The Source - The Untold Story of Father Yod, Ya Ho Wa 13 and the Source Family

Review of Isis Aquarian's extraordinary book and CD chronicling the life and times of Jim Baker aka Father Yod, aka Yahowha and his Source Family commune, restaurant and psychedelic band in early 70's Los Angeles.

I've been a fan of the Source family story for many years, since discovering their 13-CD box set God and Hair on Captain Trip Records. But I never really knew all that much about the group or their spiritual father, Yahowha also known as Father Yod, Jim Baker and many other names. When I discovered that Isis Aquarian had finally written and compiled a full-length book chronicling the LA communes' story, my interest was piqued.

For those unfamiliar with the group, let me start with a brief recap. Jim Baker was originally a decorated marine and Judo champion who left his first left behind to head for LA and a tryout for the movie role of Tarzan. Not getting the part, we went on to join LA's proto-hippie group The Nature Boys and later went on to start a number of very successful health food restaurants, allegedly funded by bank robberies.

Thanks to his success as a restauraunter, Baker became something of a local celebrity in LA. Along the way he killed a few people with Judo in self-defense and was forced to register his hands as lethal weapons. He eventually took up with the Sikh guru Yogi Bhagan. Baker's last restaurant was The Source. This healthy haunt was the toast of the town amongst the in-crowd and regularly served food to a who's who of Hollywood notables including regular diner John Lennon. The restaurant also featured in Annie Hall's breakup scene.

Although staffed and frequented by hippies, The Source was uncharacteristically clean and profitable - it was featured in Time Magazine as the most profitable restaurant in the country per square foot. It was a profitable venture! At one point Baker licensed their famous salad dressing to a manufacturer, and the dressing is actually still on the market to this day under the name Cardini's Lemon Herb dressing.

Baker's devotion to his guru Yogi Bhagan led him to start Sunday meditation classes at The Source. These wildly popular classes eventually blossomed into a Source-funded commune based out of a few mansion in the Hollywood Hills. Father Yod was born, leader to a group of spiritual 'children' around 160 in number.

This was no ordinary monastic group, though. The group was young and beautiful, lived and dressed in style. Father himself drove a Rolls-Royce and often threw off his robes in favor of a slick tailor-made white suit. 'Sacred herb', 'sacred snow' and 'sacred mushrooms' flowed relatively freely. Sex, albeit of the Tantric variety, was central to the group - Bhagan eventually noted that Father was stuck in the root chakra - and Father himself took many wives and consorts, most old enough to be his grandchildren. Wild times!

The spiritual path that the Source family followed was Father's unique synthesis of the Eastern teachings he'd learned from Yogi Bhagan along with occult teachings of Manley P. Hall, a health dose of Crowleyian thelemic magic, neo-Egyptian occultism - an everything but the kitchen sink approach that apparently served the group well. A goddess-centered group, Father placed women at the highest level within the group and created a council of women to confer with on matters of group importance.

The Source family not surprisingly was home to many talented musicians, which led Father towards the formation of a number of first rate psyche and psyche-folk groups. Searing psyche lead guitars wove their way around Yod's inspired improv vocals creating a magical music that holds up to this day. That wealth of music, originally released on vanity vinyl and sold through The Source, led to the aforementioned 13-CD box set which came into existence thanks to Sky Saxon, who himself was an on-again off-again member of the Source Family. Much more music than was there released was originally recorded , much of it lost, though some other albums have been subsequently released.

Like most communes, The Source eventually got a little too far-out for its own good: diseases went untreated by conventional medicine and the group drew attention to itself; Father chose many names for himself over the years - Yod, Yahowha, Yahowhaho - and had all of the group members legally change their first names to specially chosen names and their last names to Aquarian; Yod began to have visions of a coming apocalypse and moved the group from the safe haven of LA to a very unwelcoming Hawaii. From there the group began to slowly unravel and many subsequent moves were undertaken in search of a new home - San Francisco, back to Hawaii, then an epic worldwide journey through Egypt, Nepal, etc. Finally Father died in a hang-gliding accident in Hawaii and the group slowly fell apart, not to be heard from again until the 21st century, when a resurgence of interest in the group was caused by the God and Hair box.

The Source book tells the whole story in excellent detail - from Baker's pre-commune background, to the Commune's founding and salad days, eventual downfall and picking up the pieces in recent years. Narrated by Isis Aquarian, with contributions from group members sharing their takes and stories, the book successfully manages to show all sides of the story from utterly devout to critical in retrospect. But the larger story painted from both insiders and outsiders, surprisingly, is of a very successful, peaceful group that contributed to society and their own education as people and spiritual seekers. A group that looks back with love on their Source days. And of a leader that had unquestionable charisma, seemingly noble intentions, held women in the highest regard, and a measure of spiritual greatness.

The book is illustrated with menus, religious decrees from Yod himself and a wealth of full-color and black-and-white photos that show off the stunning beauty and unabashed sexiness of the Source ladies with their low-cut robes and long luscious legs. One gets a sense of the uniquely wealth living quarters and the magic of the era.

Included is a wonderful CD of various unreleased audio delights including chanting, radio interviews, live performances and a healthy dose of Yahowha himself. As good a collection as this is, it's no replacement for the full 13-CD God and Hair set which is well worth checking out if the Source book and accompanying CD leave you curious. As well there are a number of other releases now available on CD and vinyl, a cheaper redux-version of God and Hair and a DVD which I have not yet had the pleasure of seeing but is probably another excellent Source resource.

This book has a wide appeal - of great interest to anyone fascinated with LA, the sixties/seventies, intentional communities, occult groups, psychedelic music, alternative sexual communities, or just the wide wonderful weird and wacky world of human experience. Over the course of the book, sensitive, romantic souls will come to wish they could have been a part of the Source family experience. Thanks to Isis Aquarian for insisting from the start, against Yod's original wishes, to document the group's life and now bring us this wonderful glimpse into the Source family's colorful history.

http://yahowha.org/

Gordon B. Isnor