Reminder

Thirteen Days of Samhain: Day 11

On the eleventh day of Samhain, the Goddess gave to me:

Eleven witches chanting

Chanting and singing is a powerful and important technique in the Craft of the Wise. For that matter, it’s used by nearly all of the world’s religions as a means to alter consciousness, raise power, work magic, celebrate and as a form of devotion.

Chanting entrains our minds to group consciousness when performed with others. We vibrate our bodies from the inside out in a way that is akin to tuning an instrument. 

These ladies are probably chatting rather than chanting. But they'll get to it after they finish their tea. ;)

Chanting

The Pagan Experience - Wk 4- Feb. 23 –  Any writing for the letters C or D.

My Yoga students know how much I love chanting. We chant during class all the time, I sing in the car, I sing when I'm happy and I chant the runes to calm down. I have long thought that the inner vibrations of chanting and singing are powerful therapy. Singing and chanting alter your state of consciousness, quite simply. It requires no special equipment, and everyone can do it. What a great magical technique!

One thing I love about chanting in magic is the versatility of the technique. We can chant the names of the Divine, mantras, spells, or simply sounds that feel correct in that moment. In other words, I use chanting and singing, which are truly interchangeable names for the same thing, like a yogini, like a witch and like a shaman.

Chanting can be used in so many ways: to calm, to center, to focus, to raise energy, to celebrate, to enter an altered state, to perform devotions, to make the plants grow, and to dissolve the ego. Really, chanting, like all magical techniques, can be used for anything. The only limitation is your own imagination.

The following video is the Seven Goddess Chant, written by Deena Metzger and recorded by Inkubus Sukkubus. This is one of my favorites and I use it to calm myself or to honor the Full Moon. I like this recording and often listen to it while writing or planning rituals.

More and more, I integrate chanting into my magical practice. This year, I plan to record and publish more chants and songs on my youtube channel. Stay tuned for my own Eight Gods Chant, which is in the spirit of the Seven Goddess Chant. I'll also soon be intoning the runes of the Elder Futhark!