Hi everyone 👋this is the first of a new series of runes focusing on the exploration of symbols of a collection of songs I wrote and published last year in the album Ouroboros Healer.
At first, I was hesitant to explain songs because I believe a piece of art should speak on its own. However, I consider art as an ongoing process rather than a fixed object.
Something about these songs is still emerging in me and I felt the urge to use other mediums (such as the runes medium) to deepen this emergent process within me and the community.
For the following 10 runes, I'll be issuing 10 songs in the order in which they are listed on the album and each time I'll be presenting the symbols and the philosophy behind them in the form of drawings and writing following the outline of the song's lyrics. The first song is Il Labirinto.
Feel free to play the song while you read the lyrics and the rune.
Listen on Bandcamp Listen on Spotify Lyrics
The materialistic worldview, predominant in our society relies on the assumption that matter is the fundamental substance of the universe. The song doesn’t argue against the inconsistency and at times absurd beliefs of materialism but it reveals its repercussions on the social tissue and value system of our society, trying to point out alternative and more intuitive ways to look at the world and human life.
The main symbols of this song are the (human) body, the element of salt, the labyrinth, and the pig.
Corpi di sale si perdono
Dentro a un labirinto
Bodies of salt get lost
Inside a labyrinth
The labyrinth is a metaphor for two opposing aspects of life: the material accumulation (the maze) vs the inner self (the center of the labyrinth).
In our culture, material accumulation is the ultimate array to build one’s identity: the urge to accumulate stems from the detachment from the natural abundance within the inner self. Constant accumulation gives us the illusion that we are that which we possess (this being money, power, material goods, recognition, importance, a job, etc…) and leads us to identify with it (I am a millionaire, I created this, I am the descendant of this or that noble family, I am a music awards winner, etc..) separating us even more from the center of our lives. Such identification pushes us out towards the edges of this thick labyrinth of objectified identities, away from the center and lost inside the maze. We are induced to believe that ultimate peace resides in material accumulation, becoming seduced by the promises of protection, security, and freedom.
Vedo le strade ma non so
Quale prendere
I see the roads but I don't know
Which one should I take
The above verse refers in fact to the warped Western conception of freedom, often conflating with liberation from constraints and abdication from responsibilities.
Real freedom is the process of understanding and deepening one's relationship with nature’s constraints rather than the ability to take a vacation at any time or buy an indefinite amount of cars.
* * *
Avevo il corpo dentro al labirinto
Ho spento i sensi, stretto i denti
Mi ero perso dentro al labirinto
Ho urlato corpo devi stare attento
I had my body inside a labyrinth
I turned off the senses and tighten my teeth
I got lost inside a labyrinth
I cried body you must be careful
In the song, the narrator says that its body is lost inside the labyrinth but…
At times we hear a voice from the center of the labyrinth; it’s our inner self, that is giving us a warning: to not fall into the labyrinth’s trap.
It’s telling us to fear not, reminding us of the bigger picture we are a part of.
Learning to do so will cause the dissolution of the labyrinth because it was we who kept its walls standing.
* * *
Corpi di sale si sfaldano
E mostrano chi siamo
Corpi di sale si plasmano
Su quello che pensiamo
Corpi di sale s’infrangono
Onde didó
Bodies of salt flake off
And they show what we are
Bodies of salt take shape
On what we think
Bodies of salt shatter
Dido' waves
The bodies of salt are central to the song. They are a metaphor for the human tendency to commodify natural elements at the expense of their lives and the planet’s wellbeing.
Salt (sodium chloride) is one of the most important elements for the development of life on this planet. It is extremely malleable but also extremely fragile. The salt-made eso-structures surrounding the human figures in the song are easy to manufacture but also easy to break - they can be melded by the very thought or cracked by any external influence. We tend to force our bodies into cultural stereotypes because we expect that doing so will ensure more happiness, respect, and recognition from our fellow humans. Once again, we look for love without realizing love is already part of us.
* * *
Avevo un porco dentro al labirinto
Ho urlato porco devi stare attento
Ho perso tempo dentro al labirinto
Ottempero lo starci dentro
I had a pig in the labyrinth
I cried pig you must be careful
I got lost inside a labyrinth
I comply with fitting in
This time the narrator mentions seeing a pig in the labyrinth. The pig refers to the three poisons at the center of the Buddhist wheel of life. In Buddhist philosophy, this wheel represents one of man’s three fantasies: ignorance (the pig), attachment (the bird), and aversion (the snake).
Ringu Tulku Rinpoche, Tibetan Buddhist Master explains:
In the Buddhist sense, ignorance is equivalent to the identification of a self as being separate from everything else. It consists of the belief that there is an "I" that is not part of anything else. On this basis we think, "I am one and unique. Everything else is not me. It is something different."...
From this identification stems the dualistic view, since once there is an "I," there are also "others." Up to here is "me." The rest is "they." As soon as this split is made, it creates two opposite ways of reaction: "This is nice, I want it!" and "This is not nice, I do not want it!" ...
One more point about this conception of ignorance:
No matter how intelligent you are, ignorance is the first poison. Not ignorance about geography or natural history, but the ignorance of Being, in other words, the falling into the illusion that things are fundamentally separate. Separation in fact occurs only from the “I” perspective, from which the concept of “others” and all sorts of dualities emerge. This is not to deny the “I”, “you” or “others” but to remember that these are not fundamental. Ultimately everything is one.
Everything is the center if you know how to look at it.
