Learning How Music Works in The Jungle
12/20/20246 min read
The time had arrived. I looked at the cup in my hand and thought to myself "here we are". So many things going through my head as I stared at the thick brown tea.
"Sauld!", my buddy Malcom said.
We all knocked back our shots of that bitter earthy medicine.
I spent a few years travelling back and forth to the jungles of the Peruvian Amazon to work with the plants and trees. The jungle had been calling me for some time and i had been avoiding it. Why? Because I was scared. Scared to take my ass down there to face myself and see what I was made of.
After returning from the service in 2013, I had began communing with nature again. Picking up where I left off before I left home it seemed like.
In my work with fungi and exploring the endless amount of mushrooms and plant species, I was always interested in the psychoactive species. All of nature is medicinal depending on how to look at it.
I used to listen to a lot of Terrence McKenna lectures back in the day. When I first heard him talk, he seemed like the only person that was able to articulate the psychedelic experience in a coherent way. Even though I didn't understand half of what he was saying, I knew what he was trying to describe. The indescribable.
With my own experiences, I knew that these medicines are no joke. They are the real deal and powerful beyond comprehension. Yet, there were people who knew how to use them and navigate these chaotic spaces. The shaman.
I heard the term before but didn't really know what it meant. It doesn't mean anything really, just a way to identify someone with a particular skill set.
In Terrences lectures he'd talked about the shaman in high regard. I knew he wasn't making anything up. I heard his stories of Ayahuasca and all the other plants. It was one that I had heard about not too long ago from a gentleman by the name of Nicolas Gregoriades. He's a Roger Gracie black belt that came out to 10th Planet Vista to teach a seminar in 2013.
He came down to 10th planet vista for a seminar where I was still in the service. Really cool dude. He brought it up one day when we were out eating. That was the first time I heard heard the word Ayahuasca.
It was a medicine that had started to whisper and gain my attention and interest over the coming months. If Terrence's heroic dose (5 grams in silent darkness) was what it was, I knew this stuff was just as intense.
Fast forward 2 years and there I was, holding the cup of aya, about to pass the line of departure.
I got my ass handed to me as expected. When things settled after the ceremonies, I though to myself, "how do these people do this?" Referring to the shamans. In the midst of ceremonial chaos, they hold it down and handle the chaos like a bunch of OG's.
When I learned how they manage to be rock solid in these mind bending scenarios, I was amazed.
They diet the plants. They undergo, isolation, limited diet, behavioral restrictions, and consume teas of the plants or trees. The restrictions of diet allow for the body and mind to be clear of impediments so the spirit of the plants can make their way.
These plants teach them songs called icaros. They are medicine songs used in ceremony to call on the spirit of the plants when shit gets real and starts to go sideways.
Because you drink the actual physical plant, it is now inside you. When the icaros are sung, the frequency of those plants come forth into your consciousness. You may see them as beautiful geometric patterns or something else entirely but regardless, they are there. That is what sifts to the surface your sickness, your confusion, your shame, your (name your shit). Then the purge comes, maybe.
You become so disgusted at what you are looking at that you purge the disharmonious energies. You are looking at your pain and deepest fears in their true form and witness their raw power. You can either make the decision to let it go from your grips, or continue your relationship with it until you are ready to move on. It is up to you.
Purging is expressed in many forms, by throwing up, screaming, crying, shaking, bowel movements, it can be anything. You are cleansed of the things that are no longer serving their purpose.
This is how music works. The sounds come into our ears and restructure our consciousness; for better or worse. Sometimes we get hype and want to mosh, sometimes we reminisce, sometimes we cry, or contemplate our existence. Music is powerful like that.
It is no different than what happens in ceremony.
It was when i was watching documentary about Vladimir Horowitz when this realization came to me. It was a film with other great pianist like Martha Argerich and Daniil Trfionov, giving their thoughts on this legendary pianist.
It is no different with an apprentice pianist. They have to isolate and immerse themselves in the piece they are trying to learn. Discipline of mind and body are required. You cannot rush the process. You cannot avoid the work. Some pieces are out of reach, but those pieces demand more of our faculties to execute. They cause growth of mind, body, and spirit. When you learn a piece, it learns you. When you play a piece, it plays you. You are transformed in the process. You have to pay your dues. Any attempts to do so will only be exposed when you are on stage and you attempt to structure the space you are performing in. With enough experience, the apprentice pianist can become the band leader.
There's a segment where he was playing Truemeri. As he struck each key, I was pulled closer and closer, deeper and deeper, I didn't know what was happening, I was hanging on every note and waiting for the next.
I watched as the pianists in the film were being rendered helpless and taken away as well.
What is happening to me?....
I tried to resist... but I eventually let go. I let the tears break the tension inside of me and roll from my eyes
I was caught off guard.
Watching everyone sit a experience this man work the piano. A maestro commanding the space with his wisdom of this magnificent instrument. It was my first experience being broken open by music like that.
Ahhhhh... I know what y'all are doing now. A connection was made to the ceremonies in the jungle.
Music and intention is what holds together the ceremonial space. It is a container that allows you to experience different realms of consciousness. The container is made of the medicine songs and they resonate at a certain frequency. The songs come directly from the plant spirits themselves. The songs are the spirits, the spirits are the songs. Hearing them, the transference inevitably reshapes us.
The effects of the music are a bit more intense in ceremony but it is still just music. Our senses are opened up a bit to experience more of that music. You can see the sounds, if that makes sense?
Its much more than just music though. Those icaros have to be earned from putting yourself through the fire of undergoing dieta. A dieta is when a specific plant(s) are ingested regularly while maintaining a limited diet and physical isolation. This deep learning process is how the apprentice learns how to structure ceremonial space and deal with the unexpected. Eventually the dieter can hold their own and be of service to others in ceremony. Eventually you attain the status of Maestro and you can lead the ceremony.
When coming together to perform, each musician has to do their part to maintain the overall structure of the performance space. It is a space that people gather to experience a different reality. To seek refuge from the world that stresses them out. It is a privilege to be able to hold that space for others. I found so much overlap between ceremony and musical performance. More like an interweaving if anything.
And that's where I learned how music works, the jungle.
I hope that you enjoyed this little excursion to different timelines so I could share something interesting and meaningful.
Addendum: A few hours after initially writing this story, a video popped up on my YouTube feed. It was about a piano technician named Franz Mohr and his relationship with God. The timing of it blew me away so I wrote about it: Meaningful Connections with The Piano. I know you'll enjoy this story. Writers note: I started this writing in August of 2024 when it first happened.
Peace be with you.
Vladimir Horowitz - Moscow 1986
Stay Real,
Louis San Miguel