Seekers & Psychonauts
songs for journeying to the Netherlands and Netherworld
Early tomorrow morning, I will get on a train to the Netherlands, where I will attend a magic mushroom ceremony. This will be my third visit to the temple; the third psychedelic spring cleaning of my spirit. I will be heading there alone, which I am happy to do. But there are a lot of people I wish I could bring with me, and share the experience with. I was thinking about that this morning, and spontaneous started making something I can share with them/you: a mix.
I’m delighted with how it’s turned out. These ceremonies have had such a profound impact on me, I find it difficult to speak about them. Sometimes I write about them instead, and that seems to work better. But I think this mix is a strong supplement to any words I could ever string together. There’s a real variety of songs, and collectively I think they capture the sense of seeking I bring to the ceremonies, and the sense of expansiveness they give me in return. The feeling is simultaneously sensual and spiritual - a feeling of finally inhabiting one’s skin fully and transcending it altogether. It is like being alive on another scale and dimension. I suppose it isn’t for everyone, but I cannot recommend it enough.
This week I’ve been re-reading some of Francoise Bourzat’s extremely useful book, Consciousness Medicine, in preparation for the journey ahead. She spends a good chunk of the first chapter explaining the importance of surrender in exploring expanded states of consciousness. One of the lines that stood out to me was:
“Surrender is a combination of active receptivity toward and curiosity about whatever shows up.”
It strikes me as a good description of the best way to listen to music. And certainly, when a song really lands, it absolutely creates an expanded state of consciousness. Bourzat’s talk of surrender also reminded me of the lyrics of one of the first songs I knew needed to be on this mix. One of my favourite verses of all time, from my favourite song by John Cale:
Where is the art of sorcery?
We wanna be fooled again.
Staggered by deception
Charmed into submission
Helpless as a deck of cards.
As I said, I need to catch a train in a few hours. It will take me to a place that looks roughly like this:
And then I will travel onwards to a place that looks roughly like this:
I will be listening to this:
and this:
And while you mightn’t be able to join me in the mushroom underworld, I hope you will join me in the music.
You can listen here, or here: