Enlightenment

From Sun Ra's 1973 concert for the comet Kohoutek.

The sound of joy is enlightenment.
Space, fire, truth is enlightenment.
Space-fire,
Sometimes it's music,
Strange mathematics,
Rhythmic equations.

The sound of thought is enlightenment.
The magic light of tomorrow.
Backwards are those of sadness,
Forward and onward are those of gladness.

Enlightenment is my tomorrow.
It has no planes of sorrow.
Hereby, my invitation,
I do invite you be of my space world.

This song is sound of enlightenment.
The fiery truth of enlightenment.
Vibrations come from the space world
Is of the cosmic, starry dimension.

Enlightenment is my tomorrow.
It has no planes of sorrow.
Hereby, my invitation,
I do invite you to be of my space world.

I had the privilege of not only seeing Sun Ra and his Arkestra perform several times in the '70s, but also of actually encountering the man on a couple of occasions on the street of New York City and Boston.  In NYC, I was getting on the subway when the doors opened and out stepped Sun Ra, dressed in full cosmic adornment (the man was never not in character).  I dropped to a full prostration bow, but he gestured for me to arise and then somehow managed to disappear into the Gotham night.

A few years later, I was watching the Donald Sutherland remake of the movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers in Boston, and when I left the theater, Sun Ra and members of his Arkestra were exiting the movie theater with me (they were in town playing a legendary five-night stand at The Orpheum). We had watched the movie together!, I realized, and Sun Ra even answered my question and assured me that beings on Saturn don't behave like the body snatchers in the movie.

Anyway, Sun Ra, who left this mortal dimension in 1993, would have turned 103 yesterday.