Speaker 1 00:00:48 You are listening to right on radio on cafe AI, 90.3 FM and streaming live on the web at <inaudible> dot org. My results tonight on right on radio. Dave talks with Jane Yolan author of cottage before the Holocaust and after a searing collection of poetry where I'm Yoel and gives a feminist view of biblical themes and personalities that morph into an unflinching discussion of the Holocaust. You all is the author of 400 books, including children's books, science fiction, fantasy novels, poetry, cookbooks, music, and many others.
Speaker 2 00:01:27 I am Dave, and also tonight. And the last part of the hour, Liz olds, whom you just heard from talks with Jacquelyn lady J Maddix about her book, route wisdom from the elders circle, her work discusses the numinous, the mystical and the supernatural world of the metaphysical. It represents the ancient spirituality of our common ancestors, all of this, and so much more so stay tuned to right on radio. And now this
Speaker 2 00:02:11 Hello, Jane, are you with us? Hello? There you are. Welcome. Uh, welcome to the show, Jane.
Speaker 3 00:02:19 Thank you. And delighted to be
Speaker 2 00:02:20 Here. Well, we are honored to have you, so, um, before we get started, we'd like to begin our shows and thank you, Josh, our producer for getting us set up here, uh, begin our shows with the reading from our poets. But before we do that, Jane, let's talk a little bit about you and your background in writing, um, and help us get our heads around the fact that you have authored so many books, as we just told our audience. Um, you must have started writing years ago. Uh, tell us, uh, how you came to be a writer and a writer of so many books.
Speaker 3 00:02:51 I actually was, um, a child of writers and all of their, um, friends were writers. So I thought that when you grew up, you just got your writer, like do other things with your life. But since the people they knew were all writers, I assumed everyone once they became a grownup, whether they were a teacher or a butcher baker candlestick maker, that they went home at night and wrote. So that was my assumption.
Speaker 2 00:03:21 Oh, marvelous. That's fantastic. And when did you start writing in a serious way and maybe right from the beginning?
Speaker 3 00:03:28 Well, I mean, I wrote my first poem in first grade, so I was the, you know, the gold, the gold star kid in first grade and second grade. And I was the, I was known as the poet, like classes up through college. Amazing. So the, the idea of writing poetry was something I knew and, and song lyrics were something I did from very young, but being serious about poetry turned out to be harder than I thought I could write a lot of poems, but it wasn't until I had 113 by CA actual account projections tape to my bedroom wall. Did I sell my first poem?
Speaker 2 00:04:13 No kidding. Wow.
Speaker 3 00:04:17 No, all the, all the rejections and I realized that it, the projections didn't mattered, the one sale did, um,
Speaker 2 00:04:25 Amazing, uh, L I'm sure a lot of writers. We know this listen to our program and it's always good to hear when a successful Raiders struggled a little bit. Was that a struggle for you when things weren't getting published or did you just enjoy the writing so much that, Hey, if it got published, it did. If it didn't so be it
Speaker 3 00:04:43 Well, so at that point, when I was sending out a lot of those things, I was working in New York, um, editorially, I was working for magazines. I was working for, um, book publishers so that I knew the inside and out of, you know, people turning stuff down, right. Maliciously, they weren't doing it angrily. They would just, this it's not for us. This isn't good enough for our magazine or our a book. And one of the, one of the turndowns I got was from John charty, the poet who also was the, a poetry editor for, um, oh, uh, Saturday night review. Oh, wow. And I was working for Saturday review and I was working for the Saturday review at that point. So I sort of slipped some of my poems to him. And he wrote me a lovely letter, which I still have up in my, um, in my, um, third floor, uh, rendezvous. And it says, um, what to say of your poems. God only knows. He said, um, if you were, um, a pianist, I would say you were good pianists, but not concert rank yet. And then he said, PS as shoes, the word beauty. It is a nerd.
Speaker 2 00:06:10 Oh, wow. I'm going to make a note of that. As someone tries to write,
Speaker 3 00:06:19 You can use the word, but, but it was the first time that anyone gave me an actual critique. Oh, sure. I've written 13 rejections. So yes, he knew me by sight because I worked at the Saturday review. He was not going to take a Palm of mine because he knew me. He wanted her drank and that made me work harder.
Speaker 2 00:06:44 Wow. Boy, Jay, now I feel like we could have you on the show and talk about the old days in magazine publishing in New York. To me, I'm fascinated by that. I, I truly am, but, uh, let's, let's, let's turn to your collection cottage before the Holocaust and after a collection of poems. And, uh, why don't you give us a reading Jane, if you would,
Speaker 3 00:07:03 And want to tell you the PO the poems in here range from palms that are kind of Midrash that is re retelling or re looking at, um, old, uh, biblical stories, but also feminist retellings. And then it goes into Holocaust stuff. So that's why I'm. So I want to start actually with the, uh, the second poem in the book, which is a bit of that mid rash, and it's called
Speaker 2 00:07:34 Light. I love this one, please.
Speaker 3 00:07:39 A word, but not a word smell, sound, but not sound. A puff of air hiss of breath, shift of molecules before there are molecules a star born before it has a name garden planted with nouns green, not yet a color, and yet surely a color pushing up through what will one day be called ground zero. Something is born from the earth, from the star, vaguely man-like womanlike, but a short touch this time alike and not alike. Something flies above their heads bird. The man figure says Hawk. The woman figure says an argument from the beginning and all this with a single word.
Speaker 2 00:08:29 Thank you. That's Jane Yolan. She just read a poem from cottage before the Holocaust and after. Thank you, Jane. I love this poem for many reasons, including, uh, the final stands up before the final line, um, where there's a bit of humor and argument from the beginning. At least it made me smile. Um,
Speaker 3 00:08:49 Yeah. Well, I'm glad because it was supposed to make you smile good
Speaker 2 00:08:55 In a, in a book with subject matter where, um, uh, there's, you know, not a tremendous amount of, uh, of humor or comedy, if you will, but there are moments. And, um, so let's just jump to that question, which I have, which I thought we would get to later, but which is this, um, humor in your poems, Jane? Um, I was a bit surprised to find it pop up in the poems, but delighted to see it and you know, exactly when to use it. And I guess to what degree, um, is humor important to you when you're even dealing with, um, such serious subjects?
Speaker 3 00:09:28 I, I think that that certainly the I'm Jewish and the Jews that I know that I understand and, and I'm partial and par and easy with are those who can make jokes about themselves, um, who, who understand that life, um, is not only dark, but it is also light that you have to find humor in some situations where there is no humor. Right. Um, so yeah, I, you know, I, I do that in my children's books. I write many children's books. There's a lot of humor. I wrote a series called commander toad in space. Um, I've written humor, I've written packhouse, I've written in between and in between areas that I find even more interesting. I've, I've been reading recently a number of, um, Holocaust novels. And every once in a while in the middle of the grossest of terrible soul wrenching stuff, somebody makes a joke. Yeah, no, we have to do that. It's it's as it's inbred in humanity, right. If laugh with, you know, something shoved in your God and what's all about,
Speaker 2 00:10:59 Yeah. Yeah. Well, I love that again. And I want to come back Jane to what you hinted at before, which is the structure or mentioned before the structure of the book. And talk a little bit more about that with the three sections you can tell us what they are, um, before the show is, I will say now the show has many voices and mitzvahs and miracles. Um, did you have that structure in mind from the beginning, or did these poems just sort of fall into place for you? How did, how did this book take shape?
Speaker 3 00:11:28 Well, well, when I had the idea for the poem and the editor who I had done a number of books with, um, was interested in the idea. I went back to some of my old poems and looked my old poems. Um, and the very first poem that after the hundred and 13th, that I sold was a poem to a magazine called the Chicago Jewish forum, not terribly Jewish. Um, I was born, um, into it and I have some cousins who are very religious. Um, but my family, you know, if somebody invited us to, um, uh, Passover Seder, we'd go, you know, a bar mitzvah a week ago, but did we do do that sort of thing at home? No, we didn't. Uh, when I turned 13, I got became religious in a sort of, what is this all about way? And parents, this was long before, but myths, first, only bar mitzvahs were happening.
Speaker 3 00:12:35 So Jew Jewish joke, girls did not get to do this. Then I said, um, I'd like to be, um, I would like to be somewhere where we, we do something like that, but it's not a bar mitzvah. And there were, there were groups of children who were, um, who were doing, um, I can't remember the word, it begins with a C um, uh, in which you study Torah, you got, and I, I ended up being the first girl to read from the Torah, uh, in this congregation. I had to join the congregation in order to do it. And my parents were appalled. They didn't want the congregation, but for my sake, they did so that I could be in this youth group. Wow. Um, and so I was the one chosen to do the Torah portion. Now, can I read Hebrew now? No, no. I learned enough so that I could do it for, for the ceremony.
Speaker 3 00:13:33 That was it. Um, but in, when I went to college, I went to Smith college and, um, I decided to minor in world religions. The danger was in, in literature, you know, getting that right. Um, but I was listening. I mean, I ended up reading the book of Mormon. I ended up reading the new Testament, which I had never read. Um, I read, um, Confucius, you name it, reading it. And I got to know a lot about various religions, um, enough. So I have to tell you that one time I was at a science fiction convention and I was invited to a full moon Wicker ceremony. There you go. I thought, well, why not sure? And I get there by then. I'm thinking, are they going to make me take my clothes off? I don't do that in public. And I guess nobody was taking their clothes off, but they were sitting around in a circle and they were saying, saying, thanks to the goddess. We have this food. And then they hand it around and I'm thinking, oh, I don't know how to not food. And the first to send around is a chocolate chip cookie. So my people
Speaker 3 00:14:59 Cookies were very fine and everyone went home satisfied.
Speaker 2 00:15:06 Well, I love that spirit of exploration and adventure, uh, on your part. And, you know, you may not read Hebrew anymore, but does stories have stuck with you, uh, by reading these poems, um, those old stories, those centuries old stories, as you referred to them as, um, the names, Hagar, Sarah, uh, and so on. Um, so those stories have stuck with you. They're still part of your life.
Speaker 3 00:15:32 They have, they have, um, none other, they stuck to me, but I've thought about them in many different ways. I've read three holocausts novels, all cost picture book. Um, I've written a book with a friend, um, uh, call meet me at the well, which is about, uh, re figuring the women and girls in the Bible and taking them from behind the men where their stories mostly were, uh, looking at them in new ways, which is Midrash in itself. Um, I've written, um, the first one has come out called Miriam at the river, a children's book about Miriam who takes her brother, um, to the river and puts him in a little, a little, uh, um, floating basket. And, and, and it's more about her than it is about Moses. And the next book is Mrs. Noah's doves about nowhere who always took care of that, uh, of, of, um, birds that had been injured. Uh, and when, so that's a story about the story, a story in the Bible. And the third one is called Deborah's tree about the first woman judge in Israel, who is in, who is in the Hebrew, the Hebrew Bible. Wow. Oh yeah,
Speaker 2 00:17:00 Yeah. Go ahead.
Speaker 3 00:17:02 These stories stack.
Speaker 2 00:17:03 Yeah, they do. We all, by the way, all of us listeners, we all need to Google Jane Yolan Y O L E N. And look up all of these books. I'm intrigued, I must say, um, uh, does a particular, many poems I wish we could talk about, we won't be able to talk about as many as I'd like to, but Eve's navel, there's a line. The first line of it, Jane is if it's true as centuries teach and two very powerful little words in there, if and true. Uh, how, what does truth mean for you, Jane, when you're thinking about those centuries old stories and what do they, uh, can tell us today?
Speaker 3 00:17:43 Well, the word true is very tricky. Isn't it? Yes, indeed. One of my favorite, my favorite poets, Emily Dickinson said tell all the truth, but tell it slant in circuit lies and the word lies. There is a wonderful, wonderful word to put right there. Isn't it? Um, and it's, it's, it's the thing about poetry and about certain kinds of pros is you can tell what is absolutely positively not possible. And yet somehow is true and that's something and we take these whatever you want to call them. And they become part of our lives and we build our own truths around them. Now some of them can be as beautiful as the great books, whether it's the books of the Bible of Confucius or whatever. But if it's a book that is about finding the best in you, he can do it with very strange stories. You know, I mean, there are some stories that are very problematic and all the, the great, um, world religions. Um, but then there are also stories like the Q Anon stories that come and people take them in as if they are true and true, and they don't parse them all stories you need to parse so that you can figure out what is deeply true. And what is patently false
Speaker 2 00:19:27 Well said? Um, Jean, I'm going to circle back and I want you to read another poem. I'd love you to read another poem. Um, but
Speaker 3 00:19:37 Choose
Speaker 2 00:19:37 One. Okay. Choose one. And while you're doing that, I'm going to ask you a question about it. I love your description of bringing, uh, uh, sort of, um, feminist putting on a feminist lens to some of the old stories and telling those stories differently from a different point of view. What about, uh, the Holocaust, uh, before and after? Um,
Speaker 3 00:19:59 Well, let me first tell you a story about lub Zelle. Okay. Ellie pre-sell was one of those people who I read, but never met. It became one of those figures that were larger than life for me, because I had never met him. And, and I had a book out a number of years ago. Um, my first Holocaust, no, who called the devil's arithmetic one.
Speaker 2 00:20:24 Yeah. It became a movie.
Speaker 3 00:20:26 There were some people who were very upset about it because it takes a child, a modern child back in time to the time of the Holocaust. And there were people who said, this is, this is terrible to do it. This is, this is wrong because Holocaust really existed. And you're, you're making a fantasy novel. And Lev Sal came out and said something to the effect that if very soon, everybody who was in literally in the Holocaust will be gone 20 years, 30 years, everyone will be gone. And all we will have are the stories. So use the stories, touch the stories, make a story as part of your life. Don't, you know, so he became not only someone I had admired before, but suddenly he became, you know, my, uh, my Knight in shining armor When he died, I wrote this poem. It's called Ellie Zelle is dead after E Cummings. Ellie VSL is dead who parsed Knight fought the darkness with a yard side, candle made reluctant witnesses of all of us. So how do you like that? 87 year survivor Herr Hitler. Well, you have been rotting. I have been rotten and writing in your dirty underwear all these long years later,
Speaker 2 00:22:04 I will tell you dirty underwear. It got a laugh in the studio. Um, uh, yeah. Thank you.
Speaker 3 00:22:11 It's just the idea that he was a man who went through what he went through. And so, and has been, had been over the years, given story, after story, after story of what had been in the camps, in the forest, uh, in the, um, the torture rooms, he, he, he was in a sense, a holy chalice of stories that had been given to him. And after, at that, he was able to say that about my book, um, maybe realized that it was important for me to write these sorts of things. And when he died, I wanted to both honor him, but put it in the sense of putting him up against Hitler had when he died, died miserably and horribly and justifiably rotting. And, and it made me feel a little better about what the death of this great man, Ellie RESA.
Speaker 2 00:23:22 Wow. What a, what a beautiful story. And ladies and gentlemen, gentlemen, you know, we are speaking with a poet when she just says the words, a holy chalice of stories. They just pop right out of her head when she's talking about someone else. That's amazing. Um, so how about we have such just a few minutes left Jane. It's just, um, just really wrong and unfortunate we're to have you back on sometime, but, uh, can we talk about hope somewhere, these, these poems, by the way, uh, are, are really, they're really visceral and they're raw and they're hard. Um, and so can we talk about hope?
Speaker 3 00:24:02 Well, I'd say I have two poems here on near the end that I'll read. Okay. Just call if one child is saved and the other problem is called, this is the miracle. Yup. Yup. If one child is saved, we call it a miracle. If many children die a Holocaust, we have no word for the in-between only for those moments of peace with a small P perhaps if we did, we would have a record crop of Ploughshares. We could spend our days listening to small hands, playing clapping games, not hiding in closets or sellers or holes. If one child and one child are saved. And one more at one more, if we could find the capital P hidden away in the Duck's egg, along with cost Chuy's heart, perhaps, perhaps it is an old story. The oldest, it is a good dream, the best.
Speaker 3 00:25:05 And if you don't know, cost chai is, is cost shy. The deathless who, along with his buddy, probably yadda where the great, um, the great creatures or characters in Russian folklore. Thank you, is that this is the miracle, not the escape from the width of bullet, the chimney not safety across three waters, not the poem kept in memories, palace, not a warm house called cider hot bath every night, not even you in my bed, who never had to flee anything. Think of it. My grandchild's hand and mind as she sleeps without fear, knowing nightmares always become day. That is the true miracle one.
Speaker 2 00:25:58 Thank you, Jane. That's Jane Yolan reading from her latest collection of poetry cottage before the Holocaust and after Jane, it has been an absolute joy and treat to have you on our show. Um, I wish I wish we had more time. We don't. I need to sign off here, but boy, I hope we can have you back sometime. I know you're gonna have another book. Please tell us before we go. What's up next for Jane?
Speaker 3 00:26:23 Awesome. Next. Oh, I have, you know, I, my 400th book came out in March. Okay. 409 or 10. Now, today, today is a birthday of a book that I wrote with my granddaughter sample pilot. And it's coming out is called, um, when dances and it was about dancing together.
Speaker 2 00:26:46 Wow. When Nana dances, we will look for that. Genuine. Thank you so much. Um, we loved having you here.
Speaker 3 00:26:55 Thank you. This was a
Speaker 2 00:26:56 Pleasure. Great, great. And now this
Speaker 1 00:27:06 This is Liz old, and I'm sitting here in the studio with cafes lady J from the sounds, songs, songs, songs of the soul on a PC afternoons from two to four,
Speaker 4 00:27:22 She has all the time changed. So people don't remember. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:27:26 And she is also the author of root wisdom from elder circle. And that's what we're going to talk about today. Why don't you give us a little synopsis of the book and reading?
Speaker 4 00:27:36 Well, the synopsis, the quick down and dirty is that it's a book about magic. Um, dare I say it out loud. Yes. Magic. And you can call magic a spirituality. You can call it religion. You can call it whatever you want, but the book is about what you can do and what you can be once you grasp the information that's available in indigenous religious worship, all around the world, quick down and dirty synopsis. And I call that the root wisdom from the elder circle because the elders from every continent have left us this information. And it tells you not only how to worship the eye on the sky, but what you can do once that residual grace falls upon you and the magic that you can make.
Speaker 1 00:28:35 And you're
Speaker 4 00:28:35 Reading that is the synopsis. The reading is that I'm sure you are wondering how I define myself. You want to know which metaphysical umbrella that I live under that term I prefer is shaman or the female version of the term, which is Shameeka by shaman. I mean, someone who lives in constant resonance with the higher frequencies, someone who has a day to day reciprocal relationship with spirit. But I suppose there are other titles that you can apply as well, such as root worker, which, which Dr. Wise, woman healer brew, har sorcerer conjurer or tribal medicine woman. And doesn't matter really, since the labels for people like me have changed over and over again, since the Dawn of time, I think member in good standing of the fellowship of light probably comes the closest since those of us who live from this Aboriginal awareness. Think of it as that as living in the light of the divine eye that never sleeps. We believe that the Sacramento waves of energy that permeate the great creation also permeate us as it transmits its message of consciousness. As the light passes through us, it guides us, protects us and leaves behind an energetic residue that is alive, tangible, and responsive, a residual energy force. That is the source of magic that I keep referring to.
Speaker 1 00:30:24 That's wonderful lady J uh, it's, it's kinda interesting to me that we had these two interviews back to back, uh, spirituality and spirit. I'm going to ask kind of a mundane question to start with. I think if I asked this to a thousand people, I would get a thousand different answers and I want your answer. What do you feel the difference between religion and spirituality is
Speaker 4 00:30:47 Glad you asked that, um, being religious is someone who believes in a higher power, okay. Someone who is a mystic or a Sage now only believes in the higher power, but they have had an, an unshakable experience. They've had an epiphany. So they know beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is a higher power. So they not only believe they know someone who is a magase a shaman or someone coming from a spiritual perspective, not only believes in the higher power, not only knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that there's a higher power, but they know what to do with that information. They know how to act from that perspective and how to live their life.
Speaker 1 00:31:37 Uh, you talked about this in the book and it kind of ties blues music in with the epiphany that you, that you spoke of, that you had. You wanted to talk
Speaker 4 00:31:46 About that a little bit. Woo. That's a, that's a big chunk of the book. Um, the down and dirty is, uh, uh, I used to be Jackie Johnson and I was married to Joel Johnson, who was a KFA I DJ here for many, many years. Uh, his band played at the Viking bar, which is right across the street here from Fairfield and in the middle of one of their songs, I had a magical epiphany. It was the oddest thing. It was a song that the band, uh, Joel Johnson on rhythm guitar and vocals. Well, Donek on bass. John Franken on guitar. John Norris did on drums. Tommy burns on harmonica. It's a song. They it's an original song. They never ever performed the song again. After this point, they played it and everybody took their turn for the solo. But when it came to be Tom burns his turn, he started playing a solo from a completely different song.
Speaker 4 00:32:42 And sometimes that happens with musicians. So they didn't stop. They all looked at Tommy north it in order of the drummer, in order to catch Tommy's attention, that they're going to curve the song back into the right song, right after his solo, he hit the cymbal and his snare at the same time. But every other instrument hit at the same time as well. Joel's voice, which is an instrument, the rhythm guitar, the lead guitar, the harmonica, the bass guitar and the drums. They hit the same note at the same time with the same intensity critical in order to turn that song back into Minnesota, borderline, which is a song that they were trying to do. Timing was actually doing the gets solo from, uh, bright lights and big city. Uh, Jimmy Reed tune. He, they turned the song back into the right song. And to me, the world just went into color. I stood there for it's like I was suspended in space. The band was suspended because it wasn't like an instantaneous turn that hit. Then they turn. And in that space, in between the notes I fell in.
Speaker 1 00:34:00 Mm Hm. And blues has become magical for you.
Speaker 4 00:34:07 It actually was before that, before that, but that was my epiphany where I knew there was more to it than just the surface music, because in that space, the blues talk to me and the blue said to me, this is what music is all about. It's all about these people dancing and hugging each other and enjoying themselves. The blue spoke to me. It was like a nanosecond. And I looked around the room and everything, green, red, blue, yellow, the gold was coming off of north stead symbols. And you could see the shimmer come up. It was the most incredible experience I'd ever had. And that's when the blue spoke to me and said, this is music's message.
Speaker 1 00:35:00 And from there, how did you go from that amazing moment into all the studying that you have obviously done, uh, to bring spirit to yourself and also to other people that you're obviously reaching with this book.
Speaker 4 00:35:14 I did the study and before this cause I've actually been, um, since junior high school, I've always been interested in spirituality and in geography and religion and languages and the point where all this crosses over one another ever since I picked up my first book on astrology, and then I read those gods and goddesses, and I was like Apollo, Venus Aphrodite. And then I picked up a book on Egyptology and it's the same goddesses. They might have different names, but they all perform the same function. And so that's what started leading me to all this other material. So by the time in 1994, I got lost in that space. I had already had this foundation that I knew they were there. The gods and goddesses were there. I just kept trying to find them. And then they found me in 1994.
Speaker 1 00:36:15 Now you have many different ways. Uh, there's a lot of, um, I don't want to say lists because they're more growth periods or growth statements. And I wondering if he might want to talk about, uh, uh, some of those, uh, specific areas that, um,
Speaker 4 00:36:36 Like it states of consciousness,
Speaker 1 00:36:38 Phase of consciousness. Yes.
Speaker 4 00:36:40 Well, um, one in particular is the, uh, probably the third state I think is the most relevant to most people. And it's called glimpsing the soul. Uh, most people think that we are bodies with the soul and side, but in reality, we, human beings are souls. The body wraps around the outside of the soul. And we actually walk around inside of our body, like a vehicle, the third state of consciousness, where you can glimpse your own soul is what I'm referring to. And in that section of the book, how do you glimpse your own soul? You do it through quiet meditation. Buddhism says, it's. They called the one, one point mine. When single point mind you, you have to be quiet. You have to, um, steal the noise that's going on inside of you and outside of you. And you glimpse your own soul. But in reality, you see your soul's always been talking to you the whole time you call it intuition, ESP, my better judgment, anything that puts you back on track, anything that makes you make better choices in your life. That's really your soul, your own soul talking to you.
Speaker 1 00:37:57 And at the beginning, when you were giving the synopsis of the book, you said, dare I say it magic. Yes. Um, talk about magic. What, what, you know, what draws you to it? What draws it to you? How does it work for you?
Speaker 4 00:38:15 I mean, some people call it the towel. She prana the Kundalini power vibrations, magnetism, the light, or even God's grace. It's all magic. And what I'm talking about is that residual energy that resides in most people and either moves you forward on a progressive forward motion path. It makes you choose better in your life. It moves you into, um, being a positive person, I guess I should say, versus being a negative person, magic is have, have you ever been around somebody and they just make you feel good being around them? Yeah. That's magic. That's magic at work. And what it really is, it's just that person's soul self is more prevalent than their body self. You have learned how to live within the soul and look out the windows that we are calling our eyes. The soul actually is looking out of that and your consciousness can be transferred into your soul self versus the body self. Now, the body will never be put in harm's way, the body won't ever go without because your soul lives in the body, it's going to always take care of it. So the magic is about how to make the soul self more prominent. And you do that by remembering and really linking to the great soul that has all of our good intentions at heart. You have
Speaker 1 00:39:53 To take risk to do that, don't you? Yes,
Speaker 4 00:39:55 You do. And a lot of people are not willing to take those risks, but it there's, it's it's well worth it. And I kind of walked you through that in the book, because that too is root wisdom from the elders circle. I also call blues music that same root wisdom, because I believe, and all those lyrics and blues music that talk about black cat bones and mojo ham that is information handed down from African ancestors down to us, the descendants and doing it, using the vehicle of music. We call a blues nap. But remember in Africa it was not called that it was just music. And in fact, what the Genesis is of blues music. Now, everybody knows blues is the root sound to soul music or R and B or funk or jazz, but blues itself has a root. And that root is the sound of the shaman or the medicine man medicine woman, going into the trance, the drum and the rattle of the shaman, lowering the barrier in between the spirit world and the material world so that the shaman can find his or her way back home.
Speaker 1 00:41:19 It's kind of likely to have those experiences where, uh, you kind of had one that was very significant, but even, uh, like I'll just be listening and all of a sudden I'll just the drums. Mostly it's the
Speaker 4 00:41:32 Drums. Mostly it's the drums. And that's the one instrument that's common across every continent, across every society, every culture, the drum it is,
Speaker 1 00:41:44 And the rattle, as well as an ancient Egypt, only women could shake that rattle has something to do with female energy. Yes, exactly. Wow. Oh, we're speaking with lady J K FEI KPI's lady J who has written a book called root wisdom from the elder circle. And since we're talking about blues, I'll just give a little plug for her show. She is on Tuesdays from two to four, playing the blues, uh, in her own way.
Speaker 4 00:42:14 Um, I mix a funk and R and B and soul and jazz, and I call it a Jazzmatazz. I mix all of it with a, with a, with a nod to the 1970s that I grew up in. I like that music. And I know my audience is resonating with that as well.
Speaker 1 00:42:31 Oh yeah. Oh yeah. A way of the warrior talk about way of the warrior
Speaker 4 00:42:37 A warrior. It does not mean a combatant. What you are in war against is staying in thrall to the common consensus societies consensus, because one of the things about walking the way of the warrior is you have to step away from society's needs and listen to the needs of your own soul. You have to find a way to be responsive back to your soul. And that might mean stepping away from Facebook and, and all the, uh, uh, social media and being concerned about what your neighbor has or doesn't have and what you have, or you don't have, are moving away from ego-based living to soul based living. And the way of the warrior shows you how to do that. You become, um, I guess in Christianity, you would call it a Christian soldier. And I don't mean in a religious way. I mean, in a way to stay responsive to your soul and to recognize the soul in others and respond to their soul,
Speaker 1 00:43:52 Um, they was just showing me the clock. We got plenty of time left. Um, but, uh, uh, oh, I know what I wanted to say or talk about. It's a crazy time. It's just a crazy, crazy time. And yet I feel like there's a lot of spiritual rising as well, sort of maybe in response to this crazy time or side by side was a crazy time, or I don't know. Can you talk about how spirit is rising in the midst of all this nuttiness?
Speaker 4 00:44:27 Well, spirit never went anywhere. And those of us that operate from that point of view, we've never gone anywhere. We're here and we've always been here, but we're always going to be the quieter, a softer voice, just like your better judgment, always is in your head. It's always that loud stuff going on in your head that catches your attention. But most of the time that's wrong. You always ignore the soft, quiet voice. That's saying, don't go there, don't go down that street. And then you go and you walk right into an accident. These crazy times are so in a seem so prevalent because they are getting so much press, uh, if it wasn't for Facebook and the attention that people are getting on in the media, um, I have to kind of point a finger at us, the media as well, because a lot of people are, uh, going just overboard and with some of the stuff that they're doing and saying like the Marjorie green Taylor greens of the world, because she's getting attention for it.
Speaker 4 00:45:31 And, and you can see it everywhere on everything. I mean, um, I'm not trying to criticize our younger people, but there were the people that were so, uh, caught up with the computer and doing everything online until the protest started happening. You can't see a really good protest on the computer. All of a sudden they're in the streets because television cameras are on them. They reverted back to old school because they could get attention for that. So you see that that's again loud, you know, that's the, the louder, it seems like it gets more attention. One of I open every chapter in the book with quotes and one of the quotes is from American gangsters, an old, old show. And in it, I guy named Frank Lucas says the loudest man in the room is generally the weakest man in the room, which means that the quieter person is always going to be the stronger person.
Speaker 1 00:46:31 That's where that's where spirit comes in. We're almost out of time. What, what would you say about your own journey as regards the potential journey of, of those of us? Well, I'm on that journey too. All of us who are on that journey in various places, where, where, what would you say to everyone?
Speaker 4 00:46:53 Keep, keep journey. And it's a journey. It's not a destination. It's never going to end. You're never going to get to the point where it's complete because in a, an another book, I use a, I give a lot of references at the end of the book, because these are things that I read that I really enjoyed. One of those, uh, is, uh, EGA gold. And he talks about a labyrinth and he talks about moving from one chamber to the next chamber. Every time most people that have done anything successful, you'll get there, you completed it. And you still don't have that satisfied feeling. That's because you you've completed one chamber of your life. And you've moved to the next chamber. You're always going to be at the beginning stages of the next chamber. You're never going to be like, oh, I'm completed because that's just not human life.
Speaker 4 00:47:39 You're always going to go from where you are now to the next step, to the next step, to the next step. Look at even the DNA, everything that is a spiral, it's not a circle that completes itself. It's a spiral that overlaps and the goes to the next level, then overlaps and then goes to the next level. So continue with where you are, continue with what you want to do. And just, but always, always stop, always stop and be grateful for whatever it is that you have achieved for wherever it is. You're going to go for work, wherever it is you want for everything and has come to you always remember to be grateful. I don't care if it's just, you found a parking space and you didn't expect to be grateful. You have to, if you don't show the gratitude, you won't get the rest of it. Right? Right. You got the gratitude. The gratitude has to come first.
Speaker 1 00:48:33 And so you gotta be open to seeing what the things are like a parking space.
Speaker 4 00:48:38 Absolutely. You have to see that that's a gift to you, or you come back to your car and the parking meters already been plugged for you. I know we don't have those kinds of parking meters, but that used to happen to me. So many times you come back and the meter has been plugged. Somebody stuck a quarter in there, be grateful. Say, thank you. And you know what you do. You pay it forward,
Speaker 1 00:49:00 Pay it forward,
Speaker 4 00:49:01 Pay it forward. As long as you do that, you're going to always find the magic in life.
Speaker 1 00:49:05 We certainly have paid it forward by writing this book, lady J we really, really appreciate having you here. I think I have one minute to ask you, what's next in your writing?
Speaker 4 00:49:16 Um, my, my sons who I've dedicated the book to, if you have had a copy of it, you'll see that my sons are disabled and they have a blood disorder called hemophilia. And it's because of our dealing our challenges that I was able to find my spirituality and then transmit it to them. And a lot of what I achieved through spirituality was me trying to find a foothold for them. So the next book, this book was called root wisdom from the elder circle. The next book is called, uh, wisdom is in the blood because I want them to tell their stories and their, my spiritual stories will tie their stories together. Our challenges with hemophilia and hemophilia B with an inhibitor have just been quite extensive. And yet they are both. One is 47 years old. They are this 44 years old. And I was told they would not live to be five. And I was always like, yeah, that's what you think, right?
Speaker 1 00:50:16 Yeah. Yeah. Well, lady J thank you so much for a wonderful interview. And thank you for your work, her cafe, I, including your radio show songs of the soul, which is on Tuesdays before us from two to four. Um, we've been talking with the lady J author of route wisdom from the elder circle and, uh, it's been a wonderful interview. Thank you for coming by right on radio. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Thank you, Liz. Thank you, Dave. And thank you, Josh. Cool. And now this
Speaker 1 00:51:26 You have been listening to right on radio on cafe I 90.3, FM and streaming live on the
[email protected]. I'm Liz Alz. I'd like to thank our special guests tonight, Jane Yolan and Jacquelyn lady J Maddix plus our listeners. And thank you for your support and donations in our pledge drive cafe. It would not be possible without your support. You can find more news and info about right on radio at cafe ice.org/programs/right on radio. Plus listen to our recent episodes on our recently launched podcast. And I want to thank Annie for doing our podcast. She yay, Annie. She does a lot of work with our podcasts. We appreciate it. And you can find that on Spotify, iTunes, Google podcasts, anywhere podcasts can be found. Now stay tuned. We're bowling through a Minnesota.
