The Principle of Rhythm
(Heikkinen)

This song is based on the Hermetic law of Rhythm. According to the Hermetic philosophy, a divine rhythm is to be found everywhere in the cosmos. Everything is just an eternal dance of birth and death.

It is stated in the song that life is but a brief moment of consciousness, surrounded by oblivion. To quote the poet Algernon Charles Swinburne: “His life is a watch or a vision, between a sleep and a sleep.”

Another useful Hermetic principle to study is the Principle of Polarity. Birth and death are mostly understood as two opposite phenomenas, but in Kybalion it reads that “opposites are identical in nature, but different in degree”. That being said, birth and death should be seen as two extreme ends of the same phenomenon – the phenomenon called life.

In this song you can hear the 7/4 rhythmic pattern. This pattern has a certain symbolic meaning. After that comes the last verse, where it is sung:

“I have seen my own death
Decompression of the self
But above as below
Once again it will be whole”

The key to this verse is the Hermetic principle of Correspondence. “As above, so below”.

In Thelemic context this song can be about finding the inner star and to adore the solar shining within.

Chakra: Anahata
Element: Water
Qabalah: Tiphereth
Taoism: The Taoist Body, Chi, Yin Yang
Thelema: Liber Resh vel Helios
Thoth Tarot: The Wheel of Fortune

Jesse Heikkinen is a 30-year-old musician from Tampere, Finland. He has lived most of his life in the Northern part of the country, where the winters are fierce and dark, and in the summer the sun never sets. Besides being a musician, Heikkinen also teaches the guitar and works with the disabled.

He grew up surrounded by guitars and other instruments, so no wonder that music has always been the main channel for him to express himself. When Heikkinen was a kid, his father used to listen to Electric Light Orchestra, The Beatles and Pink Floyd with him. These bands fed his interest to the universe and the occult already then.

In the last ten years Heikkinen has been touring and making records with so many bands that he can’t even name all of them. There has been everything from children’s music to jazz to prog metal. He has worked as a guitar teacher for nine years now.

Nowadays Heikkinen plays the guitar in such bands as Hexvessel, The Aeon and King Satan. He also has a solo project, Iterum Nata. All of these bands are heavily influenced by the occult, although from totally different perspectives. In 2016 Heikkinen was in a theatre play about Aleister Crowley. He performed in the house band (to be known as The Aeon) and played a small part as Jimmy Page.

After the play Heikkinen moved to Tampere and started to write his own songs, influenced by Crowley’s philosophy, Thelema. That’s how Iterum Nata (latin for “born again”) was born. The first album was really serene and calm and the main theme was how to find the Godhead within. As Crowley puts it: “Every man and every woman is a star”.

The second Iterum Nata album, however, is something totally different. It is more percussive and darker than the first – even manic from time to time. The musical and lyrical themes revolve around the seven Hermetic laws and the dialogue between birth and death. The name of the album, “The Course of Empire”, is a tribute to the American painter, Thomas Cole. The name also suggests that everything happens in a certain course, just like the Hermetic laws allude.

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