sound
To The Beat Of My Own Drum
I am in the process of moving home. While going through years of stored stuff in the attic of my old home, I found a Christmas gift that my parents gave me around the age of four. It was a little drum, intact, with sticks to play to the beat of my young heart. I am sure there were many times my parents thoroughly regretted buying a four-year-old a drum to bang on!
To my surprise, throughout the house, I also found a total of eleven more drums. All different sizes and kinds. And it is safe to say I can still make a joyful noise with each one (although my family might consider this debatable).
In the summer we spend a lot of time at Camp Etna, one of the spiritualist camps here in Maine. We have two small cottages here – one that we live in, and another I use as my office. Some of the drums I found are kept in the office cottage, for my clients to enjoy.
Why the obsession with drums, you may ask? Well, drumming has always been a form of great stress relief for me. You can release pent up emotions, by beating the drum as hard or soft as you wish. It feels good to express yourself through the primal beat. Moving to the sound of the beat seems to make doing most tasks easier. Drumming is just plain old-fashioned fun, and people around the world have been moving to the sound of drums since the beginning of time.
Drums are also a very useful spiritual tool. In energy work, for example, I use drums to get in touch with the heartbeat. We also host a drumming circle here, at least once a week. Young and old come out to participate, and everyone in the area is invited. It is a spiritual activity that helps to unite the community. One person sets the intention, and the beat for the circle, and then all join in. It is wonderful to see the smiles and joy the drumbeat brings to faces.
Anyone can learn to play the drum. With people being at home much more these days, if you have always had the desire to learn to play and instrument, it is a good time to try the drums. With all the information technology we have these days, there are many courses and tutorials available online for one to learn drumming techniques in the comfort of your home.
The Healing Embrace Of Mother Nature
Throughout my life, especially during the most difficult times, the one thing I have always been able to count on is Mother Nature. Gaia, the Great Mother, has always served me well.
I grew up in California, where there is an abundance of water: water falls, creeks, rivers, lakes and the spectacular Pacific Ocean. I had quick and easy access to hiking paths, and other adventures and recreational activities in the great outdoors. In fact, next to dance, hiking was my favorite form of exercise in my teenage years.
When times are difficult, I have always sought out nature. It is so much easier to block out other people’s negativity when all you can see is God’s magnificent creation. It’s divine intent, joy, beauty, harmony, balance, and timelessness.
In the arms of Mother Nature, there is the freedom to tune out all the noise and toxic energy of others…and just hear the voice of Go. It helps you to center yourself, and clear out the negative energy and drama other people sometimes bring into your life.
I find that those of us who live in large cities and urban areas are more likely to get swallowed up by the negative energy of others. We can simply not get away from it in our daily lives. Going back to a home every day, where there is still a lot of radiation and traffic noise, will not let you heal or reenergize.
We all need to take the time to hear our inner voice. No cars, no talking, no noise. Just our own thoughts and inner guidance. We must make time to just hear the voice of spirit within. Otherwise, the voice of the ego that we hear in our head becomes toxic with negative self-talk.
God’s natural world is a temple of healing, a shrine of grace, a sanctuary for the burdened soul. This is why nature must also be protected. By protecting nature, we are protecting God. Mature is a gift to us from Source. It belongs to all of us, including future generations.
Signs Your Angel Is Near
Each of us has a guardian angel… a spiritual being whose purpose it is to watch over us and guide us through life. But since our angels are (usually) invisible, and can come and go in a split second, how do we know when they are near?
Specific patterns are usually the most telltale sign. Do you keep seeing numeric patterns repeated, on license plates or billboards, for example? Are the same songs always playing in whatever public place you go to? Your angel is probably sending you a message. What does it mean to you? If you do not understand the message, try and determine the meaning through Numerology, getting an angel reading, or meditation.
Angels also have a way of communication with our subconscious, specifically through the world of dreams. Most, if not all of us have had at least one series of vivid, repeating dreams. This is also the work of the Divine, and holds meaning. Since dreams are not easily remembered, try keeping a dream journal, or learning techniques of lucid dreaming and dream recall.
The counterpart to subconscious dreams are clairvoyant visions, which we may experience while awake or in a meditative state. They are usually very vivid and real, and are often an urgent message from an angel, so it’s important to take note whenever they occur.
Singing Raises Your Vibration
I recently had a mediumship reading that brought me great comfort and confirmation of Spirit’s presence. Especially at this point in time, getting acknowledgment of my late father being around me was very reassuring. In this particular reading, the medium told me that my father was around me and he was referring to me singing in the car! Well, that is so true. As a youngster, my father and I would sing in the car, and he would initiate the harmonies.
I have a photograph in the lounge of my dad playing the piano, singing into the microphone. It was taken many years ago, when I joined him on a cruise ship he was working on at the time as a musician. I still talk to his photograph frequently and had done so for quite a while on the day before I had the reading. So, being told by the medium of my conversation with him was beautiful confirmation that he must be there around me.
I remember doing some chanting at a psychic development workshop I attended several years ago. My mentor there was explaining the extent to which singing can raise our vibration. No wonder we get goosebumps when we hear an angelic voice on a talent show, or when we become profoundly moved to tears by a beautiful choir.
I can hold a tune, but never really developed my singing voice. I began to learn the piano at about eight years old, but we moved countries so that got shelved. Then I took up guitar lessons, and I would play and sing on the beach with the local youth club members where we lived on the Spanish island of Gran Canaria.
Active Listening – A Message From My Guides
Your ears are working all day long. They hear thousands and thousands of sounds. Most sounds are routine, so many are dismissed as the normal cacophony of a busy life.
Without particularly focusing, you can easily differentiate between outdoor construction work, the squeal of tires on pavement, and the subtle dripping of a faucet indoors. You can also be awakened by an unusual sound while you are sound asleep.
With all this hearing going on 24/7, how often do you really make time to truly listen? Not just to miscellaneous, irrelevant sounds, or humdrum activity, but to the voices of loved ones and your own inner voice?
The key here is time. Everyone is so busy these days, that we are often thinking of something in the past, or planning hours, days or weeks in advance. Meanwhile, golden opportunities to learn more about each other can easily slip by.
People often hide their fears behind words of bravado or arrogance. When strangled by ego, they can overcompensate by sounding obnoxious or condescending. When they are feeling small or insignificant, people can try too hard to impress. Each of these attitudes can be annoying to the listener.
The Shaman’s Recipe For Energy Cleansing
A shaman in Colorado once taught me a wonderful recipe for energy cleansing or ‘space clearing’ in your home. I have been using it for years and find it a really good alternative to traditional smudging with sage or other herbs.
It requires a few more ingredients than smudging, but it is certainly worth it!
Ingredients
- 2 lemons
- Kosher salt
- Paper cups (1 for each room)
- Water (tap is fine)
- Wind chimes, or singing bowl
- Picture of a deity or angel, or something that symbolizes love and light to you
- Camphor essential oil in a spray bottle
- Jasmine incense, and incense holder
- Lighter
- Sturdy trash bag
Method
Slice the lemons into wedges, and place one wedge into each paper cup filled halfway with water. Place some Kosher salt into each cup and place one cup on the floor of each room, or in a larger space place a cup every 10 feet or so apart on the floor.
The Spiritual Power Of Your Voice
With so many talent shows on television these days, there seems to be so much singing talent all over world. The exposure created by these reality shows allows otherwise unheard of individuals to find an international platform for their gifts. Some of their voices bring us alive, others pull back our deeper layers of emotion, and some simply reduce us to tears.
There are youngsters taking the stage on some of these shows who have the voices of angels. Some have never even had a day’s professional vocal training and yet, they sing like they’ve had years of coaching to develop what is already a beautiful gift. They were clearly born with their gift. Like many inventors, and also great composers of music and literature, they bring in many lifetimes of their gifts to share with us.
My father was a singer and songwriter and had a lovely voice. He became quite famous when I was still very young. His voice would get people in a happy, nostalgic frame of mind with his sing-along compositions and, as a good-looking man, he sure got the ladies swooning with his ballads!
“If you look inside my throat and inside that of a person who cannot hold a tune, nor has quality in their singing voice, the anatomy is just the same,” he told me once. He then asked me a question, which really was food for thought: “So, where does a beautiful voice come from?”