Rebel Songs ~ The Power of Music
It’s still dark when I get up in the morning. Still dark as the kettle boils, loud in the quiet confines of the house while everyone else, save the dog and I, continue their dreams in the land of nod. Still dark as we head out, into the garden, save for a slight lightening in the easternmost edge of the sky.
There’s something special about being outside early on a spring morning.
The dawn chorus is in full flow now, a beautiful sound that fills the heart with delight, if you should just stop and listen for just a moment.
The blackbird perches in the linden tree, or sometimes in the cherry, hidden by the creamy white blossoms that crowd the boughs, the springtime’s crowning glory to be sure. Its song is loud and clear, a melody that sings to the spirit, to the soul.
Isn’t this the power of music? To make us feel, to inspire?
Sometimes that music is beautiful, just like the singing of the birds or the wind through the treetops. Perhaps the music of the woods is my favourite. Standing there on that soft moss covered floor with warm, dappled sunlight on my skin, with eyes closed, listening to the birdsong and the wind through the tree-tops is the most perfect feeling. Other times the music is louder, rougher, not unlike the wind atop of a high hill. Wild and invigorating. Both make you feel alive, albeit in very different ways.
Music is indeed a powerful thing, and as I write this, I do so with two particular songs in mind.
Now, I like all kinds of music, have eclectic tastes ranging from gangster rap to classical and everything in between. There’s always something to suit whatever mood I’m in. There is a power in music. When I used to fight, entrance music was important. I would choose the song well in advance, often at the beginning of fight camp. I’d train to it. On those hard sprints and runs, when the mind turns traitor, urging you to stop, to take a shortcut, it is the music that helps overcome. When you hear that same song on the walk from dressing room to ring, it’s like a touchstone or charm, imbued with the energy of your will. You take that with you into the fight. We occultists and witches know the connection between body and mind. Fighters know it too.
When I listen to Little Simz Introvert, this is what comes to mind. The finding of the power within when the whole world feels like it’s on fire. That single-mindedness needed to stay on course.
And the macrocosm to this microcosm is Death, Profit, Repeat by Overgreen the Machines. When you listen to these, you’ll see what I mean about eclectic tastes. If Introvert pertains to the struggles of daily life, then Death, Profit, Repeat provides an allegory for the cause of most if not all of those seemingly smaller issues. And we all know what that is, right? Sometimes the threads get lost in the wider work, but the underlying issues we all face in our daily lives, for the most part, stem from capitalism and the destruction wrought in its name.
Sometimes it’s too easy to get overwhelmed by it all, the ills of the world. On these days, it is the songs of the land, of nature, that I need the most.
EMMA KATHRYN
Emma Kathryn, practises traditional British witchcraft, Vodou and Obeah, a mixture representing her heritage. She lives in the sticks with her family where she reads tarot, practises witchcraft and drink copious amounts of coffee.
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