Perfect Sound Forever

THE YA HO WA 13 INTERVIEW


Pythias, Sunflower, Djin (September 17, 2001 reunion)
photos courtesy of Source Archives-Isis

by Gary Bearman (Part 3 of 3)

PSF: Related Singles - did anyone from Ya Ho Wa 13 perform on these or are they just bands that Sky Sunlight was involved with? Why is it part of the box set if it's not YHW13? Was it included to make 13 discs?

DJIN: Captain Trip wanted Sunlight originally, and knew nothing about all of the Yahowa music, so Sunlight had to include some of his music to satisfy Captain Trip. We may not put it out that way next time, but include several Ya Ho Wa 13 that are unreleased, keeping the mystic 13 number of unity and love.
 

PSF: Were any Yahowha 13 members playing on the World Peace Band recordings with Sunlight?

DJIN: No. Sunlight actually never sang or played on the same recordings as Father, but he and the other brothers of YHW13 plus Pythias made Wolf Pack, at father's request, which was really good but never got put into vinyl, and I don't know what happened to it. Sunlight's on three of the 13 CD's in the box set which he produced on his own. His picture's on them, and he's talking at the end of Unreleased Material. If it wasn't for Sunlight, none of this would be happening now.
 

PSF: So he was the one primarily behind the box set release?

DJIN: It was Sunlight who was contacted by Captain Trip in Japan, to distribute his music, but he wanted Father's music to finally be heard, as he believes it's the greatest help for humanity. Our brother Damian helped put the package together with him, and Captain Trip went for it. Any of the recordings that were actually produced by Father Yod/YHW13, whether he performed on them or not should definitely be considered in the Yahowha Collection, however several of his "children" have made albums in the spirit and consciousness of YHW since he passed over, and can be considered as the "extended" collection, and that would include what Sky Sunlight Saxon had produced other than Seeds and other rock and roll related to that genre.

OCTAVIUS: Please, no offense intended, just the facts. Sky Saxon, bless his heart, wanted and wants to emulate Father. Sky was the lead singer for a early '70's group called the "Seeds." I saw them a couple times myself - very, very psychedelic. Well, he was as happy as could be when he found us. We were just beginning to do our spontaneous stuff. He was fearless when it came to just jumping in. Let me tell you it is not easy to just step off. He was very willing and wanting to be in that position of channeling wisdom in the music. The rest of us were not quite so eager to be represented by one so young in the ways of it all. Then at some point he and another put together the "box set" which added to and validated his own continuing efforts to be a voice of wisdom. For me it is just not the same. He is a good intentioned person. Yodship, etc. is his own agenda.
 

PSF: In the press release from 1974 in the box set, it says, "there appears in ten year cycles a musical phenomenon that best depicts the age and the times we live in. Yahowa 13 is a culmination, a peaking of meaningful musical expression that has occurred in the past two decades," and, "it's so far ahead of its time that its intensity is jarring to the senses," and, "in a very short time now Yahowa 13 will be the last note to be sounded on the Planet Goddess Earth." When I first read this I thought it was hype and that you guys didn't really mean all that, but you do, don't you? Please say some more about this.

DJIN: Well that's a fat question. Let's see, I can only say what I believe in relation to this, of course, and that is because we played not just spontaneously, many did (The Dead, Coltrane, etc.), but with a vocal message and theme too which was timely, prophetic, and of a much more difficult endeavor musically. We were futuristic. As to the last note sounded on the planet; this may be true the way things are going, but I think we meant for the Piscean age, and that is true in a sense. Sunlight put the box set out just before 9/17 2001, the "pyramidic predicted dawn" of the Aquarian age.

SUNFLOWER: This music will become famous at the time when people need the strong saviors to come forth and provide some stability for the planet. That is when the Sons of Yahowha will be ready to impart the teachings and the healing that is so necessary today. Things will get way "worse" before we see a cleansing of the Planet.
 

PSF: If as you also say in that press release, "periodically there appears in ten year cycles a musical phenomenon that best depicts the age and the times we live in," what was the music that best depicted other ages and times?

SUNFLOWER: From the Roaring '20's to the Big Band era to the Jazz and the Beatnik era to the Beginning of the British Rock, and the Disco of the '70's and the huge touring of the 80's with Kiss and the rest, to the New type of fairly meaningless pabulum of little or no talent today, music has gone through ten year cycles, and we were the top of the Mountain for the '60's and into the '70's.

DJIN: Elvis, early '50's, Beatles, early '60's, yhw13 was the spirit's chiming in with CSNY, eagles and other's, early '70's, disco, '80's, techno '90's and now we're coming into a huge synthesis of it all. I think it's a toss up between CSN and Led Zeppelin for the '70's.
 

PSF: Were the musicians in the band treated in any way special over the other sons and daughters? Were you closer to Father Yod or did you spend more time with him then the others?

SUNFLOWER: No, not other than that we had the time to create as opposed to those that were required to perform other daily duties.

DJIN: We weren't treated special per se, everyone worked equally hard and purposefully and we all supported each other, but there were certain benefits to being at the house more than at the restaurant, one of them being Father was around us more.

OCTAVIUS: I feel that the musicians had the most opportunity to take advantage of the energy. By definition, we are wired for energy. Yes, I was very close to my teacher. I spent a great deal of time with him, sometimes alone. We the band, next to some of the women, were blessed to be around him the most.
 

PSF: Can you share the titles of the 4 additional '70's Ya Ho Wa 13 albums that are coming out?

DJIN: Let's see, Magnificents in the Memory or Pain in the Regret, Requiem for a Jew, The Operetta, Sunshineman, and maybe one more I can't remember.
 

PSF: These are pretty wild titles (although I guess no more wild then Penetration: An Aquarian Symphony and Savage Sons of Ya Ho Wa). Were these albums named at the time they were created or more recently?

DJIN: When we created them.
 

PSF: After you made a recording, were the 65 albums named at that time or only when released?

DJIN: Most at the time of creation.
 

PSF: Did you transfer only the ones that were released at the time onto vinyl, and the rest remained on tape?

DJIN: Yes.
 

PSF: Why were more not released at the time?

DJIN: Too costly, not as easy as today.
 

PSF: Did you play together in the same way at all when you moved to Hawaii?

SUNFLOWER: Yes, but not as much.

DJIN: Not with Father. His interests in the music began to wane. I guess with 65 albums he had said all he intended.
 

PSF: At what point did you all move to Hawaii, and what were the circumstances that led you to do that?

DJIN: Father had been sending scouts all around looking for land for us to really live our Essene lifestyle for several years. We moved to Hawaii in '74 because Hawaii is yawah, yahowha spelled backwards, and we believed it was the garden of Eden set aside for us to return to and reclaim our birthright in the free world.
 

PSF: I had read something about the group getting in trouble with the law, which partially led to the move to Hawaii. Is there any truth to this?

OCTAVIUS: Well it is interesting that question comes up. The reason we went to Hawaii, or shall we say left Los Angeles at this time, was not primarily to build our "dome community." The way we lived was already beyond anything the laws or authorities would allow. The law stated at that time "no more than 5 unrelated people were allowed to live under one roof." Well, we had a few more than that. Not to mention the attention we were already getting, we didn't need anymore. My "angel" (women) in the family and I had a child, "Libra" was her name. When she was an infant, she contracted an infection called "staff." We called it elimination. This is a good place to say that the medical profession is a blessing and should be used wisely. We (I) did not see a doctor about it. Damned foolish on my part. She almost died. When we took her to U.C.L.A. Hospital, they freaked out and called the police right away. One thing led to another, and pretty quickly we got out of town. Can you imagine what it was like in L.A. airport with all of us men, women and babies to arrive and travel to Hawaii??? We scared a lot of people. Imagine trying to do that today - yeah, right! Yes, it was my little girl that inspired us to leave before the "fit hit the shan."

DJIN: There's truth to that partially contributing to our move, however on the plane of spirit the events of the material plane are following the directions already established on the higher. The staff episode just set our intentions into motion without delay.
 

PSF: Tell me more about the passing of Father Yod. In the Captain Trip box set booklet, there is a picture of him lying down on the ground smiling. I have read that he was alive for several hours after the accident before he died. Who was there with him? What was the process like - did he say anything?

ISIS: One of the sons, Mercury, a former Marine and daredevil athlete, decided to go to Oahu to try to break the world record for staying in the air in a hang-glider. Soon, Yahowha and his women followed, to lend moral support and to witness the record being set. Mercury had formed a friendship with a young hang-glider who immediately joined the family as Jupiter when he met Father. Mercury and Jupiter had rented the round house up on the hill in Lanikai as their base of operations, and were happy to have Father and his women move in. The rest of the family was still at the Hilo Country Club. Mercury did set the record, and Yahowha stayed on the ground, watching him for thirteen hours. We stayed in the house in Lanikai for several months until one morning on August 25, 1975, Yahowha announced that he was going hang-gliding off Makapuu cliffs with Mercury! There was no way to stop him, because he had already made up his mind. It was his first and last flight in the physical body.

The hang-glider did not go straight up on the air current as usual. It dived down the cliffs, then steadied and carried Yahowha out over the little bay below and back to land in a beach park. When we drove down to find him, Yahowha was in the bliss and asked "where is that angel that led me down?" Then he went into great pain and unable to move. We carried him back to the house in Lanikai, where he left his earthly body that day at 5:30 PM. He died with his head in Makushla's lap, looking into her eyes. A subsequent autopsy found no cause for death. We kept his body for 3 ½ days, chanting Yod He Vau He ceaselessly as he viewed his life river, and then called the morgue to come pick him up. He was cremated, per his wishes, and twenty years later at our first family re-union we shattered his ashes with Mercury's in Lanikai waters in front of our portal, the sphinx and the pyramid islands.

DJIN: He took 9 hours to leave his body, like Jesus. His last words asked for water, like Jesus. He said that the last thing he had to teach us was how to leave the body consciously. There were his women and several sons with him that day after the hang-glider experience, not a crash. The whole family kept his body for three days so the soul could review its life river, as we chanted in vigils. Then the authorities came and took his body for cremating.

OCTAVIUS: Now quickly I will answer, because I was not personally there. Yahowha had reached a turning point in the family evolution. There comes a point in "Everything" that it reaches the zenith. The fruit is ripe, any more and it will rot! The metaphor was there. Life is not about arriving. You never arrive. Life is movement. We had come to the "TENTH COMMANDMENT." Time to spread the seed, little kiddies. He knew all this, and the experience was starting to change since he moved to Oahu with his "women." Most of us still lived on the island of "Hawaii" in Hilo. Somehow, all the events of the preceding days, in retrospect, made it clear that Yahowha was going to challenge life, fate, destiny. He wanted to fly, so he did. The picture you see is of him dying. He would speak about keeping our focus on the light one moment, and the next moment he would start moaning and growling like an animal in severe pain, and the next he would be teaching, in his breath and calm center. He was teaching till the last moment. His women were all there, and one or two brothers of whom one has passed away already.
 

PSF: It must have been a MAJOR event when he died.

OCTAVIUS: Yes it was major when he died. It was like everyone was in shock. The scales were falling from my eyes as we suddenly had no Sun. Like he would say, "It's time to fly or die, little kiddies," and the tribe started its journey to sort out everything out that had happened. Some people never moved on, still completely protecting the memory of it and making a life of that. Not so different than any big religion. Some people are taking the riches freely given and doing the best they can to continue the journey that he was on. I think it is all very normal evolution, and life is full of these dynamics. There is a proverb about that in the bible, you know the one where the master gives riches to several and comes back a good time later to see the different ways they handled what he had given. For those who buried what he had given to protect the riches, he takes back everything, because they did nothing with what he had given, and then you have the squanderer, and then the one who multiplies what was given to him. It sounds like life to me.
 

PSF: What is your philosophy of what happens after you die? Do you believe that you and Father Yod will be in more of a oneness together when your life here is over?

SUNFLOWER: One can only know that as above so below, as below so above. I believe that I have been many lifetimes in his presence, and that I will continue to be so as his son, and when I leave this body I know that I will see him first and be drawn to him as I was in this life.

DJIN: After you leave the body, you review your life river for learning and atonement. Then you either go to a higher earth more suited to your consciousness, or you return to this one. Yahowha is spirit, the I am, and not to be worshipped as a man, so although there was our personal father, he was merely the voice and expression of that consciousness for us at that time. You may see Yahowha in someone else who can transmit that to you by example and teaching. Father was just the first for this age to stand up in the name.
 

PSF: Do you still have contact with Father Yod in your conscious awareness and/or through dreams and/or other levels of consciousness?

DJIN: I do. I can't say it is the same individuality, but it definitely is the same consciousness.
 

PSF: Did the group stay together for a time after the passing of Father Yod?

DJIN: Yes, we stayed together 2 years after father left the body, then old personalities, insecurities and general lack of vision set in with all the pressures of getting back in step with the "real (degenerate) world."

ISIS: The family immediately fell into disarray, because we had all depended upon Father for everything. The council of women was dissolved into tears and lack of will to function as he had wanted. No one as an individual or a group was strong enough or had the respect, honor, and trust of the whole to lead the family. Makushla, reluctantly took over for a while, leading in Father's stead. She never intended or wanted this role, but was forced by the inaction and disharmony of the council and the family to take charge and keep the family together. It was always hard for the family after we sold the Source and no longer had that perfect avenue of a solid business that was already set up and took care of all of us and our needs, to go out and work for others all in different avenues, and especially after Yahowha left. The daily upkeep and expense of the whole became unbalanced.

 We stayed in Lanikai for awhile, then went to Hilo and brought the family back to Lanikai. We rented several houses on the beach and continued our lifestyle together, with Makushla giving morning meditations and playing the harp for us. Financially, we could not keep going like this. Slowly, the world began to grasp at our shawls and pluck individuals from our midst, back to the lives we had left years ago with flesh families and other responsibilities of life in America. Within two years the whole family dispersed, and we all went our different ways. Some remained together in small groups, a number migrated north to the Love Israel family where some are today. Many of us settled on different Hawaiian islands. Some went to California, and many returned to the states they originated from.
 

PSF: Djin, you speak of the world as being degenerate. What do you mean by that? Do you have it as part of your life goals, philosophies or spiritual direction to uplift the world?

DJIN: We are all caricatures of what we could have been if we'd live for the wisdom instead of the sensation. Yes, to uplift humanity by example only, individually and collectively.
 

PSF: Tell me about the subsequent family reunions.

ISIS: Our First Family re-union was August 25, 1995, twenty years after Father/Yahowha left the body. This 1995 gathering was very intense and wonderful. It was the first time we all gathered, and of course a lot surfaced. A healing was began, but we knew it would take some time. We have all in our own way taken the teachings and what Father left us and applied them, given them to others and held them dear in our continuing journey.

 Damian kept the Source alive by opening the Source Natural Foods in Kailua, Hawaii. It became a watering hole of sorts to keep in touch.
 

PSF: You met again September 17, 2001?

DJIN: The Sept. 17 date is derived from the calculations of the Great Pyramid of Egypt. We had been waiting/preparing for this for some 30 years. This is the age of the Holy Spirit. People will change to the positive and they won't even know why or how. Our music, which is mostly spontaneous, direct from the Source, will help to anchor that vibration.

ISIS: Father 28 years ago always told us to gather Sept. 17th, 2001 at 8.p.m. for curtain call. Back then it sounded like another time frame - 2001? But that is why we did gather, and curtain call means to come together at the end of a play and take your acknowledgment, so we did, and we ended the old play and the new play was started. This was our re-connection and re-uniting. All that we are doing now together sprung from that gathering.
 

PSF: How did the event go?

DJIN: The Hawaii event was magical and eventful and kicked off the remaining family starting to get back together and look for a homeland in Hawaii where people can eventually come and learn and work and serve the whole if they feel the call from within to the Great Name Yahowha.

SUNFLOWER: This was truly a great moment for us to gather after so many years. Everyone and everything who was there was in total harmony. There were signs everywhere of the communication of the Spirit. No negativity, and that is a rare moment in time on this planet.

ISIS: Many came with their families and children, despite the tragedies of Sept.11th. They had the faith and knowing that if ever they were going to connect, this would be the time. Placing fear aside, patiently we waited as the airports were all closed, and there was such joy as slowly but surely all started to come.

 Our Sept. 17th dinner was at a country club deep in a sacred valley in Kailua. The band set up, looked at each other and after 28 years said, "let's do it !" And we rocked. It was wild, and not a beat was missed. We knew that somehow we wanted to be together more than we wanted to be apart.

 The family musicians; Djin, Sunflower, Octavius and Pythias have signed with a music company to re-release and do more music as Ya Ho Wa 13, along with individual artists like Djin with his personal music.

 We are building an Internet website to present Father, the teachings, photos, the music and us in the now. We still have the dream of a communal center with meditation dome, meeting halls and some living space for those that want to keep the home fires burning and anchor the energy for all to be able to come and go. Not everyone wants to leave behind what they have worked so hard to maintain, so we are looking for the balance of having it all with no judgments. Right now land on the Big Island (of Hawaii) is being looked at.

OCTAVIUS: I did not attend the event last year on Oahu, so I can not comment first hand on it. Ever since Jesus died I have not been able to get to Rome. No offense, little kiddies. This of course is in part to do with my life evolving into a full time job - making everything count, especially my time, family, incredible wife, 1 son - 16, 1 daughter - 14, house, land, etc. On one level or another everyone is trying to get through the day in the best way they have access to. My life revolves around what goes on inside my soul. The flames of the furnace of YHVH have grown white hot. My Yahowha and I are one. The seeds that were planted through Yahowha have sprouted into something that is much more than I could ever have imaged-in (imagine). "The higher can see the lower, the lower can not see the higher," "We do not do it." We are led by Grace. Grace is "a gift freely given, undeserved" That is the important part about my life today. And you know too, "No wine is served before it's time."
 

PSF: What do you do for work now?

DJIN: I teach Qabalah, massage, play my songs solo, and with Sky Sunlight Saxon, and if I have to swing a hammer again I do.

SUNFLOWER: I am a builder. I manage large construction projects.

PYTHIAS: I started a more mainstream band in the '80's called "The Law" and played all around L.A. doing hard rock with a few good messages in it, had a lot of fun, but that's when drugs got in the way and we split up after 4 years. I wrote all the songs and taught Peter who was Sir Knight in the family how to play bass for the band. After that, I took a break for a couple of years, then started playing in local bands doing cover tunes. After a few years of doing that I decided I wanted to work on my own music and help my son Yesod with his music. He started playing drums when he was 11 and we were in a band together by the time he was 13. That was the best, playing with my son. I'm now in a band called Magixand, doing more of my music. I love 'love songs.'
 

PSF: Djin & Sunflower, are you married? Do you have kids?

DJIN: Not married in the legal sense - 2 boys, 5 and 7, that come with my soul mate. Their father and I are friends, but he's not in the Yahowha consciousness like my woman Rebecca.

SUNFLOWER: I am single. I do all of the things that I want to, except be a great teacher of the Spirit. I am in a very exciting three piece band and play all over L.A. I have house payments, a new 4-runner, ski, but I still meditate, eat right, chase my tail.

My band is called Fortune. I played with these guys in the early sixties and traveled all over opening for the biggest of the groups that we all know; Doors, Cream, Chicago, Buffalo Springfield, CCR. We are working on the CD.
 

PSF: You speak of the Yahowha consciousness. What does it mean to you to be in this consciousness?

DJIN: Yhahowha is a Hebrew word and it literally means the conjugation of the verb "to be," is, was, will be, or "I am, I was and I will be," so it represents the eternal energy of your soul consciousness. It was this consciousness that revealed itself to the Hebrews, set them free and gave them the 10 commandments, which are the basis of our Western civilization.

SUNFLOWER: Ya (fire) - Ho (water) - Wa (air) - Ho (earth) - all things are comprised of fire, water, air and this creates earth. When you are in the consciousness you are in complete balance and your being is clear and in harmony. You can be open to the limitless flow of the all knowing and stay there through this balance.

OCTAVIUS: I want to say something about the word Yahowha. In some context we refer to our teacher as Yahowha. In some context, Yahowha is the creation spirit itself. The more "the name" is spoken, the more impact it has in your life. Yod He Vau He is "the name." On every exhale and inhale if you can. Keeps you in your breath. So my point is this, it is a strong point too; some folks hold Jim Baker in their minds eye as Yahowha and there is nothing wrong with that. Jim Baker taught others how to see Yod He Vau He in their mind's eye in all things. Remember, remember, it is the wisdom we desire. "Keep thine eye single."
 

PSF: Can many people inhabit this consciousness at the same time, or is it something that is inside of everyone, though perhaps in a dormant state?

DJIN: Dormant only to the intellect which humans possess and need illuminated as the intellect is the doubter and skeptic, but a great power when illummined by spiritual truth. Being subject to polarity, it can be led astray for many lifetimes in the negative. The real work is bringing all of our abilities and potentials into the positive harmonious use of the one will to good, which everyone has to do eventually.

OCTAVIUS: We experience only a very small part of this entire event we call life. The half full part of the glass says to the half empty part, "what's it like over there?" Lao Tsu said, "it is that which is not there that makes the window." When being born, we are given a very big blessing in the possible opportunity to become more than we are and wake up, if we can recognize it as a chance, and turn our emotion about it to devotion about it. Then there exists according to "The Ancient Teachings," a path to being able to change and improve ourselves on a genetic empowerment level, turning on centers of experience so as to be able to know in one lifetime the oneness of the all. To know and feel and see what the Patriarchs of our race knew. To be in the mind of the gods. Really. So, "be here now, so you can be there now." Everything is sequential. Everything builds upon the preceding. Two people sitting next to each other, you cannot tell who is conscious. The difference between conscious and unconscious is "recognition." Moment to moment recognition. All is one. One is all.
 

PSF: Djin, who plays on your Destiny of America CD? Do you play all the instruments? I'm assuming you play guitar. Is it you singing too?

DJIN: That's me singing and playing guitar and some of the percussion along with my friend David Powell on hand drums. They're all my songs, which we recorded live in studio like a show then overdubbed shakers and such.
 

PSF: Are Sky Sunlight Saxon or any other family members involved?

DJIN: Sunlight and I are very close and are always doing stuff together, but he wasn't on any of Destiny, nor any other family members. The family and I are on somewhat of a different path going to the same destination. There isn't any one Voice that can speak or act for the whole group anymore though some would like to think they do.
 

PSF: Tell me something about the spiritual retreat/center you plan on creating - will it be a communal living situation? Do you envision something similar to the lives you had when the family was still together?

DJIN: It will be more like just everyone on they're own, but in the consciousness. Not having been a family for so many years, 26, changes things and the times are different. What we will do will be for you to have a place to come and study and live the teachings for a time and then go out and do your own thing, but changed.
 

PSF: What is your point of view on the events of September 11th?

DJIN: All birth is with fire and blood. The towers were an 11, Aquarius is the 11th sign and our planned reunion on 9/17 was the beginning of the Aquarian age. I took the first American flight out of San Francisco to get to Oahu and it was on my 53rd birthday, which was the same age in earth years Father was when he left his flesh body - extremely significant for me.

SUNFLOWER: The signature to the handwriting on the wall. I have a picture taken on top of the WTC in '98. Being in construction, I thought those towers were the marvel of the World. The shock could have been no greater to realize that finally this country should do something to protect our borders, and still little or nothing has been done.
 

PSF: If you had a message to give to the world, what would it be?

DJIN: To the world? A universal message that everyone needs to hear. We all come from the one, live from the one, and return to the one, so let us live as one, here and now and forever more. All beings being one, one being being all, all is one.

PYTHIAS: My message would be is that we human beings are an experiment created by Yahowha, the universe. So far, we are on a destructive course slowly destroying our race, which we all know there is only one race, the human race. There are a few of us who know we have a higher purpose, and that purpose is to create the Aquarian age, a time when all peoples can live together in peace. It seems that the earth is going through a cleansing, which must be necessary before the new world can begin, so my message is that we live by universal law, cause and effect. If a cause has been started, the effect is assured, so spread more love and more light, and don't be attached to the results.

SUNFLOWER: Put away the toys. The time for play is over. We need to gather the few that will be able to live together in harmony so that our Children can be protected. We are about doing just that.

OCTAVIUS: Awaken, awaken, awaken.


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