As I was driving back from a three-day Kirtan (mantra music) festival where I sang and chanted together with a group of 150+ people day and night, it fell into my heart that how much mantra chanting has parallels with the cyclical nature of our lives. This felt like something I needed to share with you as we are all living this one way or another, so here it goes.
Most Kirtan music starts with a slow introduction, almost like whispering, it plants the seeds of the melodies that are about to come (like Spring). The hushed tones begin to warm up the vibrational pathways of our bodies. Then comes the upbeat call and response, where the music gets louder and louder, and faster and faster. This is the time to put it all on the table, sing full force, using all your oxygen reserves and lighting the fire in your heart. This is when the vibration you are creating is felt the most by you and everybody else (like Summer). Then comes another round of slower chanting, almost like savoring what the fire of the previous part created, you slow down, you let your body and voice get calmer, you know the song is ending, this is your chance to still be in it (like Fall). The last part is simply staying silent and breathing in the vibrational essence that is still hanging in the air as nectar, as medicine. You stay still, you rest in the beauty that you have just created in partnership with everyone else. You let your body transform and integrate everything it needs to transform and integrate (like Winter).
I feel like all we are and all we do are songs. Some meant to be sung in hushed tones, some melodies overlapping each other (work, life, family), some are meant to be sung full force with all our fire and life energy. And then there is the breathing, the pauses, the highs and lows, the overlapping parts, the learning from each other, the contributing to and enhancing each other’s melodies and creating something we couldn’t have imagined creating just by singing what’s in our hearts, and the fact that it doesn’t even have to be on key all the time, it doesn’t need to be perfectly harmonized, the song that we are, the song that is in our hearts just needs to be sung, shared, and put out into the world. This, all of this, is our music that we are creating every moment, together, and it is so fricking beautiful.
I am back from my Turkey trip and ready to see one on one clients. Every time I take a long leave, I find that I come back with new juju and the first wave of sessions are always magical. You can find more about my private sessions and schedule yours here (don’t wait too long so you can catch the juju!).
With love and gratitude to all of you ?
Damla
Photo Credit: A collaborative nature mandala from the BlessFest.