by Robert Phoenix
Being a mother, mystic and musician is no easy feat. Just ask Eda Maxym, founder and front woman for the world music, sacred groove, rock outfit, The Imagination Club. “As any parent knows,” begins Maxym, “especially if they are involved in any creative endeavor that demands some time to oneself to enter into the deeper spaces of inspiration in order to be able to listen to the ‘Muse’ balancing the time and energy demands of parenting with my writing and performing music has been very challenging.”

Maxym flirted with her role as a singer/songwriter in her teens, but it wasn’t until much later that she fully embraced it with conviction as she led the critically acclaimed world fusion/folk rock group, The Beasts Of Paradise. The Beasts were fueled by Maxym’s sensual lyricism and seductive vocals, which often conveyed a sense of urgency at the state of the world. While she held down fronting “The Beasts,” she also performed and sang with Trance Mission, an acclaimed Bay Area group which featured the didgeridoo playing of her husband, Stephen Kent, widely recognized as one of the best non-aboriginal didge players on the planet. While in Trance Mission, Maxym explored the contours of sacred grooves and the elements of trance. It’s stayed with her as she blends it all together on The Imagination Club’s eponymous debut, covering songs by Traffic and The Beatles, yet adding exotic world flavors and spatial ambience to rock classics amidst her original material.

When asked about her quest to bring her spiritual life into her daily life and art, Maxym says, “I try to be as present as I can with whoever or whatever I may be with, often making seemingly insignificant moments into little ceremonies.” Working with Huichol elders has helped her integrate the mystical side of her life into it’s practical application. “I have worked very hard on transforming what I have struggled with by doing profound ceremonies for many years with two very wise and wonderful Huichol Medicine People. These ceremonies have been incredibly transformational and have helped me come to understand and know myself in a way that is beyond all the events that have happened in my life.”

Transcending genres and genders, affirming that one can be a mother, a mystic and a musician is an alchemical undertaking that is in some ways a product of our time, where these separate roles are like living three lives at once, practicing multi-dimensionality in the here and now. Staying grounded amidst the process and practice of all three is critical for Maxym, and has opened her up to forces larger than herself. “Becoming a more spiritually aware person has certainly changed me in many ways. It has been very healing and has opened me to a much greater expanse of connectedness to other people and the magic spaces and places in life and in Nature. I am quite sensitive to other people’s emotions and I think I have a greater insight into how to help others and myself with the deeper learning that my spirituality has given me.”

She’s not alone, as a planet of multi-taskers, following the dictates of their spirits do their best to integrate their dreams and inspirations with the responsibility of being a parent and/or a spouse. For Maxym, the process has helped, “clarify and define what is important and true” as she models her many roles to her young daughter, Stella.

Is having it all out of the question? Can we who were raised on the milk of possibility anchor our passion and purpose into one lifetime of expression while honoring the commitments demands of family? It’s a zen koan for our times, but if it could look a certain way for Maxym, it would be a landscape that would embody, “great happiness and ecstatic moments,” that would allow us to “find our humanity and compassion in our every day lives.”

That doesn’t sound to difficult to achieve? Does it?

Go to Eda’s web site at: edamaxym.com