Author Topic: Music and Practice (Read 2405 times)

Leigh · « **on:** January 02, 2013, 03:55:23 pm »

Do you use music when doing your spells or a ceremony (magical, religous, or inbetween)? If so, what types of music do you use and why do you use it? Does it change depending on what your doing or do you use the same music everytime to put you in the right state of mind?

Shine · « **Reply #1 on:** January 02, 2013, 06:25:18 pm »

Quote from: Leigh;88679

I occasionally play music during worship. It's almost always something instrumental (I find vocals too distracting). I play whatever reminds me of who I'm worshiping.

I'm also learning guitar so I can play for Bast and other deities, but it's slow going.

Cabal · « **Reply #2 on:** January 02, 2013, 06:56:51 pm »

Quote from: Leigh;88679

I like to listen to music during rituals to keep my focus. I mainly listen to Welsh folk music or Scottish Bagpipe and folk music.

Jenett · « **Reply #3 on:** January 02, 2013, 07:03:44 pm »

Quote from: Leigh;88679

My standard circle set up involves somewhere between 2 and 7 songs, depending on how elaborate I'm being. (If I'm working with other people, it's almost certainly 6. The 7th only makes sense in group work for N > than a couple.) These are chants - usually a 3-4 line bit, possibly repeated.

I also use music in two other ways: for two rituals I do yearly (one is Samhain, the other is trad-specific) I use a playlist of music to do some specific energetic and focus shifts, tucked in amongst other bits of ritual. Exactly how long that is varies some year to year, but it's about 30 minutes for both at the moment.

I've also long used music as part of ongoing magical or ritual work as a day to day reminder: when I was doing elemental attunements as part of my training, I set up playlists for each element (fairly long ones: 8, 12, 16 hours, so I didn't repeat the same music more than every few days given my usual music listening at that point in time). I've done them for job workings, for ongoing focus (prosperity, creativity, whatever.) Those are much more varied musically.

I also have a folk harp, and a voice, and I use those, but not the harp in ritual very much, because I've found that I end up more focused on the practicalities of playing than on the ritual, and most of the time that is not what I want. (And the practicalities of "If I put the harp here, will I/the cat/someone else accidentally knock it over?" in particular, which are especially distracting.)

Chatelaine · « **Reply #4 on:** January 02, 2013, 07:24:43 pm »

Quote from: Leigh;88679

Orthodox services are sung/chanted throughout. I follow as best I can (which is to say, not very well), but at home I'm too self-conscious to sing solo.

I have recordings of several services, and I'd love to use them to create a liturgical effect at home, but they're in Greek, which I'm not good enough in to understand, let alone follow, yet. I still listen to them, though, in an effort to memorise the chant cadences at least.

iulla · « **Reply #5 on:** January 02, 2013, 07:27:10 pm »

Quote from: Leigh;88679

Occasionally I'll use music; I guess whether or not I do depends on my mood and if I feel like music would be a good addition.

When I do use music, however, it's usually one of a small handful of songs, all from the same group. It's reconstructed music using instruments that would have been used by the Romans, and when I play it, I definitely feel a connection to the past and most deities for whom I'm doing the ritual.

Leigh · « **Reply #6 on:** January 02, 2013, 08:33:04 pm »

Quote from: Jenett;88710

Regarding your elemental playlists, were they songs to meditate to or were they just songs to remind you what you were studying? Also I admire your patience in making playlists that were that long. I'd probably get sidetracked before I ever managed to finish. :whis:

Jenett · « **Reply #7 on:** January 02, 2013, 09:43:56 pm »

Quote from: Leigh;88742

Songs to listen to while I was doing other things. (Our attunements ran about 2 months, so they'd be at least 80% of what I listened to during that time - but I'd listen while I was puttering on the computer, working on other projects, etc.)

As to putting them together - it took a while (and I really need to redo them, actually), but basically I sat down and did an initial pass with obvious things, and then I went through a couple more times (usually before each attunment started) and added more. It did lead to some interesting realisations about my music. (My musical tastes run to Pagan music, British Isles folk, folk rock, and then very specific bits of early music, Common Practice Period/classical, and things like Enya or Lorenna McKennitt. Plus a dash of musicals.)

I own something like 6 versions of Bedlam Boys, and they're all in Air, and there's a whole bunch of transformation songs - Tam Lin, Twa Magicians, etc - that are all in Earth, along with a bunch of "Something has died, we are sad now" folk songs.

Emma Eldritch · « **Reply #8 on:** January 02, 2013, 11:45:59 pm »

Quote from: Leigh;88679

Yup. I prefer to do all work - mundane or magical - with a soundtrack.

I use a variety of music, and it depends greatly on what I'm doing. I use both songza and grooveshark a lot. Songza is all premade playlists, so it's nice if I just want some sort of music in the background but am not overly invested in what it is. Like, I'll just search 'pagan' or 'yoga' or something and let it play.

I have an ever-expanding grooveshark playlist of 'witchy' stuff to choose from. It ranges from what I (snobbishly) call 'sterotypically pagan' stuff to songs that just resonate with me magically. It's handy since I can either pick only specific songs or just play the whole list.

I've mentioned this before on the board, but years ago I made up a 'Tarot Playlist.' I keep meaning to do another one.

Zaphaux · « **Reply #9 on:** January 03, 2013, 01:52:00 pm »

Quote from: Leigh;88679

I love meditating while listening to music on headfones. I do it specially when I'm connecting to Apollo, since he's the god of music. Also, as Shine stated that he does, many times I play the guitar before the meditation or in rituals.
In many occasions, when I reach the meditative state I feel like I can "read" the melody in the music, and the music spirits and gods moving through it, using it as their method of locomotion. It was in this way that I discovered that music is not only a thing that we hear and pleases us, but music itself is a part of an entire dimension outside the one we're at now.

Also, the best song to listen while meditating is 'Kashmir - Led Zeppelin', period.

Fausta · « **Reply #10 on:** January 09, 2013, 06:10:34 am »

Quote from: Leigh;88679

Yes and no, depends on what I'm doing. In religious ceremony music is less likely, in magickal more.

I prefer instrumental music, more of the (dark) ambient type, without that much of melodies. One of the best soundtracks for me during rituals is Coil's "Time Machines" album, especially the second track, Dimethoxy-4-Ethyl-Amphetamine: (DOET/Hecate). The length is pretty fitting for Star Ruby (or LBRP), with the right atmosphere for it.