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Author Topic: Spiritual associations with albums of music  (Read 2307 times)

Eastling

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Spiritual associations with albums of music
« on: February 06, 2017, 11:30:46 pm »
I've seen a lot of threads about songs people associate with their Powers, or the construction of playlists for ritual; they're good and useful threads and I've participated in a few.

But in the months I've been practicing my own very musically-dependent rituals and meditations, I've noticed that I don't get the best results out of playlists I assemble myself. Instead, I tend to get the most oomph out of albums: sets of songs or musical tracks originally constructed as some kind of whole.

And I haven't seen discussion of this, which is a shame because I'd love to talk about it.

So, does anyone else have spiritual associations involving an entire album or soundtrack instead of (or in addition to) individual songs? What are they, if you're comfortable sharing? This could be anything from "this album really embodies a god I work with" to "I had a specific ritual experience set to this soundtrack once and now it's forever associated with that in my mind." Or whatever else fits.

Feel free to share your feelings on why the music is great, too.
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Eastling

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Re: Spiritual associations with albums of music
« Reply #1 on: February 06, 2017, 11:33:38 pm »
Quote from: Eastling;202405
So, does anyone else have spiritual associations involving an entire album or soundtrack instead of (or in addition to) individual songs? What are they, if you're comfortable sharing? This could be anything from "this album really embodies a god I work with" to "I had a specific ritual experience set to this soundtrack once and now it's forever associated with that in my mind." Or whatever else fits.

Feel free to share your feelings on why the music is great, too.


I'll start off with my own experiences.

I lately worship a personally reconstructed version of Ariadne, a maenadic star goddess of love and death. This post was sparked by my finding this album, which the liner notes explain is "inspired by the cosmos." I find it very fitting for her.

On an even-more-obscure note, I like to use music in languages I don't understand for meditation and ritual, but I also like to know that it has an appropriate meaning in some way even if I can't comprehend it. Enter my steadiest source of ritual music for months: Astrologia no Juuni no Sign, or the Twelve Signs of Astrologia, a Japanese synth-pop album of songs themed to the Classical Zodiac. The actual meanings of the songs are very varied, but it worked so well for my ritual purposes that I have good associations with it.

When it comes to associations via religious experience, though, I have a really good one of being called to find just the right music for a particularly important ritual--and successfully choosing the , which turned out to be perfect.
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Re: Spiritual associations with albums of music
« Reply #2 on: February 08, 2017, 02:09:26 am »
Quote from: Eastling;202405
So, does anyone else have spiritual associations involving an entire album or soundtrack instead of (or in addition to) individual songs? What are they, if you're comfortable sharing? This could be anything from "this album really embodies a god I work with" to "I had a specific ritual experience set to this soundtrack once and now it's forever associated with that in my mind." Or whatever else fits.

So I just plain don't listen to albums much anymore, so all of my answers would go back to high school... U2's Achtung Baby, the Crow soundtrack, Meatloaf's Bat Out of Hell (and also Bat Out of Hell II). They're all albums that are strongly associated with a sort of story, and the feelings and also the Powers that inhabit that story.

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Re: Spiritual associations with albums of music
« Reply #3 on: February 08, 2017, 05:30:36 am »
Quote from: Eastling;202405

So, does anyone else have spiritual associations involving an entire album or soundtrack instead of (or in addition to) individual songs? What are they, if you're comfortable sharing? This could be anything from "this album really embodies a god I work with" to "I had a specific ritual experience set to this soundtrack once and now it's forever associated with that in my mind." Or whatever else fits.

Feel free to share your feelings on why the music is great, too.


The closest I come to an entire album that whacks a spiritual nerve would be Laurie Anderson's Big Science. Her brand of sideways pop storytelling in her performance art/music is often meditative like chanting a mantra, and always seems to bring forth the hidden mythic core in the most unusual things.

Other than that, it's individual works that get me in the spiritual and/or mythic gut, like the pieces from various soundtracks assembled here.
The first song sets the wheel in motion / The second is a song of love / The third song tells of Her devotion / The fourth cries joy from the sky above
The fifth song binds our fate to silence / and bids us live each moment well / The sixth unleashes rage and violence / The seventh song has truth to tell
The last song echoes through the ages / to ask its question all night long / And close the circle on these pages / These, the metamythos songs

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Re: Spiritual associations with albums of music
« Reply #4 on: February 08, 2017, 08:23:26 pm »
Quote from: Eastling;202405


 
This one here is stunning. I haven't exactly worked out *why* it's spiritually significant yet, but when I do I'll let you know.

The Trials of Van Occupanther also resonates, probably because I view a lot of the music as a soundtrack for an oft-wished-for witchy cabin in the woods. I also just love that it tells a story.

Tamer Animals makes me think of Roadwork.
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Re: Spiritual associations with albums of music
« Reply #5 on: February 08, 2017, 08:24:08 pm »
Quote from: HarpingHawke;202489


 
Oh and also Runaljod: Ragnarok because I can't forget Wardruna!
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Re: Spiritual associations with albums of music
« Reply #6 on: February 09, 2017, 04:38:38 pm »
Quote from: Eastling;202405
I've seen a lot of threads about songs people associate with their Powers, or the construction of playlists for ritual; they're good and useful threads and I've participated in a few.

But in the months I've been practicing my own very musically-dependent rituals and meditations, I've noticed that I don't get the best results out of playlists I assemble myself. Instead, I tend to get the most oomph out of albums: sets of songs or musical tracks originally constructed as some kind of whole.

And I haven't seen discussion of this, which is a shame because I'd love to talk about it.

So, does anyone else have spiritual associations involving an entire album or soundtrack instead of (or in addition to) individual songs? What are they, if you're comfortable sharing? This could be anything from "this album really embodies a god I work with" to "I had a specific ritual experience set to this soundtrack once and now it's forever associated with that in my mind." Or whatever else fits.

Feel free to share your feelings on why the music is great, too.


It's going to sound super fluffy (Hey, I owned it!) But Garbage's self titled album. I am a huge fan of shadow work, and this dipped into my shadows something fierce, though I didn't know it at the time.
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Eastling

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Re: Spiritual associations with albums of music
« Reply #7 on: February 09, 2017, 05:11:53 pm »
Quote from: MeadowRae;202512
It's going to sound super fluffy (Hey, I owned it!) But Garbage's self titled album. I am a huge fan of shadow work, and this dipped into my shadows something fierce, though I didn't know it at the time.

 
Garbage sounds about right for shadow work. (I also want to make an Ishtar/Inanna playlist using "The World Is Not Enough" someday but I don't know what else to put on it.)


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Re: Spiritual associations with albums of music
« Reply #8 on: February 10, 2017, 05:43:28 pm »
Quote from: MeadowRae;202512
It's going to sound super fluffy (Hey, I owned it!) But Garbage's self titled album.

 
I've used 'Only Happy When It Rains' as a hook for... so y'know that thing where, when people get together in mobs and dance, it can be (not always, but sometimes, and especially in certain subcultures) a kind of, 'let's raise a bunch of energy so we all have some extra to take home' thing? Well, for facilitating that. (Local goth community, if you're wondering - so does that make me a dark fluff? :))

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Re: Spiritual associations with albums of music
« Reply #9 on: February 13, 2017, 02:31:17 pm »
Quote from: SunflowerP;202528
I've used 'Only Happy When It Rains' as a hook for... so y'know that thing where, when people get together in mobs and dance, it can be (not always, but sometimes, and especially in certain subcultures) a kind of, 'let's raise a bunch of energy so we all have some extra to take home' thing? Well, for facilitating that. (Local goth community, if you're wondering - so does that make me a dark fluff? :))

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Re: Spiritual associations with albums of music
« Reply #10 on: August 17, 2017, 02:26:07 am »

 
This one here is stunning. I haven't exactly worked out *why* it's spiritually significant yet, but when I do I'll let you know.


Thank you for posting.  Really enjoying listening to this.


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(Quote fixed by Morag)
« Last Edit: August 17, 2017, 06:57:01 am by Morag »

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Re: Spiritual associations with albums of music
« Reply #11 on: September 12, 2017, 09:08:55 am »
I've seen a lot of threads about songs people associate with their Powers, or the construction of playlists for ritual; they're good and useful threads and I've participated in a few.

But in the months I've been practicing my own very musically-dependent rituals and meditations, I've noticed that I don't get the best results out of playlists I assemble myself. Instead, I tend to get the most oomph out of albums: sets of songs or musical tracks originally constructed as some kind of whole.

And I haven't seen discussion of this, which is a shame because I'd love to talk about it.

So, does anyone else have spiritual associations involving an entire album or soundtrack instead of (or in addition to) individual songs? What are they, if you're comfortable sharing? This could be anything from "this album really embodies a god I work with" to "I had a specific ritual experience set to this soundtrack once and now it's forever associated with that in my mind." Or whatever else fits.

Feel free to share your feelings on why the music is great, too.

Anything by Loreena Mckennit. I saw her live in concert once, and I think that experience was fairly spiritual. I also love Ravi Shankar and Yasmine Hamdan. Mind you: I haven't listened to these artists in any sort of spiritual or religious setting, but their music takes me away to a place of feeling that I guess you could say is connected to (my conceptions of) spirituality.

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