Game Plan, 12/25/2006
Please allow me to skip forward a year and introduce the making of Greet the Planet. First of all, I apologize for the weak grammatical usage in many cases. I’ve decided to put what I’ve got on the web as of now, then follow along with improvements from time to time. The web edition is an abridged version of the story and its purpose is to create interest in the work.
The web edition consists of a “synopsis” of the story in nine chapters (arbitrarily chosen). This is not the full story, but the foundation for the story. The real drama occurs as an overview in the last couple chapters that I’ve provided on the web. I like the analogy of the Lone Ranger finding his silver bullet – this is the foundation of the story, the real drama of the Lone Ranger occurring in further episodes.
Likewise, the real drama of “Greet the Planet” occurs in the last couple chapters. The focus is not on the degeneration of the village of Muzhenghaak, but on global warming, and its story resides in those latter chapters. However, the village of Muzhenghaak is necessary, because that’s where the legend of the White Werewolf gets its start, and where we encounter the romance of the master werewolf hunter and the White Werewolf. This is where the Lone Ranger finds his bullet.
Originally, I conceived this as a horror story, while the bit about global warming was to be a surprise twist in the narrative. Early on, I realized I'd create some rather uncomfortable exposure: the "debate" between Yelevan and Simoom was too thin! In other words, one could easily read into it and discover my true intent, which was to deliver a "teaching" to the audience about global warming. The way I surmounted the problem was to add more imagery and action, during and surrounding the debate (the barns burning, etc.). I found, each time I added more to the story, that it raised the bar on dramatic tension. Eventually, I filled in the first part of the story, explaning to the reader, right away, that this is about werewolves and global warming, and about Simoom's dual personality (she is the White Werewolf). This, I feel, brought dramatic tension to the maximum.
Relieved of the problem described above, I am free to add detail to the latter portions of the story (about global warming). The implication is that a novel-length narrative is necessary, to develop the literary drama. Once the literary version is developed, then it can be converted back into the dramatic script, and the music version can be produced. This is my game plan as of now, and plans have a way of changing.
Most of what follows is about developing the tools for tuning up this work (and about applying them). As I see it now, the big tuning process will occur on the completed literary version, and the music-drama will be a derivation of that version (and tuning process). I don’t foresee three separate tuning processes for three separate versions.
Preliminary Notes 12/30/2005
I was inspired to write a rock ‘n’ roll music drama about a time of global warming, with some werewolves on the loose and their own agenda about planetary survival. Three events triggered this activity:
- Identification with my audience during fundraisers in 2004 – a rock audience
- In spring of 2005, meeting with Tom Silvia in Ann Arbor; realizing that all the resources I need, for building the music drama, are in existence there – music, dramatics, a rehearsal theater
- In May of 2005, hearing Carolyn Striho rock the roof off the Scarab Club.
During this, the brainstorm phase, I wrote the dramatic script first, then I converted the script into a literary synopsis, hoping to get more of a handle on the dramatic movement. This resulted in two versions, but continued to spawn into more versions. Since the literary version was unconstrained as to how much detail I could add to it, I began adding detail. I saw the possibility of producing a novel, once the maximum amount of detail was introduced. On the other hand, I read a very shortened version of it at the Opera House open mike in August, 2005, so the possibility of a performance work was born. Each of these probable works had their own uniqueness – the music drama had its own special ending with audience participation – the literary version had its narrative detail, etc.
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All that said, I began developing tools for the “kickoff” of the second phase at the close of 2005. For technical tools, I had Zain’s mapping of planets to numbers, a new discovery, something which I lacked in the past. The mapping gave me the ability to use the Rulership Sign Book attributes, synchronized with Zain’s astrology, for my Talea Pattern tuning exercise. A diagram of that mapping is shown to the left. Use of Zain’s method introduced the possibility of the zero and a ten digit-based pattern, which I had not employed in the past, in Talea Pattern exercises (although the comprehensive 1977 Talea report has a whole subsection of ten digit based Talea Patterns, with documentation included). The issue here, was whether to employ a nine digit-based or ten digit-based pattern. Before I explain how I solved that issue, I must explain that an earlier decision was made, to base the choice of Talea Pattern on my own astrology (rather than a whole new chart for the new music drama).
Once that decision was made, the choice of patterns at “1 – Fire” was explored. The results are written below. One will notice that the tetrachord digits of the nine digit pattern are more harmonic and much more suited to be the comprehensive pattern for tuning the music drama. The tetrachord digits of the ten-digit pattern are more limited in capabilities (‘3’, ‘7’ and ‘8’ are repeated while ‘2’ and ‘0’ are omitted). Result: the patterns resolve the issue in themselves. |
Nine-digit pattern:
2 6 1 5 9 4 8 3 7
2342 3453 4564 5675 6786 7897 8918 9129 1231
Ten-digit pattern:
3 7 1 4 8 3 7 9 4 8
3783 4894 5905 6016 7127 8238 9349 0450 1561 2672
The other issue, once the nine digit pattern was chosen, was: how to represent Sun or Pluto (according to Zain’s scheme), since Pluto = 1 and Sun = 10. The answer is, numeristically, that they both represent the same digit, ‘1’. Therefore, in the nine-digit format, the number ‘1’ could be Sun/Pluto. This is not a “fudge,” but a numeristic fact. It is more legal to say 1 = Sun/Pluto in the nine digit format, than to suppose that Sun = ‘0’ in the ten digit format (which means that we still don’t have a good planet representative for Pluto in the ten digit format).
An issue of a different kind is that each Talea node represents a sound-object in the music drama, a cluster of elements containing words, music, song, acting drama, imagery, etc. Each element must be in tune with the master Talea number for that node – but how to tune it? The answer is that both “hard” and “soft” tuning practice would be used. Hard tuning is done by factoring the digits in a midi (music) event, the alphabetic letters in a phrase, the vector digits in a graphic, etc., while soft tuning is done by intuitively working with the attributes that the Talea number represents. The latter might be used for the dramatic movement in the drama object, an element of the imagination – and in this case, an extremely significant element.
Talea Pattern for Music Drama 1/2/2006
Based upon my own astrology, the following tables contain the chosen Talea Pattern and some extrapolations (the first row being the tetrachord, the second being the Talea position itself):
2 6 1 5 9 4 8 3 7
2 3 4 2 3 4 5 3 4 5 6 4 5 6 7 5 6 7 8 6 7 8 9 7 8 9 1 8 9 1 2 9 1 2 3 1
Talea Tetra- chord |
Zain Planet Counter- part |
Tarot Symbol & Constellation |
Chapter Title |
2 |
Neptune |
Veiled Isis, Virgo |
1. Cheers |
6 |
Venus |
Two Paths, Venus, Corvus, Leo, Aries, Sun, Mars, Neptune |
2. The Consummate Folk |
1 |
Pluto/Sun |
Magus, Mercury, Triangulum, Aries, Mars, Sun, Saturn, Canis Minor, Mercury, Cancer, Moon, Pluto, Serpens (Earth) |
3. The Plan |
5 |
Saturn |
Hierophant, Jupiter, Orion, Taurus, Virgo, Venus, Mercury |
4. Yelevan Belewhep, Master Werewolf Hunter |
9 |
Moon |
Centaurus, Jupiter, Leo, Sagittarius, Sun, Moon, Sage, Aquarius, Cassiopeia, Pisces, Scorpio, Neptune, Pluto, Mars, South Node |
5. The Plain of Aurigainia |
4 |
Jupiter |
Sovereign, Scorpio |
6. The Doom Hour |
8 |
Mercury |
Balance, Capricorn |
7. Submission |
3 |
Uranus |
Perseus, Libra, Sagittarius, Aries, Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, Isis Unveiled |
8. Postlude in Shegirkenirk |
7 |
Mars |
Conqueror, Sagittarius, Cepheus, Pisces, Neptune, Jupiter, Mercury, Lyra, Ascendant |
9. No Time for Cheers |
Note: Talea positions 2, 4 and 8 are empty of significators, hence the default (Tarot symbol and its rulership).
The Talea Pattern translated into Zain’s planets (the first row being the tetrachord ruler, the second being the Talea position itself):
Tetrachord: Neptune
Talea Positions: Neptune Uranus Jupiter Neptune
Tetrachord: Venus
Talea Positions: Uranus Jupiter Saturn Uranus
Tetrachord: Sun / Pluto
Talea Positions: Jupiter Saturn Mars Saturn
Tetrachord: Saturn
Talea Positions: Saturn Venus Mars Saturn
Tetrachord: Moon
Talea Positions: Venus Mars Mercury Venus
Tetrachord: Jupiter
Talea Positions: Mars Mercury Moon Mars
Tetrachord: Mercury
Talea Positions: Mercury Moon Sun/Pluto Mercury
Tetrachord: Uranus
Talea Positions: Moon Sun/Pluto Neptune Moon
Tetrachord: Mars
Prometheus Bound 9/16/06
James Morgan Pryse was a scholar of esoteria during the early 20 th century. A theosophist, he was well known for his Secret Teachings of All Ages collection, precursor to the Manley Palmer-Hall edition of the same name.
Pryse caught my attention while browsing through the Dera Baba Jaimal Singh library (Punjab) in 1997. A shorter work of his, an exposition of The Bakkai by Euripides, reinforced my notion that I had rediscovered an ancient practice, one that I called depth composition. This idea preoccupied my mind during my trip to Britain and India in the fall of that year.
While at Dera, I copied a portion of that book in handwritten notes (later keying them in when returning home). In the library, I also noticed a larger work of his, based on the Prometheus Bound drama of Aischylos, which I subsequently found and purchased on the web.
Both books profoundly emphasize the importance of constellational mythology in ancient Greek drama. Since constellational mythology is the foundation of my own work, these studies are “right up my alley.”
However, in his translation of Prometheus, Pryse is a profound hack! After exposure to the Arrowsmith school of Greek translation, I’ve never been able to leave the Pryse version of Prometheus without a sense of disgust!
Yet, for the information he provides, his intent seems to be sincere. For example, without Pryse, I would have never known that there was an earlier pantheon of Greek gods, who gave birth to a latter pantheon, the latter pantheon dethroning the earlier pantheon. Thus, Zeus, chief of the gods, had already dethroned an earlier generation of gods (the Titans), and when his wife gave birth to Hercules (Herakles), it was prophesized that an offspring of Zeus would dethrone him, as well. Later, Hercules dethroned Zeus and removed the curse of Zeus from Prometheus.
There is a huge difference between the Greek approach to constellational mythology, and my own, 2500 years later. My approach is event-driven, governed by a sequential reading of the Talea positions, while the Greek approach was much more a manifestation of the actual mythology. Thus, the drama Prometheus is more like a wrapper for the myth-story, on which the drama was based. The great playwright Euripides, inventor of dramatic narrative, imbued his characters of The Bakkai with an astrological pantheon.
Although I liked my approach and preferred not to change it, I wished my process could be more myth-driven, like the Greeks. I began thinking “out of the box,” or rather, outside the Talea positions dictated by my astrology. For instance:
Lupus, The Wolf: while not a part of my astrology, this constellational sign governs the music-drama, which is a story about a band of werewolves who are on the loose with their own agenda about planetary survival. While the wolf symbolizes a death-beast and destroyer of humans, it also brings with it a sense of fatality and justice.
Perseus, the Fixer of constellational mythology: this is Yelevan Belewhep, the master werewolf hunter, who becomes more of a fixer than he intends to be. This constellation is part of my astrology.
Andromeda: this is Simoom, the human form of the White Werewolf. While on a mission to devour the villagers of Muzhenghaak, she experiences the dark night of the soul and falls in love with Yelevan. This constellation is also part of my astrology.
Cassiopeia, in this constellation, Gaia is her alter ego: the Goddess of Stotemestartia is Gaia; also in my astrology.
Hercules: while not in my astrology, this constellation represents the earth-walkers (i.e., the twelve labors of Hercules), who do whatever they can to bring about planet survival.
A New Astrology (1/1/07)
The study of Prometheus, described above, gave me an idea for a whole new horoscope for Greet the Planet.
This is a placeholder for that task, which is to come up with a new astrology, one that has constellation Lupus prominent. From that chart, a new Talea Pattern will be generated, replacing the tuning system described above. That’s all for now.
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