I Can’t Hear You!

"...we would cry because of the intense beauty of the music, and nobody would have dreamed of disturbing the magic."
~ Ravi Shankar

Are you really listening?

Mage Music 48

I always recommend not actually looking at the videos that I link to in Mage Music.  I suggest only listening to them. That's what I do - I play YouTubes and DVDs without looking at the screen. I'm in it for the music, and music can't be perceived with eyes. 

Why does a musician so often close his eyes when in the deepest throes of musical passion?  It's because seeing interferes with the music experience.  If that's good enough for musicians like Jimmy Page, it's good enough for me.

The biology of perception

Hearing is so important that it develops even before a person is born.  Amniotic fluid is a good conductor of sound and a fetus can hear the mother’s heartbeat as early as the third or fourth month. Sounds can affect fetal heart rate, and research has shown that music can cause changes in metabolism in fetuses and babies. Some prospective parents, aware of this, play music to help their unborn child’s intellectual and emotional development. 

Of course there's nothing to see in the womb, so it's logical that eyes don't develop fully till after birth.  A baby is born only able to see things within about a 12" range - just enough to find a mother's nipple.  It takes a while before vision fully develops in a newborn - yet a baby can hear perfectly well right from the start. That's because hearing is crucial to development and survival of the individual and the species - and not just humans.

How important is it?  All this planet's complex organisms that have both eyes and ears evolved the ability to voluntarily close the eyes but not the ears. In other words, we have evolved a mechanism to choose not to see, but we haven't evolved one to choose to not hear.  There are eyelids, but not earlids. Hearing is such a fundamental sense that it is always on and we can hear under all kinds of circumstances, even sometimes while unconscious.  We can even receive sound through our bones.   

The parts of the brain involved with hearing are very closely connected with the parts involved with survival. The “reptile brain”, the limbic system, is the oldest part of the brain (in terms of evolution) and is the most primitive. It works on automatic responses, not intellectual decisions. That’s where emotions and immediate reaction to danger is handled, that’s where memory is processed.

And that's also is a big part of the brain that deals with music.

Visual illusion

To see or to hear, that is the question
Sound is so important to us and yet vision is such a brain-hog. Something like eighty to eighty five percent of our perception, learning, cognition and related activities are vision-oriented and involve parts of the brain that deal with conscious thought. When we see things, our brains fill in gaps of knowledge that then direct - and even overpower - the other senses and even our thinking. That’s why optical illusion can be so successful – our eyes can trick our brains into believing something is true that isn't. Even knowing that the bathroom floor in the image to the right is a trompe l’oeil (literally, fool the eye), we might hesitate at stepping onto it (click on image to enlarge).

If vision hogs the brain then we sometimes need to shut down visual input. That's when the eyelids come into play. For instance, people squint when trying to focus on an idea, or close their eyes when trying to identify something is by touch. That's why when people want to savor a sound, smell or taste - or increase the intensity of an experience like sex or music - the eyes so often are closed.
The sound of music
Sorry for putting that ear-worm in your brain - here's a link to a YouTube to make it go away (Down By The Seaside). Now that you've clicked on the link, I've got a bit of homework for you. Watch the video carefully. Read the lyrics. Look at the pictures. Now play it again and don't watch it. Close your eyes, sit back and listen. The second time around I promise you'll hear more. This is the way to hear music.

The ability to explore and share knowledge of the  fundamental nature of being and the world - the "metahuman" or "metaphysical" level of existence - is possible because of human language, which is sound based. But while language has brought humanity beyond itself,  it is still a human invention to communicate about reality as it relates to humans, that is, the finite. Music, on the other hand, connects to the infinite.

The Sufi master, Hazrat Inayat Khan (1882-1927), wrote the following: 

What we call music in our everyday language is only a miniature from that music or harmony of the whole universe which is working behind everything...   Music is not only life's greatest object, but it is life itself.

Or, as Hermann Hesse put it in his book The Glass Bead Game: (Magister Ludi), the world is sound, a microcosm of the whole spiritual cosmos and thus music can reproduce the entire spiritual content of the world.

Music is too important not to hear fully.

Vision or music - but not both  
Basically, if you watch a video, the sensory distortion provided by the predominance of vision means that you are cutting off a significant percentage of your ability to hear the music. The sound waves still enter your ears and make your ear drums vibrate, your brain still receives the input from your inner ear, but the majority of your brain is involved with the signals that are being received visually.  In essence, your brain “ignores” most of the received auditory input. The part of the brain that that processes emotion – and the emotional interpretation of music – is barely engaged.

In other words, you aren't really hearing much of the music if you’re watching a music video.

And if you aren’t hearing the music, you’ll never get the Magick that's in it, will you?

Additional reading:
What Happens in the Brain to Make Music Rewarding?
"...the brain assigns value to music through the interaction of ancient dopaminergic reward circuitry, involved in reinforcing behaviours that are absolutely necessary for our survival such as eating and sex, with some of the most evolved regions of the brain, involved in advanced cognitive processes that are unique to humans.... The integrated activity of brain circuits involved in pattern recognition, prediction, and emotion allow us to experience music as an aesthetic or intellectual reward."

Mage Music: Ritual is not Magick

A black robe with a black cat looking on, a few candles and props, a chanted spell and a pass with the wand:  Magic?  No way!  On stage, maybe - but that's not real magick at all.

The truth:  Even when they use tools, today’s occult magicians and most other reality transforming professionals don't perform rituals like they did in the olden days.  In spite of what you may have learned from Harry Potter, real magic doesn’t require wands, spells, magic potions and powders, pentangles, crystals or any other prop to make the connections with the energy that will do the heavy lifting.  Still, all those things and more can be used to create magic - even if they are just tools that make the job easier.

The need to use specific tools of magic is indirectly proportionate to the skill of the mage. What this means is that a powerful mage can use anything – or nothing at all – to bring about transformations in the world, whereas a lesser magician can become dependent upon ritual, on the use of tools in a formulaic way to focus the mind and keep the will of the magician on task.

The reason rituals and magical props are not intrinsically necessary is because rituals are not the magic itself.  The fact is, anyone can use the recommended magical tools and perform the prescribed rituals with them, but only some will get the desired magical results.  Even the most highly skilled practice of ritual can never achieve the same level of results as a gifted mage who isn’t even half trying, because magical success resides not in the ritual but in the person performing the magic.

Lascaux, France paleolithicave painting

A little history
One theory of art history is that cave paintings, petrographs and petroglyphs were not art so much as summonings, blessings, and/or entreaties to the spirit world for success in the hunt.  The Lascaux cave paintings are around 17,300 years old and petroglyphs sites in Australia have been dated at 27,000 to 40,000 years old.  Undoubtedly the first human music consisted of humming, whistling, and singing; rhythm-keeping in the form of clapping or drumming must have occurred early on as well.

Music is powerful.  We don’t need science to tell us that music can evoke strong emotions and changed states of awareness (although science can, in fact, tell us how that works).  Shamanic drumming has its modern-day counterpart in trance music; a young child can tell the difference between happy and sad music; words that are used to describe music also are used to describe spiritual experience.  There has always been something magical about the application of paint to canvas or stringing one word or one musical note after another and having the end result be something that has meaning above and beyond the physical object.  For some practitioners of the various arts, the result is also magick.

Performance vs. creation

Jimmy Page is often referred to as “The Master” or “Mage”.   Magick or music - the honorifics acknowledge the quality and quantity his gift and his expression of it.  Yet performance itself, no matter how dazzling and technically excellent, does not a Master make.

Jimmy Page is definitely a master musician.  The YouTube playlist provided here includes selections of original music of Mr. Page's over a 15 year period from 1983-1998.  These songs were chosen to provide a powerful example of the skill of a musician at the level of mage.  Please note that some songs have solos that I have identified for particular consideration (also scroll down for individual links).

While any search of YouTube will yield numerous young guitarists (and some not-so-young or unknown) who have performed Jimmy Page’s tracks from various songs, none carry the magic of Mr. Page’s own work as he performs it.  Many can play the works of Jimmy Page's with technical excellence that may surpass his own technical skills, but none of it is magic.

“Music is an outburst of the soul.”  Frederick Delius

Jimmy Page, as has often been noted by his detractors, can be a sloppy guitarist and even off-pitch, yet somehow the magic is still there.  This is because ritual – musical technique – is not the magic.  You can listen to far more technically accomplished guitarists and be left cold.  Magic comes about as a result of the desire and will of the mage, not technique.  Jimmy Page plays music and makes it his own - he is always creating, not simply performing.  The music he produces is the result of focus of his desire and will; he is not merely producing a sequence of notes on his guitar that he has produced before, that anyone can produce – he is creating a new state in the world that matches his inner vision.

Each of the songs in the playlist is different, but each at its core expresses a certain Truth.  The expression of that Truth is magic.

It is highly recommended that you do not watch the videos while listening to the selections below. Concentrate on the sound for there lies the magic.


1983  Midnight Moonlight Live, ARMS concert with Paul Rogers [note particularly 3:23 – 5:15]

1988  Emerald Eyes Studio version, Outrider

1988  Writes of Winter Studio version, Outrider 

1993  Saccharin Unreleased, Coverdale/Page  [note particularly 2:50 – 3:16]

1998  Walking Into Clarksdale Live,  La Cigale Paris March 30 [note particularly 4:22 – end]

The Music and The Magic

Mage Music: The Music and The Magic
What I’m listening to as I write: Ten Years Gone

Led Zeppelin Physical Graffiti
Led Zeppelin Atlanta 1977
Led Zeppelin Seattle 1977
Led Zeppelin California 1977
Led Zeppelin MSG New York 1977
Led Zeppelin Knebworth 1979
Led Zeppelin Cleveland 1979
Page & Plant Rehearsal 1996
Page & Plant Japan 1996
The Black Crowes with Jimmy Page New York 2000

Jimmy Page is often referred to as a Mage or Magus. A mage is a person who performs a paranormal kind of magic as opposed to magical tricks like a stage illusionist in Las Vegas. It's likely the label originally reflected Mr. Page's interest in the occult teachings of Aleister Crowley, although today it holds true for a different reason: Jimmy Page's uncanny musical ability.

A mage can also be referred to as an enchanter, wizard, magus, thaumaturgist, or simply magician. Each term has a subtly different meaning - some more negative than others - but all terms that refer to the occult kind of magic revolve around the manipulation of reality through supernatural means or through knowledge of occult laws.

Magic is similar to religion in many ways. Although magic is generally more result-oriented and religion more worship-oriented, both (ideally) are about spiritual growth. And, as with religion, magic may take different approaches: That of the holographic or sympathetic universe (the practitioner's actions cause a parallel effect elsewhere), or that of collaboration (the practitioner gets supernatural beings to cause the effect).

In some ways all meanings apply to Jimmy Page as magus, especially since he, himself, described his life as “a fusion of magick and music” (Guitar World, January 2008). (Note the alternate spelling: magick. Crowley chose the spelling with “k” at the end to differentiate between occult vs. stage illusionist practice).

Rituals are sets of symbolic actions, performed in a certain order. Almost all religions and magic use rituals in their practice, however those more "purely" spiritual are seen as being able to practice without need of ritual. For most practitioners, pure or otherwise, ritual is a tool that serves as a means of settling the mind into the right frame to achieve the transformation desired.

The specific ritual used in magic depends on the type of magician and his/her approach to the practice, but the purpose for using ritual for all practitioners is the same: To create a focus of the will (focused desire) of the mage in order to bring about the desired transformations and to focus and unify the other participants in the ceremony (ceremonial participants are generally a source of power for the magician).

It would be easy to simply say that Jimmy Page’s musical work is magical because it is so very good, but that says nothing much at all.

It would be more accurate to say that Jimmy Page’s musical work is magical because it is about manipulation of reality through music and, in my opinion, because it is also for purposes of spiritual growth.
In his own words and actions, Mr. Page shows that his music speaks for him in a magical way. In a 1973 interview he stated that “We're all still seeking for truth - the search goes on", and “…at those times when I've hit it [when performing], it's just like I'm a vehicle for some greater force."

Of course, people grow, people change. The beliefs of the young are tempered by age. The Jimmy Page of 1973 is not the Jimmy Page of today, yet in 2010 Mr. Page still believed in the power of music: “ I think it’s got to be all part of our DNA, this mass communication through music” (The Scotsman interview).

Pure magic, the transformation of the world, is achieved almost every time that Jimmy Page performs. Mr. Page has been dismissed by critics for his sloppy playing, for not always staying in tune – basically for lack of perfection - but even on his worst, most tuneless, sloppy days, his music conveys an extra layer of meaning, a communication that makes the manner in which it is performed almost irrelevant. It is magic coming through, as Jimmy Page says about Embryo, a work in progress that he plays in the movie It Might Get Loud.

It is what we, the participants in the ritualistic ceremony of the music of Jimmy Page, understand is the guitar alchemy of a powerful mage.

Kashmir

Kashmir: The best ever song anywhere, anytime. Yet the music (melody) is simple and the lyrics not all that important (Plant's voice, in my opinion, is what it's about - not what the words mean but how they sound).

What the heck is it about that song that makes it better than Staircase to Heaven (which shares the mystery, but doesn't tap into the magic as strongly)?

Kashmir on YouTube (from Led Zeppelin's album, Physical Graffiti) Almost 10.5 million views now.

Moroccan influence: In 1994 Kashmir was recorded for No Quarter: Jimmy Page & Robert Plant Unledded  and was performed with a Moroccan ensemble. Robert Plant said of Jimmy Page and No Quarter, "His riffs were spectacular. To take it as far as we did... it's one of the most ambitious and mind altering experiences."

People have described Kashmir as "spiritual". Plant says "mind altering". I would agree - this is incredibly uplifting music - but what makes it that way?  And do you find, as I do, that when Kashmir is performed by others it doesn't carry that extra something, that magic?