Land, Tribe, Ancestors - June 2010

Hauling wheelbarrows of goatshit uphill through the woods in Charlie’s undisturbed farm – all I can hear are birds bees and insects. All I can see are trees, mountains and earth. And the occasional handmade wooden building or yurt. This nt nt nt nt of nearby insects having relaxed conversations.

Land tribe ancestors.

So. (I’d like to recollect w Limina what people said at that talkaoke.)

Many people, all over, are hungry for stronger community, stronger tribe.

Many people, all over, are hungry for more contact with nature, with land.

Many people, all over, might benefit from more connection with their ancestors, though they may not think much about it now, it’s so foreign in our Christian culture. Christianity did away with the ancestors – turned a few into Saints, sent the rest to heaven or hell to live forever elsewhere, in disconnection. (what about guardian angels?) And for those of us who don’t believe in Heaven or Hell, the dead are simply Gone.

So what do we do abut that within our existing communities? Without taking all the people with a special sense for these connections out of existing communities and throwing them all together in an over-intense intentional community?

Here’s what I’m thinking, lugging shit up a hill.

Tribe

We nurture tribe by playing, celebrating and worshipping together. (what about making our meaning, solving our problems, improving our lives together?) If we create a scaleable model with the fun fed, shareable practices, and my work on this might extend beyond the fun fed – we could nurture Tribe in many different places.

… more notes in notebook 1.1

Henry's funeral

Henry’s funeral was beautiful.

I feel some ideas.

At the arrival I felt empty handed. I felt I wanted to have brought, found or made an object to symbolize something of what Henry has meant to me in my life.

I felt like I wanted to put that object together with other people’s objects, to create a shrine, either to be buried or burnt with him, or to be kept as the shrine to him.

I also felt like I wanted more of a circle, more space to hear everyone’s story of Henry. I loved the speeches and the things that the vicar said, she did a really tender job of making meaning out of it. She brought in the ‘what God would say if he was here’ bit – and I valued that. Who will speak at these events on behalf of the Other? And also, who will sing and dance and move on behalf of the Other?

I also wanted a bit more space for grief. I wanted to broaden the boundaries of what’s acceptable. I wanted to interact beyond words.

Finally, I’m not entirely comfortable with the elemental disconnection of the cremation process. I liked burying Charlie and covering his cardboard coffin first with rosemary, for remembrance, and then with earth. I liked the viscerality of that. These crematoriums with their seating in rows, and the curtains electronically closing, the coffin electronically being removed back or down away, closure, ending, seen and viscerally known – doesn’t satisfy me viscerally – it feels somehow like the death supermarket, the death ikea, the death conveyor belt moving your goods towards processing at the check out

Crass I know yuk but it feels true. I don’t know what the answer is, I know there’s not enough land for us all to be buried in these cities. But how do we say goodbye to the body more viscerally, more elementally, without getting gory?

I don’t know if this would work.

But here was a thought that seemed to encompass most of these things.

A circle, however many layers deep of people

In a sanctuary of a space, with nice lighting.

With people taking it in turns to place the objects that they have found or created

In their grieving

To place them in a shrine that is created in the centre of the circle

Taking it in turns to tell the assembled their stories, what the dead person means to them, a memory, a quality

But actually I wanted that circle before death

I wanted us to do it in life

We kept so far away

When we saw him last, the party we had with him,

We kept so polite

I told him in a letter, after the diagnosis, what he meant to me

So that’s it really, a circle, objects, the creation of a shrine

Maybe some singing

And crying

Some songs that could go on a while

Enveloping the feelings of the present

And while the circle passes

Anyone could cry

And that would be ok

Songs like the seal woman’s song

Easy to learn

And then to put some soul into

So that the soul of the music comes not through the words, as it does with the lyrics of our Christian hymns we sing, but through the spirit of the assembled in singing.

Meaning through body, through heart.

I don’t know about what to do with the body.

Service

I had an interesting conversation at Anthea's wedding with smart young (ish) man with a fantastic complexion who turned out to know rather a lot about shamanism.

"The ego can easily get carried away in that role, though," he said. "It's important to retain the idea of service."

Who are you serving?

How?

How well are you serving them?

How do you know?

Ritual singing reading list

Mu-Ga: Ritual Songs of the Korean Mudangs by Im Sok-Jae, Sok-Jae Im and Alan Heyman (Paperback- Oct 2003)


Guji Oromo Culture in Southern Ethiopia: Religious Capabilities in Rituals and Songs (Collectanea Instituti Anthropos, 39) by Joseph Van de Loo (Paperback - 1991)


Kiowa Voices: Ceremonial Dance, Ritual and Song v. 1 (Kiowa Voices Series) by Maurice Boyd(Hardcover - Jul 1981)


SONG PERFORMANCE AND RITUAL (AA317 WORDS AND MUSIC) by THE OPEN UNIVERSITY and BILL STRANG (Paperback - 2008)

Woman Prayer, Woman Song: Resources for Ritual by Miriam Therese Winter (Paperback - Jan 1996)

2 new from £22.95 9 used from £1.58 

Frost and Fire: a Calender of Ritual & Magical Songs by Watersons (Audio CD - 2004)

2 new from £31.95 3 used from £5.46

Circles of Song: Songs, Chants and Dances for Ritual and Celebration by Kate Marks (Paperback - Aug 1994)

7 new from £21.90 8 used from £17.91

Dance and Song Rituals of Six Nations Reserve, Ontario by Gertrude Prokosch Kurath (Paperback - Jan 1981)

1 new from £54.95 4 used from £18.92

Salish Songs and Rituals by Carl Cary (Paperback - Jun 1969)

2 used from £59.94 

Books: See all 3,432 items

Africa: Ceremony, Song and Ritual (Belwin Symphonic Band) by Robert W. Smith (Paperback - Sep 1994)

1 new from £70.34 2 used from £70.33

We are the Circle: Celebrating the Feminine in Song and Ritual by Julie Howard (Paperback - 30 Sep 1993)

1 new from £101.95 6 used from £6.81

Songs of the Shaman: The Ritual Chants of the Korean Mudang by Boudewijn Walraven (Hardcover - 12 Apr 1994)

Songs, Roars & Rituals - Communication in Birds, Mammals & Other Animals (Na) by LJ Rogers(Hardcover - 7 Aug 2001)

Bands, songs, and shamanistic rituals: Folk music in Korean society by Keith Howard (Unknown Binding - 1990)

1 used from £64.75

Songs for the Bride: Wedding Rituals of Rural India (Studies in Oriental culture) by Wg Archer(Hardcover - 29 Aug 1985)

Ritual Songs of the Nomadic Taiga People by Evenk (Audio CD - 2003) - Import

Buy new: £22.42

Ritual Songs and Dances from Africa by Adzido (Audio CD - 2005)

Buy new: £18.31

7 new from £10.71 3 used from £7.98 

Ritual Music and Secular Songs by John Taverner (Paperback - 2003)

1 new from £90.00

Revivals Rituals and Union Songs by Southern Tenant Folk Union (Audio CD - 2008)

Buy new: £9.97

6 new from £9.97 3 used from £8.96

Papua New Guinea - Songs and Dances from Papua New Guinea: Healing Feasting and Magical Ritual by Various Artists (Audio CD - 2001)

Buy new: £17.74

11 new from £1.99 2 used from £2.60

Seasons Ceremonies and Rituals: the Calender in Traditional Song by Various Artists (Audio CD - 2002)

Buy new: £11.36

4 new from £6.75 1 used from £4.88

Evenk - Siberia Vol. 8 by Various (Audio CD - 2003)

Buy new: £13.67

5 new from £10.01

Tavener: Eternity's Sunrise by John Tavener, Paul Goodwin, Academy of Ancient Music, Academy of Ancient Music Chorus and Patricia Rozario (Audio CD - 1999)

Buy new: £18.41

5 new from £8.99 4 used from £7.35 

Download MP3 Album: £7.49

Ritual Songs from by Various Artists - International - Far East - General (Audio CD - 1995) - Import

Buy new: £22.75

13 new from £10.08 3 used from £27.17

Huron Ritual Songs [VINYL] by Francois Vincent Kiowarini and Claude Vincent Sawatanin (Vinyl)- Import

1 used from £34.90

Shamanic Songs & Ritual Chants [CASSETTE] by Flight of the Hawk (Audio Cassette - 1997)- Import

Currently unavailable

Songs of Tibet by Dhumkhang (Audio CD)

5 used from £2.81

Shamanic Songs & Ritual Chants by Flight of the Hawk (Audio CD - 1997) - Import

Buy new: £19.78

18 new from £7.59 3 used from £13.19

True Crown Foundation Songs: Hymns of History and Hidden Ritual by The Lucky Nine (Audio CD- 2005)

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11 new from £0.78 3 used from £0.01

Essential Judaism: A Complete Guide to Beliefs, Customs and Rituals by George Robinson (Paperback- 3 Dec 2001)

Buy new: £12.00 £8.40

Ritual song of defiance: A social history of students at the University of Otago by Sam Elworthy(Unknown Binding - 1990)

Currently unavailable

I Will Sing of What I Know: Fifty Lyrics, Ritual Songs and Ballads from the Kanteltar (Publications of the Finnish Literature Society) by Keith Bosley (Paperback - 1 Jan 1990)

Ritual songs and folksongs of the Hindus of Surinam (Orientalia Rheno-Traiectina) by Usharbudh Arya(Unknown Binding - 1968)

A round

A round is a simple, beautiful form.

It can be used for anyone approaching any kind of transition, or something that is a Big Deal.

It works like this.

The group sits in a circle. The person approaching the transition, or Thing of some kind, speaks (from the heart of course - use a talking stick for this?) of what they are about to undergoe and what it means to them.

The group then, one by one, says something to the transitionee. It can be anything. It can be something about a quality of theirs that is relevant now; some words of wisdom about the nature of the transition, or what lies on the other side, if the speaker has gone through the transition themselves; it can be a fond memory of the transitionee in the stage that they are now leaving. It can be anything.

When you introduce it, it's good to ask the group not to spend their time thinking about what they will say. When their turn comes, the right thing to say will come to them. They can listen for it then, when the time comes, and trust that. It's best if everyone gives their full attention to each speaker.

At the end of the round there's energy for some kind of catharsis. A group hug, a big toast, a bit of singing and dancing.

It works nicely at the end of a dinner while people are digesting and before they get up to dance.

Different functions of rituals

picture: slehemann.de

Ruth-Inge Heinze, in The Nature and Function of Rituals (2000), cites Wallace on p7 distinguishing the following types of rituals:

• "Technological rituals: to control nonhuman nature (divination, intensification to increase food supply) (1966:107-112) [eg orchard Wassailing]
• Protective rituals: to avert misfortune (1966: 112-113)
• Therapeutic / antitherapeutic rituals: to cure or to inflict injuries (1966:113-126)
• Ideological rituals: to control social groups and values (rites of passage and territorial movements) (1966:112) [I don't like 'control' here - to influence / nurture?]
• Social intensification rituals: to renew group solidarity (Sunday services, rebellious rites that bring about catharsis) (1966:130-138) [sounds like the Fun Fed :)]
• Salvation rituals: to cope with personal difficulties (possession, shamanic and mystic rites, expiation) (1966:138-157)
• Revitalization rituals: to cure societal difficulties and identity crises (millennia movements) (1966: 157-166 [see also Eliade 1974: 313-322 for secret brotherhoods])"

I'm not sure where the key opportunities for ritual I've so far identified - to mark seasonal transition, and to mark personal transition through different life stages, fit into this. Maybe the first is 'technological ritual' - to connect with, rather than control, non-human nature. I can't see the personal transition rituals in there. They are wellbeing rituals, not therapeutic - not treating a problem, but ensuring good psychological health.

"Grimes used a different classification system", Ruth notes. Where Wallace seems to identify purposes of rituals, Grimes focuses more on the different forms:

• "Ritues of passage: 'couvade', birth, baptism, initiation, puberty, circumcision, marriage and funerary rites (mortuary, mourning, unction (anointing), burial, cremation) are listed separately, although they are rites of passage too
• festivals: celebrations, feasts, carnivals, contests, sports, games
• pilgrimages: quests, processions, parades
• purification rites: fasts, pollution, taboos, sin, confession (I'd add water and heat stuff)
• civil ceremonies: royal rites, enthronement, legal ceremonies, warfare
• Rituals of exchange: hunt, agricultural / ecological food offerings, potlatch
• worship; liturgy, prayer, sacraments
•  magical rites: fertility, divination, sorcery, oracles
• healing rites: shamanic rites, psychedelic rites, exorcism, therapy, dream incubation
• interactive rites: habits, secular rites
• meditative rites: possession, conversion, trance
• rites of inversion: rebellion, clowning, joking, and obscenity; revitalization
• ritual drama: pageantry, experimental and entertainment rites (Grimes 1985:2)