Guarding your Power Source

Hello, brothers and sisters in art,

What we do comes naturally to us and feels like part of us. Our ability to create is like an arm or a leg or a brain. It’s part of our existence. There is no space between you and your art.

The source of that magic is different for everyone. For some people it’s deeply personal and unaffected by anything around it. For me, it’s a bit different. My interaction with music and songs and creating them is deeply affected by literally everyone and everything around me. Don’t get me wrong; that’s just the way I like it. I’m inspired by my people, their beliefs and politics. I’m moved by the trees and sky and birds and my feelings, both dark and light.

Remaining open to those influences is absolutely the key for me to be able to cycle through my artistic life correctly. The meditation and ceremony of writing, recording, and releasing music is my church. It’s how I feel the great spirit all around me, whatever that means. I personally think it’s just some kind of electricity that we’re all connected by, but who the hell knows?

Anyway, when one allows their heart mind, body, and soul to remain open to the influences around them, one becomes amazingly vulnerable to dark forces, both with malicious and absolute positive intent. The trickster can take many forms. I use the word “trickster” because it’s an ancient native character that takes all forms and infiltrates magic and happiness in ways you don’t see coming. Being on the lookout for the trickster is a huge part of being a whole soul in those cultures. In this culture, we might refer to it as a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

I don’t think that covers it as well because that means there’s some sort of malicious intent and that’s not really what happens in real life. The things that distract my soul from magic aren’t generally meant to do so and I don’t mean distractions like a flat tire or a broken string. That’s all part of the show, you dig?

I’m talking about the metaphysical—energy transference and that sort of thing. I’m talking about when we allow someone’s reality to affect ours and let them stand in the way of what we need as an artist and what people need as audience members or art viewers and listeners of all kinds. These things take all sorts of shapes. I think you’re starting to understand the kinds of things I mean. Someone in a bad mood or a loved one who chooses the wrong time to unburden themselves or those who mistake what we do as nothing but play.

Sometimes what we do IS play, but without notice it can turn into something life-affirming or even life-saving. That has nothing to do with us personally. It’s about the magic of music and the electricity around us and the connection from person to person. We are only vessels, y’all.

So keeping our vessels spiritually clean is so important. It’s hard to compassionately guard yourself from those forces around you that don’t mean any harm but can absolutely stand in the way of the clean transference of artistic magic and healing.

My father was a preacher and he was a damn good one! Our beliefs were definitely very different and still are, but it was amazing to watch him navigate this kind of stuff on Sunday mornings. I would watch as the family would bombard him just trying to get out the door toward church. He was trying to prepare himself spiritually to deliver some sort of positive thing for his congregation. He wanted them to be able to feel God. That doesn’t always just show up. We have to let it come through us.

Sometimes you may have to guard your heart and mind and protect yourself from people who aren’t thinking about the magical thing you’re trying to let happen to an audience or congregation or artist.

My dad used to say that if something important is supposed to happen that dark forces will rise up around you. That’s how you know what you’re doing is right. That’s how you know you’re on the right path when circumstances and other folks unwittingly try and trip you up or stand in the way of your ultimate goal. More important, those things that stand in the way of the universe or God or chaos or whatever it is you believe in. Something’s out there and we can tap into it, but we gotta keep our minds bodies and souls open and as healthy as possible.

This has been my new mantra and what I’m trying to accomplish in a holistic way. I have further to go in some ways and I am pretty close to others. I think the goal is to get all of those things clean and healthy so that whatever’s out there can work through us and give us something we can take with us in this mean old world.

Love, JB

www.jeffberkley.com

Jeff Berkley is a San Diego songwriter, musician, and producer, whose soulful writing, guitar mastery, and visionary production have shaped the Southern California music scene. He has collaborated with icons like Jackson Browne, David Crosby, the Indigo Girls, and Ben Harper; in 1999 won the Kerrville New Folk Songwriting Award. With his bands Berkley Hart and Jeff Berkley & the Banned, he has earned multiple San Diego Music Awards, including Artist of the Year in 2023, and was inducted into the San Diego Music Hall of Fame. Berkley has released numerous acclaimed albums and continues to perform, produce, and create music rooted in heart and storytelling.