The scent of incense swirls around the darkened room. Two figures, their faces illuminated by a few flickering candles, stand in the darkness; they are discussing death. A hooded figure explains to a young woman that death is a transformation and release to those to whom it comes in its own time.
Remembering the pain and suffering her grandmother felt in her last days, the woman understands. As she turns to thank the hooded figure and ask him his name, she discovers that he has disappeared. Almost inaudibly the phrase "We will meet again, when the time is right, and you won't be afraid" quietly echoes through the darkness. She stands alone in the chill of autumn, contemplating this.
The silence in the room is broken by two voices, softly singing a haunting tune beckoning "Take me back, oh hills I love." Soon they are joined by more voices, and harmonies fill the room with music and words that welcome the embrace of the earth, oaks and stars and speak of death as a release and return to that which is comforting and sacred. As the melody floats through the air, the voices and energy building, no one in the room is unaffected. As the last note of the song fades away, the room is silent. Some are in deep thought; others have tears in their eyes, even the children who normally squirm and make noise are still.
The mystery play described above, part of Gaia's Grove's Samhain ritual, was complimented and made more powerful by music. Moments like that happen rarely in large public rituals. In my experience, when they do, they are more likely to occur when there is music.
Vitally important emanations of Tone are believed to inundate the Earth at certain times of the year. These are the two solstices (winter and summer) and the two equinoxes (spring and fall), vast radiations of sacred energy is released at the spiritual level. Music acts as the medium which aids these forces in manifesting into our physical world.
Incorporating recorded music into ritual will put participants in a different state of mind, separate from the mundane world and open to the energies of the elements, deities and magick.
Adding live singing to rituals raises energy. Music becomes the inspiration and focus of the ritual, rather than an addition to it.
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,
Music and Ritual - Music as Ritual: by Prof. Dr. Lorenz Welker - Ludwig Maximilians Universities
Music is strongly linked to ritual, not only in Western civilization but all over the world and from its first appearance onwards. Music as an essential part of religious rites, is to be found in rites of transition and has its obvious and central place in medical and paramedical rituals such as shamanic healing processes and in the treatment of obsession.
On the other hand, references to music can be found in numerous studies on rituals from ethnological, sociological and cultural points of view, from the seminal works by Victor Turner (The Ritual Process, 1969) and Mary Douglas (Natural Symbols, 1970) to more recent studies such as Hans-Georg Soeffner's Die Ordnung der Rituale, Frankfurt 1992, and the articles collected by Andrea Belliger and David J. Krieger, Ritualtheorien, Wiesbaden 1998. Artur Simon's magisterial contribution on African rituals of obsession Musik in afrikanischen Besessenheitsriten in: Artur Simon, Musik in Afrika, Berlin 1983.
The particular importance of music in ritual might be due to the fact, that music itself is a ritualized means of communication, especially in contrast to ordinary speech and spontaneous vocal utterances.
