Mr. William Butler Yeats once described the world's cultures as stops and knobs on a giant pipe organ. Each culture, he argued, contributes a unique effect that helps shape the overall "sound" of the planet.
Yeats used this metaphor to "WoW" his audiences while speaking on tour in America at the turn of the 20th century. It often brought the house down, as he used it to round out his increasingly powerful oration.
He was trying to profess the virtues of his little island home, Ireland, while also illustrating his own cosmopolitan and proto-new age values. It is a lovely idea, as it validates the value in small communities as they combine to the larger whole.
I wonder how the metaphor of a giant pipe organ playing the world's song translates to 21st century life. Organs were and are amazing, but current-day synthesizers evoke a different, almost cosmic, picture with their sprawling, seemingly infinite sounds.
In either case, the vision I hold as "crystacular" found resonance with this thought as I read it from a Yeats biography last week. The world's a stage, and we all must play our part, to paraphrase Shakespeare and Andre 3000 paraphrasing Shakespeare. This is a human-centered viewpoint, differing from the concept of the literal Earth as a massive instrument.
An "Earth organ" changes the focus from one of humans, playing out our personal dramas, to one of the Earth, playing out its song. We are no doubt part of this, as our personal stories and collective cultures affect the Earth. But it suggests that we are just a part of it, not the stars of the show trodding on an unresponsive but supportive stage.
Furthermore, the force behind an organ is wind, an elemental and natural force. This idea connects to spirituality with roots in mysticism. W.B.Y would certainly endorse this interpretation, I believe, as he was steeped in magical study and hoped to find ancient truth through it.
Where does wind come from? Where does it go? It is unknowable, but it affects us all.
But if the model were to be followed, it would seem logical to say that the wind was emanating out from the center of the Earth, passing through the multitude of cultures on the surface, and flowing outward to join the music of the spheres.
If wind is analog, then electricity would be digital, bringing us to an effective metaphor that incorporates our modern-day organ, the synthesizer.
I will close this musing window for now, not wanting to turn a blog post into a manifesto. I only want to note that Mr. Yeats' utterance, which I believe was most likely a stumbled-upon afterthought used to win over his wild-west audience, contains a seed of the crystacular vision.
Whether the seed of that vision exists solely in my imagination, or is simply the world's electric wind playing through my mind, I know not yet. But until I find the audience to draw out the full implications of it, I will rest in knowing that some part of the vision is coming through me thanks to Mr Yeats and the winds of which he spoke.
Yeats used this metaphor to "WoW" his audiences while speaking on tour in America at the turn of the 20th century. It often brought the house down, as he used it to round out his increasingly powerful oration.
He was trying to profess the virtues of his little island home, Ireland, while also illustrating his own cosmopolitan and proto-new age values. It is a lovely idea, as it validates the value in small communities as they combine to the larger whole.
I wonder how the metaphor of a giant pipe organ playing the world's song translates to 21st century life. Organs were and are amazing, but current-day synthesizers evoke a different, almost cosmic, picture with their sprawling, seemingly infinite sounds.
In either case, the vision I hold as "crystacular" found resonance with this thought as I read it from a Yeats biography last week. The world's a stage, and we all must play our part, to paraphrase Shakespeare and Andre 3000 paraphrasing Shakespeare. This is a human-centered viewpoint, differing from the concept of the literal Earth as a massive instrument.
An "Earth organ" changes the focus from one of humans, playing out our personal dramas, to one of the Earth, playing out its song. We are no doubt part of this, as our personal stories and collective cultures affect the Earth. But it suggests that we are just a part of it, not the stars of the show trodding on an unresponsive but supportive stage.
Furthermore, the force behind an organ is wind, an elemental and natural force. This idea connects to spirituality with roots in mysticism. W.B.Y would certainly endorse this interpretation, I believe, as he was steeped in magical study and hoped to find ancient truth through it.
Where does wind come from? Where does it go? It is unknowable, but it affects us all.
But if the model were to be followed, it would seem logical to say that the wind was emanating out from the center of the Earth, passing through the multitude of cultures on the surface, and flowing outward to join the music of the spheres.
If wind is analog, then electricity would be digital, bringing us to an effective metaphor that incorporates our modern-day organ, the synthesizer.
I will close this musing window for now, not wanting to turn a blog post into a manifesto. I only want to note that Mr. Yeats' utterance, which I believe was most likely a stumbled-upon afterthought used to win over his wild-west audience, contains a seed of the crystacular vision.
Whether the seed of that vision exists solely in my imagination, or is simply the world's electric wind playing through my mind, I know not yet. But until I find the audience to draw out the full implications of it, I will rest in knowing that some part of the vision is coming through me thanks to Mr Yeats and the winds of which he spoke.
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