export default function IllusiveLexicon() {
return (
<div className="space-y-2 pb-8 pt-6 md:space-y-5">
<h1 className="text-3xl font-extrabold leading-9 tracking-tight text-gray-900 dark:text-gray-100 sm:text-4xl sm:leading-10 md:text-6xl md:leading-14">
Illusive Lexicon
</h1>
<p>
<strong>By Patrick Loisel</strong>
</p>
<p>
Since Augury's lyrics often replace descriptions of current sets of events with quick
references to similar occurrences or people in history, a few words often hold multiple
details. You could see it a bit like a sort of code... Unless you are a total nerd or a
history buff, some of them might be hard to decipher and put in context. Hence this little
piece of work. Please take note that, since it is a work of art, I took much more liberties
than if I intended it as a strictly scientific publication. I other fields, I did not
hesitate to eliminate texts I had previously written upon finding anything untrue. There is
a bit of fantasy here that I let loose.
</p>
<p>
The central point of "Illusive Golden Age" is the recurrent downfall of civilizations and it
offers a glimpse at some of the factors that prevent them from reaching their "golden age".
I added an underlying fiction-narrative about successive waves of telepathically linked
individuals who memorize all the knowledge that they can, then secretly move to the wild.
There, they live in hiding and supply telepathic insight to further escapees to restore
civilization when it collapses. Over time, they become what primitive people call woodsmen
or oracles. When one of them feels that his end is coming, he mentally calls for a younger
apprentice to come take his places. This story is set in a near future and I call that bunch
"The Escapees".
</p>
<p>
<strong>Lines sung in bold print</strong>
</p>
<p>
<strong>ILLUSIVE GOLDEN AGE</strong>
</p>
<p>
<strong>Illusive golden age, tantalizing eternal wait</strong>
</p>
<p>
This is the starting context: Civilizations often viewed themselves as headed toward an
evolved and peaceful future that they never reached (just remember how science-fiction
movies in the 80's told us how we would colonize Mars by 2008), that due to social
resistance to progress or to moral weakening, and they were invariably erased by warlike
neighbors who disapproved of their lifestyle and values. Quite a recurring situation as
clues of a similar pattern clearly emerge now...{' '}
</p>
<p>
<strong>Crestfallen Hypatias flayed</strong>
</p>
<p>
Hypatia (360-415) was a Greek female scientist in Alexandria. A Christian mob, belonging to
a sect called Nitrians, grossly murdered her. As they settled in Alexandria, they went on a
rampage to eradicate pagan intelligentsia, and a woman leading a science school was a prime
target. She now has contemporary counterparts who suffer the same fate.{' '}
</p>
<p>
<strong>Aborted Golden Age, Nitrians swarm in to fall your idols</strong>
</p>
<p>
Self-explanatory. Whatever happened to Pagans in the first millennia AD now happens to parts
of our civilization.{' '}
</p>
<p>
<strong>Cult progenies pervading cull progenies defiling</strong>
</p>
<p>
Refers to various historical attempts by religious radicals to infiltrate higher societies:
Settle among the targeted people and breed; then, once numerous enough, attack.{' '}
</p>
<p>
<strong>Taking census of knowers</strong>
</p>
<p>
Since society appears more tolerant, people normally perceived as deviants in authoritarian
cultures now behave more freely and start exposing themselves. Some others discretely take
notes for future use, like in...{' '}
</p>
<p>
<strong>Foundations for Tuol Sleng</strong>
</p>
<p>
In Pol Pot's Cambodge (1975-1979), the whole population was forcefully removed from cities
and sent to live in slavery on collective farms. Pol Pot ordered the extermination of all
intellectuals (who had been accounted for prior to the war), and people were killed for
simply knowing foreign words or wearing glasses. Tuol-Sleng was the worst of 150 schools
turned into extermination camps, where inmates were tortured and mutilated for days. Out of
the 17000 total who went in, around 250 went out alive, and only seven people survived
beyond 1980.
</p>
<p>
<strong>
"Slaves learned to read, business' running slow"
<br />
They need the progenies that bleat and grunt
<br />
Dumbed down cheap labor. Downtrodden...
</strong>
</p>
<p>
If cows became smart, farmers would go bankrupt. Back in early 1800's, authorities forbid to
educate slaves, for they became rebellious and demanding. Since then, around 300M
intellectuals were killed by their own governments. Simply, it has become a discrete
process...
</p>
<p>
<strong>Kept in neotenic sessility, prepped for servility </strong>Neoteny: Permanence of
the larval stage, when creatures remain immature all their life.{' '}
</p>
<p>
Sessility: Absence of locomotion; refers to creatures that remain fixed and motionless as
adults, such as sponges, corals, computer addicts...{' '}
</p>
<p>
Bottom line: Today's ideal slave is an eternal child that does not move much! A good
parallel example would be the way we keep companion animals in perpetual infancy, since
their adult features are highly undesirable in households. Some view us the very same.{' '}
</p>
<p>
<strong>
Crusaders in virtual war
<br />
Daydream simulated uprisings
<br />
But Svengali is slowly pulling the plug....
</strong>
</p>
<p>
Refers to keyboard warriors who declare war on the cyberspace but do very little in real
life. Svengali is the term used when a person in power secretly exploits and dominates an
artist in order to serve a nefarious concealed agenda. Unbeknownst to them, creators often
work in projects that will eventually reveal to be detrimental to them. When no longer
usable, they are often abandoned. The "pulling the plug" part: We are dependent on those who
enslaved us, and once they withdraw services and technology, most of us will perish.
</p>
<p>
<strong>TRANSLATIO IMPERII</strong>
</p>
<p>
Latin for "transfer of rule", when an empire or a dynasty crumbles, and the next in line
rises.{' '}
</p>
<p>
<strong>As Ignorance swarms in</strong>
</p>
<p>Most invaders destroyed the culture and science of the conquered. None is innocent. </p>
<p>
<strong>Emboldened in captagon craze</strong>
</p>
<p>
Captagon was the stimulant used by soldiers in the Syrian war to keep them fighting
relentless.{' '}
</p>
<p>
<strong>Sired Lebensborn, our way come raging hordes</strong>
</p>
<p>
Lebensborn was a eugenic operation orchestrated by Nazi Germany during WWII. Its goal was to
increase the birth rate of desired "Aryan" people, corollary to the Final Solution, and it
aimed at completely replacing the European population with Aryans. That word actually
depicts a level of enlightenment and not a race; still... People with the right genetic
features were thus encouraged to conceive multiple children, often with perfect strangers,
and to yield them to the state. Some of the offspring were placed in special families,
others were raised in a near industrial setting and brainwashed since infancy to become the
"perfect soldier". They took bits from the Spartans here. Today, some others claim that they
do the very same in order to attack the Western world.
</p>
<p>
<strong>Inescapable Dark Ages ahead for sons of enlightenment...</strong>
</p>
<p>
The emancipation the Age of Enlightenment brought to commoners clearly angered some elites
who wish to reverse the process.{' '}
</p>
<p>
<strong>New workforce coming, business resuming</strong>
</p>
<p>This is the end goal of current movements of population.</p>
<p>
<strong>Feign ignorance</strong>,{' '}
<strong>they need the progenies that bleat and grunt</strong>
</p>
<p>
In Pol Pot's Cambodia or Pinochet's Chile, that was often the only way to live on, since
anyone smart enough to criticize politics and lead others to do so were simply eliminated.
They want your muscles; your brain gets in the way. Remember the cows...
</p>
<p>
<strong>For sons of enlightenment welcomed darkness with open arms</strong>
</p>
<p>
Formulated this way: Beneficiaries of a civilization often directly help those set to
destroy it.
</p>
<p>
<strong>THE LIVING VAULT</strong>
</p>
<p>
<strong>Leave, the corralled heaving plebe</strong>
</p>
<p>
<strong>Before the gates close upon crying herds</strong>
</p>
<p>
A few individuals heed an inner call to stray away from the masses, since liberty's demise
becomes increasingly apparent. Each of them is compelled to learn and memorize as much
knowledge as possible, collectively becoming a depository of civilization, a "Living
Vault"...
</p>
<p>
<strong>Men farms lost their illusive comfort</strong>
</p>
<p>The masks have fallen and the true nature of society have become obvious.</p>
<p>
<strong>Time to exfiltrate ferments of recursion</strong>
</p>
<p>Exfiltration: Furtive removal of personnel from an area under enemy control.</p>
<p>
Recursion: (Normally a mathematical term, I saw it once in a science book.) Recursion is the
faculty to duplicate something out of a small sample. To start a new bacterial culture, you
need samples from an old one like when you make yogurt. I applied it to civilization. To
restart culture or knowledge, you need people able to transmit it from samples, so that
knowledge spreads and civilization restarts... Moreover, to avoid its cultural version, some
dictatorships went great length to get rid of anyone who could seed back knowledge and
rebellion... A discrete exit from society is the only sure way to avoid this.
</p>
<p>
<strong>Newfound breakaway tribes</strong>
</p>
<p>Even though they travel alone, escapees often gather and cooperate.</p>
<p>
<strong>
Living Vault in mimicry
<br />
Behind deceiving primal decoys
<br />
In apparent inexistence
<br />
Specters quietly ease away
</strong>
</p>
<p>
They live in total hiding; blend with vegetation and fake primitiveness when found. They
learn to live with near nothing, cover their smell and leave no waste.
</p>
<p>
<strong>Seekers call hierophants, in wait for signs</strong>
</p>
<p>
Hierophant: Interpreter of sacred mysteries. If someone tries to contact them, they will let
them wait and scrutinize them from underground.{' '}
</p>
<p>
<strong>An obscure design woven through the vines</strong>
</p>
<p>
People who live secretly in the forest will often leave discrete signs like this,
perceptible only to the initiated.
</p>
<p>
<strong>Endless recurrence of odd dreams</strong>
</p>
<p>
Those mentally summoned are not always aware that someone tries to call them, and often
mistake it for nightmares.
</p>
<p>
<strong>
Apprentices in awakening, awaiting...
<br />
Understand their distrust
<br />
Just wait for the call
</strong>
</p>
<p>
Time is required to evaluate the honesty and competence of a candidate before revealing
oneself.
</p>
<p>
<strong>
Spirits murmuring higher and higher
<br />
Becoming beacon of illumination.
</strong>
</p>
<p>
When they recognize each other, allied spirits disincarnate, gather and flock like starlings
(when a big mass of birds swirls in mid-air, that is called "murmuring"). Knowledge passes
on and can shine onto further generations.
</p>
<p>
<strong>
And that since the time that heavens were at war
<br />
To keep the lore alive
</strong>
</p>
<p>
This process has been going on since current humankind appeared. Multiple traditions state
that humans exist not for cognition but for servitude, and whoever brought intelligence to
them was heavily fought by another faction desirous to keep its servile workforce, and
deemed "evil". In many faiths, the gods warred over conflicting views about humanity:
Upgrade vs enslave... Think about Prometheus/the Snake in the Bible, Enki vs Enlil, the Rama
Weapon and many others...{' '}
</p>
<p>
<strong>
Living Vault in mimicry
<br />
Behind deceiving primal decoys
<br />
In apparent inexistence
<br />
Any hole becomes residence
<br />
Just wait in silence, hear the verdict
</strong>
</p>
<p>
<em>see above</em>
</p>
<p>
<strong>
A stone rolling sideways
<br />
A burrow for them to crawl down
<br />
A calling gesture from under the roots
<br />
Acknowledged apprentices enter the realm
</strong>
</p>
<p>The entry to the lair revealed to the seekers.</p>
<p>They will live as troglodytes for a while... </p>
<p>
<strong>
Spirits murmuring higher and higher
<br />
Beckoning beacon of illumination.
<br />
And that since the time heavens were at war
</strong>
</p>
<p>
<strong>
<em>To be continued in the song "Anchorite"</em>
</strong>
</p>
<p>
<strong>CARRION TIDE</strong>
</p>
<p>
<strong>
They fly, the swarming poison clouds swirling overhead
<br />
Eons of worldly pestilence set to rain down on us all
</strong>
</p>
<p>
Many contaminants dumped in the oceans evaporate and return above continents with rain
clouds. They will eventually find their way back into our streams and our food chain.
</p>
<p>
<strong>Assaulted from a land that we cannot walk on</strong>
<br />
<strong>A liquid desert left for us to behold</strong>
</p>
<p>
Most of those airborne particles falling back on us come from oceanic garbage patches (the
"Seventh Continent") where billions of tons of plastic refuse are grinded to molecular level
and those too evaporate in the atmosphere. Where those patches occur, all life dies off down
to great depths.
</p>
<p>
<strong>
Longing for clear and quiet waters
<br />
Navigating with carrions in our wake
</strong>
</p>
<p>
It will become harder and harder to come across untainted water. Wherever man set sail, life
there withers...
</p>
<p>
<strong>
Fear settling in as the scene gets clearer
<br />
Conscience burdened us with all the weight of the worlds
</strong>
</p>
<p>This is how you feel when you sense a danger but only a few seem to care.</p>
<p>
<strong>They swarm the clouds, seeded with the</strong>
<br />
<strong>Morgellons plague</strong>
<br />
<strong>Falling like manna, tapeworms weave through your brains</strong>
</p>
<p>
There is a belief that parts of geo-engineering consist of airborne parasites set to affect
our neuronal activity. They could use those plastic particles as carriers.
</p>
<p>
<strong>
Witness the parasite becoming a host
<br />
Witness the anthill get boiled down
</strong>
</p>
<p>
Scientists expect the seas of the future to be replete with undesirable creatures, a lot of
which are parasitic or aggressive toward humans. Exposure to tainted water will signal the
demise of large human settlements.
</p>
<p>
<strong>
Setting to sail the carrion tide
<br />
Oceans brimming with decay
<br />
As far as eyes can see, waves of churned waste
<br />
Exude vapored slime that long ago ceased to bring life
</strong>
</p>
<p>
It becomes more and more obvious that some very advanced civilizations in the past caused
their own demise by exhausting the environmental resources they depended on...
</p>
<p>
<strong>MATER DOLOROSA</strong>
</p>
<p>
One of the things that brings down humankind is how a relative small number of individuals
can deliberately ruin everything out of selfishness and cruelty. How could you expect some
people to care about someone or something at the other end of the world when you see this?
The most horrible part is that this is not fiction at all. I simply put together bits from
multiple reports, some making it to mainstream media, which I came across in the news over
the last two decades to create this character. This song is a case of an omniscient narrator
(in parentheses) suggesting that this specific child should seek incarnation in another
body...
</p>
<p>
<strong>Snap. Crackle. Pop. </strong>(Kellogg's did not sue me yet.)
<strong>
<br />
Apprentice started with bugs
<br />
Moving on to the usual stray
<br />
Graduated to the bipedal ones
<br />
Purse full of tie wraps and blades
<br />
Miss Caligula again skipped school...
</strong>
</p>
<p>
The majority of people who develop sadistic pathologies do so at an early age, and they most
often manage to conceal their mind frame from their entourage. They gradually desensitize
themselves by starting to kill insects, then more evolved creatures; the lowest of the low
aim at younger children. Remember James Bulger... (British toddler abducted and tortured to
death by two 10 years old in 1993. They were searching for a victim long before and
supposedly still exhibit deviancies up to this day.){' '}
</p>
<p>
<strong>
Conceived the plan long before she could conceive you
<br />
Wished that laying with fools was unnecessary
<br />
Pondering torments waiting in store for you
<br />
Labor pains so voluptuous comparatively
<br />
(Please, remain a ghost...)
</strong>
</p>
<p>
Many sadistic psychopaths have unusual response to pain and pleasure, and will often ignore
normal stimuli to focus only on those related to their condition.
<br />
<strong>
<br />
Pain extracts the essence of life
<br />
Like fire brings iron out of the ore
<br />
A carnivorous flower
<br />
Sets to feast on her yield
<br />
Daydreaming over
<br />
Cheerful eyes... and rusty hooks
</strong>
</p>
<p>
Some cultists believe that they can actually consume other people's energy, and that said
energy is at its best when the subjects suffers a lot. Therefore, some will go very
imaginative when conceiving "rituals".{' '}
</p>
<p>
<strong>
Steadily gathered scalpels and probes
<br />
Left them oxidize for better abrasion
<br />
Fantasies arising as she felt you grow inside
</strong>
</p>
<p>
Many perpetrators visualize or rehearse their deeds years beforehand, occasionally in the
presence of their unsuspecting victim...{' '}
</p>
<p>
<strong>
(Shall raise a being of light!)
<br />
Precious things are more pleasurable to break
<br />
Dreamed of her spit blending in with your tears
<br />
Through a decade long theater play
<br />
Acolytes have rehearsed for years
<br />
(SHOULD HAVE REMAINED A GHOST!!!)
</strong>
</p>
<p>
In the initial draft, the character initially planned to dispatch her baby at birth, then
changed her mind and opted to raise it until pre-teen age, since sensibility to pain and
betrayal would be much higher then, increasing the perpetrator's gratification. She kept in
tow those she initially designed as accomplices. I had to skip a few line to save breath!{' '}
</p>
<p>
<strong>Immah... Lama Sabachtany?</strong>
</p>
<p>(Aramic for "Mother, why thou have betrayed me?")</p>
<p>
<strong>
Blindfolded for the surprise
<br />
Serenaded by "uncles" that you never met
<br />
Soon they will...Snap. Crackle. Pop...
<br />A bone every hour!
</strong>
</p>
<p>
Remembered a case in 1997 with victims lured this way. In Germany, a woman offered
"subjects" to fellow sadists for a price, and had a soundproof dungeon built in her
basement. She charged a fee to "finish" the victims. I do not remember all the details, but
"Hostel" looked like Disneyland compared to that. It was in the daily newspapers and not on
some conspiracy site...{' '}
</p>
<p>
<strong>
Flayed meat now lays wiggling in pain.
<br />
Crying through lidless drying corneas
<br />
Watching the world slowly fading away
<br />
Exhausted soul at last liberated
<br />
Eludes like a ghost
</strong>
</p>
<p>
In testimonies about ritual abuses, witnesses insisted that many victims were mutilated then
kept conscious the longest possible. The energy gathered is proportional to the suffering
caused.
</p>
<p>Really, the stuff that you wish is a hoax... </p>
<p>
<strong>MARITIME</strong>
</p>
<p>(Patrick)</p>
<p>
While Escapees head to the forests, others decide to board makeshift rafts and head toward
polar lands, sparsely inhabited and bound toward a more temperate climate in a close
future...{' '}
</p>
<p>
<strong>Onward a new thalassocracy</strong>
</p>
<p>
Thalassocracy: When one reigns over a territory that is chiefly maritime, or from a fleet
rather than from land. The last one recorded was L Ron Hubbard's'!
</p>
<p>
<strong>
Uprooted souls sailing off again
<br />
On makeshift vessels, northward we drift
</strong>
</p>
<p>
In the past, multiple people traveled oceans on mere rafts assembled from scratch. However,
most of those vessels where hard to steer, thus many tribal sailors ended in unexpected
places.
</p>
<p>
<strong>
Riding the storm toward the frigid unsettled
<br />
To reclaim those lands of renewal
</strong>
</p>
<p>
As you read this, some people consider settling in areas that used to have a polar climate
but are in the process of thawing.
</p>
<p>
<strong>
First dwellers of the forged landscape
<br />
Turned our backs as their breath froze
<br />
As their temples fell, we radiated away
</strong>
</p>
<p>
All the while, currently settled areas gradually become inhospitable. This also implies
that, in the end, the Escapees will be the only ones to prevail.{' '}
</p>
<p>
<strong>
The Feral, the Skraeling, the unwanted mutts
<br />
They are now dragging the pack
</strong>
<br />
<strong>
The pampered chiefs, they all died off.
<br />
Upon our sighting
</strong>
</p>
<p>Feral: Animals that escaped captivity and returned to the wild, and their descendants.</p>
<p>
Skraeling: Derogative term used by Vikings to dismiss North American Natives, and by
extension whoever reverts to a more primitive lifestyle. However, Vikings were defeated and
fled to Greenland. Without the Skraeking's help, anyone who stayed on the continent died
within a few years. When higher civilizations collapse, people who heavily depend on comfort
and services are the first to go. The less dependent primitive people are much more likely
to carry on.
</p>
<p>
<strong>
Hollowed lands, collapsed all at once.
<br />
Wormed for centuries, accelerated subduction
</strong>
</p>
<p>
The multiple mines and oil wells that men have drilled in the ground have undermined the
structures that normally stabilize Earth's crust. It is the same than removing all tree
stumps and roots from a mountainside; soon you see landslides, and erosion worsens.
Worrying, with the sinkholes multiplication worldwide.
</p>
<p>
Subduction: The process of renewal for Earth's crust. It occurs when a tectonic plate slides
underneath the adjacent one and plunges downward into the magma. It then melts and
incorporates into the mass inside the planet and will eventually re-emerge as lava through
volcanoes.
</p>
<p>
<strong>
The Feral, the Skraeling, the unwanted mutts
<br />
We will raise our flags on newly emerged lands
<br />
New world waiting for names
<br />
As the old world conveyed down.
</strong>
</p>
<p>
If you understood how subduction works, the "conveyed down" part is downright scary!
Moreover, if very ancient civilizations have existed, their remains were probably still
visible when their land sank down to Hell.
</p>
<p>
<strong>MESSAGE SONORE</strong>
</p>
<p>
Since this song is instrumental, let's talk instruments a bit: A great matter of pride for
us (especially me) is the fact that all strings instruments used on "Illusive Golden Age'
'were built locally. The oldest instrument of the three is Forest's bass, conceived in the
mid-90 by Michel Fournelle and built by Jacques Simoneau. Since then, lefty six strings were
not a thing, so it spent years on display at MF's store until Forest acquired it in the
early 2000's. It has a koa top, all active circuitry and a rosewood fingerboard. Forest's
fretless bass is exactly the same build from Jacques Simoneau. He also owns another
six-strings built by Marc Chicoine and a Fender Jazz Bass.
</p>
<p>
Our second oldest instrument is Mathieu's guitar (built around 2002). After I tried a guitar
built by Marc Chicoine, I recommended him to Mat. The guitar is made of mahogany with a
maple top, and has a maple neck with a bubinga ply in the middle. This guitar the only
instrument Mat ever used with Augury, save for some clean in studio. Mat uses chiefly 13-56
strings but prefers to switch the sixth strings for a .62. or a .64. He also owns a Fender
Strat and a...Danelectro!
</p>
<p>
I am a luthier and I built my own guitar around 2008, completed it in 2010. It is made
entirely of African Paddauk, save for the ebony fingerboard. I was already doing repairs,
but a friend of mine pushed me to start my business after failing to find fanned frets and
8-strings in stores. So my very first instrument in 2005 was a 8-strings, long before I
actually saw one from the industry in person! My personal guitar was like the tenth I built.
I have since built another one adapted for the live shows while I will keep the orange one
for recordings. It is simply a downscaled RR with fanned frets 24.5" bass, 24" treble. I
have to stick to very short scales due to articular problems. I was able to put the action
very low (thus to avoid up-pitch from fretting) by using ultra huge strings:
12-16-24w-44-56-76 for low B tuning. This enabled me to use shorter scales.
</p>
<p>
All our guitars a fitted with EMG's and we removed all circuitry from them, save for the
volume potentiometer. The difference in gain was visible onscreen when we did that move in
the studio while recording "Fragmentary...". Our studio sound is mostly Peavey with some
engineering tinkering. For live, we used either 5150's or Rectifiers over the years, both
driven from an old Boss GX-700!
</p>
<p>
<strong>PARALLEL BIOSPHERES </strong>
</p>
<p>
Everybody heard about parallel universes, where different timelines could occupy the same
space unbeknownst to each other; a bit as if multiple radio frequencies fill the air but you
only perceive one at a time, when a device is set to that specific frequency. It is a bit
the same with life on Earth. We share this planet with multiple species yet a lot of them
were non-existent to us until recently. When I was a kid, people laughed at me for believing
in giant squids. Not only did we prove their existence, but also we found that they could
grow even bigger than the sizes we though were impossible. There are, not only creatures,
but also full ecosystems that we just found in place where we though there was nothing. I
read claims that that most cryptids (Bigfoot, sea monsters etc.) actually exist, but that
science kept it a secret to avoid people from wiping them out. To illustrate this, the movie
"Jaws" alone is responsible for the decline of the Great White Shark... Pete Benchley openly
regretted writing it on his deathbed...
</p>
<p>
Finally, if full ecosystems exist on this planet out of our knowledge, the possibility
exists that other societies share it with us secretly, or that indeed unknown civilizations
preceded us. Alignments of monuments follow what seem to be previous equators (the Earth's
axis supposedly tilted a few times), there are hint about the use of telluric forces in the
past; and we start to find more and more ruins that do not fit with official history.
Moreover, add to that all the stories about Agartha or inner Earth people. The possibility
remains. If you find it too far-fetched, remember that there are uncontacted tribes who
think that we do not exist. Western world and its technology are mere legends to them, and
they surely do not believe in the 8 billion of other human being the same way some people do
not believe in UFO's. Occasionally, a hunter spots a plane in a distance and reports it to
his village. Then the others tell him to quit drugs...
</p>
<p>
<strong>Indistinct shapes stir the fog, a pounding gait heaves the ground</strong>
<br />
<strong>
The eyes in the forest, they have seen you
<br />
But you've seen nothing as they frolic out of view
</strong>
</p>
<p>
Ordinary people who venture in the wild spot only a tiny part of the animals living there,
even when it comes to very common creatures. Even dead ones are hard to find. Nature is so
efficient at cleaning itself that, out of all the large creatures that die every year, we
find very few carcasses.
</p>
<p>
<strong>
Meet the ghost of creations past
<br />
Epiphytes clutching to the tree of life
<br />
As the undiscovered calls
</strong>
</p>
<p>
Epiphyte: Plant that parasites another one and grows from its trunk. Some people really
believe that humankind has a secret parasitic twin... For the most part, cryptids are the
last survivors of species that we believed extinct. However, other "extinct" species were
found and revealed to be thriving, such as the coelacanth.
</p>
<p>
<strong>
Strange lights scamper and vanish
<br />
Behold the orbs
</strong>
</p>
<p>
I was a resident teacher in Native community in 2001-2002 and there I met old aboriginal
women who spoke through translators and never watched TV. They talked about orbs of light
zigzagging through the woods, as well as tiny people whom only children could see, and many
other things that mirrors similar stories elsewhere... One invited me to a remote part where
she found a giant humanlike footprint. I kept it short but I could write a full album worth
of lyrics only with what those people told me...
</p>
<p>
<strong>
Hidden in the landscape, miles wide patterns, the fifteen equators of telluric might
</strong>
</p>
<p>
There are many theories about those ancient monuments forming giant drawings on the face of
the Earth, a bit like some sort of energy grid that would have been the Ancient's power
plants. Some of those lines actually follow the former equators. Near the Nazca lines, there
are mountaintops shaved flat like with a laser, and drawings much bigger than the ones
everyone know.
</p>
<p>
<strong>
Indistinct shapes stir the fog
<br />
A pounding gait heaves the ground
<br />
The eyes in the forest, they have seen you
<br />
But you've seen nothing as they frolic out of view
<br />
Alamasti! Yateveo!
</strong>
</p>
<p>Alamasti: Name of Bigfoot-like creatures in Central-Asia</p>
<p>
Yateveo: (Central-African dialect for "I have seen you!") Giant carnivorous plant in African
folklore. A bit like a man-eating tree adorned with multiple eyes, hence the name. Two
examples of legendary forest creatures believed to spy on humans.
</p>
<p>
<strong>
Read the subplots of natural history
<br />
See filigrees behind the picture
<br />
Behold the bestiary of the empire beneath.
</strong>
</p>
<p>
If real, those creatures are mere glimpse of much more complex ecosystems that thrive out of
our reach and knowledge. Some assume that a few might simply be vagrants from an underground
biotope. (Vagrant: Creature found outside of its species' normal range).
</p>
<p>
Finally, humans who live as hermits in the forests are often mistaken for supernatural
creatures, which connects to...
</p>
<p>
<strong>ANCHORITE</strong>
</p>
<p>
Anchorites were hermits who were pronounced "dead to the world" and walled up alone inside a
cell attached to a church. Through a small opening, they traded food for spiritual guidance.
This is the one text where I can identify a direct inspiration from a specific piece of
work, namely the God of the Grove in Anne Rice's novels.{' '}
</p>
<p>
<strong>
We are where the wandering ends
<br />
Where the inner compass points down
<br />
This old tree, with a pit under the roots.
<br />
Spotting makeshift stairs going down
</strong>
</p>
<p>
Some trees had a hollow cavity underneath; people often believed them to be inhabited by
mysterious entities...
</p>
<p>
<strong>
Senses the oracle in wait for a seeker
<br />
Anchorites sealed in their ground
<br />
Prometheus from the bogs
<br />
Whose spirits talk to pilgrims
<br />
Anchorites sealed in their ground
</strong>
</p>
<p>
Such an ascetic life take its toll and soon the knowledge has to be transferred. Another
vehicle is required to portray the oracle.
</p>
<p>
<strong>
The voice that once whispered in their minds now fades away.
<br />
Devoted his last breath to welcome the successor...
</strong>
</p>
<p>Once the message transmitted, the channel closes down.</p>
<p>
<strong>Digging. Worming downward the warren</strong>
</p>
<p>
A warren is a network of connecting burrows. While most are the work of small animals and
are rather tight, some are spacious enough to shelter crawling humans.
</p>
<p>
<strong>
Overhead, an emerald cathedral
<br />
Hermitage in digging, self-burial
<br />
The roots culminating to a nave
</strong>
</p>
<p>
Human burrowers enlarge the cavity they live in, revealing moss covered rootsthat support a
layer of earth as ceiling.
</p>
<p>
<strong>
Heirloom passed down
<br />
To the one who will voice the tree
</strong>
</p>
<p>
Newcomers assume their position. Like church anchorites, they will whisper advice through
the mass of roots. Seekers bring food and other goods, under the guise of a sacrifice
offered to the oracle.{' '}
</p>
<p>
<strong>
Anchorite in an emerald cathedral
<br />
No longer, set to animate flesh
<br />
Anchorite at last falls asleep, and becomes wood
</strong>
</p>
<p>
Once their duty completed, the withering veterans withdraw deeper underground to die and
their remains are absorbed into the trees. As society crumbles, clueless exiles swarm the
woods and survivors start forming communities. Occasionally, a few individuals come back
from a stroll in the forest with unusual insight. The story goes on... {' '}
</p>
<p>
<strong>Appendix (not the one in your guts).</strong>
</p>
<p>
Lyrical contexts and details from previous albums: Many songs on Illusive Golden Age are
further developments or other facets of the topics already addressed in our early works.
While not necessarily linked by a narrative, they are indeed connected and supply additional
bits in the puzzle.
</p>
<p>
<strong>Concealed **</strong>(<strong>2004</strong>)**
</p>
<p>
<strong>Beatus: </strong>When we first started Augury, I was kind of an honorary member
since I lived far away North in a Native community and came to Montreal like once a month
while Mat sough people to complete the line-up. There I was an elementary teacher. Many
locals told me about their time in residential schools and I moved on to search about the
history of what we could call an attempt at secret genocide. When France yielded Canada to
England in 1763, during the Loyalist exodus in 1783, after the Patriot revolt of the 1830's
and finally when England grew tired of its leftover colonies and encouraged them to merge in
1867 (to form the modern version of Canada), there were attempts to turn the obtained
territories into "England 2.0". Problem was, when they first arrived, the local population
was overwhelmingly French and the former regime had cooperated with Natives on a near equal
basis and had not attempted to get rid of them or to reduce their numbers. There was lots of
work to do.
</p>
<p>
The struggle to rid the colony of French people did not turn the expected way since we are
still about a quarter of Canadians and 80% of Quebeckers. This fact alone once fueled all
the politic turmoil you hear about my home turf. Natives got it much harder, even though
there were no mass killings like those that occurred elsewhere in the Americas. Forced
displacement onto barren lands, destruction of food sources, contaminated garments and
others means were used, but the most blatant official maneuver was entitled "Kill the Indian
within the child". The MacDonald government decided to cut value transmissions by forcefully
removing toddlers from their families and send them into remote boarding schools for up to
six years, until they forgot everything and were unable to communicate with the previous
generation (they also told both parties that the other had died to prevent attempts to
re-establish contact). So multiple kids were violently hunted down and abducted, and they
were submitted to unspeakable abuse at the hand of clergymen (and those who bent for "fresh
meat" often were sent there). After a few years, kids who were not properly brainwashed got
a "little extra" in their food or no food at all, and a lot committed suicide. Some of those
schools recently revealed to have many, many little bodies buried under their yard.
</p>
<p>
<strong>...ever know peace again</strong>
</p>
<p>
A primal war call against imperialism. The first (and simplest) time that I addressed that
topic... Someone is kind of turning the planet into a gigantic work camp.
</p>
<p>
<strong>Cosmic Migration</strong>
</p>
<p>
We were lead to believe that human souls could only communicate through the senses of the
bodies they inhabit (unless, of course, you are dead). My personal belief is that they can
do so during dreams or astral planes, and that spirits can migrate in masse between
civilizations and universes. Shamans (or people like Edgar Cayce) were able to perceive
messages coming from what is nothing else than disincarnate people. Cayce though that
American spirits were the reincarnation of Atlantean ones simply carrying on a task that
they had started millennia ago. The idea of early human knowledge transmitted telepathically
from previous civilizations is a plausible thing if you believe in the above.
</p>
<p>
<strong>Nocebo</strong>
</p>
<p>
Everyone knows the placebo effect i.e. a person given a fake drugs will heal from
autosuggestion. Mat told me about the Nocebo effect and I made further researches about it.
It's the opposite of a placebo, meaning that a person's wellbeing could equally collapse
under autosuggestion; it's pretty much an explanation behind the principle of throwing a
curse onto someone. The lyrics assume that society automatically applies a nocebo effect
unto us in order to increase our dependency on authorities, overall consumption etc....
</p>
<p>
<strong>Alien Shores</strong>
</p>
<p>
I grew up with occult literature and had books about ancient civilizations and Atlantis even
before I learned to whistle or kick a ball properly. I gave up on that as I got older until
another student in university shown me pics of a mysterious underwater structure near Japan,
and multiple others from elsewhere. There were close-ups of very intricate details, and I
did not know that the next time I would see images that clear would be 20 years later (on
"Ancient Aliens"!!!!) All the images I saw of it in between were muddy or over simplistic;
worse: The BBC devoted a full special show to debunkers (who called the ruins bullshit) and
implied that people interested into them were Nazis. I once shown a photocopy of the initial
pictures to one of my teachers: He angrily went "what do they wait to blow up that damn
thing?" Of all the conspiracy theories that I studied, the one about more advanced
civilizations preceding ours long in the past is probably the one that got most of the
recent debunking budget. In 2015, I met a retired Portuguese soldier. Upon learning that I
taught history, he told me about one of his missions during the mid-late 80's: Circling the
Azores Island with a destroyer to prevent anyone from diving or operating a sonar in some
spots. The government was in total panic over some pyramids found at the bottom, and rushed
to dynamite and bury them. It was the most absolute top-secret operation he partook.
</p>
<p>
<strong>...in Russian dolls universes</strong>
</p>
<p>
IRDU was the very first song that we assembled as Augury and I got lyrics inspiration from
my job. Before they assigned me back to history, I taught science and we often talked about
the similarities between a solar system and an atom. I joked with my students about the fact
that our world could be a simple molecule in a much bigger creature, or each molecule in
matter is a universe by itself. Some scenes from Men in Black 2 actually inspired me (like
the "people in the locker"...). Finally, the song implies that the whole universe operates
by cycles and that nothing is eternal.
</p>
<p>
<strong>Becoming God</strong>
</p>
<p>
It is a take on the Ancient Aliens theory: Those were living beings deified by the primitive
humans they tried to upgrade. I wrote the song from the perspective of the long gone Aliens
who had returned and expressed disappointment at their creation. Indeed, we still carry on
with primitive reflexes while reaching summits in technology; resulting in the demise of the
Eden that we've been granted. I kept the lyrics vague enough so we could use them in other
settings, such as colonists trying to civilize primitive people who deified them, and then
find that those soon returned to savagery...
</p>
<p>
<strong>The Lair of Purity</strong>
</p>
<p>
This is actually a "thank you " song toward someone who saved me. For the second half of the
90's, my life was in a total downfall. Among others bad news, doctors had said that I would
not make it past my mid-30's (as I type this, I just turned 48). Indeed, I was sick very
often and found it hard to stand up on some days. During the worst period then, a former
love interest of mine kept calling me every morning to cheer me up and give me a boost and
that out of pure kindness. If you can read me now, it is a bit thanks to her...
</p>
<p>
<strong>From Eden estranged...</strong>
</p>
<p>
The swell volume solo over acoustic in the middle is the very first thing that Mat and I
played together. It was loooooooooooooong ago!
</p>
<p>
<strong>...as sea devours land.</strong>
</p>
<p>
It is an old composition by Mat, and I was infuriated because his former band went on to
record a very lame version of this song without him. They actually just dropped his parts
altogether and kept only the solos from the other guitar player, and played the riffs
(badly) in a difference sequence. Funny fact: Arianne appeared on both versions since she
was also in that band. The lyrics here are about the fact that civilizations are
periodically set drawn back by cataclysms, in this case a polar shift like the one that
supposedly sunk Atlantis. In the meantime, I found out that civilizations did not even need
such catastrophe to revert to primitivism. Human stupidity suffices enough...
</p>
<p>
<strong>Fragmentary Evidence (2009)</strong>
</p>
<p>
<strong>Aetheral</strong>
</p>
<p>
Various army corps around the world genuinely studied paranormal psychic powers. For
example, the US Navy tested on soldiers with telepathic abilities. Pushing the concept
further, I imagined a secret agency specialized in spotting and recruiting people able to
leave their body on astral projections and use them to spy on people. If the target senses
them, they pretend to be ghosts. The agents live sequestrated on very remote bases concealed
within mountains. They vanished at a very young age, and will never see their relatives
again; they simply ceased to exist as citizens...
</p>
<p>
<strong>Simian Cattle</strong>
</p>
<p>
Quite a recurrent topic is how our leaders look down at us as farm animals to make
profitable. This specific song deals with the conditioning applied today unto us to make us
productive and obedient. Fashion, ambition and others steer us the desired way and incite
expected behavior. Obligate consumption has become the new slavery, the people who try to
escape this face social rejection, and those who are efficient at warning others, well,
disappear. We are conditioned to act a specific way, and whoever farms us rarely intervenes
directly, our fellow cattle heads do the watching on their behalf...
</p>
<p>
<strong>Orphans of Living</strong>
</p>
<p>
This song deals with the phenomenon of "child-soldiers" who are taken away from their
families and brainwashed into becoming killing machines. Terrorists nowadays use drugs and
shock therapy, but other instances in the past were much more refined. You could go and read
about Lebensborn again, or even darker examples such as China Lake or Duplessis' Orphans in
my own Quebec...
</p>
<p>
<strong>Jupiter to Ignite.</strong>
</p>
<p>
For this one, the expression "far-fetched" is an understatement. Around 1998, I saw weird
images on the Internet. In some old European historical boroughs, people had snapped
pictures of strange stelas inserted in lieu of the bricks or slabs that were normally there
the previous day. The images were hard to see, but described as a map of the Solar System
with one big twist: The planet Jupiter looked like a small star and appeared much bigger
than usual. Those stelas disappeared within days or turned blank by themselves. That was the
only time I ever heard about them. The previous year, I had read that comet Shoemaker-Levi
hitting Jupiter was actually an orchestrated attempt to add mass to this planet. Jupiter is
thought to be made of hydrogen and helium exactly like the Sun; it just doesn't have the
proper mass to compress the helium inside and have it ignite like the gas mix in a diesel
engine (which explodes by virtue of compression and doesn't require a spark plug). And the
year before, I had watched the movie "2010" (a sequel to "2001: A space odyssey"). At the
end of that flick, Jupiter turns into a star, making our system a binary one and turning
Jovian satellites into a mini solar system of its own (with most of them becoming
inhabitable, save for Europe that already harbors life and that remains off-limits to
humankind.) My mind made "1+1=2" and I woke up with that story about the elite building its
own little private solar system and preparing to abandon us down here...
</p>
<p>
<strong>Sovereign Unknown</strong>
</p>
<p>
Live, I jokingly refers to this song as "Operation Highjump: The Musical"!!! Well... That's
exactly what it is!!! I read tons of books about the Bermuda Triangle, and one written by
Charles Berlitz talked about Admiral Byrd flying solo through Antarctica with his radio
description broadcasted elsewhere in the world. According to the story, he reached a secret
temperate area hidden there where some ultra-civilized people greeted him. Of course, the
broadcast stopped fast. Fast-forward to post WWII: Byrd returned to Antarctica leading
a huge military expedition. From then accounts vary, but all point at the fact that his
party got destroyed and only a handful returned home with no provable details about what
caused such a demise. I simply wrote the song from the perspective of the beings he met
there...
</p>
<p>
<strong>Skyless</strong>
</p>
<p>
Another story that fascinated me as a kid was about the green children of Banjo, Spain (and
similar ones, or other versions were reported from other areas). The common elements go as
follow: A mountainside crumbles, revealing a cave system inside that collapsed and is no
longer reachable. In the main story, two children (a boy and a girl, usually siblings) with
greenish complexion survived in what is left of the cave. They fear the sun, visibly exposed
to it for the first time. The boy dies, the girls grow up enough to learn the language and
tell her story: Their people live "in a land with no sky", with only a rocky ceiling
everywhere and indeed an earthquake estranged them. In the meantime, I read about whole
communities in Turkey who lived permanently underground 10 000 years ago, Hopis and
Navajos referring to ‘Ant People" who temporarily sheltered them underground during a
cataclysm and many others. But this probably the least addressed topic I ever read about and
one of the most laughed at...
</p>
<p>
<strong>Faith Pupeteers</strong>
</p>
<p>
Actually a very old song from the late 80's, I am reluctant to let great music vanish in
oblivion. The instrumental part before the end was actually written by Forest. Continuing
where "Simian Cattle" left, this song is about how psychic vampires rule the world, and how
they started to condition and control their flock using our appetites, emotions and devotion
to trigger the desired behavior. It's a bit like fishing: If a bait doesn't work, you try
another one. The tackle box includes religion, sexual attraction, worship of useless or
fictive public figures and many others, this time those schemes are linked to chivalry and
hereditary command.
</p>
<p>
<strong>Brimstone Landscape</strong>
</p>
<p>
I wrote this song after waking up heartbroken from a very vivid and traumatizing nightmare.
In it, my friends and I got intercepted by some militia and arrested. Then they sent us to
some barren quarry with smoke coming out of the ground. I remember a guard taunting me; He
took me to the top of a pile of rubbish and shown me that the land was bare as far as eye
could see, in an area normally very forested. He flatly told me that all life and habitats
on Earth got the treatment all at once, and that all of humankind had been conscripted to
forced labor like us in order to speed up the takeover. Having the planet deliberatly turned
into a wasteland hit me much harder than my own predicament in my dream. I remember dreaming
about makeshift hot air balloons to escape...
</p>
<p>
<strong>Oversee the Rebirth</strong>
</p>
<p>
A bit of a sequel to "...as sea devours land", this one deals with the task of rebuilding
civilization following a polar shift where much of today's inhabited lands disappeared
underwater. Therefore, you have members of the new humanity sailing and throwing nets over
what used to be their lands. They are stuck to live on areas that they first knew as
mountaintops and have to adapt at settling areas that used to be barren but are now bound
for a more hospitable climate since sea level rose, lowering their relative altitude in the
process. Problem: Those areas have accumulated no fertile soil yet, and most accessories
required to rebuild civilization are out of reach, at great depths....
</p>
<p>
<strong>Overall view</strong>: Do not take your civilization as granted. There are multiple
examples where the safety, comfort, equality and openness that we knew have existed but
eventually disappeared. Keeping common people at the bottom seems to be a mainstay in our
elite's agenda. One striking example: Around 1500, China destroyed the most magnificent
commercial fleet that ever existed (the "Treasure Fleet") and ceased all international
trade, and that at the request of Nobility. The country's prosperity had also enabled poor
people to become wealthy and to acquire luxury goods, thus blurring visible social divides.
Nobles didn't hesitate a single second to send their land back into misery in order to
secure the exclusivity of their privileges. Believe me, they were not the last ones to do
so...
</p>
<p>
<strong>
Big high fives and hugs to my bandmates Mat, Forest and Antoine, and to my wife Sylvie for
putting up with my antics. A big thank you to the dozens of individuals who provided me
with information and support. Thanks to{' '}
<a href="https://coryd.dev" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">
Cory Dransfeldt
</a>{' '}
for helping me editing this! Hail!!
</strong>
</p>
</div>
)
}