Music and ritual
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In the new autobiography Mustane by Dave Mustane (of the band "Megadeath") Mr. Mustane admits to dabbling with Satan, AND supposedly taught something that was called the "devils tricord" (or something like that- I have never heard of it) to the lead guitarist of the group "Slayer."
Slayers album Reign in Blood really bothers me, cant listen to it because I do feel something........well, not nice....and I like to feel nice...
Even though J.Page did not finish the work (?) on the films you mentioned, Page's music is exceptionally suited for many rituals.
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@E S R O said
"While i'm not at all taking a moral stance on this, since i was raised on metal and punk rock which i love so dearly, i do feel emotions that are evoked by these genres cause interference in ceremony. (How can you expect to bask in the love of divinity when you're listening to Tom Araya scream about Auschwitz!)"
Wow. I'm speechless. How can you bask in the love of the Divine when you have so conditioned yourself to limit it? The love of the Divine... nay, I say Love of the Divine, is extreme. It is also sentimental and soothing, yet powerful and when necessary quite forcing. And who's to say what one's Love is in comparison to another's love? Do what thou wilt, and I do what is mine. And love is the Law, and love is under will. There's an alignment there and just because I don't love football does not mean my fraters should also not have such love.
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@Veronica said
"In the new autobiography Mustane by Dave Mustane (of the band "Megadeath") Mr. Mustane admits to dabbling with Satan, AND supposedly taught something that was called the "devils tricord" (or something like that- I have never heard of it) to the lead guitarist of the group "Slayer."
Slayers album Reign in Blood really bothers me, cant listen to it because I do feel something........well, not nice....and I like to feel nice...
Even though J.Page did not finish the work (?) on the films you mentioned, Page's music is exceptionally suited for many rituals."
Slayers music probably bothers you because they use they use thos tritones all the time. It's kind of their signature style. They even had an album named after it's nickname - Diabolus in Musica!
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I often use:
Aural Holograms - www.helixes.org/auralhologram
Ossaserpia - Music for Solve et Coagula - www.horus.cz/WordPress/?p=247.
Sleep Research Facility - Deep Frieze - www.coldspring.co.uk/discography/csr72cd.ph
All of those are quite suitable for the atmosphere without being distracting. And the first 2 seem to be made with ritual use in mind.
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as a musician myself, this is an issue that i have a lot of thoughts, but few conclusions, about.
i generally don't use any music at all in ritual work, as in most cases i am looking for a "sterile" psychological environment in which to work. for me, it feel inappropriate to use most music as it was not designed with the specific ritual intention (of course, one can argue that since music works by inducing an altered state of consciousness, that there is an intention there which can be likened to that of ritual). obviously the presence of lyrics is first thing i would think of as being distracting, but i can see it trickling down into less obvious forms, such as the inexcapable baggage of musical traditions and their influence.
also, i'm sure i am not alone in noticing a definate musical quality of the vibration of god names and so on.
i can think of very few artists who have created music for specific thelemic, or even just qabalistic, rituals. the one band that does spring to mind is coil (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coil_%28band%29). besides being openly thelemic in interviews and so on (and including william breeze as a member), their first release was a work of "ritual music" dedicated to mars, using timings and intruments based on the qabalistic attributes corresponding to mars (a rather poor quality excerpt can be heard here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDVEOXR4rIc). i certainly agree with this sentiment on the sleeve notes to this release:
"Throughout history man has made and used music for two distinct and separate purposes.
In recent years, particularly since the advent of sound recoding, the most popular use of music has been for entertainment - the temporary amusement and distraction of as large a number as possible.
As a consequence many people tend to overlook its more fundamental and ancient uses as a tool for affecting man's body and spirit.
The many varieties of religious music from around the world contain a vast quantity of clues to the way in which sound can affect the physical and mental state of the serious listener, yet many find their association with religion itself - the dogmatism of the churches and the obvious shortsightedness of many cult leaders and their followers - too difficult a stigma to overlook in their appreciation of the sound and its potential, for its own sake."one other release of theirs that i have found to be suitable for ritual, in particular workings with elemental energies, is their time machines album, in which each track has specific correspondences visible on the artwork: www.discogs.com/viewimages?release=59116
occasionally i find traditional music to be useful for energising certain states for ritual work. the rhythms of the asanti and ewe peoples of ghana in particular: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4bZ29w4Nlk
every now and then i will hear a piece of instrumental music which inspires a sense of awe or presencing of divinity, like this one by cyclobe - www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHF-cV9750 - which i have used at certain points during ritual to some effect.
i once decided to make ritual music for my own use, an extended recreation of leila waddell's "tone testament" violin piece as published in vol. 1 no. 8 of the equinox, with preperation of it taking place on october 12, and with all numerical and ratio settings of equipment used set to specific significant values like 93, 666, 418 (or variations of them). however was never hugely pleased with the results. maybe i'll go back and rework it some time in the future.
apparently coil intended on their mars-based work on the being the first in a series of seven, however that never happened. i've often thought about doing my own dedicated to other planets.
i wonder at all, are their any qabalistic correspondences for musical notes and chords, does anyone know?
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On the road, answering quickly on a mobile device...
There's another thread here somewhere discussing note assignments. Each Hebrew letter has a note assigned based on King Scale color, where red = C, red-orange = C#, etc. Chords are interesting, since major chords are all (in zodiacal or color wheel terms) a trine followed by a square; for example, a C major chord is red-yellow-bluegreen or Aries-Leo-Scorpio.
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The rites of Eleusis in the Equinox might be worth looking at. You will find suggestions for types of music appropriate each of the seven planets—melancholy music for Saturn, etc...
A data-base of pieces of music for the elements and planets would be a very useful and suggestive document, imho.
Like using color, perfume and incense, I can see the musical element used to great effect in ritual. At least I would be personally interested in making some practical experiments, possibly in conjunction with skrying.
A lot of the character of a piece of music is dependent on the initial interval of the opening two notes, and the circle of fifths. Foe instance the Star Wars movie theme is a perfect example of a piece of music that could go a long way to helping invoke martial energies, perhaps played as one rose on the planes, starting from a magic circle dedicated to Geburah, a rich and spicy pipe tobacco burning in the censor...
Love and Will
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@Jim Eshelman said
"There's another thread here somewhere discussing note assignments. Each Hebrew letter has a note assigned based on King Scale color, where red = C, red-orange = C#, etc. Chords are interesting, since major chords are all (in zodiacal or color wheel terms) a trine followed by a square; for example, a C major chord is red-yellow-bluegreen or Aries-Leo-Scorpio."
excellent. for others interested, the thread is here: <!-- l --><a class="postlink-local" href="http://www.heruraha.net/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=5385">viewtopic.php?f=20&t=5385</a><!-- l -->
very interesting stuff. if i ever make any pieces based on this attribution, you here will be the first to know!