Zero Gravity Films Ron Wyman : Agadez, the Music and the Rebellion -DVD- (NI,2011)*****
I have seen already some documentaries about the new Touareg Music, so at first I did not really expect more than another quick journey into the region with some interviews about the music, with a bit of background and some concert music. But this documentary goes much deeper towards the real source of it all : the people, into the living exploration of the visual images, into the philosophy, the uniqueness of it all. First of all there has been very good camerawork, with an eye for colour, shape and human expressions. Secondly, the philosophy of the Touareg has been explained well in the political and regional context. In fact, it felt as if I rediscovered something I am currently still looking for myself as traces of my own culture’s origins, here something of the origins of a humanised democracy reveals itself once more. This is comparable to the pre-Celtic foundations in society that existed also in our regions and beyond it, perhaps as a common form of essence of leading consciousness, originating from thousands of years from before the Romans came here.* In some small, almost instructive and educational aspects included in the video, it seems to show the idea as if the Touareg once fled into the desert in order to keep that very democratic and freedom-minded essence alive, away from power struggles and domination by more primitive preferences. The video further explains how difficult it was in the recent years after the decolonisation, the years of the Touareg revolt against the local oppressions, and how just recently some peace agreements were found and how it changed life for the Touareg. And what a powerful, musical example they found in Bombino, who not only represents the right changes around this time, he is also a wonderful guitarist. The music really comes in it's element in the movie, like the acoustic pickings, clever and hypnotic and inspired on the moments as they are, as well as in the wild and electric live recordings during the celebrative and memorable concert. The film maker spent years in building up the movie and tracing down Bombino, leading to a highlighting relief through music, revealing interesting thoughts and beautiful hanging together with the educational background story images on its way to it. A must-have seen.
* If interested, I will explain what I mean by this “different sort of democracy”. Democracy today is still more like a pseudo-democracy because (after elections looking for a representative, in the end) it still gives the right to an individual and his/her personality to make choices for a whole group. In much older cultures, like in the European community that existed from long before the Celts, this would never have been possible. It was simply not allowed for a random choice of an individual to have the right to decide for a group, because then such a foundation and right would only lead to a personalised power struggle outside the natural balance and the more creative order and organisation of things. Within a society that is in balance with nature and with natural conditions, there has been much more care taken over keeping this awareness and essence of nature intact. Voice representation was only partly preserved by a few men who remained mostly somewhat outside society, in conditions where they could further develop this sort of alertness. Possibly some more direct aspects of a natural nature could also be presented by women in society.
The essence of nature itself within the growing process in life besides having this feminine element of a more stagnant or passive balance, within the tendency to create a purpose of a growing and liberating itself further process it also needs, at certain prepared times, a further growth of the essence of its own consciousness. That this second nature exists too, becomes more clear and more a need at times when being confronted with less great circumstances. In reality, at some point of history, any well-balanced group essence was no longer capable to provide this openness of this very aspect of inner growth, so its group foundations through this principle of need again, had to seek a sort of personality who could represent a new process of change.
At some breaking point the method itself of historical progression had been written down for some for a first time. At that stage more primitive personalities were capable of forcing this theory into their own fake practical form, so that for the first time they could get to the top of the pyramid of evolution for their own purposes. These new sort of pioneers represents the organised religion and the paternal descendants of power, through enforcements of visions of the much more unnatural human laws of discipline and restrictions, creating with these personalised choices a first breaking point in the natural evolution of consciousness itself, breaking down the early traditions of seeking balance in nature. Everything from that point started to live outside nature, outside the bond with all and the capacity of a total remembrance. Two kinds of decay existed ever since. The old pagan generation ceased to evolve further and fell back on repetitions, trying to remember the leftover vagueness, losing its voice and original purposes. The new power-based generations only kept possibilities for randomly made individuals that could still save the falling process into a series of events, expressing new parts of growing consciousness within the process of the fall of men. While the majority of people presented and still presents the fall, for nature and its consciousness it is no longer necessary to give all human members the opportunity to remember everything any longer, to feel a broader perspective, for most men are in no way capable of developing consciousness further for the sake of nature’s existence, with a growing process of associations. So that is how since then most people in both groups will truly become the chaff that hopefully some day will still bring forth new solutions within all the forms of decay, making the continuation history of consciousness still possible. All others minds will become gradually more sleepy, dumb, dream-like and in the end will fall back into a more primitive, let’s say a new form of an animalistic state that has no need for a further evolution any more, just like happened many times before, think of certain species'extictions and its repetivive patterns of self-organisation as an example of this principle of stagnation.
Taken in association with the Touareg I will add here something. The Touareg at some stage in history had a comparable essence that they wanted or needed to preserve, when they came into contact with groups from conquering powers that was already based upon restriction inspired more from personal power, they seek refuge in the desert where they were no longer followed.
It is clear how societies of restriction and organised religion with forms of suppression are like another form of decay making their members more primitive as before than they would ever admit themselves. Both societies however need a voice that can stand up against any forms of decay, new personalities that simply explains the situation more frankly, something some of the most degenerated and more strictly organised societies would not even allow any more to happen, even though nature some day, like always, will seek that sort of voice to break out the unpractical and in reality unspiritual limitations, at the same time with the purpose to gain back a normal alertness, the very form of spirituality, a natural awareness that once was there before religion, and that was differently explained by the written down religion formats, aspects that are still described in their writings, but with an essence of it that was quickly forgotten and in the end almost forbidden with it as well.
Unless how religion and some philosophies like the Rosicrucians try to explain from this breaking point afterwards, a dualistic nature, the voice of nature, the inner snake of the earth is in fact not at all too different from the spiritual guide itself to liberation. It is that same imaginative voice which will only fully work again when the essence is capable to work physically, emotionally and mentally through all levels in nature at once, a connection which can only be remembered through some circumstances that and were only provided by certain oral traditions long long before. I won’t talk about these possibilities further within this context. I only wanted to say that society once developed from totally different principles. Certain origins of this can still be traced back in some ethnical groups and places as the world’s vague remembrance of this, in the true nature of something that these groups were still capable of keeping intact over many many years.
This text was partly inspired by Ouspensky’s “In search for the miraculous”.
Additional inspirations about the same subject, in association with psychology this time :
As a grownup it is possible that very quickly, outside the imitation-room you begin to forget “who” you are or “who you’re not” from its own nature, and that you also no longer see things how they really are. It is possible that from a young age you are forced to adapt more to the imitations in which you make a choice with them, forming your own way out into a Personality that fits within the pressures of a limiting social environment. It always is the personality itself that will make its way into society. This last extra additive piece made during the growing-up time still is in fact only a temporally adaptation to current and random situations. As soon as people identify themselves with this additional part, they will also stop to remember to look at and with the whole of reality, and forget the activity led from the true essence of themselves so that in the end this won't be remembered because they will be busy adapting themselves the whole time to a lot of what their surrounding needs, with automated results. Most people's essence in that way will stop to grow very soon. Their real essence, if they ever come back to it during confrontations with their vulnerability, will so long remain on the level of the intelligence of the child they left behind. For many people this essence could be at its best that of an 8-13 year old. Often people even won't come to a situation where they return to that ‘real person' any more. They become like a ‘fake’, a well developed personality (yes, but) with no possibility to think/feel further than into the contemporary patterns in which it keeps itself together. Where are You in this stage? Because as a personality you will feel the need to succeed. Secondly you will seek comfort to maintain the illusion of a steadily built up personality.
Some children however had so many bad experiences they had to grow with their essence much further or beyond a child’s essence. It must be said that in general only in bad circumstances or difficult and vulnerable confrontations this essence is capable of growing further. Hopefully, that person with such a further grown essence than a child, will grow indeed far enough so that the person him/herself will no longer seek comfort alone, and will no longer be afraid of unknown situations and vulnerable moments, because like I said before, only in such moments it will discover and develop itself further. This psychological fact is the same for every body.
Ouspensky makes so much difference between the ‘directly experiencing consciousness’ of someone working from its ‘essence’ and someone working in its personalized identification, he says that if someone would have the chance to work from its true essence just once, it is possible that afterwards he or she would not even remember that moment. ‘Essence’ in that way often was or is associated with ‘higher consciousness’, with a physical state of direct confrontation with everything at once, when knowing what ought to be known at that stage, like a state of awakening, while the ‘daily consciousness’ also known as ‘awake consciousness’ according to Ouspensky, is in fact on the contrary a form of sleep, of hypnosis and let’s say illusionary and egocentric pretentiousness of awareness.
In perspective of the evolution of mankind it is clear that people closer to nature are also closer to direct confrontation with the essence of all, without having a personal agenda, while true change and the real growing process that can be used for a group’s essence adaptation to bigger changes in the environment, still can only be expressed by the individual, through a Voice, a voice which in former days was formed from the judgment of a deeper need, today, after the historical point of confusion of the right circumstances for a voice, there will always come new points where the group is tested if they see the difference between an egoistic goal, contra-formed at the same time, or a change in benefit to the renewed circumstances before a new grown consciousness is really adapted or not.
People in general think we all have a general freedom and progress. They are convinced of the existence of a general positive evolution process within the community. I say however that people live on borrowed time, and only because nature still lets us have this for a while. Mankind received the possibility to consciousness not because it once was chosen by God’s choice or something, because of a continuous superiority of our or some paternalistic species coming forth from some aspect within creation. Nature only allows something of this kind because it has its own reasons.
Often we read the idea that a spiritual choice in man is totally different from nature’s choice and pressure of growth from underneath, while nature itself in this case is in charge of certain buffers. Through the element of ‘personality’ one part of a connection with the total consciousness is already blocked at the stage when mankind admits or choses its separation from nature’s calls. For nature this choice will possibly lead, into a few generations already, into a new animal form, only because of man’s choice to no longer represent his own voice. Consciousness in its totality of aspects in that case truly is governed by a permission from nature itself. When man choses to degenerate into limiting choices and the foundation of personality, the percentage of representation of nature becomes much smaller and certain forms of intelligence will automatically become blocked, a person is kept into a dream phase with only a similar potency of chance left to recover and awaken from this situation once more. You can trace hints about this situation of this nature and of this returning point in the traces of writings of several religious books and comments on it. The wish of nature itself in this situation is only that it can get a good representation for itself so that there is another chance of growth in consciousness, a growth of viability indebt of the principle of the process of forming life itself.
One must realise that whatever deeper true meaning of spirituality we investigate, that becomes a part of a practical psychology, will always be as much part of this nature’s principle of life making than how it is named a so called higher truth.
Whenever a group in society fails to understand the natural inner growing principle and similar growing process and needs of mankind, the rules and regulations that will be formed will be of that kind that it will be destructive to each further growing process until all is killed and dead by sword. As long as the majority does not want to awaken from this kind of worst nightmare, this kind of situation will only become worse. Growing back to a true essence is not a matter of discipline by force, but of discipline in freedom. The more spontaneous discipline in freedom exists, the higher a culture has developed itself. Such culture also allows an inner voice of truth, a natural intelligence to be regained.
