San Francisco misty morning through my lace curtain - watching the Diggers serve lunch to the people standing in a long meandering line in the panhandle across the street. Just the right number of pillow white clouds and the rainbow-sun suggest an excellent augury for the day ahead. Cars and VW buses zoom past on Oak Street, part of an earthy rhythm - and Jefferson Airplane, Surrealistic Pillow sounds like a clear bell in the crystal gray air. The Panhandle is the northern boundary of the Haight-Ashbury, and center of the San Francisco Mystic Triangle. The area is a main psyche center of the City, where it is possible to sit under a tree and experience celebrations for a grey day. The Panhandle is insulated like the centre of self, and can facilitate access to the spirit of the monad, directly and naively. Musicians come here to play within an envelope of solitude... put your inner ear on the 'Mother Earth channel' and tune in a morning rag running along just under the first layer of grass... easy to pick up the pattern and just play along with it. The harmony is achieved without the help of religious rites or doctrines, or other communities. Sermon On The Mount ethics that pull Akasha up through the spine to the back of the skull.
Goojjari Todi, Morning Raga

The Golden Gate Panhandle: site of The Diggers bubbling cauldron brew - morning, or afternoon - a veritable banquet of nourishment for the body and soul for anyone who wanted a hot meal. The Diggers began the San Francisco Food Co-Op enabling residents of the area and those with limited income, shut-ins, and vets returned from war, to shop by order and corner delivery trucks. Food bills were cut in half because produce came from the farm, dairy straight from the country, and household items bought in bulk at wholesale. The profits were passed on to locals who lived in the neighborhood. The spiritual and nurturing San Francisco rock groups were also drawn to the 22nd Trump in the Tarot Deck, and identified the breath of 'the soul of rock music' - Jefferson Airplane: “White Rabbit,” Quicksilver Messenger Service: “The Fool,” and Big Brother and the Holding Company. The folk rock scene became increasingly relevant when The Byrds recorded “Mr. Tambourine Man” – and their follow-up, cover of Pete Seeger's "Turn, Turn, Turn." Landmark dates in 65 were pivotal at the time Bob Dylan went electric out on Highway 61. Britain had established their indelible presence as well, with The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Donovan: “Hurdy Gurdy Man,” "Sunshine Superman."
The Fillmore Auditorium and Avalon Ballroom would take advantage of all of the talent streaming through the Bay Area. Bill Graham and Chet Helms could, and did, usher in world music masters to perform "East-West" sets interwoven with elements of the American "North-South" cultural palettes coming into their own because of the civil rights movement.
Ravi Shankar introduced sitar and tabla to The Beatles and emerging American artists dedicated to the study of surreal, psychedelic, and transcendental art forms, such as psychedelic rock and roll, light shows, and trendy cinematic contributions. The arts all seemed to converge on a central theme focused on an open door that would lead to an age of higher awareness. Many pedestrians inherited an interest in Zen from beatniks like Alan Watts, and embraced buddhism as taught by HH the Dalai Lama. This was live, all before CGI, photo shop, and 3D printers. However, there was plenty of room for original work from all with a foundation sourced from Eastern Masters via meditation, yoga, and a variety of European esoteric schools of thought. Mike Bloomfield played as part of Dylan sessions, worked with singer/songwriter Nick Gravenites, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, and East-West fusion. We were on a threshold of world music in 1966.
Festival Director, Writer: Murray Lerner 1967
Oscar-nominated documentary Festival, filmed by Murray Lerner over four Newport Folk Festivals from 1963 to 1966.

Artistic masters of note with insight and engineering skills in matters of sight, texture, and sound, like Marty Balin and Paul Kantner, have Sun-Venus aspects in their star charts. Early on they introduced fine tuned scintillations with sustained humor, live performance charisma and complex interplay of one idea with another. Their favourite nightclub was The Matrix, on Fillmore Street, very easy to access by cable car. People would often catch the ride down to North Beach, load up at Cost Plus, then do dinner and walk it off on the way back up to The Matrix first show.

Diggers would echo the message [minus the use of amplifiers and bright colours] with spontaneous and imaginative events, like The Invisible Circus at The Glide Memorial Church. The troupe linked up with The Actor’s Workshop and Magic Theatre, yet frequently downplayed their position, as incognito observers, or they stayed completely offsite.


dance Summer of Love - 1967
Mimi Farina and Bread & Roses
It's All In The Sauce - fond memory of favourite
San Francisco experiences @ The Spaghetti Factory


Digger's Space


Golden Gate Park Panhandle from Oak Street, Cole/Shrader

The tall, impressive Panhandle guardians on Oak Street are illuminated by the golden midday light. Their importance in relation to the Haight-Ashbury blueprint is comparable to the black and white temple pillars at the entrance to the sacred house of spirit. These two columns have a square base [Trump IV The Emperor] to illustrate they extend to the four corners of the universe. When shaped as obelisks they represent harmony, balance, beauty, and eloquence via musical themes and poetic ritual arts.

Historians will probably credit many of the extraordinary mid-century changes in the arts with the start of the alternative culture. The Beats began to sample emerging trends in poetry, painting, and music and everyone in North Beach and Greenwitch set up their own studio, often as store fronts. Elvis Presley released his rock & roll single, ‘Are You Lonesome Tonight?’ on 14 November 1960 and, simultaneously, The British Invasion was launched as US soul & jazz musicians passed the Brits mid-pond on the way over. During 1961 the Rolling Stones began to work their own brand of magic as founders Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Brian Jones, and Ian Stewart started up; they were joined by long-standing bassist Bill Wyman in 1962, and drummer Charlie Watts in January 1963. The Beatles made their British debut at the Cavern Club in Liverpool, in 1961. US folk and hootenany fans had their minds blown by Bob Dylan [25 July 1965] at the Newport Folk Festival when he went electric - half the crowd loved him and half were very turned off. Dylan was supported by the Butterfield Blues Band so most people were satisfied with the event regardless, though many felt Dylan was misrepresented on the posters. Acoustic or electric, bi-coastal, beat and hippie - people remained true to their dreams and commitment to harmony and balance with the world around them - inner and objective reality in equilibrium. A few bands like Buffalo Springfield and Cream were powerful but shortlived. They came, they saw, they conquered, and then said farewell.

San Francisco Golden Gate Park was the main magnet for many culture pilgrims. Fashionable botanical companions that reside in the Park acted as structural supports of the hippie arc [during the 60s] while global consciousness gained popular support. Our humanitarian curve was best carried over by The Diggers, the City rendition of the Spirit of Sherwood, the wise and graceful elves in Tolkien's Middle-Earth, and the lost boys of Neverland. Their spontaneous 'theater of life' minimized the distance between the performer and the audience, and tried to embrace an entire community [that continued to expand during the Summer of Love.] Arc keystone equations ascribed to the Eldar Race are still monuments to those forever young and happy, the special ones favoured by the gods, who are open to all mystery found in boundless space.

During the mid-60s, this altruistic group was fiercely annonymous, though a few individual names were whispered in the City. To my knowledge, no one ever verified financial backers responsible for Digger funding, though several names did surface from the underground. People familiar with the San Francisco Mime Troupe knew a couple of Diggers, local bands like Big Brother and the Holding Company, Grateful Dead, and Jefferson Airplane contributed to events organized by the Diggers, while others, Buddhists or Hare Krishna folk, were familiar with Diggers who organized the local Food Co-Op and fed groceries to the neighborhood at cost. This service was possible with the help of locals who made deals [dairy farmers, growers, etc.] with Diggers who transported goods from farm to Haight-Ashbury doorstep. The system was slick and efficient, and it cut down any cost that included hiked prices during the 60s. left, Big Brother & The Holding Company

The Food Co-Op answered the cry for non-toxic food, eliminated food safty issues, and provided green household items when people started to read the ingredients on food labels. It was popular to question the status quo. Linda McCartney put out a 'red alert' for women about the red dye/colouring in consumer products, especially make up. Peter Coyote supports environmental awareness and projectcoyote.org, a watchful kinship promoting coexistence between people and wildlife.

For several years the Diggers enjoyed their legendary stature without intrusion - for the most part out of respect for them. White Brotherhood also remain invisible to the naked eye and enjoy a secret status, yet function as Bay Area rescuers [like Mother Teresa] with no problem. Some secret West Coast communities that launched experimental educational programs were written up in national magazines; they allowed journalists, social engineers, and photographers on site with the proviso their location be kept out of print.

Only when jounalists began to compare notes did people learn the identity of most Diggers, recorded by chroniclers as Peter Coyote, Emmett Grogan, Peter Berg, Bill Fritsch, Harvey Kornspan, Kent Minnault, Billy Murcott, et al,
and various members of the San Francisco Mime Troupe.
"Owl Song" by Peter Coyote, from his CD Peter Coyote & Free Store.

E. T. The Extra-Terrestrial 20th Anniversary Reunion
[see Disc Two DVD set]

I had lived on communes for a dozen years before coming to this set and this set felt just exactly like a commune for me. There were lots of kids running around. Everybody was friendly. Everybody knew each other. Everyone was working…
Maybe we were thinking of E. T. as a children’s movie to some degree and so it was very pleasant to play an adult who wasn’t cast as two dimensional or unkind or someone who misunderstood children. And I really appreciated the permission that Steven gave for this character to be compassionate and sensitive and say, in effect, subliminally, you know, It doesn’t all die when you grow up. You can still keep the best part of being a child when you grow up. I’m still proud of that today and I still feel it when I see the movie.

I remember having a thought then that the 80s was a turbulent time also. I always thought one of the things that made people love this film was if two people or three people as far apart as E. T. and those children could bridge a gap and fall in love with one another and communicate, then there were no two people on earth that were that far apart. And it just seems pressing to me that, in a time of today, that’s fraught with cultural misunderstanding, danger, enmity, and hatred, that this message is being replayed and that it happens before your eyes. It’s not pretended. The feelings of these child actors were not pretended. They were palpably real and able to move people. And I think it’s a great thing to remember that if E. T. and these humans can make an understanding there’s nothing preventing any two people or two nations on earth from doing it.

-Peter Coyote, the 20th Anniversary of E. T. The Extra-Terrestrial

BON VOYAGE is a French film directed by Jean-Paul Rappeneau, veteran of the '50s-'60s French La Nouvelle Vague (New Wave) movement; he's from the Truffaut-Godard-Chabrol generation.

A rollicking combination of high adventure, international intrigue and romantic comedy, Bon Voyage takes place in 1940 Bordeaux, where the French government and the cream of Parisian society flee to escape the invading German army. At the post Hotel Splendide, the fate of the free world appears to be intertwined with the affairs of the guests.

Peter Coyote webpage about Bon Voyage
Review: BON VOYAGE (114 PG-13)
Bon Voyage IMDb
Trivia
During lunch in the hotel Beaufort asks Frederic if he knew Viviane's father, "the hero"? 'Gerard Depardieu', who plays Beaufort, starred in both the original and the remake of the film Mon père, ce héros.

 

THE INVISIBLE CIRCUS
THREE DAYS AT THE GLIDE
San Francisco, Glide Memorial Church
corner of Ellis and Taylor Streets

 

2400 Fulton Street

Jefferson Airplane and friends: Signe Anderson, Grace Slick
Marty Balin, Jack Cassady, Joey Covington, Papa John Creach,
Spencer Dryden, Paul Kantner, Jorma Kaukonen, Skip Spence

First appeared on Billboard [LP] in March 1967, Jefferson Airplane
Surrealistic Pillow
Top 10 singles from LP: "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit"

Life Magazine's June 29, 1968 Special Section of Rock "The New Rock." Featuring Jefferson Airplane on the cover as the top rock group. The band was formed in 1965 with Signe Anderson as lead vocalist. She performed on their first album and live in clubs and concert halls. Signe was replaced by Grace Slick of the Great Society who brought with her two fabulous acid rock songs, "White Rabbit" and "Somebody To Love" on their timely 1967 album, Surrealistic Pillow.

video Jefferson Airplane accept their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Awards at the 1996 Hall of Fame

 

 

William Blake: Auguries of Innocence

To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.

 

The event formally billed as "A 72 Hour Environmental Community Happening" was locally dubbed Three Days At The Glide. It was yet another brainstorm of The Diggers and, in conjunction with The Artist's Liberation Front, the event served to increase the already enormous popularity of Rev. Cecil Williams, pastor of Glide Memorial United Methodist Church...

No publicity or posters were required since San Franciscans communicated the quintessential invitation by word of mouth, particularly in the Haight-Ashbury. Past, present, and future cultures converged at Haight and Ashbury - an international intersection with a multi-dimensional atmosphere - where it was possible to recognize someone with 'Middle-Earth' dust on their sandals. Fantasy, scifi, children's bedtime stories, and the unknown were profoundly popular, especially as related to San Francisco mystic triangle landmarks. The Glide established its own space quickly. Soon it became a welcome, traditional San Francisco presence, like one of the 'time window' sites along Market Street and the breathtaking Neptune/Poseidon Temple atop the waterfalls on Strawberry Hill.

Groups attended day and night - a shared experience of various 'exhibits' enjoyed by all. This is the only time I can remember any Church opening all it's rooms to the general public, allowing people to wander at will through any door [or window] and into any area of the Church. Dramatic lighting cast a series of shadows and colorful characters on walls and every one of the ceilings, suggesting genuine spontaneity rather than managed unpredictability. The Glide's interior space was touched by a subtle hand to facilitate multi-dimensional atmospheric conditions varying from room to room like mix-and-match environmental bubbles.

Druids who approached the church might have thought a representation of Yggdrasil had materialized from ether. The production held onto an amoeba-like aura, similar to the liquid opera-ballet in Star Wars III. A constantly shifting stage had an altered-state bouquet that seemed to erase linear time. The scent of fresh cut flowers and wafting incense mingled with essential oils like dusty rose, patchouli, jasmine, and sandalwood. It may be that branches of the great world tree spread through each room. These boughs were a haven for all the wandering pilgrims who pass from one dream paradigm to another. In the basement were quiet, shadowy silhouettes. Everyone spoke in whispers, because the flicks on the walls of the downstairs kitchen were projected in the corners of the room. All surfaces were shining metal, surrounded by black or white seating, tables, and dӄr. This was the only room that appeared ready for service in a 24/7 capacity, but in contrast to everything upstairs the environment was the most bizarre.

For every metaphysician who attended, sacred geometry as architecture had been dressed in surrealistic velvet. A jigsaw puzzle, provided by an invisible host, drew guests in to an amusing little test by setting up an inverted stage production. Most theatrical blueprints conform to standard rules: a clean, well-lit approach for a clearly identified exterior and well-manicured garden. The Glide production was a layered aura with all the envelopes defined in accord with the palette of Iris.

Personal note: The best description would be to compare the event with a classic designer showcase, a home divvied up among consultants and design coordinators, each with palette and pattern, ready to transform every room into a masterpiece. One room was playful psychedelia and next door to it the tone could be almost somber. The effect was an impression that rooms were dressed by different creative teams motivated to highlight a trademark and signature statement. There was never a 'preachy' effect, just warm hospitality and an open house. Home movies were shown in the kitchen with its walls bathed in various shades of gray - an atmosphere similar to a cross between a silent movie and a North beach poetry reading. Taking the sturdy elevator up was totally surreal. The small compartment was filled with various mailroom plastics, shredded padding and snow. Music came from everywhere and nowhere so the elevator ride was otherworldly and it's movement left your aura in the basement. When the door opened, one of the rooms was completely filled with packing plastic, streamers and snow, exactly like a scene inside Madison Square Garden in the film Godzilla (2000 Matthew Broderick), only The Glide was filled with people, instead of baby Godzillas, thank God! The elevator itself was somewhat reminiscent of Ratatosk, the squirrel that ran up and down the World Tree, telling lies about the things the eagle and the dragon had said about each other. Every room achieved a different effect of manifested and unmanifested power, so the event succeeded in its effort to open the mind and sensorium of everyone who attended.

~ When I first went to search engines to scan online articles about The Glide I was surprised to find only one article, claiming to be about this event by someone who obviously did not attend. The person concocted an unbelievable story about those who joined in at church (most of San Francisco and the Bay Area) and further lied , saying that people were transported to the beach. There were no problems with law enforcement or anyone else. I urge those who attended this event to post articles with the truth about The Glide Church and events that have been turned into nightmares by fanatics or East Coast opportunists who have never even been to San Francisco the evening I was there. The multi-cultural awakening during the San Francisco cultural revolution is a unique part of California history. Let's preserve the beauty of these very special moments in time, shall we! Sorry if this is a preachy notation - it's the fourth time I've read trash online about wonderful community gatherings like the Three Days at The Glide and I'm wondering who these fruitcakes are - they do not represent Trump 0 - don't confuse the 0 with ignorance, please!

If indeed you must be candid, be candid beautifully.

-Kahlil Gibran

 


 

from my interview with CHET HELMS

"The entrance of the recording industry into this phenomena, the San Francisco scene, if you will, people speak of it now as the rock n roll business or the music business, and at that time, it was not. People came to the ballrooms without knowing who was going to play, just that someone was going to play.

It was possible to bury the band entirely in the light show, so that no individual was recognizable, and the audience loved it, and the band loved it.

I don't know what their initial reaction to it was. All I'm saying is, when they brought their money, their energy into it and essentially tried to isolate one element of it, which was the most traditionally commercially packageable, they brought to it their traditions. And what we were essentially experiencing was a Dionysian phenomena. Nietzsche - not just Nietzsche, and a number of other philosophers said that art in particular, but basically culture, goes in Apollonian and Dionysian cycles.

The Dionysian cycles are usually this up swelling of the most deep, sensual, and feeling aspects of our being. They can be positive or negative. They can be a Hitler or they can be the Bacchanal, when Dionysus first appeared on the scene and revolutionized Greek culture and had people dancing in the streets, so on and so forth.

The Appolonian culture is that Apollo was the god of the sun, and therefore everything that stood the harsh glare of daylight that was measured, that was precise, that was definable, that was ordered, that was hierarchically organized, as opposed to horizontally organized [as the Dionysus pattern was.] In the origins of Greek tragedy the early goat songs, or whatever tragedies, were played out by the community at large, dancing in the streets, all at the same level, same physical level, not players elevated on a stage and chorus or audience.

The most important aspect of them is that they were, by and large, done in a large circle with everyone at the same plane. As Greek tragedy evolved, and as you got big patrons spending money on big theatres, and so on, several things evolved. One is the stage, a higher stage to elevate, but probably even more important than that was the window on Olympus.

It was the window through which we mortals as the audience look through the windows to see the activities of the Gods on Olympus. And when that evolved, and that was, to a large degree, a function of patronage. Wealthy guy saying, 'This guy can sing better than this guy and I'll give him some money, and we should put him up here on the stage rather than have him sing down here.'"

-Chet Helms, San Francisco Part One
San Francisco Part Two

 

 


THE ORPHIC RITE PICTURED
IN VILLA DE MISTERI

left, Orpheus

 

"Orpheus taught while he sang and played the lyre, and his singing was so powerful that it mastered all nature; when he sang to his lyre the birds flew about him, the fish left the water and sprang to him. The wind and the sea became still, the rivers flowed upward to ward him. It did not snow and there was no hail. Trees and the very stones followed after Orpheus; tiger and lion lay down near him next to the sheep, and the wolves next to the stag and the roe. Now what does this mean? It surely means that through a divine insight into the meaning of natural events nature's happenings become harmoniously ordered from within. Everything becomes light and all creatures are appeased when the mediator, in the act of worshiping, represents the light of nature. Orpheus is an embodiment of devotion and piety; he symbolizes the religious attitude that solves all conflicts, since thereby the whole soul is turned toward that which lies on the other side of all conflict - and as he does this, he is truly Orpheus; that is, a good shepherd, his primitive embodiment."
-Linda Fierz-David

The Sonnets to Orpheus
The Sonnets to Orpheus are a cycle of 55 sonnets written in 1922 by the Bohemian-Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke. It was first published the following year.

see also the movie: Black Orpheus
Winner of both the Academy Award for best foreign-language film and the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or, Marcel Camus’ Black Orpheus (Orfeu negro) brings
the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice to the twentieth-century madness of Carnival in Rio de Janeiro. With its eye-popping photography and ravishing,
epochal soundtrack, Black Orpheus was an international cultural event, and it kicked off the bossa nova craze that set hi-fis across America spinning.
more here Criterion new, restored high-definition digital transfer
Black Orpheus original soundtrack youtube
Criterion Collection: Orpheus Jean Cocteau 1950 France
Orpheus’s peerless visual poetry and dreamlike storytelling represent the legendary
Cocteau at the height of his powers. 95 minutes


LA VILLA DEI MISTERI
Roman antiquities and Orpheus pavement
Audio tape: Christopher Cook and Sarah Woodcock talk about a costume designed by Nicholas Roerich for the 1913 ballet The Rite of Spring. Many
'hip' San Francisco dressmakers used similar compositions for full length garments, jackets, and short dresses. Check 'Swinging London' fashion, art, and textiles.
The Etheric Double
One Song Many Voices, The Etheric Double continued

 

 

Characterizing The Hippie Language

"The specialized terminology of the hippie was either directly borrowed or broadly adapted from earlier American slangs. Many distinctive expressions can be traced, going backwards, to the N.Y. Greenwich Village Beatniks of the fifties, many of whom had migrated to the S.F. North Beach area. There was sock-and-roller and hipster lingo, popster and cool talk stretching back into the forties, and jazz/jive talk which characterized the underground scene of the thirties. Two elements were carried through all the eras: drugs, which made for a covert, only-boys-allowed club context; and music, whose artistic expression and secret message lyrics were appreciated fully only by the initiated members of the associated social sub-group.

THE DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN SLANG, in its 1960, pre-hippie edition, gives a very adequate definition and historic background for American hip lingo. For example, here are the entries for, 'far-out,' 'like,' and 'too-much:'

From The West Coast Magazine, an article by Phyllis Fisher [continued]
Auras and Alchemy III - Continuing Studies, Searching Auras

Far out far-out adj.
1. Descriptive of or characteristic of the most modern forms of jazz or progressive music; technically, more progressive than cool.
2. Descriptive of or characteristic of devotees of 'far out' music and their behavior; intellectual.
3. Satisfying; capable of arousing enthusiasm. 1956: 'Far-out' is the new hip term of critical approval, superseding the swing era's 'hot' and the bop era's 'cool'. A. Shaw, West Coast Jazz. See way out.
4. Extremely; 'gone' or far removed from reality; intent; intense; so much in rapport with, intent on, or immersed in one's work, performance, ideas, or mode or way of life that one is as if in a trance, and unaware of or removed from all extraneous things.
5. Of, by, for, or pertaining to devotees of far-out music, their fashions, fads, and attitudes. 6 Removed from standards of criticism by being unrelated to or beyond comparison with other things; intellectually, psychologically, or spiritually so cool as to be beyond comparison. Mainly far-out use, some cool and beat use. Cf. Cool.

Like
1. Used at the end of a sentence in place of 'as', 'as if', 'it will be as if', etc. 1956: 'When he dies, I'll be robbed like. I'll have no more father.' S. Bellow, Seize the Day.
2. Used before nouns, adjectives, and pred. Adj., without adding to or changing the meaning of the sentence. Thus, 'It's like cold' = it is cold. Used by jazz, cool, beat groups, making a definite, forthright statement, part of the beat philosophy; reinforced by Yiddish speech patterns.

Too much
1. Beyond logical criticism or comprehension, in either a good or bad sense; ridiculously good or bad. Fairly common c. 1935 jive use; fairly well known general use since c. 1940.

Harlem slang example ~

It follows another another source dates back to earlier collective notes - lines from Zora Neale Hurston's Glossary of Harlem Slang.

Cruising - parading down the Avenue. Variations: oozing, percolating, and free-wheeling. The latter implies more briskness.

Granny Grunt - a mythical character to whom most questions may be referred

I shot him lightly and he died politely - 'I completely outdid him.'

Kitchen mechanic - a domestic

Lightly, slightly, and politely - doing things perfectly

Now you cookin' with gas - now you're talking, in the groove, etc.

Righteous rags - the components of a Harlem-style suit

Thousand on a plate - beans

Trucking - 1) strolling 2) dance step from the strolling motif

Becoming a hippie meant more than lounging in the park and getting loaded. It required that you earnestly acquired the relevant terminology, mimicked the speech style of your peers, and so signaled that you too really understood what was happening, that you had taken that step to change your life from the inside out.

If you could comprehend the concepts of brotherhood and freedom and were aware of the thick and ceaseless reality of the natural world, you had to reject the bizarre and tragic responses of the American culture to that precious reality. You felt very lonely at first, until you realized you were already there, and there was a pretty friendly, socially active place."

In other words, how you talked showed where you were at, and the only rule was not to fake it. Indeed, 'There are linguistic cues by which one who has had the zero(mystic)-experience recognizes another' even the most childish LSD talker can discern from a person's talk, however erudite and technical or however simple, whether he has taken the drug or not.'

The music of the sixties defined as closely as possible this mystic-style awareness that was necessary to belong. In 'Somebody To Love,' Jefferson Airplane sang your basic message song, with its instructional/invocational lyrics directed at the hippie neophyte, (the 'HIS' of the first line I interpret to mean the eyes of Jesus on Sunday school posters, i.e., to look holy didn't make you holy):

'I say your eyes may look like his, yeh
But in your head, baby,
I'm afraid you don't know
Where it is.

Don't you want somebody to love?
Don't you need somebody to love?
Wouldn't you love somebody to love?
You better find somebody to love!'

Jimi Hendrix's guitar playing kind of arched with sexual passion, and the lyrics were just an added treat. In this song, 'Are You Experienced?' is contained a gentle invitation full of seductive reasoning, by the only black hippie I ever heard of:

"If you can just get your mind together,
Then come on across to me.
We'll hold hands, and then
We'll watch the sunrise
From the bottom of the sea.
But first, are you experienced?
Have you ever been experienced?
Well, I have.."

Possible interpretations:

Have you ever gotten it on yet?
Can you qualify for this job?
Do you know the social ropes?

Have you experienced what we have
Experienced by daring to experience
An altered consciousness? If you
Are experienced, the you know there
Is no way to stay uptight. You can't
Accept the absurd inherited way to
Function in the USA. We can see
Our parents were really lost on an
Excessive plane. We the children
Are returning to Earth, but gently,
As angels. There is a lot of joy
Floating around and we can feel it,
We can see it, because we're not afraid.

... Another manifestation of linguistic intensity was the use of hyperbole, an overdoing of description, in an attempt to say, yes, it was greater than I can say, it was more than you can even imagine with your eyes! The best hippie story tellers mastered this exaggerated style when recounting acid experiences. After all, the hippie encountered bizarre situations, quaint juxtapositions every time he stepped out into the street, and the comparisons between him and the straight world were relentless: a lot of material out there.

This emphatic style was achieved through the heavy use of intensifiers: everything was 'really' and 'too much.' Expletives were adopted as a result of the recent free speech movement. (Thank you, Berkeley) because it was certainly absurd to allow anyone else to tell you what to say. Swear words also came in handy to express that extra dimension of emotion that the speaker was always trying to convey.


rt., Jefferson Airplane, Monterey Festival

Informal grammar was a reactionary response to the social regulation of linguistic expression.
I know the worse my grammar, the better I felt, as if at last I was speaking the speech of real people, that English class and my parents
had never let me do before.

There was an almost compulsive use of pause words, filler words, such as 'like,' 'man,' 'you know.'
Their use has been attributed to various causes, such as a stoned and sluggish mind, the fear of commitment. To me, it was a request for reassurance, for approval, as if to say, you do understand, don't you, you have been there, too, haven't you? Hippies were peaceful radicals, but radicals, nonetheless, and you can't get too far on curiosity value alone.

Other linguistic characteristics of hippie speech were lengthened juncture, top-level stress gliding tones and deeply falling intonation. The nature of the lengthened juncture was its unexpected occurrence, where the speaker wanted to make a point, wanted to catch your attention before he would produce the key word. I call them pregnant pauses, true narrative devices.

Transcendence " GENESIS" 4:16

Falling intonations are one of the most interesting markers of hippie speech, where the last word of an idea unit is dropped to practically below the lowest level intonation. Dr. Honsa (Foreign Languages, U.N.L.V.) relates this affectation to a N.Y. Jewish style: polite, submissive, non-threatening. I can connect this faraway style to the S.F Hippies through the influx of N.Y. Beatniks to the West Coast in the fifties.

The overall hippie style was intentionally casual, deliberately informal. The respectful mode was reserved for addressing gurus and crazies. The style could also be classified as a specific language game, where the participants had to keep signaling their mutual understanding and agreement on mystic experience, drug-related adventures and confrontations with straight society.

"Communication Gap" took on new meaning. Where the awareness of the purity of reality actually prevented hippies from entering in any other language set but their own, hallucinogenic drugs did have a way of destroying common ground. The deep (as in "Heavy") structure of hippie talk was felt by its speakers to be definitely deeper than that of the mainstream American language. There's that intensity factor, again, pushing ego buttons.

Acid just happened to turn up
As the product of this particular society,
To correct its own excesses.

Gary Snyder

... The key words, as related to an altered awareness, seem to be "Reality" and "Experience." The mystical properties contained therein are all embodies in one word, IT (as in, 'Where IT is at,' 'What IT is all about,' etc.) Michael McClure, the hippie poet and dramatist, put IT all in one poem: Mystic Awareness, Stress for Meaning, The Meditative Power of Language Itself:

"AND it is all perfect, this is really it.
And IT is all perfect, this is really it.
And it IS all perfect, this is really it.
And it is ALL perfect, this is really it.
And it is all PERFECT, this is really it.
And it is all perfect, THIS is really it.
And it is all perfect, this IS really it.
And it is all perfect, this is REALLY it.
And It is all perfect, this is really IT."

 

 

 

International Cultural Ambassadors

Jimi Hendrix
November 27, 1942, 10:15 AM - POB: Seattle Heights WA
Sun 4° Sagittarius 50' - Moon 28° Moonchild 05'
Ascendant 24° Sagittarius 30' - Midheaven 24° Libra 13'
Mars 17°31' Scorpio - Department of Life 11
Destiny Path: 9
The Seventh House is the Strongest Department of Life with the following Lunar aspects:
Moon conjunction Jupiter, Moon trine Mercury
Sun wide trine to Moon
Moon wide conjunction Pluto, Moon sextile Neptune, Moon sextile Uranus
Dominant Departments of Life The Seventh, Twelfth, and Eleventh Houses

Ravi Shankar
April 7, 1920, 12:00 PM (unknown) - POB: Varanasi, India
Sun 17° Aries 08'
Venus 24° Pisces 05'
Mars 5° Scorpio 44' rx
Jupiter 8° Leo 07'
Destiny Path: 5
Sun square Neptune, Sun inconjunction Uranus
Mercury conjunction exalted Venus in 3rd decan of Pisces
Mars trine Pluto exact, Mars square Jupiter and trine Uranus, Mars square Neptune, Mars sextile Saturn exact
Jupiter conjunction Neptune exact
Dominants: signs Pisces, Leo, Sagittarius; planets and lights: Neptune, Mars, Moon

Dionne Warwick - United Nations Global Ambassador for the Food and Agriculture Organization, United States Ambassador of Health.
December 12, 1940, 3:08 PM - POB: Orange, New Jersey
Sun 20° Sagittarius 41', in the Seventh House of Ambassadors
Moon 27° Taurus 57' conjunct cusp of First House
Ascendant 29° Taurus 43' - Midheaven 6° Aquarius 44'
Moon conjunction Uranus and trine Neptune
Mars 14° Scorpio 38' conjunct Venus 20° Scorpio 06', in the Sixth House
Jupiter 6° Taurus 15' Taurus rx, in the Twelfth House, Jupiter conjunction Saturn, Jupiter square Pluto, Mercury inconjunction Jupiter
Dominant Departments of Life: The Twelfth, First, and Sixth Houses

That's What Friends Are For Dionne Warwick's official music video for 'That's What Friends Are For' ft. Elton John, Gladys Knight & Stevie Wonder.

see Angel Work One Song - Many Voices
Trump IX The Hermit [Jupiter and Sagittarius, and the Ninth House]
Trump XI The Enchantress [for Aquarius, the Water Bearer and the Eleventh House]
Trump XV and Trump XVI Pearl Harbor Eye Witness Account
Trump XIX The Sun [for Pisces, the Two Fishes, and the Twelfth House]

 

 

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