While we're at it....

[cheddarsox]

What about pantheist "hymns"...in this, I mean songs that speak to you about what you believe, experience etc.

I was driving with my daughter in the car yesterday...playing a favorite CD. The Smashing Pumpkins, and I told her that I sometimes sing one of the songs as a song of praise to What Is. It speaks to me of how I feel about the universe.

It is a love song, but when she thought of the words in the pantheistic context, she agreed that it "fit".

The song is "Stand Inside Your Love"...my understanding of Divine Love is cooperation of all things in the universe to create What Is.

Anyway...wondering if y'all have some songs that speak of your faith or understanding of things.

cheddar

[Windsmith]

Oh. Um... ::looks sheepish::

Art is such a huge part of my practice that I frequently write little ditties to the sun, the moon, the winds, the rain, whatever season we're in. I've even written a couple specifically about pantheism.

I guess it's never occurred to me to listen for any songs that already exist that might reflect my beliefs.

Good question, cheddar. I will ponder.

[cheddarsox]

It would be stupendous if you'd share some of your ditties!

[catgirl]

For me, the main one is "I Wanna Be Inside Your Heaven". I change a couple of the words to fit my meaning better, but that's the best song I've heard that speaks to my beliefs. I prefer Bo Bice's "sinus infection version" (the one he did on Idol) to either one that was released on cd. To me it sounded more heartfelt and dare I say more earthy.

[ravenscape]

"With a little help from my friends" -- the Joe Cocker version.

[Windsmith]

It would be stupendous if you'd share some of your ditties!Oh, golly, I'm not sure about that. When sung, they're fun and kind of boppy. As words on a page, they read as really bad poetry. :twitch:

[Eleisawolf]

There's a song by Dar Williams called, "Mortal City" (from the album of the same name). I often listen to that when I want to connect to hope for what is. Even more, classical pieces such as Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique and Stravinsky's Sacre du Printemps also take me to that place quickly.

However, as a musician, most music is pure spiritual expression to me, so, IMHO of course, picking any one piece is anathema when discussing representations of pantheism. I think what best expresses my pantheism is to listen to whatever strikes me when it strikes me. There's always some level of synchronicity in the music I'm listening to, whether it matches the weather conditions, my mood, or world events. If I find myself humming a song that, a few minutes later, I realize my husband is whistling in the next room without having known that I was humming it, that's an amazing example of spiritual connection and relationship. Music to me is a pure reflection of what is, translated through the human soul.

Peace

[Rhisiart]

I thought about this for a few days after first reading this thread. I have a long history with music, being a musician in many different genres, I felt back to the various pieces that touch me every time I hear them. It comes down to one for me, ADIEMUS from the Adiemus Project by Karl Jenkins. Many attribute the song to Enya or Enigma as you will see if you follow the link, but alas this isnt true.

I have posted a link to a video on YouTube that shows some of the imagery I see when I hear the song. While I believe the video needs work, many of the images are powerful representations of Nature and the Universe. It covers all, from the pollination of the bees, the opening of a flower, to the great migrations of birds and beasts and the furry of the storm. I see worlds being born and stars torn assunder, humanites wisdom and childrens simple joy. There are no words to confuse or pull meaning from, only phonetic vocals and sweeping music.

If youve never heard it, here is the link. Let me know what you think...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCH_RZ1G8dY

[cheddarsox]

If youve never heard it, here is the link. Let me know what you think...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCH_RZ1G8dY

Thanks for sharing that. Powerful. It really reminded me...again, how astounding the universe is.

For those of you who don't know..I have my own little pantheist religion called "Ardent Pantheism", and the motto that came to me this past week is "Search no further than the truth".

The video definitely confirmed that for me. What Is...is so incredible...I can't waste my time or energy on What might be, or anything else. The truth of it is overwhelming!

cheddar

[cheddarsox]

However, as a musician, most music is pure spiritual expression to me, so, IMHO of course, picking any one piece is anathema when discussing representations of pantheism. I think what best expresses my pantheism is to listen to whatever strikes me when it strikes me. There's always some level of synchronicity in the music I'm listening to, whether it matches the weather conditions, my mood, or world events. If I find myself humming a song that, a few minutes later, I realize my husband is whistling in the next room without having known that I was humming it, that's an amazing example of spiritual connection and relationship. Music to me is a pure reflection of what is, translated through the human soul.

Peace

So true! (I like Dar Williams too) music, all art, is just expression of What Is...so its all "hymns"...

I work at a CD distribution warehouse...they had a sale yesterday in the company store...10 CDs for 10 dollars...drool...I bought everything from industrial rock to Nat King Cole...and it's all sacred music to me.

What makes any art "good" is it's honesty. If someone has put their soulful experience into it, it shows. If it arouses my soulful experience...I like it.

I have the day off today...and hope to find a snatch of time to work on a bit of my own soulful art...

cheddar

[peggyelizabeth]

However, as a musician, most music is pure spiritual expression to me, so, IMHO of course, picking any one piece is anathema when discussing representations of pantheism. I think what best expresses my pantheism is to listen to whatever strikes me when it strikes me. There's always some level of synchronicity in the music I'm listening to, whether it matches the weather conditions, my mood, or world events. If I find myself humming a song that, a few minutes later, I realize my husband is whistling in the next room without having known that I was humming it, that's an amazing example of spiritual connection and relationship. Music to me is a pure reflection of what is, translated through the human soul.

YES!!!
It doesn't matter to me what the music is, if it reaches deep inside me, it's sacred. I'm just as moved by a southern Spiritual as I am by drumming as I am by bagpipes.

[Windsmith]

There's a song by Dar Williams called, "Mortal City" (from the album of the same name). I often listen to that when I want to connect to hope for what is.Eleisa, I was thinking of a Dar Williams song, too, from that same album - "The Ocean." It sometimes strikes me as a song about religion, and what people hope to get out of religion.

When I went to your town on the wide-open shore
Oh, I must confess I was drawn
I was drawn to the ocean
I thought it spoke to me.

But...

"The ocean said, 'What are you trying to find?
I don't care; I'm not kind.'"

I don't see that as a bad thing. The ocean's not cruel; it just is, and we humans would do well to learn to deal with it as it is, rather than trying to superimpose our beliefs about what it "should" be.

Just a rambly thought I was having.

[faery songs]

I was raised a Christian, and some Christian hymns still really speak to me as a pantheist. My favorite is "How Great Thou Art".

When through the woods and forest glades I wander
and hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees,
When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur
and hear the brook, and feel the gentle breeze;

Then sings my soul, my saviour, God, to thee:
How great Thou art, how great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, my saviour, God, to thee:
How great Thou art, how great Thou art.

There are more verses, but I can't remember them.

[Windsmith]

I have a new favorite pantheist hymn; I've been singing it almost constantly for the past week: They Might Be Giants' "Why Does the Sun Shine?"

The sun is a mass of incandescent gas
A gigantic nuclear furnace
Where hydrogen is built into helium
At a temperature of millions of degrees

Yo ho, it's hot, the sun is not
A place where we could live
But here on Earth there'd be no life
Without the light it gives

We need its light
We need its heat
We need its energy
Without the sun, without a doubt
There'd be no you and me

The sun is a mass of incandescent gas
A gigantic nuclear furnace
Where hydrogen is built into helium
At a temperature of millions of degrees

The sun is hot
The sun is large
The sun is far away

And even when it's out of sight
The sun shines night and day

The sun gives heat
The sun gives light
The sunlight that we see
The sunlight comes from our own sun's
Atomic energy

The sun is a mass of incandescent gas
A gigantic nuclear furnace
Where hydrogen is built into helium
At a temperature of millions of degrees

[ravenscape]

I love it! TMBG's songs really resonate for me, too. Birdhouse in My Soul is one that somehow captures the conflicts, contradicitons, and comforts of living a deep spirituality without overt theism.

I'm your only friend
I'm not your only friend
But I'm a little glowing friend
But really I'm not actually your friend
But I am

Blue canary in the outlet by the light switch
Who watches over you
Make a little birdhouse in your soul
Not to put too fine a point on it
Say I'm the only bee in your bonnet
Make a little birdhouse in your soul

I have a secret to tell
From my electrical well
It's a simple message and I'm leaving out the whistles and bells
So the room must listen to me
Filibuster vigilantly
My name is blue canary one note* spelled l-i-t-e
My story's infinite
Like the Longines Symphonette it doesn't rest


(Chorus)

I'm your only friend
I'm not your only friend
But I'm a little glowing friend
But really I'm not actually your friend
But I am

There's a picture opposite me
Of my primitive ancestry
Which stood on rocky shores and kept the beaches shipwreck free
Though I respect that a lot
I'd be fired if that were my job
After killing Jason off and countless screaming Argonauts
Bluebird of friendliness
Like guardian angels its always near

(Chorus)

(and while you're at it
Keep the nightlight on inside the
Birdhouse in your soul)

Not to put too fine a point on it
Say I'm the only bee in your bonnet
Make a little birdhouse in your soul

Blue canary in the outlet by the light switch (and while you're at it)
Who watches over you (keep the nightlight on inside the)
Make a little birdhouse in your soul (birdhouse in your soul)

Not to put too fine a point on it
Say I'm the only bee in your bonnet
Make a little birdhouse in your soul

Blue canary in the outlet by the light switch (and while you're at it)
Who watches over you (keep the nightlight on inside the)
Make a little birdhouse in your soul (birdhouse in your soul)

Not to put too fine a point on it
Say I'm the only bee in your bonnet
Make a little birdhouse in your soul

[Eleisawolf]

I have a new favorite pantheist hymn; I've been singing it almost constantly for the past week: They Might Be Giants' "Why Does the Sun Shine?"

*laugh* I've loved that song for a LOOOOOOOONG time. Never thought of it in the Pantheistic sense, though of course it fits. For me, it always seemed like it should accompany a 1950s science film. LOL

"Awww, see? Now our friend Jimmy has looked directly at the sun... wow, Jimmy, that must've burned! Next time, Jimmy will know better, won't you, Jimmy?"

:awilly:

Peace

[faery songs]

I've never actually thought about TMBG's songs in a spiritual sense, but it makes perfect sense. xD

[RavenStars]

This song leaves me breathless every time I hear it. I feel so alive, everything is so alive, yet there is a cosmic transience... ah poo, I don't have words for it. His music is just plain magical.

“i carry your heart” by e. e. cummings as performed by Michael Hedges.

here is your deepest secret
nobody knows
here is the root of the root
and the bud of the bud
and a sky of a sky of a tree called life
which grows higher then the soul can hope
and the mind can hide
and this is the wonder that's keeping
the stars apart

[Silverfangs]

The video with the Enya music "adiemus" just reminded of another one by the same artist, that just transports me to deep toughts. It is called "Exile". I specially like this line:

"my light shall be the moon and my path -- the ocean.
My guide the morning star as I sail home to you

I'll wait the signs to come. I'll find a way.
I will wait the time to come. I'll find a way home."

[Eleisawolf]

This song leaves me breathless every time I hear it. I feel so alive, everything is so alive, yet there is a cosmic transience... ah poo, I don't have words for it. His music is just plain magical.

“i carry your heart” by e. e. cummings as performed by Michael Hedges.

I've never heard the version you mention here. However, my husband, a classical composer, also wrote an art song for that poem, which I premiered for him in a concert last year. It's set for mezzo-soprano and piano. The way he set it is even somewhat Pantheistic, because the piano has equal weight with the voice. It is its own voice. The piece would not be complete without each element--voice, piano, poetry, and silence.

I find the poem, in itself, to be a wonderfully Pantheistic expression of what love means. And the allusion to the Tree of Life isn't the only reason. Because what is it that is the root of the root and the bud of the bud, and what is the secret that's keeping the stars apart?... to wit:

------
i carry your heart with me
i carry it in my heart
------

Nice choice--and thanks for giving me that moment.

Peace

[Tanya]

Windsmith... strangely that is one of the songs I sing daily to my daughter....often when we first see the sun...

good fun...

good science!

personally for me though.. little beats "Seven Bridges Road"

[Windsmith]

Windsmith... strangely that is one of the songs I sing daily to my daughter....often when we first see the sun...Oh! Tanya, that's wonderful. What a great Mom-song.
personally for me though.. little beats "Seven Bridges Road"Whoa. I have loved that song for years and never been entirely sure why. Could it be that all along, I knew it was singing to what I believed but couldn't articulate?

Nahhh...

[Tanya]

hey Windsmith
.. do you know "Annie's Song"

also a strong favorite with me.

[Windsmith]

hey Windsmith
.. do you know "Annie's Song"

also a strong favorite with me.Uhhh...not so much a John Denver fan. But I can definitely see how the lyrics can be read as pantheistic.