The inspiration for my song, Diana (Live), which is on KIVA’s first album, The Healing Art, was from being a fan of the Robin of Sherwood series and their idea of a hunter god of the forest (Hearn) and there being a song about him by Clannad. So, I thought there should be a song about a huntress of the forest (Diana). I went about writing it and sang of Diana as the hunter because that felt right at the time.
I worked with my bandmate, Diana McFadden, giving her the guitar arpeggio that starts the song and she came up with the wonderful lead parts. I also came up with the drum rhythm that is used in this song. This live recording was made at the swan-song final performance of the band that I and Diana were in called Pomegranate and was mostly channeled (musicians call it jamming) at the Rites of Spring Festival of that year (I am pretty sure it was in 1989).
I say that it was channeled because when I sing about goddesses, I invite them into the space as a priestess to bring their (specifically) beneficent energy to share and to honor them. The performance space at Rites was filled with what seemed like hundreds of people (I don’t know the number but it was a lot of people) and the song came through all of us on the stage and it was a magical experience for all (based on the feedback that we got that night and later).
Diana was recorded on a 4-track recorder by someone in the local community and he gave us the recording to use. I and my sound engineer (Jim Jacobsen) did our best to produce the live recording into something that could be put on the same recording as our studio recordings. The studio was all analog (not digital) in the 1980s and early 1990s and the live version of Diana was released on KIVA’s first album called The Healing Art.
She is the hunter, the hunter
She is the hunter, the hunter
Diana
The hunter
Diana
The hunter
(repeat)
Through starlight sky and moonlit wood
She is the hunter
In haunted eyes and starlit skies
She is the hunter
Diana
Wild Diana
Child Diana
Come light my heart
(repeat)
We hear your call
Come join us all
In bonfire light we dance the nightDiana
Diana
She is the hunter… the hunter (repeat)
Diana, Diana, Diana“Diana (The Hunter)”, by Ariana Lightningstorm ©1988
This song felt like an emotional and energetic release for me because I was singing harmony parts a lot of the time in Pomegranate except for when we were doing my own songs. This song came roaring out of me, fierce and powerful. The experience of singing it at Rites of Spring was magical and one of the rare times that everything came together with very little practice. Everyone was so connected.
It was bittersweet as that was the last performance and Diana and I had been informed by Pomegranate’s leader that same day that she was no longer going to have any of us in the band and may or may not continue the band in the future. There was only one other time that my band, KIVA, got a magical live recording like this and that’s when KIVA recorded our album – Live at the Forest Inn. The most magical recording that day was our final song written mostly by Amikaeyla, with a a verse by myself and another by Diana Sunday called Go Now – a story for another time.
The following day after doing this performance, I joined the women’s sweat lodge and in the lodge with my prayers and to the women there I asked if I should continue doing music and what was the path ahead since Pomegranate was now done (for me). The resounding answer from the women and spirit was that I should start my own band and thus KIVA was born. Even though I had not said anything about starting a new band, on the next day 2 different women said that if I was starting a band that they would like to join that band.
So, in part, the song called Diana set the stage for me to move forward and start my band, KIVA, which has lasted 35 years so far.
Diana’s blessings, Ariana Lightningstorm
For more information about Ariana, including her collected articles here on Pagan Song, her bio, and links to KIVA’s and Ariana’s sites on the web, check out Ariana’s page on Pagan Song.
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