and as his Dad started this first war there, and now his brother is on TV running to try to be president, it does seem like this could better explain how there is something to it, or this is the best way to explain it and address it. Whatever these two spirits are, from whatever different conflict or collaboration, from whatever era, they can be compared and made magical analogies of, and influenced in that way. We, in our relationships with each other, can be like voodoo dolls of these giant kami. We can pierce ourselves with insight and each other with compassion and understanding with the intention of calming or even evolving these powerful spirits in conflict. The strongest way I associated the magic, symbolism, and meaning of the Burning Man Temple with the relationship between the US and Iran is that the relationship itself is like a monster, a raging and simmering fued between us that has taken on a life of it's own. The Republican's tactics, and Netenyahu's, are all on a course to ensure that we still have war with Iran, either through Israel or Iraq or any way they can. They just want to make sure the war is still on because they are heavily invested in it, both in their money and worldly influence and in their beliefs and worldview. But that whole being, the whole “conflict” between us, can just be sacrificed, turned to smoke and dust, with these magical transformations. The US/Iran animosity giant, which really threatens the whole world with tirggering war, and has ben erected over time, piece by piece, with tinder designed to inflame – it can go up in the flames of war. And there are some people designing that, and they are actually afraid we might avoid war. Or it could go up in some magical sacrifice of transformation. That is what I envision, what I thought about when I heard this interview after hearing the news of Obama's Happy New Years video.
I feel like the Electric Apricot now but my magical allusion from Burning Man and US/Iran is that burning the man represents the peace process and diplomacy, a magical transformation of something that was set up towards war being reduced to a lesson in overcoming war. Then the burning of the Temple, which represents a release of spirituality, grief and healing, would represent letting go of revenge and grief between us. And not just between us, between these two countries. If we start a new path with Iran, and things get remarkably better from it, it will be that much more enticing to forming new kinds of relationships with other countries we have conflicts with, as well. In a way this means other countries will see that getting in good with the US is a good move. But in another way it means that since we make the most weapons and have by far the largest military in the world, we have such an interest in war, but if we just show other interests, and put aside that one enough to allow other paths to develop, they will. And if we see how this really works and put war aside entirely we will find a world that works well together. With the threats of pollution and global warming we really need to come together as quickly as possible. Also to deal with new frontiers and threats of our own creation, from robots to genetics to physics. We can do this, we need to. And I think Obama's message to Iran's people, and the message it sends to the American people, compared to the new republican congressmen (who honestly just rose to power on a wave of racism and reactionary stupidity) addressing the Iranian hardline leadership, it shows what is the way of the future, to world peace, versus the way fo the past, orchestrating wars for the profit of the few who profit from corrupt systems.
What do we do about all of this? We magically change things. Gaga says to remake ourselves every day. To become our best selves, expect and engage these magical transformations constantly. I tie this particular transformation to this message about art in general that I got from that David Best interview: the change from feeling like it is necessary for Bibi to lose the election in Israel to feeling like his victory will unite the international community, forcing him to change his course or a new kind of arrangement to be made by the collective will of the world. This reminds me that I can't always intend the outcome of art, or magic, but if I make it anyway there is value in the process and whatever happens to it. It is a good thing to do, whether it “works” for whatever intention I had or not. And it reminds me not to get upset over petty actions, represented by the Republicans letter, when the more powerful, creative, good force will ultimately prevail in it's more powerful and creative ways, exemplified by Obama's video message to the people. I feel like worrying about plans, or what will happen to my art, makes me like the republicans, worried what will happen to their precious plan for world war three and their secret nuke-proof bunkers, or whatever. But just doing it, making art, or making peace. knowing it is and makes magic, like going for peace, whatever that means in different situations, and seeing where it takes us, is the way to go, even if you can't completely plan it. This is Chaos Magic in general, or what Jesus told his disciples about not preparing speeches beforehand but letting the Holy Spirit speak through them. All of these plans and agreements are based on a dynamic of mistrust, like could be compared to prenuptial agreements. But when trust builds gradually, or happens recklessly at the beginning, we can discover a path of fearlessness where wonderful things happen, just being madly in love and everything working out better than anyone expected. This comes about through these magical transformations. The Temples they burn at Burning Man represent a higher form of art, you could hear it in the artist's voice. It was more satisfying to him to know his art was experienced in this significant way, not just bestowed with honor. Even though I have never experienced it, just hearing about the experience was touching. I've heard about Burning Man and known people who went since the 90's but this made me want to go and see the temple especially, to be a part of it and see it in person, not just in pictures. I have not even seen a picture of one, I just feel this way about how I hear it described. I hope someone, someday, will feel the same about Gaga, if they had not connected with her in the past but decide to try after reading something I write, or hearing one of my songs, or seeing my art. But art brings people together, across time or in this case in a unique moment and powerful transformation that is taking place in it's own way only in this place in the American desert once a year. But it connects to events, rituals, magic, festivals and community experiences all over the world, in different ways. He said the temples looked like stupas. The last part of this gagablog is about this way of making connections across divisions, and yearly celebrations, holidays, and how they bring us together.
On St. Patrick's Day everyone is a little bit Irish, and I do have Irish, Scottish and Scotch-Irish ancestry. I'm pretty sure. One of my Scotch-Irish-American ancestors was married and my maternal ancestors from that generation back are Cherokee. My family has been Christian for a few generations since then, and the paternal side was for a few before that, I guess, but I identified as pagan from a young age. I have never had a problem with St. Patrick's Day, growing up, I never felt offended by it, too much, though I always felt symapthy for the snakes, since I like snakes and had snakes as pets growing up. But then I recognized I was a goddess loving, nature worshipping pagan and I found out the “snakes” were just representative of pagans and pagan beliefs. Come to think of it, I discovered that at a fairly early age and it could have been what led me to identify specifically as “pagan” to the extent that I did, as a kid. And though I did not have any actual connection to my Cherokee ancestors, since none of her beliefs or really anthing about her was passed down to me through the generations, I felt I did have that connection, spiritually. And I cherished what I discovered on my own through my own journey. I had never heard of Iranian New Years until today, but now I hope to celebrate it every year. I don't know if our calendars even coincide, or if like the Chinese lunar calendar Iranian New Years can be on a different date on our calendar every year. To me, the first time I ever heard of Iranian New Years is in the context of this message from Obama the other day. I take that as such a good sign of a beginning of peace, and want to put all my intention behind that. (“intense color, incredible awe” on TV, and when he said intense" it aligned with my typing “intention”.) To me, I will celebrate whatever date Iranian New Years is, every year, if this is what leads to peace in the world, this message and agreement and the paths it opens, for the US and Iran and for the whole world. I like a reason to celebrate anyway. But this “just another day” became a day of celebration -or I hope it does – in a new way for more and more people. I may be the only one who decides to celebrate it like this, extra because of what it means for peace, but I don't think I will be. And I'm not trying to spoil anyone's St. Patrick's Day but rather trying to expand it. I still continued to celebrate and enjoy St Patrick's Day, as a kid in school with the green and decorations and motifs. I never really went out to party on St. Patrick's Day, just once and it was hard to get served. Maybe I was underage, I forget. But I enjoy celebrating it in my own way, without letting the history of it upset me. I celebrate it for leprechauns and all the magic it didn't squash from the world, but ironically, magically, transformatively encourages more than anything else, keeping leprechauns alive to people who otherwise might not believe in them, at least in their imaginations. My love said she would raise a glass on that day to St. Patrick's “utter fail” at eradicating paganism since it was more popular and widespread than ever, partly due to his efforts. This must be true if people and beliefs that were driven out went to other places, but also true in the magical sense of keeping leprechauns everywhere around on this day, present to everyone's mind all over America, and other places, I suppose. This is just another example of this magical inversion, that the opposite can happen from your intentions, and certainly will when your intentions are out of tune with the future. But the more magic we do and attempt, the more we get a feel for what this future is and our best roles in manifesting it.
This connects with Gaga in a few loose ways. While I am happy celebrating St. Patrick's Day as a leprechaun holiday, a "secret" holiday for celebrating fairies disguised as a "religious"/party holiday, I got even more excited by a new idea my love told me. One of her friends came up with the idea of celebrating All Snakes Day on March 17th. This is a response to St. Patrick in solidarity with the "snakes", the pagans. It is a play on All Saint's Day, too, and therefore has the added benefit of a bi-annual Halloween kind of event, with the night before All Snakes' Day being Snakeoween. I don't know how widely this might spread, this form of celebrating mid-march. I know I want to celebrate it myself and promote it to anyone else who might like the idea. it is also in honor of her friend, the same way the Burning Man Temples are in honor of Best's friend, since the guy who came up with the idea died last year and never got to actually celebrate All Snakes' Day himself. We started it this year, a tradition of our own, and mentioned it to others so hopefully it will spread. Some people celebrate St. Patrick's Day because they are Irish, some in solidarity with the Irish, some as an excuse to party, get kissed or get drunk. Celebrating leprechauns, or "Green" by smoking weed, as I am wont to do on March 17th, is certainly as "legitimate" a celebration as the last few, and celebrating paganism is just the "other side" of celebrating St. Patrick, who would not have gained such fame were it not for the richness of traditions that he displaced and it's wide-ranging appeal. We can start new traditions or share and adapt other ones. I also heard on NPR about the Mardi Gras Indians whose celebrations started that same night, or the next, whenever St. Joseph's Night is. This is a tradition in the black community of Louisiana, and was an underground subcultural kind of event until recently. Only ten years ago the Mardi Gras Indian's parade clashed with the police who did not understand the tradition. Now the whole thing is accepted by the larger community and embraced and promoted by the state tourism board. It is a parade of black folks in elaborate Indian style costumes, to commemorate the ways in which the Indian community embraced them throughout history and the friendship and mergers of the communities. They wear what were described as Indian costume, with elaborate beadwork and feather, but I got the impression it was a Mardi Gras style to the costumes, with sequins and more New Orleans or Carnival-style plumes for feathers and headdresses. All traditions are like this, evolving depending on who celebrates the and where. And all are adopted, either by the next generation or by "completely different" or more closely related cultures. For example, the cultures of Indians and blacks literally merged in the past as black people escaping slavery were welcomed into Indian tribes and became part of the tribe. 90% of native Georgians, including white and black people, have Cherokee ancestry. Most of us don't retain any Cherokee culture, but we could find ways to do so, or make new ones. One reason I bring this up in the context of the Gagablog is this desire to connect with lost culture and celebrations.
Another example of "media magic", or just an example of the mind's associations, is this loose connection with Gaga, based on something I mentioned in the Gagablog before, maybe a year or two ago. I have been reading "The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon" which mostly revolves around landmarks on his trip to England. I've had numerous occasions to write about synchronicity with this book and events in my life. At this time I just finished reading two chapters which I presume were inspired by the author Irving's perusal of historical texts. They were all about King Phillip and the slaughter of his people by the white invaders, despite treaties between them initially. It is a horrific tale, yet it is beautiful since Irving is trying to present a counterexample to all the racist depictions of Indians in historical accounts. He points out and quotes passages in the histories that attempt to demonize Phillip but actually glorify him as a true warrior when read without the racism and agenda of justifying genocide. It is a remarkable pair of chapters and makes me teary to read it and think about it. At the same time I am reading this my lover was reading "Gone with the Wind" and remarking how incredibly racist it is, even while expecting it to be racist she was shocked. And she was shocked that people at that time could be so racist, at the time the story was set, but also that they could still be so racist at the time it was written to try and excuse and justify that racism. She gave me some examples and I had to read to her from "The Sketchbook" to make the point that as racist as "people" were, then, they weren't all racist and some were, even then, engaged in the struggle against racism. And as racist as "people" still are today, there also are still people standing up against injustice. I say "people" in quotes because of course they are real people, but they don't truly represent "the people" - no bigotry ever can. But we will get better at democracy, at government that does represent the people, and all of the people. In America and also in Israel, Syria, the Ukraine, Russia, and everywhere. This is that "rebranding", of culture in some ways, and certainly of our understanding of each other. Removing the racism is a great first step. The Terrorist State crisis is magically sorting people into those who want to fight and those who want peace. It is time to speak up for the fact that peace-lovers outnumber warmongers by hundreds of times and we really can use our voices to change the world into a peaceful one, especially if we sing together. This is the union of people, though culture and ritual. The ritual I have been most interested in recently has been the Ghost Dance. I feel I will say much more about this in coming Gagablogs, but for now let me just say that since I have been mentioning it more and more online I came across, when someone posted it in the facebook Chaos Magic Group, a story about the reunion of the Condor and Eagle, representing the people and spirituality of Northern and Southern Americas. Apparently this has been foretold for some time but seems to be coming together, happening now, and to me the Ghost Dance is the same thing. We have been spiritually divided but are being reunited. The north represents the more mental and scientific side, the Eagle, and the south represents the more passionate and artistic side. But we are being reunited, like going back to before the schism between science and magic and re-establishing both in their true form as alchemy. As Ghosts we are taking over the world through new expressions of culture but also new uses of technology, and both of these streams have come together and are strengthening each other. Soon we will reach a point of creative and artistic abundance from which it will just make no sense to anyone to be greedy or keep oppressive systems in place.
Just as one day it will make no sense to anyone why we argued over the things we do, such as whether or not to address climate change, why we have wars at all. Or why we argue about nuclear power which can be incredibly dangerous and damaging as the Fukashima disaster should have warned us against, and we may still not know all the real dangers that unleashed. And especially why worry about it when solar power is coming along so quickly - I heard our use of solar power has increased by 20 times in the years Obama has been in office. And that is despite the pressure from oil companies to postpone it as long as possible. But at some point we will have to change, especially when folks can't deny the earthquakes under their feet caused by frakking, as they are having to face in Oklahoma, or can no longer deny man-made global warming because it is just too hot and the sea levels are rising so fast as to be noticeable even to complete idiots. But we won't argue over these things forever, and when you imagine an ideal future it is easy to see which elements won't exist anymore. I will tie this, loosely, to Gaga and wrap it up. The whole idea of changing St Patrick's Day to All Snakes' Day is similar to my idea to change Columbus Day to Gaga Day: the main reason people seem intent to celebrate Columbus Day is Italian-American pride. Gaga is a great symbol for this, too, but instead of representing invasion, genocide and oppression to millions of Native Americans, their descendants in the community and out of it, and all those who are sympathetic to them, as Columbus does for so many, Gaga represents love for all people and acceptance and encouragement, as well as Italian-American pride and the accomplishments of a Hero. Yes, it is true that not everyone likes Gaga's music but not everyone likes sailing, navigating, invasion or genocide and yet we continue to celebrate Columbus Day. When I mentioned All Snakes Day at the Denver Pagan Meetup group one of the members said "you can't take away St. Patrick's Day!" because he celebrated his Irish Heritage. And I am not trying to take anything away, but just to add to it, even adding it's "opposite", All Snakes Day, but when you consider how both ways to celebrate this day could equally associate with leprechauns I think you can see how even with opposites you end up having "it all." This idea of changing, remaking oneself or anything else, including a holiday, into something that functions in more ways and connects to more people, is more inclusive. This results in a better whole for being able to maximize the contributions of it's parts through valuing all individual characteristics. The same will be true of global decisions that include the concerns of all countries and communities in the world. And of course some decisions will require favoring one side of a conflict over another, but with this kind of focus on making al boats and fortunes rise together I think people will be more open to helping others and putting the needs of another community first, knowing that respect will be shown to them too and their concerns be addressed as well by the same principle that everyone's concerns matter and should be considered and factor into decisions.
The last thing I will say to tie this all up is about the lyrics for "G.U.Y". I have already had more entries about this song and other things going on as I finally caught up with the video. I still did not write an edition specifically to address misunderstandings of the lyrics. So this is it. I'm proud I got most of the lyrics correct, and I want to gloat about that because I was paying more attention to the lyrics of the remaining songs last time I listened to Artopop and there are a lot of lyrics I can't make out. And I will probably make a fool of myself. I do that all the time anyway. But being a fool and holy fool for Gaga is what I am all about, as the first step on the journey to following her. What I heard as "towel" or couldn't make out turns out to be "I'm gonna wear the tie." This implies Gaga will be "the man" in the relationship by wearing this symbol of manhood. That fits with a lot of ideas about the song, the idea of her being in the role with "the power to leave you" and in "full control of this love." But it is through a twist or irony that this is really accomplished. Through a magical transformation or reversal of "how things usually are." By making this transformation for herself in this song she opens this up more for everyone. There is more of a specific cross-dressing reference to this but other connotations as well. A tie has the magical kind of effect, and is intended, I believe, to emphasise the head, the mental capacity and focus, as separate from the body. This may be why it is the "masculine role" to have the "power to leave you": acting on pride or principle that vetoes the desires of the heart and body. But the word "tie" could have other implications as well, poetically and magically. It could have the connotation of wearing a "tie" like a draw in a game, accepting equality and having a relationship that does not include dominance, a relationship of equals. It could be like wearing a yoke, as it says in the Bible to "yoke" yourself in marriage to one of the same stature, or as people seem to understand it, the same belief system. She's saying she will take ownership of the relationship, say yes she is in a relationship and accept that yoke, but also willingly accepting it and being able to just as willingly cast it off if she chooses to. This related to Gaga getting engaged, a glorious occasion for the family of little monsters and our mother monster. Yet I notice I am not the only one with mixed feelings or concern about this. They can be so secretive about their relationship, and so busy with their work, it has been hard to tell from the outside if he seems good for her. I know that from recent appearances, since they got engaged, they look so happy and she is so beaming with beauty, even more than always, that I feel the doubt melt away and only happiness for her and a little envy of him, still, remaining. While there is this dream of being with Gaga, it is certainly not sad that she is happy with the love of her life. If we could apply that to other, actual loves we have, that fall in love with other people, then we could be a lot more positive about love and about each other. This is the kind of rebirth at every level, trying to look for the best and bring out the best in everything. Gaga shows me how to do it, both intentionally through inspiring me and encouraging me to make art, and just by the occurrences that happen when paying attention to her. We become what we believe in and I love her for making me more and more Gaga, more and more an artist, and happier and happier because of it and because of this trail and journey, this Yellow Brick Road, I am on. No matter what we call him, we're off to see the Wizard, even if it turns out in the end to be the Witch who helps us, or we end up helping ourselves with the magic we discover on the journey, including the magic of transforming things by looking at them in a new way.
Thanks Gaga and congratulations and good luck with the engagement and wedding! I love you forever, Paws up!
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