Category: Healing Music

Healing Journey through Ancient Sites in Southern England

I invite you on a memorable healing journey through some of the ancient sacred sites of southern England.

As a child, I lived in southern England and most weekends we walked in the gentle rolling hills of the North Wessex Downs in the countryside around Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Wiltshire and Hampshire.  This landscape is alive with numerous ancient sites built thousands of years ago.  Walking in this countryside instilled in me a strong connection to this landscape, which I only became aware of after we moved to Norfolk when I was 12 years old.  I now realise I had taken this connection for granted and remember feeling a sense of loss from this area in my early teens.

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Harp Therapy Releasing Cellular Memory Pain

Scientific research has demonstrated that memory is stored within the body’s cells and may be conscious or subconscious.  In health, the subtle energy flows throughout the chakra system to the cells of the body.  However, following trauma or an accident etc., there is a reduction in this energetic flow, leading to an imbalance, which can surface as localised pain or discomfort.  Specific body positions can also ignite cellular memory, surfacing as physical pain, mental anxiety, or emotional upset.

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Learning to Play the Harp Intuitively

“There is geometry in the humming of the strings,
there is music in the spacing of the spheres.”
Pythagoras

While training in Healing Energies with The Academy of Spiritual Sciences, I bought a small harp and was encouraged by my tutor, Carol Lamb, to teach myself to play intuitively.  Although I already played guitar, I had never created music before and wondered how this would happen…  However, by practising the Emerald Alignment to align my energy to a higher consciousness prior to playing, the music started coming through.  If I started thinking about what I was doing and allow my mind to engage, the musical flow stopped and I would need to align again to reconnect to my intuition.  The more I learned to disengage my mind, the longer I could sustain the intuitive connection, enabling the creative music energy to flow through my body and into the strings.  I felt as if I was in the audience not knowing what was going to come next.  Over time, I became aware of some different musical styles coming through, which led to some musical composition.  I also noticed that mood influenced the music – sadness sounded melancholic and happiness sounded bright and uplifting.

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The Story of the Harp

“Let them praise his name in the dance:
let them sing praises unto him with the timbrel and harp.”
Psalm 149:3, The Bible.

The harp is one of the oldest known stringed musical instruments.  Images dating back to 15,000 BC of harp-like instruments have been found in cave paintings in Ariège, Les Trois Frères region of the French Pyrénées.  The word ‘harp’ or ‘harpa’ originates from the Anglo-Saxon, Old German and Old Norse words, meaning ‘to pluck’.

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Nature’s Healing Music

“There’s music in the sighing of a reed; There’s music in the gushing of a rill; There’s music in all things, if men had ears: Their earth is but an echo of the spheres.”

Lord Byron

In times past, mankind lived closer to nature, dwelling in small towns and villages, without the stimulating hustle and bustle of urban city life.  As a result, people were more in tune with the sights, sounds, scents and cycles of nature, the knowledge of which was passed down from generation to generation as a part of the journey of life.  In the present day, it would appear that the further we have moved away from nature and an understanding of her cycles, the greater the levels of stress we experience in our daily lives. Continue reading Nature’s Healing Music

Playing Music for Global Peace

Every week Louise Oliver uploads a new focus for the Rays of Peace global peace meditation.  I like the fact that anyone in the world can engage with Rays of Peace throughout the week, wherever they are.  The meditation times are 3, 6, 9 or 12 o’clock local time, to keep an ongoing focus around the Earth.  I regularly connect by playing my harp at any one of these hours.

I have always been interested in doing something beneficial for the environment and have always loved playing stringed musical instruments (see: Playing Music in the Environment).  Rays of Peace has allowed me the opportunity to bring these two passions together.  Although I enjoy playing music for music’s sake, I find that when I play for the weekly focus, I feel a sense of purpose, as well as a connection to the greater whole.  I also feel fulfilled in the knowledge that I am doing something of benefit to the planet. Continue reading Playing Music for Global Peace

Playing Music in the Natural Environment

“Music, when healthy, is the teacher of perfect order and when depraved, the teacher of perfect disorder.”

John Ruskin

Following training in Musical Medicine with The Academy of Spiritual Sciences, I learned that playing harmonious music in the natural environment can be healing because it encourages us to reconnect and harmonise ourselves with nature.  This activity can help us gain a greater awareness and respect for our environment, including the rocks, rivers, trees, animals, birds, skies etc., which are all made up from the four elements of fire, air, water and earth.  Simply play a musical instrument or sing, hum or whistle out in the environment, focus on the surroundings, relax into the experience and observe yours and the natural world’s behaviour. Continue reading Playing Music in the Natural Environment

Harp Music Assisting Souls Through Transition

The harp has been described as an instrument that creates a bridge between the physical and non-physical worlds.

The Ancient Egyptians revered the harp as a sacred instrument, which guided the soul through transition from the physical life to the afterlife.  The Egyptian Pharaoh, Ramses III, had many bow harps painted in his tomb. Continue reading Harp Music Assisting Souls Through Transition

The Three Noble Strains of Irish Harp Music

The Harp
Healer of each wounded warrior,
Comforter of each fine woman,
Guiding refrain over the blue water,
Image-laden, sweet-sounding music!

From The Book of the O’Connor Don

In Celtic mythology, we’re told about The Dagda (the Good god of the Gaelic gods) who was a king within the fairy race known as the Tuatha de Danann.  The Dagda had a magical and enchanting harp, which he took everywhere and which would come to him when he called.

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