Original text and melody by Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179)
Norma Gentile: voice
Atmaram Chaitanya: tambura
Healing with sound is perhaps the most intricate of the Healing Arts. It necessitates both the ability to move into the most quiet and gentle spaces of the heart, and then into the expansion of Spirit that moves through a concert hall and bathes all those in attendance.
Here is a journey through the very process itself of healing with sound. In this particular sound healing, we begin with the simple four strings of the tambura, a traditional instrument of India, tuned in intervals of octaves and a fifth. These notes represent the fundamental (audible note) and the first overtones or harmonics of that note. Our ears perceive additional overtones as we hear these notes sounded together over and over again. These overtones, which are created upon the tympanic membrane of the ear, resonate deeply within each of us. These overtones move through the physicality of our ears and stimulate our brain wave patterns. You may notice that while listening to this song it is hard to think a complete sentence. But you may feel emotions welling up, both comfortable and uncomfortable. This is by design!
The opening solo tambura pattern of notes gives way to my voice improvising on a simple phrase. This phrase I repeat three times. In a live concert, which is where this healing was recorded, I am asking, internally, a different question of the energies in the room with the repetition of each phrase. In the moment that I finish singing the phrase, I sense the energy in the room shift, responding to the question that I had in my mind as I sang the phrase. Most often I am asking ‘What is next?’ or ‘Is the energy that I am sensing ready to evolve?’ The guides and angels relating to those people listening as well as the energetic presences of Nature (such as Nature Spirits) recognize when a human is asking them, rather than telling them, how to proceed. I find that holding questions rather than statements in my mind as I sing or speak invites the consciousness of many other Beings to more fully participate in any healing process.
Healing itself is an act of tension and release. Tension occurs as that which we are ready to release is revealed to us. Release follows as we come into the realization that we no longer need it. Music serves to reveal to us those emotions and behavioral patterns that are not conducive to the expression of ease, grace and beauty in our life. Sometimes that means feeling emotions or sensations that are not easy to feel while listening to music.
You may experience just such a sense of uneasiness while listening to the middle section of this sound healing. This is the section that reveals those energetic patterns which your soul and body are ready to release. This means that it is only your personality that is (stubbornly perhaps?) holding onto the patterns. Sometimes it feels like the space around your body is being massaged or even scrubbed clean. Sensations of uneasiness are often caused by our own personalities gripping onto beliefs, habits or energy patterns that our body and soul have decided already to release. I find that breathing consciously into my lower body brings me more in touch with the discomfort I am experiencing. Once I notice if it is a body sensation, an emotion or a fearful thought, I ask the thought, emotion or body sensation if it is really mine. Is it really mine right now? Most often by asking questions I also give the pattern permission to depart. And now begins the replenishment of the body. After the release of any pattern there is a need to replace the old energies with fresh new ones. Just as our body is designed to be fed nutritionally every day, so too our body has the resources to nourish and replenish itself from the vibrations around it. Within the context of music, we are able to resonate with newly revealed vibrations that now serve us in our soul’s journey. These vibrations, which may reflect qualities such as love, compassion or patience, courage or contemplative focus, are and have always been within us. The concluding segment of the sound healing is merely a time of remembrance, allowing these qualities within your Being to be magnified.
In the moment of silence following the sound healing your body chooses to embrace the healing itself. It is in this moment of time, following the cessation of the audible sound, that the healing offered through the song is received into the cells of your physical body. Your experience of this healing moment is often experienced as a deep sigh.
“Healing is an art not of incessant insistent infliction of change, but rather the artful availability of Grace, Patience and Compassion from within the Healer’s Heart.”
-Mary
You can hear Norma sing the original medieval healing chant composed by Hildegard of Bingen on Norma’s album, ‘Unfurling Love’s Creation’ (Song #4)
AVE, MARIA (Original Latin text by Hildegard of Bingen 1098-1179, translated into English by Norma Gentile)
Behold, Mary,
you who increase life,
who rebuilds the path,
You who confused death
and wore down the serpent,
To you Eve raised herself up,
her neck rigid with inflated arrogance.
You strode upon this arrogance
while bearing God’s Son of Heaven,
through whom the spirit of God breathes.
O gentle and loving Mother,
I behold you.
For Heaven released into the world
that which you brought forth.
This one,
through whom the spirit of God breathes.
Glory to the Begetter of All, the Children of All and the Holy Spirit.
And to this one,
through whom the spirit of God breathes.