Hearth
Anamnesis Track 4
ANAMNESIS
In philosophy, anamnesis (/ˌænæmˈniːsɪs/; Ancient Greek: ἀνάμνησις) is a concept in Plato’s epistemological and psychological theory that he develops in his dialogues Meno and Phaedo and alludes to in his Phaedrus. The idea is that humans possess innate knowledge (perhaps acquired before birth) and that learning consists of rediscovering that knowledge from within.
In 2003–2004, I made my first record with 1 SM57 mic, a small three-piece drum kit, an acoustic and electric guitar, an Access Virus analog synth, and Ableton 2. The nine tracks each represent the stages of Consciousness, as proposed by Spiral Dynamics and Ken Wilber’s work. Here’s a quick overview story. Each of my next nine posts will be dedicated to telling the story and meaning of each track-stage. Enjoy!
HEARTH
I’m (T)here
I’m (T)here
Wherever
You go
I’m (T)here
Ever
Ever
Ever
Readings from:
The Bible
The Tao te Ching
Sex, Ecology, Spirituality
The Ever-Present Origin
With track four, Hearth, we now have the combination of Heaven and Earth, the fundamental duality of the fourth stage of Consciousness. As a refutation away from the Egocentricity of magical and mythical thinking, the fourth stage of development gravitates toward a single Patriarchal God-Father figure, with a singular text of words that contain the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth. Of course, we see the birth of the major Western religions here, with Judaism, Christianity, and Islam being born in this stage of thinking. Each of these religions comes with a book, to varying degrees of literalness, the Word of God — and the only word.
What was a Polytheistic belief system in stage three is now a Monotheistic set of rules, and if you don’t obey them, you’re going to the Bad Place. But, on the other hand, if you’re a good little follower, the spoils of Heaven are yours for eternity. With our feet on the ground and our heads reaching to the sky, Hearth explores this dichotomy that still pervades and ultimately controls our planet to this day.
The opening guitar riff is loaded with bit distortion effect, meant to represent the distortion of Reality and the dirty noise that comes with this stage. The first movement of the song is beautiful, emotional, and elegant and feels like watching the ocean.
I whisper “I’m (T)here” a few times over, a nod to the Ever-Present God that is, at this stage, always watching our behavior from above. This whisper is the voice of God and not my Witnessing thereof. It’s meant to be a bit scary, among the beautiful refrain of this part of the song. “(T)here” is one of my oldest poetic devices, meant to represent the lack of space-time that remembers we are everywhere, always, throughout the Universe. “Here” and “There” are both temporal and positional ideas, whereas (T)here is the transcendent integration of both. And maybe a nod to the Beatles. Also being whispered are the four most essential Books that have defined my Knowledge of -0-: The Bible, The Tao, Wilber’s “Sex, Ecology, Spirituality,” and Gebser’s “The Ever-Present Origin.” Like an obedient little boy, I read from each of these books one after the next, and eventually all four simultaneously.
Tension builds towards a release with the lyric “Wherever you go, I’m (T)here.” Then, the music slips away, and the book readings remain, now jumbled together. This word-gumbo represents the over-active mind, flooded with the often-contradictory words found in these four books. The voices slowly fade away as the final passage of the music builds with more and more tension.
This movement represents the freeing of one’s Self from the dualistic prison of Hearth, rising towards a more profound level of awareness that comes with the next track, Creastruction, track-stage 5. As I repeat “Ever” repeatedly, the music tempo gets slowed down more and more, creating a feeling of great tension that remains beautiful. We’re now ready to Creastroy…
