As much as I wish it weren’t true, we still live in a xenophobic world in which some group fears another group as if we didn’t all begin in the same place. But I’m reminded of this beautiful world only made uglier by the lack of texture and hue some would see as a bad thing, and I am grateful for the maze of cultures and heritages that flow through my blood because even those cultures and heritages that aren’t mine by blood are mine in my heart and soul.
In the first paragraph of the first chapter in my book on multiculturalism, I wrote, “Analogous to the threads of a magnificent, priceless tapestry, each of our lives intertwine with others, creating bonds with people we’ve never met and probably will never meet. The tapestry’s beauty and value lies in transforming individual threads by weaving them, color by color, into multi-hued splendor. Were we to weave a monochromatic tapestry, its beauty would have to be defined in the weave itself, using many varieties of stitches.”
And so this article focuses on my heart in this human tapestry I know as the world–multiculturally. Since April has many notable events in the world of multiculturalism, I wanted to peek at one in particular while giving a very respectful, loving nod to those already mentioned in the news and elsewhere, including, of course, MLK‘s assassination on April 4, 1968 and Jackie Robinson‘s having broken the color barrier at Ebbetts Field on April 15, 1947.
For those who aren’t aware of the systemic racism that was taking place during the period in which Jackie Robinson came to the major leagues, the following gives a taste of what was out there:
And then there was Marian Anderson who also ran into racism from what should have been the last place for virulent prejudice. The New York Times did a marvelous job of capturing the period in the month following her death in April 1993. I wish she’d lived to have read it.
But what about celebrating some of these greats too? Blues singer Bessie Smith was born on April 15 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Pure energy from her voice even then!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VKEKkTQU-k
And then there is the one person who seemed to have been overlooked, Carlos Nakai, although there are so many others. But I would hope it’s not because he’s still with us as we are blessed with so many more! Carlos Nakai’s music, however, takes us to nature and to the sounds of the Great Spirit itself! In honor of his 70th birthday, April 16:
I only regret that I don’t know his time of birth. His sounds are so sweet, so pure, so attuned with nature itself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sqq3U_mydv0
What we do know is the likelihood that he has a Cardinal signature although the type of signature would have been up for grabs without our knowing the Ascendant or the Moon. I did his chart for noon, but that would have placed the Moon in the last degree of Libra, so it literally would be a 50-50 guess on that without more information. This is just a very quick look to another great musician’s chart.
Even without our knowing the degrees of the Moon in Carlos Nakai’s chart, we can quickly identify the Cardinal T-square from the Sun-Jupiter opposition to the arm, the Mars-Saturn conjunction. Mars forms an out-of-sign trine to that placement of Mercury positioned in Mars-ruled Aries at a 6-minute partile conjunction to what’s known as Aries Point. But Mercury opposes Neptune, offering him the ability to express himself more likely through the arts and other creative expression than through doing much by way of actual conversation. Here is where we see his music evolving through the dulcet tones of the flute in harmony with nature.
With Mercury also forming an undecaquartisextile to Chiron, here is where we see what may be called the evolution of his music in the sense of what some may call his “wounded healing.” I’ve mentioned Beethoven’s greatest music coming forth after he lost his hearing; while Carlos Nakai thankfully hasn’t lost his hearing and we really don’t know how this may have developed during the Chironic stages of his life, he reveals that same level of genius in his work as well.
Why did I choose Carlos Nakai for this article? Consider his having blended cultures even in his work. He surely gets that we are connected through soul, far more than blood can ever do!
With belated birthday wishes to Carlos Nakai, may you continue to maintain good health and the joy of your music with which you bless our ears and nature.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19nm5_nAwQg