Deliberation (Between Worlds part 4)

[Christopher Stewart]

("The Dhyani Buddha Akshobhya" - Unknown Artist)

« Between Worlds » is a composition that started as a song entitled « Requiem » which was written in response to the deaths of my father and maternal grandmother, both due to cancer, at the beginning of the 1990s. Inspired by « The Tibetan Book of the Dead, » the piece eventually turned into a suite in five movements intended to present the successive stages of the death process as described in Tibetan culture.

« The Dance Of The Archetypes » culminates with an encounter with the Lord Of Death, a fearsome demonic deity appearing in smoke and fire, who subjects the dead to a judgment based on the karma accumulated during their lifetime. If the person is still not liberated after this judgment, they proceed to the next bardo.

« Deliberation » refers to this subsequent experience and depicts a fluid state wherein the dead hovers about the world, observing the surroundings and other beings, but without committing to any specific course of action. Eventually, the soul will recognize and be drawn to something in the environment, perhaps a being, or what looks like a feature of the landscape. The object of this attraction will in fact become the entrance toward their next rebirth.

Currently the section is instrumental only, but lyrics will possibly be added to better describe this particular intermediate state.

The clip presents the culmination of the « Dance Of The Archetypes, » followed by the first half of « Deliberation. »