exploring WILD VOICE
Updated: Jun 18, 2020
I’ve just returned from being on a WILD VOICE retreat with Bethan Lloyd and Katya Barton, at Cae Mabon – ‘the Welsh Shangri La’ in Snowdonia, North Wales. It was transformational beyond what I could have expected. The me that is a leader, a facilitator of similar work, was humbled and inspired so greatly by the bold authenticity of their leadership and of the whole group, that I have felt a deep strengthening of spirit and clear resolve to integrate this deeply into my path ahead. And it’s not like I could remove this from my experience – I am now in a profoundly different reality, where I have been seen and heard by 18 people for 5 days on such a level that there is no going back, or down, or wherever leads to un-truth. It has set for me a paradigm of BEING MY WHOLE SELF, and this continuing into all my work, at a level of integrity that makes the only sense now.
It is more than singing, more than sounding, more than making noise, more than listening – it is about community, ritual & ceremony, honouring the darkness, celebrating the light, honouring our sovereignty, surrendering into mutual holding, honouring our ancestors&where we have come from and visioning our way forth with NO limitations. It is medicine without an ‘M’ but a big ‘mmmm’, as our quiet hums begin weaving the unknown, in a communal flow of brave voices in committed, continual response to one another; it is healing without a ‘H’ but with the ‘haaaah’ of our steady breaths which become the prologue of our group’s heartsong. Earthsong. Watersong. Airsong. Firesong. Spirit song – and there is no ‘wrong’ as we sound together, this is a reminder of our birthright to play, to be heard, to wail, to mimic birds, to shout our voices to running stream, to find melodies for our unsung dreams.
This, for me, is the most important work we could do. Empowering, scary, joyous, work that teaches us our permeability: we are a part of the wild soundscape. When are WILD we are STRONG, and our vulnerability, our letting go of the boundaries between us and icecold river, tree, moss, mountains, and each other, yet holding deep respect for our uniqueness, allows us to co-create in alchemy what in my opinion is the very best soundtrack to life!
Having been very much in this field as an artist and facilitator already, I am now even more certain of my role to share this gift, to offer this work – in my own way of course! Most of all, I feel it has healed a wounded part of me that needed to be healed in order for me to go ahead and step fully into my giving, into leadership. I am super super grateful for this, and cannot recommend Bethan & Katya’s WILD VOICE retreats enough.
You can find them here: https://m.facebook.com/wildwildvoice/
Freshly returned and fully-charged, it is perfect time to share the evolution of my own vocal improvisation offerings for 2020.
That is what I wrote before this big shift happened, which, alomg with millions of others, is making me reconsider how I can offer creativity out into the world in these current challenging times!
I’ll put another post about these when they reveal their form.
For now, I’ll end with a beautiful quote:
“The planet itself abounds with a vigorous resonance… Every place with its vast populations of plants and animals becomes a concert hall, and everywhere a unique orchestra performs an unmatched symphony with each species’ sound fitting into a specific part of the score. It is an highly-evolve, naturally-wrought masterpiece…
Humans too are making their sound heard. As they borrow some from what they hear all around them to convey emotion, perhaps through their body movement and vocal responses, these modern humans will convince the other creatures that they are all just an extension of one sonorant family. This is the Tuning of the Great Animal Orchestra. A revelation of the acoustic harmony of the world.” – Bernie Krause, The Great Animal Orchestra
Stay well!
X<3