Terra Harmatuk opened with the following cross-cultural insights. Many believe that the first cosmic manifestation in the beginning of time was vibration, whether sound, breath, or light, and that this primal vibration, differentiating into sounds, or rhythmic breathing, formed the basis for all that has followed. In today’s renaissance of the healing arts, many ancient ideas are emerging, seen in a new light, dealing with the physical and psychological effects of sound, vibration, and music. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chanting\nis an ancient and universal form of creating energy. The earliest chants\nwere carried down through oral tradition by the indigenous people of an area.\nChants are often the repeating of sacred texts or the names of the divine,\nwhich can connect the faithful to their roots. Buddhists, for many\ncenturies, have repeated their mantras, sitting in their temples, repeating the\nmantras two thousand, three thousand times a day. Repetition over time\ngives the words power. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sanskrit,\ncalled “the language of the gods,” is more than 4000 years old,\nmaking it one of the world’s oldest languages. Almost all Hindu and early\nBuddhist scriptures were written in Sanskrit, which remains the\nlanguage used in their ceremonies and chanting. The oral tradition of\nthe Vedas consists of chanting the Vedic mantras. Often considered the\noldest unbroken oral tradition in existence, the fixation of the sacred texts\ndates to roughly the time of Homer (early Iron Age). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nancient scriptures of Zoroastrianism are considered meditative instruments to\nenlightenment. Their poetic form is a very ancient one, traced back (through\nNorse parallels) to Indo-European times. For perhaps 8000 years, their sacred\nwords have been maintained. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Native\nAmericans use chanting, often with dancing and drumming, in preparation for\nvarious activities and ceremonies such as curative and healing rituals,\nplanting and harvesting, hunting, weather work, rites of initiations and\nfunerals, and prior to battle. Many songs are not written down or recorded\nbecause of their sacred nature; the song could perhaps lose its power and\nspirit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Abrahamic religions have a long history of chanting. The Jewish people preserve the sacred songs that they have inherited from the prophets of Bnei Yisrael (\u201cThe Twelve Tribes\u201d or \u201cThe Children of Israel\u201d). Roman Catholics repeat the \u201cHail Mary\u201d and other prayers. The written Gregorian chant was fully compiled by the 12th century and is considered one of the earliest written manuscripts of chant. Muslims, who for ages have recited the Qur\u2019an every day for many hours, still continue to repeat the verses of their sacred book. Protestants use an Anglican chant, a form of Plain Song. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some\npeople say chanting is a primitive way of altering the consciousness and\nraising psychic power or energy. For other people, chanting connects the\nindividual with the Divine. The sound of chanting moves with a spiraling energy\nfrom the cosmos, giving life and vitality to mankind. It is a profound way to\nshift consciousness because the vibration in sound directly affects the nervous\nsystem. A profound sense of peace and a deepening of the meditative state are\nobtained when one merges the mind with the sound. A person can chant\nalone, silently or aloud, as a meditation. Alternately, chanting with other\npeople helps to create a group mind that is focused on the same\nintention. It is the repetition of the chant that gives it power. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
One need not be religious for chanting to be meaningful and beneficial. Chants are used by soldiers, sports teams and fans, political and social rallies and protests, and even children learning recitations. Speaking positive affirmations over and over are a form of chant. Chanting can become quite personal when we create chants that are meaningful to us or to those with whom we share our chants. We can create personal affirmations to enrich our lives, to heal, and to empower us as women. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yassin\nSarr-Fox introduced our first chanter, Samar Samara<\/strong>. Samar is a\nhigh school principal in Palestine and is here to study for a Master\u2019s Degree\nin Educational Leadership. Samar chanted the opening chapter of the\nQur\u2019an, which is chanted by Muslims every day. (This performance and the ones\nthat followed are impossible to render here, one of the reasons you should\nattend the meetings rather than just read the minutes!) Samar explained\nthat the purpose of chanting is to have a slow and deliberate rendition that\nallows believers to understand the meaning of every word and what Allah wants\nof children and adults. Samar followed this with the English translation\nof the passages she had chanted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Then\nYassin introduced Suzanne Sharifaei,<\/strong> who is a Baha\u2019i, originally from\nIran. Suzanne is in the United States because of the severe religious\npersecution of Baha\u2019i adherents in her own country. With her eyes closed,\nSuzanne chanted two prayers in Farsi, the first for martyrs and their families,\nand the second a petition. She explained that chanting is more appealing\nthan speaking; listeners are more likely to listen, and the chanter is more\nlikely to continue for a longer period of time. In the Baha\u2019i religion,\nchanting can be done alone or in a group and is practiced from youth through\nold age. Suzanne said she enjoys chanting because it makes her feel close\nto God. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Terra\nshared that the sounds, tones, and vibrations of Suzanne\u2019s chanting took her\nbreath away. Then she introduced Francine Berg,<\/strong> who has been cantor\nat Temple Society of Concord for 31 years. When Francine was young and\nmaking her bat mitzvah, she wasn\u2019t allowed to read to the congregation from the\nTorah because she is female, so today reading aloud at Shabbat is extremely\nspecial to her. Francine explained that the melody of chants makes the\ntext clearer and the words easier to remember. The form is half musical\nand half declamatory. Francine chanted the declaration of faith from\nDeuteronomy that is posted on the doorframes in Jewish homes\u2014the Sh\u2019ma. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally,\nTerra introduced Marie Summerwood<\/strong>, a Dianic Wiccan priestess, green\nwitch, and voice of sacredness for the earth. Marie knows that women\u2019s\nvoices together can create a container of sound to unite women and empower\nthem. She finds that chanting is restorative to the nervous system; it is\ncalming, and it helps harmonize her self with the vibration that she comes\nfrom. She is a student of the spiral, finding in the cycles of life all\nthe beauty of the return that most religions promise. She sees in it a\nrecognition of the truth of life demonstrated by everything from subatomic\nparticles to the galaxies, all of which are spinning. Evolution and\nintelligence are all about making choices. Marie works to reclaim secular\nsacredness, which talks about holding sacred that which is our source. \nThis requires taking care of ourselves and the earth. Marie chants to\nconnect herself to Spirit. She asked us to put one hand on the top of our\nhead and drone together; many were amazed by the vibrations we could feel.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marie\nhas had experiences of chanting with individuals who had suffered brain trauma.\nChanting seems to be profoundly calming to everyone. One Alzheimer\u2019s\npatient was able to come up with lyrics to songs even though her speaking words\nwere mostly lost; when her disease progressed to a point where she was beyond\nwords, she was still able to harmonize with the songs they were singing\ntogether. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Marie\nlearns from all cultures, embracing the sacredness of female energy. That\nenergy visits her when she invites it. Marie led us in a song, \u201cWeaving\nthe Web of Life,\u201d and then turned it into a two-part round. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Discussion\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ann\nPort observed that all four chanters had sung in a minor key. Marie and\nFrancine agreed, saying that minor keys are more emotional. Marie added\nthat when she writes songs for children, they are always in a major key. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Judy\nAntoine asked if silent prayer is also chanted. All the chanters said yes.\nSamar added that women often chant silently because women have not always been\nallowed to be heard. Children are taught to chant both at home and in\nschool, even listening to chants on CDs and on TV. They are ready to\nanswer the call to prayer from the mosque and ready to thank God all the\ntime. Judy recalled that hearing the call five times a day is very moving,\nand she missed it when she returned home from visiting her daughter in Saudi\nArabia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Renee-Noelle\nFelice pointed out that in Exodus, Miriam is the one who sings after the\nparting of the seas. Francine agreed, but she added that Miriam would not\nhave been allowed to sing in some of today\u2019s temples. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Chanting is universal. Jews chant in Hebrew, Muslims in Arabic, but Baha\u2019is chant in their local language. Margaret Hart pointed out that Yogic practitioners chant in Sanskrit, and that the chanter can get lost in the syllables. When Margaret\u2019s meditation master passed on, his followers performed a 30-day chant (in shifts). It is common to repeat a chant 108 times in a day, a repetition that works on the nervous system. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Marie was asked about wailing or keening, an intimate expression of grief that she has done with many women. She explained that wailing helps move grief through the nervous system. She demonstrated with a single note that varied with emotion, and she asked everyone to join her. (Again, you had to be there!) Marie pointed out that a person might be medicated for having a lot of grief, but that another approach to dealing with persistent sadness can be this wailing work, which can help facilitate the flow of the emotions. Saro explained that wailing is crucial in Chinese culture, where crying aloud is accepted and having paid wailers has become a status symbol. This is in contrast to the American attitude of stoicism, of holding in grief. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Yassin\npointed out the importance of cross-cultural education and of raising awareness\nabout different cultural practices. She said that misunderstandings can\noccur when people don\u2019t know why others do what they do. She gave the\nexample of her friend\u2019s neighbor who called the police when he heard chanting\ncoming from her friend\u2019s apartment. Yassin said this is an especially\nunfortunate part of the immigrant experience; that is, that practices people\ntake for granted are misinterpreted by the culturally unaware. Yassin said\nthat her friend\u2019s daughter no longer wants to chant because she is afraid their\nneighbors will call the police again. This is an example of how children\nof immigrants are in danger of losing their culture because of the intolerance\nof cultural differences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Marie\nhelped us close our meeting with a chant. We all stood in a circle,\ntaking sidewise steps and turning around to the following words: <\/p>\n\n\n\n Dance in a circle of women, Chanting is a way of altering consciousness and raising psychic power or energy. We listened to chanting from Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Baha’i and Wiccan women.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[30,16,17,41,31],"class_list":["post-7402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-programs","tag-bahai","tag-islam","tag-judaism","tag-spiritual-practices","tag-wicca",""],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7402"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7402\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8885,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7402\/revisions\/8885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Make a web of my life,
Hold me as I spiral and spin,
Making a web of my life. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"