What (in Your Opinion) Makes Music So Spiritual? Options

For me music is a very useful spiritual tool. It brings me to a meditive state of mind in which I am able to connect with my inner self. In certain songs I am literally brought to tears because of the emotion put behind the songs.
So I guess my answer would be the soul put into the music is what I believe to make it so spiritual.

This post has been edited by Nvrenough: Dec 3 2006, 11:52 PM

A little backround first:

I have been singing since i was 13-14, school choir and what not, have been in one band in another school as well. I've recently taken up playing the violin, cant really say why, i just decided i wanted to actually learn to play something other than my voice one day and thought the violin was perfect (I have small hands/fingers for a guy, so violin "fits"). I've been playing about 6 months now. My family has extensive backround in music (Father played several instruments, same with uncles and grandfather).

Now onto my opinions/thoughts, as i said earlier dureing our PM's, in no real coherent order:


Music has always been a very emotional thing for me. Depending on the type of music, it cant effect my mood dramatically. Memories are often closley associated with the music i listen to (People, be they lovers or just friends, and places mostly). Since i almost always run to music, it has become a trance-inducing tool, and i often ghost write to music (ironically, most of my best poetry comes when im lost in the music while ghost writing).

My understanding is that there is a rythm to everything. In music, we learn the rythm by looking at the time signature (3/4,4/4 or C, 6/8 etc etc), dureing life, however, we dont have the benifit of a time signature. But that isnt to say that there isnt a rythm none-the less. There is a rythm to everything, as i said, this include driving, running, typing, breathing (big one), and especially fighting and dancing, and i mention them together because they are so closley related. My belief is that if one can find this rythm, figure out the time signature for whatever it is that they are doing, they will exceed expectations and do amazing thing in what it is they are doing. Hence the reason you see fighters who "flow", whose movements are so smooth it looks as if they are water, and they are never touched; the same reason you see driver who weave in and out of dangerous courses with perfect precision, the reason you see runners who just never seem to have to stop, etc etc

Then there is the spirit of music. Major and minor keys play a big part here (one major, 3 minor: harmonic, melodic and natural). The spirit of major key music is mostly upbeat (Konstantinos touches very lightly on this in his introduction in "Nocturnal Witchcraft"), and mostly this kind of music evokes a happy, funny, determined or perhaps even courageous state when someone listens to it (barring, of course, memories are associated with it to the contrary). Minor key music, on the other hand, is haunting, and has a dreary, scary and sometimes (perhaps most of the time, depending on the genre) angry tone to it. If the spirit of the music, or the key, does not match the words, there can be severe conflict within someone. Their soul is responding to the key, while the mind is responding to the words, you can see the dilema.

And lastly, singing. Singing is a very interesting one, as everyone has their own unique voice. Depending on the type of music, some singing is loud or soft, and this, yet again, apeals to our emotions. If you think of, say, Evanescence, and some of their new songs. When Amy Lee sings, she has a very airy tone about her, IE: it sounds as if she was whispering the song in your ear, IE: she is very very close to you. In some people, this makes for an uncomfortable situation, where as other people embrace it. Still, i havnt gone to in depth as far as singing goes, but it does go along the same routes as the major/minor keys, the only difference being the words, which may mean one thing or something completley different (music videos, for example, are sometimes nothing like what we would envision).

Just my .02

Tiac

That is a very in depth way to look at it. Extremely insightful at that. I was simply going to say that IMO music is a tribal thing. It goes back to before 4/4 time, before major and minor keys. Its instinct for us to react to music. You put it perfectly however, in saying how it affects us. When I want to think, I listen to Delirium, when I want to practice sword play I listen to Godsmack. Music for me, effects the very core of what I'm attempting to express. If I'm having a bad day, you can usually tell by the music. I'm not very musically talented. I can't play any instruments per say, but I can dj. So the only thing I have to go off of is rhythm, and Tiac, you said it best; "My understanding is that there is a rhythm to everything." I would most certainly agree.
I had a friend who used to do rituals to Disturbed. Not because of the lyrics, but because of the primal nature of the way they are sung. I feel, that listening to Delirium, staring into a fire, can set forth thoughts, dreams, emotions, ect. only available to me in that setting. He thought, listening to Down with the sickness, while staring at smoke would do that same for him. I imagine we were both right in our ways.

This post has been edited by Melathian: Dec 4 2006, 03:05 AM

All matter, energy and forces in the universe move to a pattern. Even pure chaos has its own kind of pattern. Music is the pattern of sounds created by various intruments. We use instruments to affect the molecules in a given area to create a specific sound. This force of sound creates a harmonic resonance -think of like a rock striking water causes ripples outwards in a perfect circle. These ripples are altered as they are affect by barriers and currents; a sort of feedback that ebbs and flows and creates new patterns. When music is created, say the beating of a drum, the affect a stone has on water is similar to the affect the beating drum has on the air. As the sound reaches the ears, harmonic resonance travels through our temporal lobes (where we interpret sound) and creates an affect on the mind. A single instrument creates a single pattern of harmonic resonance. Multiple patterns are created through the use of multiple patterns, including voice. These all over lap to create a sort of harmonic symphony. The actual affect music has one depends on their personal prefferances. I, for one, cannot stand Mexican polka while somebody who enjoys Mexican polka might not enjoy heavy metal. Weather or not the affect music has on people is spiritual is purely open to personal opinion. It can induce altered states of mind, simple relaxation or agression in a mosh pit, for examples.

I've begun to think of the spiritual meanings of music, and to be honest I think it serves a greater purpose than we currently understand. What if there was some kind of structural pattern to our every day lives, some universal harmony sung by (enter your spiritual entity of choice) choirs of angelic beings or somesuch that controls the fates of men. What if that in turn could be harnessed? Perhaps when we make the right decisions it is merely us marching to the right tune as it were for a moment in our lives. Thoughts?

I've begun to think of the spiritual meanings of music, and to be honest I think it serves a greater purpose than we currently understand. What if there was some kind of structural pattern to our every day lives, some universal harmony sung by (enter your spiritual entity of choice) choirs of angelic beings or somesuch that controls the fates of men. What if that in turn could be harnessed? Perhaps when we make the right decisions it is merely us marching to the right tune as it were for a moment in our lives. Thoughts?

There in lies a lot of the theory behind cerimonial magick. The purpose of magick, in generally really, is to harness the forces of the universe to manifest changes in our environment. By creating magick through ritual or what ever other means we are essentially creating music to the "ears" of our environment. And like a person is influenced by music, so is one's environment. The influence on one's surroundings creates disruptions that manifest different changes to one's environment that affect one's life and even the person him/herself.