Reiki Help Blog :: Oasis Reiki Dojo

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Please read my personal musical journey before the reviews of these magical CDs, for it puts it all into context.

I’ve always been a music head. I was living in London with my parents when Help! by The Beatles was released. I was five and it was probably the first album I had. The single, “Get off of My Cloud” by the Rolling Stones topped the charts the same year.

The predominant music in my house was Edith Piaf, Charles Aznavour, Astrud Gilberto, some Italian crooners, Jazz and Latin music, with some pop of the era like Petula Clark.

There was also the classics, mostly Russians like Rachmaninov, completely over the top and engaging. Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos were a favorite.

Later I did the whole Jimi Hendrix, Led Zepplin, Pink Floyd, David Bowie, Fleetwood Mac, Supertramp, The Police, Talking Heads and many others in no-particular-order-thing.

Then it was Blues and Jazz for the longest time. Forever. Very serious and utterly devoted. I dreamt of studying the Blues curriculum offered in some Southern university, and having front row seats to Miles.

Monk and Mingus were gods, Coltrane an elder. The list is looong. Very long.

I’ve omitted a lot of names from the other genres too. You get the point.

I’m not a musician. I played guitar and the sax for a while, could read rudimentary music. Then I forgot it all. Later, Paramahansa Yogananda channeled himself down my arms and taught me how to play his songs to the Divine on the harmonium.

I was instantly able to read basic music again and found my singing voice. This was unique because as an actor for twenty years, I’d never sung. In fact, I’d been told I was tone deaf. What a lark!

I became enraptured with devotional chanting and lead three hour sessions every Friday, as well as at many other gatherings. The chanting and untrained voice talent have continued. I’ve forgotten how to play the harmonium or read music, unless I pick it up again.

Finally I became a fan of healing, world and devotional music. More than a fan, this kind of music has become a practice, because it teaches.

The reviews below have emerged from the astounding people I’m meeting on Twitter. I’m not a musician but have an affinity to it, and as a Soul Whisperer^SM can recognize substance. This is music that grabbed me instantly and transported me to imaginal realms of deep connection and beauty.

Beloved by Ashana

When Ashana friended me on Twitter and I listened to “Opening to Love” on her MySpace page, I couldn’t stop listening and had an instant recognition. Within the first few chords my chest changed and love was present immediately. It’s from Ashana’s latest album, Beloved.

These songs are musical experiences of the Divine, harmonies to the Divine, and an undeniable example of artist as vessel.

Ashana breathes and gives life to alchemy and classic frosted crystal singing bowls. She also sings and composes. On Beloved, Thomas Barquee is co-writer on all but one track; producer, arranger, and on keyboards, bass and vocals. The other instrumentation includes cello, guitars, tablas and percussion.

Let’s be clear though, this is ethereal music and the arrangements make use of these instruments in unique ways.

Barquee’s arrangements and production values are richly sensitive and provide a container for this music that wouldn’t be readily available in other hands.

Before going into any other details, and fully acknowledging her special touch with crystal bowls, let me mention that Ashana’s voice is…purity personified. It has a singular clarity and a layered presence.

The Tracks

One of my favorite aspects of Beloved is that it honors world traditions. For instance the first track You are My Breath includes the Sufi invocation, La’illaha il’Allah, meaning “There is nothing other than You, O God. You alone are God!” This is really the title track of the album as it’s a serenade to the Beloved.

I’ve been a fan of The Aramaic Lord’s Prayer for some time now, in various translations that are so radically powerful, compared to the version in the regular translations of the Bible. Here, Ashana actually sings a version by Dr. Neil Douglas-Klotz in Aramaic. Listen once and you’ll understand why I’m so moved by this music. Clocking at 10:10 minutes, it can easily be put on prepetual repeat.

O Birther! Father- Mother of the Cosmos
Focus your light within us – make it useful.
Create your reign of unity now-
through our fiery hearts and willing hands
Help us love beyond our ideals
and sprout acts of compassion for all creatures.
Animate the earth within us: we then
feel the Wisdom underneath supporting all.
Untangle the knots within
so that we can mend our hearts’ simple ties to each other.
Don’t let surface things delude us,
But free us from what holds us back from our true purpose.
Out of you, the astonishing fire,
Returning light and sound to the cosmos.
Amen.

Dona Nobis Pacem means “Give us peace” from the Roman Catholic mass. This track highlights Ashana’s voice. It’s also impressive in how the guitar is played to sound like an instrument from the Renaissance. In fact, throughout the whole album the juxtaposition of all the instruments is surprising. It really makes me smile for instance to hear tablas accentuating this very Latin chant.

Opening to Love comes from a depth of heart the world needs so much. Ashana actually wrote it for a deceased friend, but as is the universal theme of this album, and as she says on her website: “I dedicate this piece to his spirit, which is of course, the spirit of everlasting, unconditional love that is the essence of who we are.”

Only You in My Heart has no notes about it. It doesn’t need explanation. You refers to…you know by now.

Deep Peace is a traditional Gaelic blessing that I happen to email to my students as my wish for them after completing Level I Reiki. This version has 10 and 12 inch Aqua Gold crystal singing bowls as drones in an arrangement which gently rocks you side to side in peace, literally.

Deep peace to you.
Deep peace to you.
Deep peace of the running wave to you.
Deep peace of the flowing air to you.
Deep peace of the quiet earth to you.
Deep peace of the shining stars to you.
Deep peace of the gentle night to you.
Moon and stars pour their healing light on you.
Deep peace to you.

Here’s what Ashana says about Alleluia – Wahe Guru: “Alleluia” is a word used in both Jewish and Christian traditions to express praise, joy and thanks to the Divine. Wahe Guru! is the primary mantra of the Sikh religion, and means “Wonderful Lord!” Yogi Bhajan, who brought Kundalini Yoga and Sikhism to the West, translated it even more deliciously as “Indescribable Ecstasy!”

Beloved is a complete work and substantial achievement. I’m very enamored of way the cello is a constant presence and highlighted beautifully in several parts. There are rich, sustained basses and other drones, eloquent guitar, embellishing keyboards, and bemusing tablas.

Then it’s all tied together by the presence of the Divine that fills you from the speakers or headphones.

Now go buy it! >> Beloved

Cello Circles by Kalyan and Sambodhi Prem

I was having a conversation on Twitter with someone about my love for the cello when Sambodhi Prem friended me and introduced me to this collaborative album. Entirely composed and performed by Sambodhi and Kalyan, and produced by Sambodhi, Cello Circles also instantly stopped me to listen and opened my heart. Then my mind opened too!

Kalyan is a classically trained cellist, and can also be heard here as a multi instrumentalist on dilubra, recorders, kena flute, Japanese kyotaku flute and fretless bass.

Sambodhi is on acoustic and electric guitars, bass and sound modules.

Seven years in organically coming together, this is richly evocative music. Textured, layered and endless; when a track or the CD finishes there’s a palpable resonance in the room and in the listener.

It’s remarkable that this music is driven by improvisation. When it’s of this quality, mastery is the only word that comes to mind. Living on separate continents, Sambodhi and Kalyan meet in the circle of creativity, and add sheer beauty to the world.

In the literature Sambodhi supplied me, he says, “I love the cello because it’s able to express great depths of sadness and is equally able to reach the heights of joy…” I agree, and cello is just so warm to me and brings a fullness of heart.

I’m partial to the fretless bass too, and the slide trombone. I think I just like instruments that don’t show you where your fingers go. It adds a dimension of actually feeling where the notes are.

The Hindu dilubra is plucked on Leaving Space, and bowed on Spring Water. The Japanese kyotaku is heard on This Moment. Kalyan’s cello is faultless and elevates this instrument. He plays it with a passionate authority, and the sound it yields is full and liquid.

To break down Cello Circles to its individual tracks would be a disservice. This album is a continuous journey, aesthetic and exquisite. There are moments of quiet reflection and surges of celebration.

This music is without genre. There are subtle hints of contemporary jazz, orchestral music, studio sounds, meditative music, tributes to nature sounds, and other soundscapes.

While the compositions are built around the cello, what’s built around it has its own value and voice. Sambodhi shines on his guitars. There’s a delicacy to his fret work that’s unmatched, and the ease of spaciousness that comes from stillness. It’s obvious that he put in countless hours in his studio too, flowering the acoustics this music lives in; a labor of love.

The cover art by Sandipa is also gorgeous, appropriately titled “Harmony in Lily Flat Major.” In fact, Sambodhi has quite a few creatives around him and his website is well worth a visit.

What else can I say about Cello Circles? I can’t stop listening to it! Every time I think I’m ready for another mood, this album provides it. To go out to the edge of the known like this is courageous and true artistry.

Now go buy it! >> Cello Circles

The Subtle Body: An Encyclopedia of Your Energetic Anatomy
by Cyndi Dale

This isn’t the type of book that you read cover to cover. It’s a reference work. You have it in your library to look up specific information and to study further those areas that are relevant to you. Colorfully illustrated, it’s a hefty one-of-a-kind work on a subject that really needs to be much more in the spotlight.

The premise of the book is the intuitive truth known through the ages that, “Everything is made of energy: molecules, pathogens, prescription medicines, and even emotions.” Dale defines energy very simply as, “information that vibrates” and goes on to show how that is and what effect it has on us in six well-organized and meticulous sections.

Part I is an overview of energy and its basic terminology. Part II is about physical anatomy but with a twist: that it’s in fact “an extension of the subtle energy system.” The next three sections detail the three subtle energy structures: Fields, Channels, and Bodies.

Part VI is a compendium of energy-based healing methods.

For me, perhaps the greatest contribution this book makes is the copious referencing of seminal figures who have historically studied subtle energy in a scientific way. When we look at medicine or other disciplines today, it isn’t obvious that subtle energy has indeed been scientifically studied and in many cases validated. And it’s a sad comment that despite a strong body of research, most disciplines and the predominant paradigm in society is still mechanistic.

Those of us who are in the arena of spiritual and healing disciplines know and understand that knowledge of subtle levels of reality has been with humanity for eons. So it was with great pleasure that I read about some determined people who formulated and stuck with their scientific explanations of intuitive knowledge.

The bulk of the book is dedicated to Energy Fields, Energy Channels, and Energy Bodies. While the information is scholarly and scientific, Dale is able to put it across in an easily understandable way, with key concepts reiterated throughout. She explains that there are two basic types of energy:

1. Veritable, i.e., physical and measurable
2. Putative, i.e., subtle and immeasurable.

In looking at energy fields, we understand that our energy isn’t contained by our skin, and we each have auric, morphogenetic, etheric and astral fields which play out in a bigger system of L-Fields (subtle physical) and T-Fields (thought).

Energy channels are mostly explained through the lens of meridians as understood in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). While this section furthers how intricately energetic we really are, there are many excellent texts on TCM. For the energy healer, the close connection between emotions and the organs is practical knowledge that can be immediately used.

Energy bodies are discussed in terms of the most well-known teaching: the chakras and the lesser-known nadis. This section is thorough and revealing, with a few surprises. Much of it is explained in terms of the highly respected and celebrated yogic (Hindu) understanding. Even if you think you know your chakras, the bringing together of nadis, koshas (yogic energy bodies) and chakra personalities is impressive.

One of my favorite parts is Dale’s treatment of energy bodies from other cultures, including Tibetan, Mayan, Incan, Cherokee, Egyptian, African, Christian and Kaballah-based.

The book is also peppered with insets which explain in greater detail or provide new information. The bibliography too is excellent and I found myself highlighting some it for further consideration.

Dale adds another welcome element and that is an attempt at unifying the various traditions and scientific data into a workable whole, and succeeds considering the long history of traditions and data. The reader and practitioner can also draw their own conclusions and integrate accordingly.

The final part of the book is a compendium of energy practices. Keyword here is ‘compendium.’ There is a disclaimer at the beginning of the book that it does not in any way replace proper, professional training and rightly so.

I do have a couple of small bones to pick with the author, say about the size of phalanges (bones in the hands and feet.) One is the omission of any information on the Hara as an extensive understanding of the human energetic makeup. This is especially puzzling since Shiatsu is included, and the fact that Hara is a complete alternative understanding to the chakra model.

The other bone is regarding the section on Reiki. Admittedly this is part of the compendium at the end, so space is limited. Exactly for that reason, I wish Reiki was included with its full truth in light of the research that has surfaced in the last decade or so as to its origins and its founder’s biography. It was saddening to see the Reiki ’symbols’ also published and not so accurately. You can read why this is unwise and unhelpful here.

In its sheer scale and depth this is a volume that every spiritual and healing practitioner can without reservation add to their library and keep close at hand. I heartily endorse and heartily recommend it.

My own copy (thank you Cyndi!) will be going right next to:

A Practical Guide to Vibrational Medicine: Energy Healing and Spiritual Transformation
Richard Gerber, MD

and

Radical Healing: Integrating the World’s Great Therapeutic Traditions to Create a New Transformative Medicine
Rudolph M. Ballentine, MD

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This is a partial list, more will be posted under the Healing resources category.

Feel free to forward this list to anyone who may benefit from it. Each book is described briefly, but it’s value can’t possibly be conveyed. These are all “gold.”

1- A Practical Guide to Vibrational Medicine: Energy Healing and Spiritual Transformation

Richard Gerber, MD

An encyclopedic classic on energetic healing according to the ancients and how it complements today’s allopathic medicine.

2- Radical Healing: Integrating the World’s Great Therapeutic Traditions to Create a New Transformative Medicine

Rudolph M. Ballentine, MD

An encyclopedic resource dealing with some of humanity’s oldest healing traditions and how we can benefit from them today.

3- Eastern Body, Western Mind: Psychology and the Chakra System As a Path to the Self

Anodea Judith

A unique, in-depth look at the chakra system and how we can use it to help us in practical, everyday terms.

4- Ayurveda and the Mind

David Frawley

Explores how to heal our minds from the subconscious to the superconscious, along with the role of diet, impressions, mantra, meditation, yoga and many other methods to create wholeness.

5- The Healing Power of Mind

Tulku Thondup

The uncomplicated exercises and insights presented provide an important link between body and mind that strengthens the immune system and reinforces health.

6- The High-Performance Mind: Mastering Brainwaves for Insight, Healing, and Creativity

Anna Wise

The best book on brainwaves and how to use them to your advantage.

7- The Complete Book of Chinese Health & Healing: Guarding the Three Treasures

Daniel Reid

A remarkable book on Chinese medicine, meditation, and related subjects.

8- The Healing Power of Illness: Understanding What Your Symptoms Are Telling You

Thorwald Dethlefsen, Rudiger Dahlke

Indispensable resource for making sense of your symptoms.

9- The Creative Visualization Workbook: Second Edition

Shakti Gawain

The classic work on the power of visualization.

10- The Four Levels of Healing: A Guide to Balancing the Spiritual, Mental, Emotional, and Physical Aspects of Life

Shakti Gawain

Addresses all levels of being for healing and fulfillment to be real and complete.

11- Shaman, Healer, Sage: How to Heal Yourself and Others with the Energy Medicine of the Americas

Alberto Villoldo, PhD

Reveals the concept of working with the “luminous energy field” that surrounds our physical bodies in a practical, easy-to-understand format.

12- Kitchen Table Wisdom & My Grandfather’s Blessing (2 Volume Set)

Rachel Naomi Remen, MD

Wisdom from a doctor who trains other doctors how to be healers again.

13- The Healer’s Manual: A Beginner’s Guide to Vibrational Therapies

Ted Andrews

An excellent primer on the subject.

14- Teach Only Love: The Twelve Principles of Attitudinal Healing

Gerald Jampolsky

Profound teachings on the healing power of love and forgiveness.

15- The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living

Dalai Lama, Howard C. Cutler

In this guide toward personal happiness, His Holiness the Dalai Lama offers great information in regaining lost happiness.