Handle With Care
“I've been uptight and made a mess
But I'll clean it up myself, I guess
Oh, the sweet smell of success
Handle me with care”
— Traveling Wilburys
This song comes onto my iTunes just as I begin to meditate on the nature of spirituality, ritual, meditation, and authenticity.
Moments before I was questioning my Unconscious Mind as to why I could never really stick to a ritual.
When this song came on, my heart leaped. I LOVE George Harrison and hearing his music always fills me with such joy. Lots of music does that. I am openly a lover and collector of music. It’s medicine for me.
And just then I realised that my perception of what spirituality means is limited. And I always thought I had it sorted.
Music, for me, has a liturgical quality to it. So as the opening verse began, I went to my altar, lit a candle and stick of incense and immediately went into a consecration.
As I did so my awareness dropped into a familiar state - but one I had never associated with listening to music.
It was a state of REVERENCE.
Confucius made it clear that reverence was VIRTUE, and linked to the importance of ritual and rhythm. Reverence allows the PERFECTING-BEING (the person who seeks to cultivate higher virtues to become the best version of themselves as possible, a continuing ongoing process) to develop certain meta-behaviours.
These meta-behaviours are what people have when they enter into a sacred space, what drives the performance of ritual in an authentic manner, and creates a sense of inter-connectivity with something greater than the individual self.
Yes, I’ve experienced this in a sweat lodge, or a Tantric ritual, or a funeral. I’ve also experienced it at a live music gig, walking around Uluru, watching the sunrise in the Himalaya, or making love with my beloved.
It’s not the place or the ritual that is ‘sacred’ - it is the present-moment holding of the state of REVERENCE from within.
Now I get it. I understand why my ‘rituals’ have always felt somewhat inauthentic, even if they have been moved me. Because in most cases, I haven’t necessarily been holding myself with REVERENCE.
So my rituals now will include music. Not new-agey soundscapes, but the music that moves me: rock, pop, prog - anything from George Harrison to Weezer to Iron Maiden to Kylie (isn’t everyone a Kylie fan?!?).
Om namah rock-n-roll-yah
😊🙏🏽🕉
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