Into the Mystic | Song One | Van Morrison

The first day after the new year,
in the early morning before sunrise,
the idea was simple:
a rock and roll spiral of songs of ascent for the entire year.

Take time as the landscape and map it day by day,
each day holding an aspect of the year rooted in a deeper understanding
of the flow of time beneath them.

That's the spiral.
These are the songs of ascent.
Just find the blueprint of the world,
the unseen scaffolding upon which they rest,
the unseen wisdom pacing the flow of night
followed by day
followed by night
followed by day.

So we started digging around,
looking for the map beneath division,
and Google gave up the evidence as it usually does.

The Mystic Chamber of Commerce, it said.
This sounded incredible.
Imagine the figures of time gathered around a long table
in an ancient hall,
lamps lit,
voices hushed,
all of these ghouls and magicians and seers and fixers getting down to it,
setting the clocks for all of the spheres
and inviting the spiral
and the songs of ascent.

So this was the start, and then we arrived here. 

You get what you ask for,
that beautiful reimagined whaling town on the Atlantic Ocean
butting up against the real town on I-95 and Amtrak's Northeastern Line,
and we're off to sea once more.

We were born before the wind
Also younger than the sun
Ere the bonnie boat was won as we sailed into the mystic
Hark, now hear the sailors cry
Smell the sea and feel the sky
Let your soul and spirit fly into the mystic

Song of the Ascent I

Van Morrison | Into the Mystic