Shaking Da Tree
Wherein our narrator experiences a moment of
musical synchronicity.
Tonight is the full moon, and it's rising high
above the crystal clear skies of Adelaide. Last night I thought the better of
trying to do my Lunar rituals in the grey, rainy weather of a Mardi Gras Sydney,
and took a chance that I'd actually perform it once I got down here. And this
evening, after having shopped for some bare-minimum preparations (no candles,
just some water and fruit for offerings) I set to work. My cell, on the 11th
floor of the Residence Building at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, looks out onto
the Botnanical Garden. And this evening, in the Botanical Garden, the
WOMADelaide concert series is drawing to a close. This is the famous concert
series started by Peter Gabriel and WOMAD records back in the mid-1990s. I
arguably went to the first WOMAD concert, in Golden Gate Park, back in...1993?
1994? (It all runs together now.) So the sounds of the concert are drifting up
into my window, and were doing so, even as I cast the circle and drew back the
veil between the worlds. It wasn't as though I needed to ignore the music;
indeed, WOMAD music is pagan in its spirit, and harmonizes quite well with the
Rites of the Moon. But what was special - very special - was that Youssun
N'Dour came onstage during the middle of my working (he's still playing now)
and, as I finished up, and drew the circle back into myself, I did so to the
strains of "Shaking the Tree".
You
really can't ask for more than that.
Blessed be!
Posted: Sun - March 7, 2004 at 11:17 PM