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SCIENCE MYSTERIES | STRANGE ARTIFACTS | MYSTIC PLACES | ANCIENT WRITINGS
Susan Elizabeth Hale MA is the author of Sacred Space, Sacred Sound The Acoustic Mysteries of Holy Places and Song and Silence: Voicing the Soul. Susan is creator of Earth Day-Sing for the Trees, an annual global celebration on April 22. She now lives in England where she communes with ancient trees and holy wells. The Sacred VoiceBy Susan Elizabeth Hale Within each of us is a sacred architecture and music that many
ignore: your singing voice. This voice contains our deepest
feelings, our spiritual longings, our hopes, fears and personal
truths. Singing is the most personalized form of musical expression.
It involves the diaphragm, chest, heart, lungs, throat, tongue,
face—the exposed frontal part of our bodies where our deepest
emotions are stored. When we sing we become a resonator, an
instrument vibrating with the beauty of tone. We feel song vibrate
through our entire system, linking body, mind, emotion, soul and
spirit. We are the only species that can change from spoken language
into song. I have sung in some of the world’s most magnificent acoustic
spaces, from the prehistoric cave of Lascaux, Chartres Cathedral and
the Great Pyramid of Giza. This journey has taken me deep inside the
mysteries of the voice, to the understanding of the voice as a holy
instrument. Our voices, available to us at every moment, are the
only instruments that can change shape. Through the malleability of
the physical architecture through which the voice sounds, resonant
chambers are created that resemble caves, cathedral naves, and
arches. Perhaps our own inherent physical structures provided the
inspiration for sacred architecture. For instance the interior of
the Red Pyramid of Dashur in Egypt is the shape of the nasal cavity.
In Luxor, in the Holy of Holies at the Temple of Man also
corresponds to the nasal cavity. Its Egyptian name “shtyt” is also
the same word which means both “sacred” and “hidden” and is
“...connected to the sympathetic and vagus nerves.”1 When resonated
through the repeated stimulation of the nasal cavity through
chanting, particularly the letters M, N and mantras such as Om,
altered states of consciousness are possible. Behind the nose and
between the eyes, the magnetite mineral magnetite is deposited close
to the pineal and pituitary glands of the spongy bone in the center
of the head. “M’ is a primordial sound from which other sounds are generated.
In creation myths throughout the world song or sound brings life.
For the Keres people, a pueblo culture living along the Rio Grande
in New Mexico the world began when Spider Woman shaped the world
through humming and singing. “This was how the directions came to
be, how the seasons came to be.” This myth points to an important
biological fact. Humming is one of our first sounds. It is the sound
of nourishment, of bonding with the mother. This sound is universal
to humans and animals alike. In the beginning Spider Woman hummed
life into being. Through her song she shaped the world. Mountains,
rivers, elm trees and oaks came into form. Human development shares
the same metaphor as this Laguna Pueblo myth. Humming is a universal
sound, one of the first sounds we make while breast feeding. “M” is a sound associated with the Mother realm. Consider the
many different words for mother around the world: Mama, Amma, Madre,
Mutter, Mater, Ma. “Mmm,” is a sound of bonding that transcends
species. Cows and sheep bellow or bleat a deep low “Mmm” after
giving birth to signal that it is time to nurse. “M’ is the
automatic sound of satisfaction, of a body saying that a chocolate
covered strawberry is delicious. “M” is a connecting sound. A good
therapist knows this instinctively and has a variety of ways to say
“Um Hmmm” to let their clients know that they are understood. “M” is the only letter in the English alphabet that is internal.
“M’ is a nourishing sound made with the lips closed which keeps
tones circulating inside the mouth and into the body cavity, feeding
the brain and quieting the nervous system. Place your hand on the
top of your head while you hum and you will feel it immediately
begin to vibrate. Humming helps clean the brain by bringing the
skull into vibration which helps waste particles move through the
blood/brain barrier. Humming while changing the position of the tongue inside the
mouth generates harmonics which many sound healers believe to be
necessary for healing. As we have seen from the example in Egypt at
the Temple of Man “M” also vibrates the nasal cavity. Author Hans
Hickman observed that incantations are often associated with double
hieroglyphs for H and N which would produce a nasal sound when
chanted. We are built in the proportions of the golden mean, a ratio found within every natural form. We create relationships through our voices to others and to the space itself. Through the intoning of vowels harmonics are created that add more magic and mystery when we hear them reverberate through our bodies and join with a sacred space, be it a chamber grave or a cathedral. The golden mean ratio was used in many of the compositions of German mystic and composer Hildegard of Bingen. Composer and mathematician, Pozzi Escot charted the notes of one of Hildegard’s pieces in a three-dimensional form and found that it resembled a Gothic cathedral, illustrating that the “...shape of the building in which the chant was sung was the same shape as the chant itself.”2 Initially Gregorian chant was monophonic and then began to move above the melody line in parallel fifths. The perfect fifth, with its characteristic open sound, is the first harmonic in the overtone series. This earliest form of western musical harmony occurred, believes the late composer and author Kay Gardner, when“...the singers, chanting in highly resonant stone cathedrals and monasteries, were hearing the fifth naturally occurring as a harmonic above a single melody line... soon they began singing what they heard.”3 Voice is a portable instrument that can create vowels, the
emotional and sacred content of speech which is also the earliest
speech both in babies and in early humans. Singing vowels in sacred
sites creates magical experiences. Vowels are the only parts of the
alphabet that are created by breath, the spiritual animating
principle of life. In the sacred languages of Hebrew and Egyptian
vowels were not written but intoned, making them come alive through
harmonics. For example in mystical Jewish writings, Abraham, the
Patriarch of the Jews, was said to have “...bound the letters of the
Torah to his tongue...he drew them in water, kindled them with fire,
agitated them with breath.”4 A Jewish meditative text, The Sefer
Yetzirah: The Book of Creation, says there are about “...sextillion
possible permutations of all 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. This
is very close to the number of stars in the observable universe”5
Hebrew letters equate to numbers, sounds and notes of the scale. The
Sefer Yetzirah instructs the reader to engrave them with the voice,
carve them on the breath and set the letters the mouth in five
places for the five dimensions, the five vowels, and the five
phonetic families. The first word of the Torah is Bereshit, which
means “In the beginning.” It ushers in all of Creation. Bereshit
contains five types of sounds: labial, labial-dental, palatal,
silibant, and guttural. Each of the Hebrew alphabets twenty-two letters has a distinctive
sound. “Mmm” for example,is the sound for the labial letter Mem. As
we have shown this mothering sound hums and relaxes. Different
states of consciousness are associated with each sound, from the ten
Sefirot of the Kabalistic Tree of Life. Mem is like water; it calms
the mind and puts one in touch with the watery world of Wisdom
called Hokhmah. Every possible vowel combination is intoned in the
process. For example: sha ma, sha me, sha mi, sha mo, sho ma. While our earliest sound as an infant may be the sound M
associated with the mother, vowels are also our earliest sounds
conveying both pleasure, surprise and pain. Vowels form sacred
geometry as can be shown through the science of cymatics, a process
of seeing the shapes of sound. Vowels are the primordial seeds of
speech, gateways through which both emotion and spiritual experience
are conveyed. Instinctively we express ourselves through vowels. For
example we express awe, reverence and compassion through an AH, the
sound seed that resonates the heart. Allelujah, Amen, Allah all come
from this wonder of the AH. This sound of awe is mirrored
architecturally in the ogive, a shape that made gothic architecture
possible. The entire human language is born into us. Every possible musical
combination exists in the mouth, jaw, palate and tongue. What we
hear becomes what we speak as the same neural pathways are used over
and over. “The very word language derives from the Latin lingua
meaning ‘tongue.’ ” 6 Because we practice and select the sounds of
our Mother tongue, eventually we lose our ability to make vocal
sounds from other languages easily. Infinite variations of sound and
pitch exist within us through the soundboards of our vocal
structure. Cymatics has also shown that sound is spherical and that each vowel and tone has its own inherent sacred geometry. When we sing we shape the air. Though we can’t see this with the naked eye, the sonic energy we create through our voices infuses the air with our animated breath and is sent out into the world. Sound matters. For Mayan people “the belief was that the seasons didn’t bring the birds, but rather the birds’ language of magical sounds brought about seasonal changes in temperature and moisture.”7 This coincides with Rudolf Steiner’s teaching that bird song in spring was necessary to bring plants into bloom. John Michell has proposed that in ancient Britain a tradition of perpetual choirs existed with the purpose of enchanting the land. 24 hours a day sonic energy generated from this choir of twelve monks brought nourishment to the land. We are the ultimate instrument. As we explore the sacred spaces within us and open to our own internal sound pathways, I believe we can harmonize with spirit and the world around us. We live in a time when we are out of tune with nature and with our biological needs. Our nervous system, and indeed the nervous system of the planet, is over stimulated by artificial sounds that create stress. Electricity, cell phones, computers, wireless technology, traffic, fluorescent lights, sirens, all emit frequencies that are damaging to our physical, emotional and spiritual health. Many species of animals, birds, frogs, that help to tune our world are endangered. Surely it is time again to reclaim our natural heritage as singers. Like Spider Woman we can begin the day by humming and singing, renewing our world and opening up to new possibilities of expanded consciousness and deeper connection with the world around and within us.
Harmonic Hum
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Books
Sacred Space, Sacred Sound The Acoustic Mysteries of Holy Places
Product Description A pioneer in the field of music therapy and an aficionado of musical
styles from all over the world, Susan Elizabeth Hale has journeyed across
the planet and devoted 10 years of research to deliver this exploration of
the sound mysteries at holy places. Hale details the acoustic properties of
the numerous sacred sites she has visited, including painted caves,
cathedrals, stupas, oracle chambers, shrines, kivas, megalithic monuments,
pyramids and other buildings that celebrate and praise the divine. From the Inside Flap Chartres Cathedral Cathedral space is perfectly suited for chanting
because the voice too has immense space, great depths and soaring heights.
The voice can be a nave waiting to be filled with praise, a passageway for
the Divine. The voice can be a reflector of silent interiors, a deep well of
knowing, an altar to receive communion. Sound travels up through the body.
The voice is the place where spirit and matter merge, where heaven is
brought to earth. The Crypt Sometimes we need to be witnessed by others for these mysteries to
unfold. On my second day at Chartres I toured the crypt with six others. I
asked the guide if I could sing, still reverberating with my experience
singing the night before. "Oui, Madame." After I sang a brief song, a
Belgium couple came up to me. The man said, "It was you Madame! It was you
we heard sing in the cathedral last night. Do you know that your voice
filled the entire cathedral? We went all around looking for you." He said
his name was Franz and introduced me to his wife Beatrice. Since he spoke
fluent French I asked if he would mind asking the guide if I could return to
the crypt to sing for a longer time. "Yes, will you allow us to accompany
you?" I was moved to have companions with me on my song quest. The three of us returned later that afternoon and had an hour alone
together in the crypt. Wordlessly I went to the altar of Our Lady Under the
Earth. Franz and Beatrice sat on different sides of the aisle. We were
silent, each in our own state of prayer. I closed my eyes breathing in the
narrow chapel and heard centuries of pilgrim voices still lingering in the
air. I heard the sound of my heart, a song of the moment emerged, first with
deep blue "Ouuu's" that changed into rosy "Ahhh's." The "Ah" became Ave
Maria. I felt I had sung here before with these two people. I was drawn to
walk down the aisle singing. From the back of the crypt I heard the
overtones of my Alleluia resonate off the far wall where the Black Madonna
sat. I imagined what it would be like if the room were filled with other
singers. Suddenly the lights went out and just as suddenly tiny rose colored
lights illuminated the aisle. A group of about twenty singers entered the
crypt singing Alleluia. They formed a circle around the altar and sang. I
moved slowly towards them. Franz joined me and we walked down the aisle
together. The group opened to include us and we all sang as one, becoming
the rose singing together in praise of the mystery. After several songs in Latin we processed slowly up and down the aisle
singing Alleluia, singing this pilgrim's path. Some sang with their hands
over their hearts, others with their hands extended out. Some walked with
their eyes closed. Mine were open in ecstasy. Then, without a word or cue,
following some other voice, they left singing. We heard their voices linger
in another part of the crypt. Then it was quiet. Beatrice was crying. She looked at me with tears streaming down her face.
I sat in front of the Black Madonna and now it was my turn to cry. I felt so
small compared with all this glory and beauty. I couldn't comprehend any of
it. I heard the Black Madonna speak to my heart, "Yes, you are small, tinier
than you can even imagine. Do you know how vast the universe is? You can't
begin to understand the powers that move through me. Do you know how big you
are? How much you are needed? Do you know how important it is that you
sing?" I sat with her words, humble and grateful, moved to trembling. As we were leaving Beatrice paused for a moment and then went to the
altar. She stood silently and then sang a song in Dutch, her voice shook
with emotion and praise. We emerged from the crypt, hugged and then parted.
Later that day in the cathedral I met the three English ladies who had been
with us on the crypt tour. When they asked me about my day I told them the
experience I had in the crypt with Franz and Beatrice. While we were talking
they appeared. I introduced them to each other and asked Beatrice about the
song she had sung. She told me she was scared, that she had never sung
alone, but knew it was something she must do. As she translated the song
into English the three ladies beamed, "we know that song! It's written by
Rudolf Steiner. We must all sing it together in the center of the
labyrinth." Franz said "Yes! The cathedral and the human cathedral must meet
through the voice!" Together we walked into the petals of the labyrinth, six
of us, from Belgium, England and America, one for each petal. In Search of the Holy Grail Do we wander from land to land... I left Chartres, that great Lady of Roses, on a bus to southern France. As I climbed aboard I saw an African woman dressed in a long blue satin gown with a blue satin turban on her head. At her breast was a nursing child. The Black Madonna has traveled with me ever since. |
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