The First Church of David Bowie, Phonomancer

No ceremony last night (12/7); I went to see the mighty YOB at the Bossanova Ballroom. It was a welcome break! As you’ll see, last weekend’s Rite was a real ass-kicker. A lot happened, and I recorded a lot of commentary. I had some ambitious about editing the actual footage into something I could post, but honestly, I just don’t have time. You’ll just have to take me at my word that the following is an accurate (edited for clarity in certain places) blow-by-blow recounting of an evening that included maybe the hardest, scariest 15 minutes of my life.  I recorded my first comments after the song “Up and Atom,” which is the third song of the Rite’s Ritual of Transformation, the StereoMyth.  0:27:45 - That was an epic little dream that I had there. I was taken into the upper realms, where it was explained to me that if you want to call the Goddess, if you want her, the best way to do that is to feel. I realized that I was so locked in against the fear that I had choked...

Note: I maintain that one of the things that makes phonomancy remarkable is that it trains you to remain completely lucid while under the psychic load of superheroic doses of substantia . To gather evidence for this claim, I've long had a practice of shooting video during ceremonies. Lately my approach has been to do my visionary work in the dark, then turn on a bright light--a photographer's lightbox--so I can speak directly into the camera and explain what's going on in my head. What follows is a transcript of the comments I made between songs during last Saturday's ceremony. It's a useful document of my evolving method and visionary mythos. It's also eyewitness testimony to how effing weird it is to be seized by the Unconscious in this way, to be made a prophetic mouthpiece for the archetype of the Self in its aspect as the Herald. Recorded at 37:45, after the song "Moonage Daydream": I learned a really useful lesson. You can ask to see what...