Hello Pagan Song readers. Did you know this website is sponsored by the pagan band Crow Women? It started out as our band site but has expanded into a showcase of writing by pagan musicians from around the world. We first launched this site in 2019 to publicize the release of our third album, Seasons, which is a collection of songs for the pagan Sabbats. Every pagan band has got to do one of those eventually, right? I’m delighted to announce that we are getting ready to release our fourth album, coming out in fall, 2024.
This one is called Pantheon: Honoring the Pagan Divine. The theme is the many manifestations of divinity. Each song is about a face of the divine: a Goddess or God, a nature spirit, or those most beloved expressions of the sacred–your face and mine.
Like so much of our music, these new songs were created to be used. Notice that the tagline for the Pagan Song blog is “music for your magic”. Crow Women is a choir, yes, but we also have a parallel existance as a coven that has been in existance for 31 years. That’s a lot of ceremonies, and we’ve written a lot of music for those ceremonies. We are singing witches!
Every member of Crow Women is a priestess/songwriter. We all write. Some of us write a lot. Sometimes a Crow writes a song for her own personal spiritual practice. Other times, we write for one another–songs for our monthly rituals or for a rite of passage one of us is embarking upon. We’re integrated into the Colorado & New Mexico pagan communities, and some of our songs are written for larger rituals at retreats and festivals. We have all of these types of songs on our new album. It would be our delight if you incorporate them into your personal, group and festival rituals.
Personal practice: Honoring our Guardian Spirits
A lovely example of a piece that that was born out of individual spiritual practice is Marilyn’s song My Familiar is a Spider. Many pagans work with a patron deity, or animal guide, or magical being that they develop a long-term bond with. It’s a mutual relationship–we send energy back and forth. Singing praise to our spirit companion can be part of deepening that rapport. I think the gods enjoy being sung to.
Marilyn is a spider priestess. She does magic with spider energy at her home altar and often calls Grandmother Spider into our group rituals. She says, “Long ago I overcame my fear of spiders through a magical dream. Since then, spiders have been so attractive to me–they are dancers, weavers, and determined allies in the garden. I have experienced Magic through connection with the Spider Deities. I hope that you will learn to admire, respect and protect these charming little Goddesses”
The recording we’ve made for Pantheon reflects the personal nature of the song. It’s Marilyn singing solo, and accompanying herself with a rattle, just as she does when she sings this song at her home altar. It’s a sweet and loving little song:
My familiar is a spider, in her web she weaves me.
To my altar I invite her, and her presence never leaves me.
With eight legs she dances in my life, weave the web,
Spin the future with each thread, what will be.
By her pow’r I am protected, may she guard and guide me.
In her web I am connected, may she ever walk beside me.
There are many pathways in my life, make a choice,
Listen to the Spider’s voice guiding me.
Spider magic brings me blessings, Maiden, Crone and Mother.
See Arachne, dancing maiden, spin the strands, create my future.
Mother Spider, bless and comfort me, web of peace,
Tangled cords I can release, feeling free.
Weave the universe becoming, oh Grandmother Spider.
Energy and power humming, wisdom flows from deep inside her.
Dancing on the traces of her web, I am healed,
As the future is revealed, eternally.
My familiar is a spider— Blessed Be.“My Familiar is a Spider” by Marilyn Leftwich © 2017 recorded by the Crow Women on “Pantheon: Honoring the Pagan Divine”
In addition to being a fine songwriter, Marilyn (like all the Crow Women) contributes blog posts here on Pagan Song. Read more about sacred spider magic in her blog post: Honoring Spider Deity
On Pantheon, there are other songs that lend themselves to individual devotions. My song Eos, Goddess of the Dawn is a chant for beginning the day by centering on the breath. Goddess Blessing, also by Marilyn, is written for self-blessing during solitary ritual. Garden Harvest Song was written be used by any home gardener for blessing their backyard garden. We find happiness in inviting music into our personal spiritual lives. We hope our songs become part of you doing that, too.
Written for a Ritual: Ceremonial Music for the Circle
We are pretty familiar with the pagan musical liturgy. There are so many wonderful songs that have been written for pagan ceremonies. For some occasions there is a huge selection of music. There is no shortage of songs for Beltane, for example. But sometimes there isn’t anything out there that fits just right with a ritual we’re planning. So, we write the song we need. It’s a part of business-as-usual in the Crow Women. We’ll meet for ritual and someone will say, “but before we start, let me teach you this new song I composed for tonight.” Many of the songs on our four albums emerged organically out of our spiritual life as a group. And, because we’re also a band, we get to share them with you.
Laura’s song Eostre is a good example. Laura says, “Several years ago I was priestessing an Ostara ritual with Crow Women circle; the song “Eostre” was born from a need for an Ostara chant to be used in this ritual. We were doing a play about Eostre and her sacred hare, and that inspired the verses. My hope is that others will find spring inspiration for their own rituals using this song.”
Eostre, spring maiden, we sing to you
Eostre, spring maiden, we sing to youWith your brown bunny so warm
with his duties to perform
bringing you honorEostre, spring maiden, we sing to you
Eostre, spring maiden, we sing to youWith his eggs colored bright
that he brings in the night
he shows us your beautyEostre, spring maiden, we sing to you
Eostre, spring maiden, we sing to you
We sing to you“Eostre” by Laura B. Wright (c) 2018, recorded by the Crow Women on “Pantheon: Honoring the Pagan Divine”
Isn’t that a pretty song? That’s the composer, Laura, playing piano. Now, when we did that Spring Equinox ritual, we didn’t have a piano handy. We sang it a capella. It was sweet and magical. And then we went on an Ostara Egg hunt! We’re into bunnies anyway, and even have a rabbit on our blogger roster. Check out Roki’s Wisdom.
One of the other songs on Pantheon that was tailor-made for one of our rituals is Fire Spinning Song, which Marilyn wrote for a fire ritual. That was an exciting ritual, with lots of flame magic, and Marilyn spinning poi. Then there’s Somos La Luna, which I wrote while I was living in Peru a decade ago. I composed it for a local women’s circle that I was part of there. When I returned to the USA, I led the Crow Women in a ceremony to the Pachamama. I had gotten close to the Pacha during my 2 years in Peru. It made my homecoming special, to be able to share the song and the Andean magic with my sisters the Crowz.
Written for a larger gathering: Songs for retreats and festivals
We often lead music at events in our region. Sometimes we volunteer, sometimes we get voluntold. It’s all just part of being a resident pagan band on tap for the public rituals of our community. All of our albums have songs we created to support larger ceremonies, and Pantheon is no exception.
The Crow Women have a close relationship with Ardantane Pagan Learning Center, and its leaders Amber K and Azrael Arynn K. Ardantane holds a Hekate retreat every autumn, and one or another of the Crowz is usually in attendance. Tara fashioned a song for that retreat one year. Amber and Az invite the participants to co-create the Main Ritual. The year Tara offered up Hail Hekate, it was eagerly incorporated into the ritual. Dressed in black, holding torches and lanterns, we processed across the land at dusk to Ardantane’s Hekate Circle. It was deliciously witchy.
About the song, Tara says, “Hail, Hekate, the ancient goddesses of many names, she who grants boons and guards the transitional places of our lives. This chant reflects our devotion to the Goddess and leads our procession to her sacred circle. It was written at and for the annual Hekate Torch and Key event at Ardantane Pagan learning center to leverage the power of song to deepen our connection with this powerful and intriguing deity.”
Hail Hekate, Hekate
Hail, Hekate
Hail Hekate, Hekate
Hail Hekate
I am a Priestess of the Goddess
I hold her Torch and Key
Midwife from birth until dying
She walks with meI am a Priest of the Goddess
Her magick beckons me
I’ll meet her there at the crossroads
One forged in three.“Hail Hekate” by Tara Kiene © 2018, recorded by the Crow Women on “Pantheon: Honoring the Pagan Divine”
Here’s the current draft of the song, the mix as of late July, 2024. This is the longest track we’ve ever recorded, but hey, a procession takes a while.
The song Hail Hekate is featured in a post by Crow Woman Carole McWilliams: Faces of Hekate.
On Pantheon, several of the 21 tracks are songs written for public ritual. For example, my song The Elder God is Wise was written for a large ritual that traced the sacred stages of the male lifespan. I couldn’t find a song that was really about sages and elder priests. So I wrote one. The ‘divine boy’ part of Laughing Little Gods was written for that same ritual, but for the other end of the lifespan: the playful young god.
On Pantheon, the Crow Women explore new territory
The Crow Women are a women’s circle, and the band is also all women. We are keepers of the Women’s Temple. Much of our music has been about the Goddess or about our experience as Wise Women and Priestesses.
Over the years, several of us have been members of mixed covens, and all of us have been active in our local pagan community with its range of genders and identities. For Pantheon, we decided to include songs with male energies. Marilyn wrote Gods and Lovers for this album: a praise to the Masculine Divine. Poseidon is central to the song The Clipper Joy, and the Green Man makes his magic known in Rising Sap. Crows, Hail Hekate, Laughing Little Gods and Garden Harvest Song all balance both male and female figures in their storylines. And then there’s Trickster Rolls Into Town. “He comes in many colors, every gender and shape, He’s always a “he” except when he ain’t.” Plenty of Goddesses are featured in the songs on Pantheon, too. Deb’s song Ishtar is a haunting devotion to that goddess. Lady Titania, by Tara, is about cavorting with the Fairy Queen. And Laura’s amazing song Dua Bast honors the many aspects of the great Egyptian cat goddess.
Pantheon continues the trend towards musicality that’s been apparent across our albums. Our first album, Crow Goddess was vocals with some percussion and the majority of the songs were covers, with a few originals. By album 2, Crow Magic, everything we recorded was originals, and the arrangements became more complex and instruments began to make an appearance. With Seasons, we began recording more and more with pitched instruments such as guitar and ukulele and the songs gained in sophistication. Now, with Pantheon, most of the songs have instrumentation as well as vocals. Gone are the days of songs that last a minute and a half. We’ve learned to develop our musical ideas.
Support the Pantheon project
Dear reader, would you be able to give us some financial support? We make no money by being a pagan band. We save up the income from online plays and album sales and spend it on our next recording project. We launched Pantheon before Seasons was in the black, and now we have ground to make up.
An easy way to chip in is to go to our fundraiser and drop some cash in. Everything helps: $10, $20, it all adds up. You can find that gofundme page here: Help Crow Women Release the Pantheon Album to the World
If you have more moola and you’re feeling generous, why not sponsor one of the 21 tracks on the album? At the time of publication of this blog post, all 3 of the I songs featured are available to be sponsored: My Familiar is a Spider, Eostre, and Hail Hekate as well as 5 other songs. The other 13 are spoken for. It’s $75 to sponsor a song, and you get a free digital download of the album as soon as it’s released, plus some other bennies. It’s all here on this website, on our Sponsor a Song on “Pantheon” page.
The album should be available on our new Bandcamp site sometime this fall. Right now, we’re reviewing the first draft of the album and finding rough spots here and there that need addressing. We are getting close! When the album is released, we’ll make a big, joyful announcement on our Facebook page.
We are so happy to be able to share all this new music with you. This album is quite the labor of love. That’s love for all of you, the magical people we create our songs for.
For more information about the Crow Women pagan choir, and access to all the blog posts by Alane and the other 9 crowsingers who have written for Pagan Song, you can visit the Crow Women author page here on Pagan Song.
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