Sharing the true holiday message-William Close & the Earth Harp Collective

This morning I caught William's tweet about The Earth Harp Collective's livestream performance in TX at the Lake Pointe church.  Being the proud owner of "Holidays" which William self-released this time last year I tuned in to see the live performance of some of its tracks..  The album includes songs that were recorded in the studio that was designed into the home that replaced the one he had lost in a fire two years earlier.  The studio's construction is such as to accommodate the harp and to replicate as close as possible in a recording the live experience of The Earth Harp.  This album shows that that effort was very successful but it is also great to see the Earth Harp and all the other instruments and voices with the holiday decorations around it.

I found this morning's performance ironic, prophetic and a huge opportunity.  Lake Pointe is a non-denominational, evangelical congregation...fundamentalist Christians.  Definitely not the people one would find on The Playa in August covered in skins and feathers, sending their praise and prayers to the Universe heavenward in the giant bonfire that is the immolation of The Temple. In fact, I think it's a safe bet that most of the people that attend this church and others like it would cross the street to avoid contact with the members of The Tribe and go home and say all manner of awful things about these dirty hippie, tree huggers.  And yet, this day those dirty hippies brought probably the truest, most glorious version of "the message" into their midst.

First and foremost my love of The Tribe and my gratitude to them for being invited into its fold is that we believe in a global community.  We believe that the New Era that we ushered in on the Solstice last year will culminate in the breaking down of all barriers.  No more will we use the words racist, biggot, homophobe.  There will be no terms that separate us from one another.  The lamb shall lie down with the lion and we will live in perfect peace.  We will know agape, unconditional love.  We are open to all religious options.  We recognize and respect the great prophets, the mighty people of the gods.  We know the names given to the divine mother and father spirits and honor them all.  We appreciate the merits of the life and words attributed to the man known as Jesus of Nazareth.

So it is that The Tribe came humbly into this gathering of those who claim to follow this Jesus and with them they brought His message of deep, peace.  They delivered spiritual healing with instrument and voice.  William, a human imbued with knowledge of the angels, brought that otherworldly instrument into this space so that humans could experience the actual sounds of Heaven.  Rafe came with that voice that rises over the din and delivers this glorious prayer in Jesus' own native language.  They came with the spirit of family-both nuclear and extended.  Sarah and William took their love for one another and pushed it into the strings of the Harp.

I'm sure that all the members of The Earth Harp Collective were well aware that the people they were sharing this with, in other circumstances, would not associate with them,  would call them heathens, unbelievers.  However, the agape love they live compels them to share the greater message.  To help fill in the blanks left in the theology.  The Tribe truly loves mankind.  It is not that we are "better than you"...we want to add our parts of the machine to this.  We want you to "live life abundantly".  We want to help break your hearts and spirits open, to throw open the gates and let the real joy, love and peace enter in.  This was your Jesus' message.  It can be so much more.

Thank you William, Sarah, Rafe, and all the other musicians who share their talents so unselfishly.  I have to say that I was terribly sad to find the words I feared seeing in the chat screen running alongside the video feed.  I pray often that "Christian" would live Jesus' teaching about not judging.  I wish they would open their spirits and see that we are all part of this family, we just have different ways of connecting with the Divine, worshiping, praising and honoring the Great Being(s) that created The Universe.  Interesting that it was a "fundie preacher" that once taught me that we all have a tiny sliver of this great Universal pie and the point for us each to share it to create the complete story.  Last year when I did my Good Friday labyrinth meditation, I saw this all as a giant machine and we are each a gear, a cog, a chain, a key...it will take every one of us to run smoothly...to create peace.  Don't take the joy out of this holy season of The Solstice, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, Yule...this season when we come together to find the strength to get through coldest part of the year, to celebrate having survived to the longest night and moving toward more hours of daylight even though it is a time that food is at its scarcest and weather its fiercest in the Northern Hemisphere.  All these holy days have elements of coming together, sharing a meal, gifting, decorating and bringing a light into a dark place.  I hope that those people who have accepted the twisted message of The Christ, have a vision of what my friends brought to them and shared with hearts filled with love and one day start to break down the walls and learn to live in real peace with ALL people.

You can purchase "Holidays" here:
ttp://williamcloseholidays.bandcamp.com/album/holidays
http://www.amazon.com/Holidays-William-Close-Earth-Collective/dp/B00ALBNO1K
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/williamcloseandtheearthh2
and on iTtunes

Learn more about William Close and The Earth Harp:
http://williamandtheearthharp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/WilliamAndTheEarthHarp

The key to your heart

Forgive me. Somehow I missed my own timing on this one.  It was intended to be posted yesterday.

Valentine's Day.  Although a "Hallmark holiday" is a day when we are focused on letting those we love know in the form of gifts, cards, meals that they are important to us, special.  Of course we should be doing that every day and honestly, I'm one for spotaneous romanticism.  I much prefer flowers, delivered to the office, for no reason at all.  But that's not the point of this post.

One of the many analogies of romantic love is "giving the keys to your heart".  I never really thought about that phrase much until I started writing this key series.  The first thing that came to mind was a conversation with a former lover about happiness.  I had said something to the effect that this person made me happy and that I would be incredibly sad without them.  The response floored me.  Instead of thanking me for the compliment, he said that he never wanted that much responsibility in anyone's life.  He went on to explain that we should all be capable of creating our own invidual happiness with a love interest merely putting an extra shine on the happiness we had already found and maintained on our own.

Being single for ten years now, I completely understand what my lover meant.  I have not only achieved my own happiness, I have found joy and peace.  As much as I would love to be in a romantic relationship, I have established an entirely new circle of friends that stretches from New York City, to Chicago and now to Los Angeles without traveling any farther than a three hour drive.  These people, with their arts, talents and spirituality have filled my life with so much vibrance, inspiration and blessing.  When I am interacting with them, either face-to-face, over the phone or on-line the colors of our friendships are brighter and just more but when I am alone, that joy and love is still there.  The flame is a softer one and warm instead of strikingly hot but I am genuinely happy.

So what about the keys to my heart.  I've always been able to unlock my own emotions and set them free.  I've never been one to actively look for "the one" who can open me up but some people have come along that have shown me new "rooms" within myself.  Sometimes it does take someone new to release emotions, spiritual ideals or creativity.  But are they the only ones who can do that?  Maybe it's possible that they were one of many who had those particular keys on their ring.  There maybe others that have them too.  The thing is, and here is the wisdom being unlocked, you already had those keys on your ring from day one so when or if that person leaves your life, you can unlock those doors yourself.  We all know deep down that no matter how badly the relationship ended and how much it hurts to revisit parts of ourselves, eventually the hurt subsides and we remember the lessons learned and realize that there are places we want or need to go back to, good things that we desire even without that person there to share them.  We never forget where those rooms are and most of us probably poked around at them while we were healing from the break-up it just hurt too much at the moment to actually open them.

A personal story about the rooms in my heart and in my spirit that I slammed shut and then boarded over years later in a different relationship.  I ended up with someone that was so different from me that I moved into the basement of my heart and soul, leaving creativity and spirituality in the bright sunny rooms on the main floor and in the attic.  I spent 20 years bending and shaping myself into someone so far from my real self trying to make this person happy.  When I think about it now...I never had the keys to his heart and nothing on his ring fit the doors of mine.  Instead of opening me up, he shut me down. When I finally walked away from that relationship, I came upstairs from the basement.  I threw open every single door and fountains of color and beauty poured from every one.  Yes, some of the objects in those rooms had collected dust so I cleaned them off and opened all the curtains.  Then I kept going up to the attic; the home of all my quirks and excentricities.  Old dress forms, cheval mirrors, giant bird cages and my grandmother's evening gowns all waiting for my return.  Yes, I did reconnect with an old lover during this process and he opened a door or two but mostly he stood by and watched me open them with my own keys.  And when my new found energy proved too much for him, he left.  I was sad but I didn't shut those doors.  In fact some of them wouldn't close if I tried.

The points are these.  First, don't ever think that someone else is the sole bearer of the keys to any part of you.  Yes, revel in the joy when that person does unlock something in you but remember that if that door gets closed at some point down the road, YOU have a key to it too.  Second, don't ever give away your keys.  Don't lay the responsibilty of your joy, your peace and your love on any one person.  It's not a compliment.  And in reverse, don't feel that you are special if that person claims you are the owner of their keys.  That is a dependent relationship and if you both are doing it, it's co-dependency and that is a sick, dysfunctional relationship that will poison the people in it and anyone close to it.

The next time you put on a piece of jewelry or clothing that depicts a key, think about it this way...that is YOUR key.  You own it for life.  Don't give it away.  Sure, you can let others use their keys but always remind yourself that when those people are far away and you want to feel, create, pray, whatever and the door got closed for one reason or another YOU!! can unlock it.

The key is THE KEY

Last May I was introduced to my current favorite painter, Hans Haveron.  After seeing just one small element of one of his works, I hunted down the whole piece and then started digging up as many photos as I could find of the rest of his portfolio.  Even before I interviewed him the first time, I knew that I had a spiritual connection to his art and the symbolism displayed in it.

Haveron loves talking about art; his own, his friends' and anyone's that he has experienced over the years.  A child and grandchild of artists, paint runs through his veins, music powers his nervous system, performance fills his lungs.  He takes his own talents and encourages others, mentors them and inspires them through collaboration.  Arts are this man.

Once he gets talking, well...he's an interviewer's dream because he just goes and all I have to do is make sure the recorder is working.  In that waterfall of words, comes stories and one of those stories was the explanation of the symbolism of "Sepia's Secret".  The interview question had just been, "do elements of your paintings have meanings?".  Not only did he share with me the story of the painting by how he had told the story to Adam Lambert who felt so connected to it that he bought the painting. That in turn inspired  him to have the key tattooed prominently as a reminder to always create from his "child".

"The key" has also affected other artists in Hans' circle.  One of those people is Shannon Shiang.  Shannon is a jewelry designer and creator.  She has two jewelry lines; Shiang New York and Skins and Stones.  Shannon is an L.A. native who has relocated to NYC and is a long-time friend of Haveron's.  After producing some prototypes of Sepia's key, one or two of which turned up at Burning Man this year, Shiang worked with Haveron to come up with a version that will be produced on a larger scale (200 units to start).  Presale orders are being taken now for product to ship on March 20, 2012.

These artists and their work have affected my spiritual focus, not only the particular keys depicted in Hans' paintings and their symbolism but keys and locks in general.  As we enter the Age Of Aquarius or the coming of the new age foretold by the Mayans, there are things that need to be locked away and new doors and windows that need to be opened.  However, the keys involved may not be a metal object designed to insert into a lock and turned.  Maybe it refers to the key a song is written in.  The Christian bible speaks of the "new song".  Maybe this is the era that that song will be written.

Maybe it is a cipher key.  A word, a letter that provides the code to unravel a hidden message.  There may be some secret manuscript previously unnoticed by man because it just looked like some foolishness.

Or maybe it is a keystone.  That piece of material that holds an entire structure together.  That structure could be a building, a person or a society.

I will be posting pretty regularly a new "key" to this blog.  If you feel something in your life or the spaces around you needs to be added let me know.  I firmly believe there is something to this theme.  Peace always and don't forget to check out The Key at http://skinsandstones.bigcartel.com/product/hans-haveron-design-adam-lambert-tattoo-skeleton-key-pendant