Monday, October 17, 2005
Music at the Sacred Sites
My Flute
Some of you reading this will know that I own a Native American flute. It is a beautiful instrument both to look at and to listen to. I have an unusual relationship with my flute and I always find it very difficult to explain.
When I was preparing to leave for Egypt I knew that it was essential for me to take the flute. I had no idea where it would want to play; I suppose I fondly imagined chugging along on the Nile cruiser, watching the sunset, the flute playing haunting music….something like that. What actually happened was that there were three sites where the flute was bursting to get out of my bag and one where I took it out anyway but then realised it was voice activation that was needed rather than flute music. The Temples of Philae, Edfu and Hatschepsut were flute places. Dendera and Giza were voice places. (See below for pictures of these temples)
I was totally unprepared for the power that gushes forth from the sacred sites in Egypt. It was very noticeable that different sites affected different members of the group differently. In my case there were a few spots that affected me deeply and often, quite unexpectedly. Mostly these spots were directly connected with the goddess Hathour. Usually I would know as soon as I saw the Temple from a distance that the flute would want to play there. Equally I would usually know if it was not the right place to play. I am completely unable to explain the how and why of this process. This was a problem for me in some ways because I usually only play the flute when it is asking to be played. I do not particularly like to start blowing it in any other circumstance. When it does want to be played it can play quite beautifully and if anyone is around to hear it they will often want me to play again. How can I explain that the music is not really coming from me? I either sound evasive or ridiculously precious. I do not consider my flute to be a performance instrument and it will not play to order. In fact if the circumstances are very wrong it will not play at all! I usually have no memory of what it played after we have finished, although I always really enjoy it at the time. I am often in a deep meditation while playing. I felt uncomfortable sometimes trying to explain to members of the group that the flute would not be playing at a particular place.
Anyway I began to understand that some parts of the activations we were performing involved music. Sometimes it would only be a very short burst of flute music required. Perhaps if I describe the occasions when it played for me in Egypt I can get you to understand how we work together.
Philae
The first temple that we visited was the Temple of Philae, dedicated to the goddess Isis. The approach to this temple is via the water. As our boat sailed around to the dock I looked up and caught sight of a small area of the temple courtyard dedicated to Hathour. There were several pillars decorated with the face of the goddess (we were to see this again and again at some of the other temples). I had a strong and very unexpected emotional response to this. It was almost as if someone had reached into my chest and squeezed my heart.
The dock where the boat was landing was in complete chaos. Many similar boats were trying to dock all at once, pushing and shoving each other out of the way to achieve this. Tourists were trying to get on or off boats and being funnelled along a tiny, precarious looking, pontoon & gangplank. Talk about an accident waiting to happen! All through this madness I was being pulled towards the temple by my heart. After an age I was finally ashore. I had no interest in where we were supposed to be gathering or in the rest of the group at this point. I had to get to this little area in the corner of the huge courtyard where I had seen Hathour faces. Despite the fact that the whole area was awash with swarms of people the area I had spotted from the water was deserted. There was also a little shade there (it was stonkingly hot and exposed otherwise). I sat down in the shade right in the very corner and looked up at the column opposite to me into the face of Hathour.(That is the picture at the start of this blog) On my right was the perimeter wall and then the water. I went into a deep meditative state while still being aware of what was going on around me. Michelle http://www.lightweaver.com/ and the rest of the group appeared and she spoke for a while and then our guide did his thing. I listened to pretty much nothing of what he said. All I wanted was for him to move on so I could play my flute. I was to come to understand eventually that the flute would want to be played at the sites connected to Hathour. I cannot remember it wanting to play anywhere else on the whole trip.
The group began to drift away and I pulled out my flute and started to play. It always amazes me how the flute just takes over and different music comes from it every time. I never remember what it plays but I did have an awareness that it sounded especially beautiful in this stunning location. Later in the week one of the group, Horst, told me he’d recorded some of it and let me listen. It was indeed really beautiful. After playing the flute I drifted out of meditation and finally found the group again.
Edfu
At the Temple of Horus in Edfu I drifted away from the group looking for a particular chamber in which to play my flute. We had visited this chamber as a group about half an hour before and it had seemed to me to be depicting the merging of the Divine Masculine with the Divine Feminine in perfect balance. This is a very large temple and contains many chambers inside. All seem to be identical in size (roughly 3m x 6m) but each has unique wall carvings. I couldn’t find this chamber again but was strongly pulled into a different chamber that I hadn’t noticed before. All the carvings on the walls were defaced but there seemed a strong energy. I sat on the floor and meditated for a while, it really was a powerful room. Then I pulled out the flute and it started to play. I have no idea what it played now but at the time I was amazed at the sound it was making. I have never heard it play like that before. It was a brilliant experience. I wish I had a recording of it because now I can’t remember a note but I can remember how I felt while it was playing and I think it must have sounded wonderful. It was almost as if that chamber had been specifically designed for that music. I finished and put my flute away. When I left the chamber I was aware that the guards were scampering around trying to find where the music was coming from, I guessed it was because they wanted to stop me.
Incidentally when I was back on the boat I picked up my guidebook intending to read about the Temple of Horus. There are very few photographs in the book but there was a small photo of the chamber I had found with the defaced figures. Of course they were Hathours. This was just one of so many synchronous things that happened during the week.
Hatshepsut
We visited this temple directly after The Valley of the Kings. We were already hot and tired. You can probably see from the photo below that it was in a very exposed position and the heat was fierce. One or two of the adults in the group were really struggling and the children Idalize and Stephan found it very tough going here. There was almost nowhere to stand that was not being blasted by the full force of the sun. When you look at the photo of this temple you might noice that to the left of the picture there is a section of the temple with no roof (just above the head of the figure in the foreground). This was the area dedicated to Hathour and the part of the temple where the flute wanted to play. A few of the group sat around with me as I played. Not long after I started I became aware of one of the guards making noises somewhere on my right. I guessed they were going to try and stop me playing so I ignored it and carried on. He went to fetch a guard who could speak English who was soon saying “No, no, please…”etc. Again I ignored him until the flute had finished. It meant I only played for a short while but it was enough to accomplish whatever it was I had to do there. It would have been nice to have carried on longer as, once again, the flute sounded good in that spot.
I was interested in the reactions the flute was provoking. I was also interested in my reaction. I felt no anger or resentment what so ever. I felt quite sorry for these guys who were confused and frightened by the music and also probably quite scared that they might lose their jobs, which was probably a real possibility. The incident brought up quite a bit of anger for one member of the group which was a great learning opportunity for her to take. I was also reminded about how threatening the Divine Feminine can be! No wonder they set about defacing us!
