Omnia's "Reflections"

Omnia and I have a screwed up relationship. On one hand we love their soul splitting, psyche altering, blood raising compositions that bring the spirit right out of us and at times cause us to cross the hedge immediately with just a few verses. On the other hand, I really cringe at that fact, now that I am a little more conscious of social justice issues, that their presentation and music at times is so culturally misappropriative that I can imagine the ancestors of these cultures whose music they are imitating laughing at their attempts to mimic their sacred songs. 

Also, the lead guy  Steve has said some really problematic things in regards to other pagan music groups that really smack of egotistical tirades of a white dude trying to prove he's more "authentically" wild and rustic than the rest of them. So even though I saw them live four years ago and the experience blew my mind and conjured the ghost right out of me, I still feel the need to call it like I see it when I talk about them in real life.

This new album almost made me throw the whole band out with the bath water when I realized it was essentially remixes and reworkings of songs from across their discography. But, I didn't want to knock it until I tried it. So I put it on my car stereo last night and found my expectations wonderfully proven wrong. 

The whole album is like one wonderful cosmic trip across soundscapes. Many of the tracks will make great hedgecrossing background noise when trying to block out the sounds of the house. I'm not saying this makes anything about this band less problematic, but they do make some really lovely music when they play the tracks that get back to their more innocent, less imperializing roots. 

You can listen to the whole album here.

Plurality and The Witch.

Life's gotta a funny way of making so many twist and turns out of you that you find your body and soul tunneled in  and out for the passage of snake friends you didn't even know you had. You're an oubourous that forgot it was suppose to be eternal so it made you into holy cheese instead of one pretty little circle. But circles are for sun, moon, and time. Mortals get to have all of the fun. We get elliptical that pause, jump, ricochet off course and fall out of gravity's pull all together.


But like a flashlight that has to be smacked so it turns back on, we never the less eventually find ourselves peering into the darkness to find that someone, somewhere in that big black mess of a soul that Ge gave up from herself when we came screaming out of the birth canal, a voice comes whispering. Usually its some sort of wise old saying from experiences in the history of the world that we've forgotten somewhere along the ride between Hel and back. But other times, its SOMEONE else, a Other you didn't know had hitched along for the ride, an eye peering through the hole the ourbourous with AD/HD and skittles bored through you.

And it's Epiphany and truth come out with a snarl, "Boy, what the fuck do you think you're doing?"

And with a single sentence, just when you think you had it all figured out, that you had swore up and down the gods had asked you to give up the Craft and sit down to have a nice little life of prayer and devotion that looks like something out of a god damn manual for greek piety, you realize you made a decision that wasn't yours to make really. Yeah, that's right baby, you tried to leave the Witch, but the Witch will never leave you.

And who do we have to thank for this cosmic smack in the head? Well, as  one of the Others, giggle inside of me, I find out I have to confess a little thing that feels like its probably the nuttiest thing my little soul ever felt. Too many acorns and not enough places to put them in the earth, so out comes this truth that cannot be hidden anymore.

I am plural - that is to say, I'm not just ecco. There is a WE in here. And one of the Others pulled my hair and boxed my ears, in her loving way that was ever so slow, but eventually became an itch I couldn't ignore, reminding me that all this - all this kowtowing to the gods and believing that's all that would ever be asked of me - was for the birds. The gods don't need me as I certainly need them. But it's pure ass lazy child to expect that your destiny ends in a pretty white robe smelling of frankincense and eternal divine peace. 

You're a dirt loving, hedge crossing, spirit worker. You're a child of an queer threesome between Sun and Moon and Stars. Earth didn't make you just so you could sigh at the beauty of her Children the Olympians. Get with the program, silly ecco. The Witch never dies. 

So.. can I say it now? I've been dying to this whole post.


The Witch is back.