Using Today's Music in Tomorrow's Ritual

by S. V. Mitchell

Music has the power to move us: the mother's tune that soothes a fretful child, a dance beat that entices us to move or chants to raise power. Appreciation of music is universal and cross-cultural. It surrounds us in birdsong, the rippling of water, even our own heartbeat.

No wonder that music has been used in ritual throughout the ages. From the sistrums of ancient Egypt to the drumming of Africans and Native Americans to the elaborate chorals of the medieval Christians, music moves us, opens up our emotions and makes us sensitive to the magickal workings around us.

In the last decade, there has been resurgence in pagan music. Groups like Spiral Dance and MotherTongue are recording pagan chants and songs in praise of the God and Goddess. Celtic groups are bringing us tunes that reverberate with harps and flutes. Madrigals and hurdy-gurdys provide a historic feel to a ritual. But are these the only types of music appropriate to rituals and spell casting? Not in my shadow-book.

Regardless of which magickal path you follow, each spell, each prayer, each evocation is an act of will. Finding music that moves you can help focus that will, whether it be classical, country-western, New Age or alternative.

My interest in nontraditional music in ritual grew from living in regions with a limited pagan community. Knowing only a few chants, I sought additional music. My first inclination was medieval tunes, but much of what remains from that period is Christian music and didn't suit the rituals I had in mind.

While I was in college, a friend took me to an alternative dance club. The music had a driving bass beat that overcame my shyness and all but compelled me to dance. Complex melodies intertwined with the lyrics as the dancers writhed on the floor. Energy was being raised all around me. When I stopped to drink water and watch the crowd, I thought, "Something's happening here."

If alternative rock could raise that much energy by people working in an uncoordinated, oblivious fashion, what could happen if the dancers were working in concert and bent the energy raised to their will?

I began experimenting. I was living in a small orange grove in Florida, and we had just planted 180 new trees. Soon after, the summer rains dried up. The new trees were spread out over eight acres; watering them by hand would be impossible. But without water, the new plantings would die.

I went into the farmhouse we have on the property and put on Arrested Development's song "Raining Revolution." I started dancing slowly to the music, directing my motions as a prayer to the clouds and sky, welcoming the rain. The music and my body moved together, the words echoing my need. It was a hot and heavy day. Minutes seemed like hours. When the song neared its end, I took the dance outside. A breeze had struck up, and clouds were gathering in the distance. A few small drops hit my face. Thirty minutes later. I sent my thankfulness into the clouds and walked around in the rain, delighting in the cool feel of it on my face and arms. After that, the summer rains returned and the young trees were saved.

An interesting note is that the meaning of the lyrics does not have to exactly match the magickal use. In the example above, the Arrested Development song used rain, and the resultant rainbow, as a metaphor for racial harmony and equality. The important thing is that the song evokes the appropriate emotional response or imagery in you.

Finding Your Own Musical Muse

To find music for your own workings, go back to the songs that moved you. Think about the images they call up. Could these be used in a ritual? For example, why not use that song you turn to when someone breaks your heart in a banishing ritual to ease your pain? Music that gets your feet tapping can be used to raise energy. A crooning song that soothes your spirit is useful at the end of the ritual to release the energy you've raised or to center yourself for meditation.

When you find yourself drawn to a particular piece of music, think about how it could be incorporated into ritual, and discuss it with other members of your group. Be open to suggestions from others. You may find some effective ritual music from unexpected sources.

Using Modern Music in Spell-Casting and Ritual

To use a song in spell-casting, close your eyes and listen to the music with your whole body. Move your body with the music. You don't have to dance, but putting your body in synch with the music and changing your heartbeat to the rhythm of the song will help you use the music to focus your will. Once you've sunk into the music, focus on the emotions or images it raises for you. If you're working solitary, visualize the image and make it real. If you're working with others, you may use a spoken visualization to coordinate with each other.

In a group ritual, the important thing when incorporating music, modern or otherwise, is that each member must approve the music. Everyone in the ritual should get a similar emotional resonance from the music. Otherwise, you might end up in a situation where eleven people are deep into contemplation of Garth Brooks's crooning and the twelfth is stuck thinking, "Country music? I hate country music!" At the very least, this reduces the amount of will you can focus; it may disrupt the work altogether.

Fitting Music to a Ritual

If you have a ritual coming up and you find you don't have music for it, ask yourself a few questions to help shake out some musical ideas. What is the basic feel for the ritual -- upbeat, or slow and solemn? Do different sections of the ritual ask for different musical tempos? If you plan to raise energy, how will that be done? What is the theme of the ritual? What pantheon are you working with, if any? What would your ideal musical piece for this ritual sound and feel like?

Once you have an idea what kind of music you want, search your own collection and the Web and ask your musically well-connected friends for ideas. Be sure to give yourself enough time to find and try music -- it's no fun digging up ritual tunes at the last minute. If exact timing is important in your ritual, be sure to check your music's length.

Musical-Magickal Suggestions

Here are some recommendations from my Book of Shadows. These reflect my leanings towards 1990s alternative rock and Middle Eastern dance music. Use them as a starting point, or select your own modern ritual music based on what moves you.

Weather Magick:

· Arrested Development, 3 Years, 5 Months, and 2 Days in the Life Of, "Raining Revolution."

· Eurythmics, Touch, "Here Comes the Rain Again."

Love and Sex Magick:

· Sting, Nothing Like the Sun, "We'll Be Together."

· Enigma, MCMXC A.D., "The Principles of Lust."

· The Pretenders, The Pretenders, "Brass in Pocket."

Money Magick:

· Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon, "Money."

· Madonna, Like a Virgin, "Material Girl."

Joy and Thanksgiving:

· Katrina and the Waves, Anthology, "Walking on Sunshine."

· Orbital, Orbital 2, "Halcyon and On and On."

· Louis Armstrong, Happy Birthday Louis! "What a Wonderful World."

· Arrested Development, 3 Years, 5 Months, and 2 Days in the Life Of, "Children Play with Earth."

Release:

· The Beatles, Let it Be, "Let it Be."

· Suzanne Vega, Solitude Standing, "Calypso."

Moon Rituals:

· Sting, Nothing Like the Sun, "Sister Moon."

· Suzanne Vega, Solitude Standing, "Night Vision."

Raising Energy:

· Solace, Sha'Wâza, Middle Eastern-inspired music good for raising feminine energy.

· Anything with a beat you can dance to, preferably without words or part of your mind will focus on the lyrics. I prefer songs that start slow and then speed up.

Background Music for Rituals:

· Enigma, MCMXC A.D., "Back to the Rivers of Belief."

· Dead Can Dance, A Passage in Time, a rich medieval sound.

· Dead Can Dance, Into the Labyrinth, "Ariadne."

· Peter Gabriel, Passion, Middle Eastern with modern updates.