Anyone who has been to the cinema knows the dramatic effect of music on emotions. A movie scene is often greatly intensified by the soundtrack which undergirds it. And for some of you who put your own content into videos, you may have, from time to time, added some music to your productions in order to enhance them.
When it comes to spiritual practice, it would be difficult to find a religion that did not incorporate music into its rites. Music appeals to the soul and sometimes lifts us out of mundane concerns into something higher, or at least sweeter.
Is there a place for music in the practice of magic? It depends upon the tastes and the profile of the practitioner. For some, music during the attempt to cast a spell or carry out a ritual might be an intolerable distraction. But there are many who have, and do, employ it as a part of their practice.
For those who do wish to use recorded music in the performance of rites, developments in technology have provided some wonderful resources. Before we think more about those, let’s take a moment to consider what our magical needs might be when it comes to music.
This is one old man talking about his own tastes, and so I ask you to adjust what I say to your own needs and priorities. For me, I want meditative music with long, sustained chords or melodies that move slowly and ballad-like. Strings, synthesizer, choral voices, plaintive violin, perhaps joined with harp, flute, and Irish bagpipe, sound effects including wind, echoed footsteps, and occasionally arresting sounds like the cries of sea birds are all welcome content in my rituals. Dramatic orchestral or electronic music, as long as it does not get too “busy” or virtuosic, may also be useful. On the other hand, unless I am in a particularly fey mood, drums and tambors, sprightly Celtic flute and fiddle music and whickety-whackety, jumping tunes at 6/8 time are not my cup of tea. After all, I’m not dancing, I’m conjuring. For someone else, though, that kind of uplift might be just the thing.
Three developments in technology have revolutionized the use of music for me. The first is the mobile phone. We carry this device around with us everywhere, and it can go for long periods without needing to be plugged in or recharged. This makes it deployable even in outdoor settings, provided they are not too remote.
Most of us have found various music venues on-line which we can listen to for the purposes of entertainment or mood-setting. For magic, my favorite is YouTube; not the music version that specializes in hit songs, but the regular app, in which we find videos on every subject under the sun. I have been delighted to discover thousands of videos providing music for meditation and ritual, many of which play for exceedingly long durations, anywhere from 60 minutes to over 12 hours. On Sundays, when I am doing ritual to commune with the sun god Apollo, for instance, I can easily find a particular video out of thousands which will give me the Egyptian desert ambience I prefer for celebrating Phoebus’s personality of burning solar light. And I have the assurance that the “soundtrack” I have chosen will play for the entirety of the rite without interruption. Er, well, except for commercials. And one other thing.
You can avoid videos with commercials and other interruptions on YouTube by doing the following: if the video you choose starts with a commercial, you can be sure that there are more to follow. Avoid it! Another way to check is to move quickly forward and backward through the production to see if interruptions pop up at points further in. Eventually, you will find certain types of videos, generated by certain individuals or production concerns, that tend to stay free of commercials. As an example, one of my favorite videos is entitled “Sweetest Elf Music.” This piece displays a moonlit night over mountains and a lake, undergirt with meditative music. It runs for a while on YouTube and then begins to get loaded with commercials. Various individuals who love this particular selection then put it up fresh and commercial-free again. Because it is so popular, it is always possible to find more than one latest version, clear of interruptions.
One more thing. If you start a meditation-music video at the beginning, it will automatically shut off at the twenty-minute mark, and you will be asked if you wish it to continue to play. So for the purposes of ritual, start your chosen music twenty-one or more minutes in, and it will continue without stopping.
I said earlier that there were three technological developments that I found useful, but so far I have only mentioned the mobile phone.
Little portable wireless speakers with wonderful sound fidelity and good bass tones are the second of these. In my youth, small meant “tinny-sounding.” Not any more, thank Jove. To be able to do a rite almost anywhere with a tiny but hearty sound system is, well, magical.
The third development for me is the wireless ear-bud. I love these things. Since I perform most of my ritualing in the middle of the night, I love that I can be surrounded by big, high-quality sound and not a peep of it can be heard by my sleeping wife or mother-in-law. For them, thank Hera and Nyx, domestic tranquility is preserved, since the silence of the night, along with their sleep, continues undisturbed.
For those of you who employ music in your magic, I would love for you to hit reply and describe your own approaches to this aspect of bringing drama into ritual!
(Closing note: I am long-winded and opinionated. From time to time, I will say things which leave some readers feeling put off. I hope you will excuse these glimpses of my necessary (but not always pleasant) shadow-self. In the meantime, I benefit and grow personally from interaction and criticism. Please feel free to answer back to my rants, and if necessary, push back! An old man like me is indeed a fool if he cannot accept correction and learn new wisdom from others!)
