Deep, tribal music is that which carries the present minded listener to the doorstep of infinity. Mose (Resueño) spends much of his time in Guatemala where cacao ceremonies, kirtan and ecstatic dance have had a major influence on his productions and DJ style.
It is there on Lake Atitlan that he founded the weekly SunSet Cacao Dances at Eagle’s Nest where members of the community have the opportunity to journey deep into dance in a container of deep intention and free of alcohol and other substances. Having been nomadic since 2011, he has developed a sound all his own through interaction with cultures from around the world. He finds a way to fuse the organic elements of tribal traditions with modern production techniques in order to create an entrancing journey for both relaxed listeners and those eager to move their bodies.
Mose performs a live set during SunSet Cacao Dance at Eagle’s Nest Atitlan.
The music Mose produces is organic, mid-tempo, steady beat style. Although some call it multicultural, electronic, slow house, or deep tribal, it goes beyond the boundaries of genre specification. Through pioneering his own unique sound, Mose has had a huge impact on the recent boom of ecstatic dance and medicinal movement events using music and vibration as entry points for spiritual experience.
From sitting with this man and having had the opportunity to connect deeper during our time together at Nicaragua Residency and this year during Momentom Residency in Guatemala, we’ve summarized 4 takeaways on the spirituality of sound and silence, including some of the fascinating tools he’s used to empower himself as an artist:
Medicine Music is on the Rise
“The ecstatic dance movement is really exploding all over the world. Why? People are craving a space to connect – either through music, with movement, through community. Ecstatic dance is becoming a new age spiritual practice for many many people.
It’s about music as medicine, music created with an intention of being medicinal, for the purpose of healing.
The people creating this medicine music have usually done work themselves with sacred plants, with meditation retreats, or with whatever that inner work might be. They’ve come into a space where they feel a love and a peace within, and they want to share it with the world. The music then has an intention of wanting to share this energy of love and peace. In that, there is a property of it being medicinal and healing.
If we take time to receive this healing, it creates a resonance in our own beings. It allows us to tune into the vibration which we all carry, but are not always tuning into because of distractions, obligations, or whatever is going on in our lives. To set aside time to connect with this intentional music can be a really healing and beautiful experience.”
Lucid Dreaming and the Dream World have a lot to teach us about our own inner selves and our own creativity. We already have all we need within.
“I was first exposed to this idea of using dreams in an intentional way when I did a course here in Guatemala. There, they taught us how to work within dreams to learn and to grow.
Part of that is unlocking lucidity – being aware you are dreaming while you’re dreaming. It has a lot to show about the internal world and our own internal guide. It’s all there within.
I’ve done several retreats since then where I separate myself from the outside world to connect more intimately with my internal world – a big part of which are dreams. Our dream world is often this mixture of events that have happened: things we’ve read, movies we’ve watched, conversations we’ve had, etc. All of that gets combined with guidance from the astral realm, from non-physical entities or from our higher selves. So, by isolating and removing a lot of this outside influence, this relationship with the dream world and with this inner guidance is allowed to become clearer and more refined.
Through this, I’ve come to believe that there is an intelligence that is ready and willing to assist in my process. It can guide me to better understand myself and my role here in the world.
This connects to my music as it is a reflection of deeper aspects of my journey as a soul. When I’m journeying through these experiences they’re changing me and shifting things within me – which will be reflected in my music. I’d like to think my music goes deeper and continues to find more space, clarity, and maybe greater impact as I personally come into a space of more peace and love in myself.”
Silence can be just as important as sound.
“The longest silent retreat I did a retreat was on a mountain, in Guatemala, where I was alone for three months. No phone. No internet. No reading. No movies. No outside information.
When we can set aside all of the things we use to stimulate ourselves, it can get challenging to find contentment in just being. The things we entertain ourselves with are also a distraction from just being alone with ourselves. Those things aren’t necessarily good or bad; but they can make it really challenging to just be.
So, these experiences of silence – of being without the distraction – are important to me for that exploration of myself. They’ve allowed me to reach intense states of peace and acceptance, which can then become infused into my music.
In my experience, these moments of peace with myself have be some of the most beautiful experiences of my life. So there’s this interesting double-edged coin: often the most difficult challenges in life being the most beautiful experiences. You sort of can’t have one without the other. It’s the same with both silence and sound.”
Flame Gazing is a great way to improve your own personal focus, and to have a clearer internal vision.
“Flame gazing is a practice from Hindu culture, but I was taught it in Guatemala. It’s very simple. You sit in front of a candle and stare at the flame for maybe 3 minutes and close your eyes. When you do this for 3 minutes, you are left with this image in your internal vision that is the residue, or the shadow, of the flame you were staring at.
So then, the idea is to stare at that image and hold onto it for as long as you can. If you can maintain focus, you can keep it there much longer. The idea is twofold:
To improve focus. This is important in the dream world as well since things move so fast there. In dreams, things are frictionless – there’s no body to contain them or to slow the mind down.
To help you to have better internal vision. One could say it’s opening your third eye. Staring into this internal space can help you in other spaces from the physical to the astral. It can also help with focus when those dreams start to appear.
I believe we are here in these physical bodies for a reason. So, a part of my process with my own spiritual work is that I go into retreats, TO come out. I see a huge benefit in setting aside periods of time to go within – to isolate myself from the outside, to minimize my sensual experiences – and ultimately to come back to interact with the physical world and with people to share my music. Having a rhythm between these two worlds, so to speak, is really powerful for me.”
To get into more juicy questions with Mose, listen to the full podcast with Momentom Collective Co-Founder John Early and Mose Cagen by clicking here. or check out these 10 insanely talented artists you can live with in paradise during our Nicaragua Artist Residency from March 1-February 15, 2020.
…and don’t forget to connect with Mose on SoundCloud and YouTube.
