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Chants and Sacred Music

northape

northape

Custodian of Wisdom
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I really LOVE chanting in my ceremonies. It took me years to understand how beneficial chants are, how they balance the body and open hidden doors.
Mantras create a red thread through the ceremony, and one can always fall back to singing these simple invocations.
They grind through resistance and negativity, leading towards universal truth. Not every medicine is good for singing; some plants are more vocal than others.
These songs work well with rue and barks (especially acacia), but yagé is a bit more challenging. I haven't tested chanting with mushrooms yet, but it should be fine.
So, let's post our favorite chants from every tradition. All is One 🙏

Krishna Das singing "Om Namah Shivaya":


 
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All wonderful music, thanks for sharing @northape!

Singing and chanting is *the* way in ceremony for me.

Every plant has different energetic affinities; rue and a. confusa definitely lends itself to chanting. Chaliponga is least musical, Chacruna for me is more suited to singing icaro type melodies. I don't have enough experience with mimosa but I suspect it's more inclined to drum chants as is traditional jurema music.

This is not a chant but a new release that is definitely my type of sacred music. It's a similar vibe to that of the medicine I make from my specific rue strain, as is my avatar picture.

Wild white horses
 
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dithyramb said:
This is not a chant but a new release that is definitely my type of sacred music. It's a similar vibe to that of the medicine I make from my specific rue strain, as is my avatar picture.
Wild white horses
Click to expand...
Anything that could be sung in a ceremony is welcome here :love:
I probably should have named the thread “Chants and Sacred Music,” but who cares?
Edit: Now, I fixed it ;)

Mimosa is certainly an interesting one 🤔
I myself have very limited experience chanting with it, but at least mimosa lends itself to musical expression.
It's a bit less emotional than acacia, but can produce very captivating states and a deep involvement in music.
I experienced profound euphoria quite a few times while singing praises to Shiva and Hanuman.
It was on the verge of being overwhelmingly euphoric. I hope to work with it more if life allows.
🙏
 
@EmeraldAtomiser Thanks! I love hearing new versions of these chants.
They say that Hare Krishna mantra is the easiest way out in this Yuga.
Although the Hare Krishna movement gave it a bad name, it's one of the most powerful mantras.
Hanuman Chalisa works wonders for any spiritual practice, too. I give that one a high seal of approval!
🐵🌺🥰🙏
 
northape said:
@EmeraldAtomiser Thanks! I love hearing new versions of these chants.
They say that Hare Krishna mantra is the easiest way out in this Yuga.
Although the Hare Krishna movement gave it a bad name, it's one of the most powerful mantras.
Hanuman Chalisa works wonders for any spiritual practice, too. I give that one a high seal of approval!
🐵🌺🥰🙏
Click to expand...
💯
Or should that really be 108?
Far more auspicious to give 108%, surely?
A motorbike accident brought me to ashtanga yoga, and immersion in this practice, including long periods studying in India, opened my eyes and mind to both myself and the world.
When I started to practice, I loved its physical, challenging nature, but you could keep the hippy bollocks, thanks.
I particularly, viscerally, disliked mantras and chanting. Couldn't say exactly why, but on a 3 month residential 'teacher training' course in Bangalore, I stopped doing the daily mantra requirement, as it was making me incredibly angry.
We went on an excursion to a huge Hare Krishna Temple in Bangalore, where you did exit through the gift shop, but before you did that, there was a temple you walked through, with 108 steps, and on each step you said the mantra.
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare

The walk started inside, and the pathway led out into the sun, where it did a 180, and went up a staircase and back into the temple. There were speakers broadcasting the mantra, which everyone was repeating with each step, and next to the turn which led to the staircase back up into the temple, and the 108th step, was a narrow viewing platform, accessed through a door at the end, where the devotees obviously took shifts repeating the mantra along with everyone else.
Now, normally you would only see this devotee for 5 to 8 steps, and thus repetitions of the mantra, but, for some reason never explained, as we reached this point, the queue stopped stepping, but we did not stop chanting, oh no. I really can't say how long we stood there for, and I have no idea how long this devotee, a large and round-headed man, had been on shift for, but if ever a man was experiencing devotional ecstasy, this guy was it. Arms raised in the air, a look of manic joy across his face as his existence and the chant blended into one.
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare
Repeat until enlightenment

I spent a lot of time in Mysore, and one day I picked up a guy on my scooter who was thumbing a ride into town. At a traffic light, he lent close and asked me if I knew of this incredibly powerful mantra,
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare

I told him yes, I knew this mantra, but he asked me to repeat to make sure, which I did, making him very happy. When I dropped him off, he implored me to repeat the mantra a minimum of 108 times daily.

A few years later, I was volunteering at the Shekin Ashram, now sadly closed, in Glastonbury. Every morning the routine was the same: Puja, chanting and meditation. One morning, we were led in the hare krishna chant, and I only became aware of how totally I had become immersed in it when we swichsed to the next mantra. It was like a bucket of cold water on my head.
It definitely is a special vibration.

I did a healing sounds retreat at the ashram with this incredible woman facilitating.
 
@EmeraldAtomiser, Thank you for such a wonderful story. I've had quite a resistance to chanting myself.

I liked these chants for a while, but it took me 10 years of medicine work to start singing. Even now, I get blocks from time to time.
After some reflection on this topic, I feel like mantras work directly with our energy body and the karmas that create energy knots within it.
By chanting, we're literally working through our issues on a more fundamental, energetic level. Therefore, resistance should be welcomed and celebrated.

Today, I can even sing sober, which was unthinkable for me before. I've made much more progress in medicine work by singing mantras, too.
How these chants have come into my life is pure magic. More and more, I'm starting to lean towards spirituality and simple practices.

Medicine still has its place in my life, but it sits somewhere in the background. I understand that everything comes in due time, though.
We'll see what the next step is…
 
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