Carlos Santana plays the Cruzan Amphitheatre on Aug. 1 with Steve Winwood. (Fadel Senna/AFP/Getty Images)

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Carlos Santana is levitating. He’s talking about gifts from the universe, brain-lulling mantras, relishing the child-like spirit in all beings.

"My feet are not touching the ground. I’m very, very grateful and happy," he says in a voice that sounds sleepy — blissfully sleepy.

He sighs, then:

"We’re in love."

That’s we, as in he and percussionist Cindy Blackman, the foxy, 50-year-old hard-bop drummer best known for performing with Lenny Kravitz. Santana proposed to her three weeks ago while onstage in Chicago. She had just finished a drum solo on “Corazon Espinado”, a languid cha cha about heartache, when he popped the question.

She said yes. Kissed him passionately. Now he levitates.

Note to self: when I grow up, I want to levitate like Santana. Granted, it would be a massive feat for a grounded earth sign like me with more astrological houses in "earth" than Trump has real estate on earth. But to reach Santana’s age, 63 years young, and continue to be greatly inspired creatively, romantically, universally, to the point that one barely touches the ground — that’s golden.

The rock-roots guitar god brings his heaven tonight to the Cruzan Amphitheatre, and for those of us who have followed his sweeping musical career there will be a stream of eclectic Santana hits.

And there will be something else: an added layer of brand new joy. Did I mention he’s in love?

"Cindy and I keep repeating these words: Pristine, purity and innocence. Pristine, purity and innocence," he says by phone from a Washington hotel suite.

He says this to illustrate his belief that certain words repeated like a mantra can nudge the brain out of the way and create a new reality.

"If you say this, it keeps you like a child, in virgin territory," says the musician in his trademark ethereal way. "First time ever, everything. First time ever, everything."

He delivers these words with the kind of natural rhythm one might imagine accompanies his song-writing sessions. And you can almost feel the germ of an idea rustling to life.

"First time ever, everything. Ah, you’ve got to write that down," says Santana, who is divorced from his first wife of 34 years. He plans to remarry Dec. 19.

I had asked where he finds inspiration. The short answer is: Everything — women and love, especially.

His earliest musical inspiration came from his father, Jose Santana, who loved to serenade the love of his life, Carlos’ mom, with gorgeous boleros from their native Mexico, like Vereda Tropical.

"He’d sing to her in the middle of the night, his voice dripping with beauty and melody, and my mom would open the curtain. It was a beautiful cycle of romance," he says. "I learned this from him, the gift of serenading and capturing the heart."

And still today, Santana’s performances are targeted at the fans he seeks to honor with his melodic lines and soulful rhythms — the ladies. His concerts, he says, are all about "celebrating and arousing the female."

It’s a motif, his love of the ladies. He brings it up again when I ask him about his upcoming album, Guitar Heaven: the Greatest Guitar Classics of All Time (Sept. 2010), featuring his interpretation of hits from rock greats.

Taking on a mighty repertoire of iconic songs, he says, is like romancing a woman.

"It’s an affirmation that it takes courage to date the Mona Lisa," he says. "No, I didn’t wear the same cologne, but I want to honor them and make them feel totally different."

Insert searing guitar solo here, and prepare to float.

~liz_balmaseda@pbpost.com

Santana with Steve Winwood

When: 7:30 p.m. Sunday

Where: Cruzan Amphitheatre,

suburban West Palm Beach

Tickets: $25.50-$125.50; (866) 614-4183; www.ticketmaster.com