I began playing with words in early childhood and was intrigued by what I was noticing. For instance, I saw that \u2013\u2013<\/p>\n
In my late teens, when my older brother introduced me to marijuana, the thoughts that would often occur to me in that altered state related to the A, B, C\u2019s.\u00a0 I thought I must have a very primitive mentality to be focusing on something as seemingly simplistic as the Alphabet. But these types of thoughts persisted over the years until \u2013\u2013 bit-by-bit, letter-by-word \u2013\u2013 a larger picture began to emerge as I followed these verbal breadcrumbs into a vision of the English language that altered my perception of reality.<\/p>\n
Then, on one occasion, when I performed WordMagic in a beautiful garden, a member of the audience said to me afterwards, \u2018In France, we call what you do, \u2018The Language of the Birds.\u2019 I really didn\u2019t know what she meant by that \u2013\u2013\u00a0though I\u2019d read a faerie tale by that name years before. And on that occasion \u2013\u2013 and another some time later \u2013\u2013\u00a0there was an extraordinary degree of avian interest when I performed WordMagic outdoors.<\/p>\n
Not long after, I received a copy of The Language of the Birds <\/em>by William Henry from friends of his. In it I learned that my most fanciful vision-in-verse about what might come about when we collectively, creatively tune up English to a higher frequency \u2013\u2013 was not simply a matter of my personal fantasy. It\u2019s actually part of ancient mythology.<\/p>\n I also learned in Mr. Henry\u2019s book that English is identified as the Language of the Birds<\/em>. In response to the immediate question that naturally arises, he writes \u2013\u2013<\/p>\n \u201cHow did English come to be the Language of the Birds? The answer is, the language in which these words have meaning to the mythologist is not exactly English either. In the poetic Language of the Birds (or Bards), English becomes Ang(l)ish or Angel-ish, the Language of the Angels.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Of even greater significant to me was that the way I acquired my mystic-linguistic perspective on English is something William Henry also addresses:<\/p>\n “Believe me, this is not the kind of knowledge one gets at a university. It\u2019s more like what a billionaire buys $30 million for in a codex (Latin for book or bound manuscript) or a rare painting at a secret auction at Christie\u2019s. Or a spiritual seeker acquires by floating round and visiting the places on Earth where such knowledge is stored and downloading it out of the landscape directly to the brain (if one knows how to do that).<\/strong> It is likely that this is the kind of knowledge which Solomon and the Knights Templar busied themselves with.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n This is precisely what happened: I downloaded WordMagic from the landscape \u2013\u2013 though I didn\u2019t know this was what I was doing. However, thanks to the mind-expanding impact of an occasional toke or two of a mild marijuana bud\u00a0while wandering in Nature \u2013\u2013 WordMagic gradually came more fully into form through me.<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t download my verse verbatim. It\u2019s just that interesting words, metaphors and insights frequently \u2018occurred\u2019 to me as I traversed the wild terrain. And I wove these into my consciousness and poetry.<\/p>\n