Making Music, Making Magick

Music is a form of magick. It can be constructed in various ways to be a symbolic, sonic image of the practitioner’s intent. That intent, once heard by the listener can manifest, and they will start acting upon the intent that they now feel is their own.

Hearts can be swayed, and heads can be swept clean of unwanted whispers.

This is done because music bypasses most filters in the mind. Sound is something that we instinctively allow directly into our minds and hearts because it gives us important information for survival. We hear danger before we see it, then we fire off the chemicals required to protect ourselves. We recognize the sounds of various life forms around us, and we behave as needed to co-exist in safety and peace.

Music is a combination of sounds that when heard will create emotional reactions that we link to personal memories. It resonates very uniquely and personally within each one of us, much like magick.

An Invocation becomes the lyrics of a song. Short phrases that rhyme are easy to remember and the repetition will provide an altered state that will find grounding in the familiar pattern of words.

When I write anything musically, I am always mindful of basic spell casting.

First, what is my intent? Is that a part of every phrase in the lyrics?

There tends to be common responses to various symbols. Using general magick symbology in lyrics will connect the listener on that primal response level.

Healing Chant

In the “Healing Chant”, I invoke the Lord and Lady in Their simplified terms so as to access most pantheons or religious ideologies. I state my request in the first verse clearly and plainly.

In the second verse, I describe the detailed qualities of these deities that will serve my purpose.

I recite these words in three harmonized voices to achieve the power of the sacred triad. There are only two verses, yet the invocation is best served when completed in three: Verse 1, Verse 2, Verse 1.

So, all voices are in with the first completion. It continues with verse 2, adding tiny bells to give the listener the idea of the bright, gentle, soothing touches of the Lady. The warm strength and heavy power of the Lord is introduced into the following Verse 1 with a bass line. I let the next verse 2 hold its own, allowing the listener to sink into the stability of hearing the melody six times by now. I add a final verse 1, so the melody sounds a seventh time, with the chime of a single, large bell to drive the intent into reality. A “So mote it Be”, if you will.

Healing chant audio

This is one way that numbers and imagery coupled with sounds, create a spell that suggests the healing process to the listener. This is a way that music becomes magick.

The Mushroom Song

Music can also serve to memorize a recipe for magick.

In “The Mushroom Song”, I was asked to write a song that taught children the difference of which mushrooms to pick for sleep or death potions. These wise Celtic women in the book “Lion’s Blood” by Steven Barnes were held as slaves by cruel masters. They plotted a rebellion where they were going to cast a sleep spell on many of the guards and a few death spells upon the cruelest masters.

Again, I started out with lyrics that beseech the Celtic Fae to listen and come bless the endeavor. Then I state the details of the necessary differences of the light gray mushrooms for sleep and the dark powdered mushrooms of death.

As a child, I was fascinated by rounds. They wove a web of words, music and rhythm that would lull me into a trance-like state. Everything became highly detailed, and I absorbed it all deep into my memory.

I had not deliberately designed the song to work as a round, but I recognized the feeling when I heard it. I had to try it starting in a few different places but found the right timing and it fell into place.

Once the recipe was forged, I added the spell’s intent for the recipe. I added a high obbligato for the head slave mother to sing, sitting it on top of the patterned round and holding it together.

Come My Lady

Holding magick and music together can also be done with rhythm and repeated chant. When I needed a song to summon the Lady for Beltaine, I wrote “Come My Lady”.

I opened with a clear, strong rhythmic pattern which includes heavy breath as an indicator of the energy, followed by repeated chant; one single line that set the intent. I added more counterparts, with similar echoes of the chant. Once all were in and the ear had settled into the groove, I introduced the lead invocation by a single voice.

Imagery, symbology and binding are used to make this song into a spell that invokes and manifests the Goddess into all that call Her forth. It can partner Her to you or She can manifest within you.

Move in Unity

So in addition to use of lyrics, rhythm and arrangement to make music into magic forms is the tool of engineering. If you are making this spell into a recorded version, engineering has the extra features of environmental effects that can add to your spellcasting.

I had the request to write a song for an Earth Day ritual that unified the planet to each of us as we drew the circle.

The lyrics connected our human bodies to that of the planet. They tied us to the four elements, and united us above and below. The numbers 3 and 4 were used in arrangement and phrasing. We were called to acknowledge the discourse that is brought upon this land by Humankind.

Then, once in the studio, I used a common effect to lift the listener’s ear. While Reverb can be easily overused, applied in the right places, for the right length, it can create a sonic environment that transforms the song and takes the listener to a different space that tends to relax, open and reach deeper into the mind and heart.

I used reverb in between the two verses on the vocal improvisations. I made it grow from the original, clean setting into a long, distant sustain, then coming back to clean right before the next verse.

The effect moves the vocal from intimacy to distance, in and out, like a deep breath in the world around us all.

“Move in Unity”

Music is Magic

I never underestimate the power of music to change this world. It soothes entire gatherings into a gentle mass of loving, caring beings. It whips hordes of people into a murderous crowd bent on destroying anything they can touch.

Whatever the intent is, music will summon any who can hear it. It will unite and or bind them into one concept, one design, one word, one will.

Treat music like you would the most powerful spell in your book of shadows. Use it with that responsibility, and you will be unstoppable in your designs.

And remember, it is even stronger with fellow practitioners to wield it.

For more information about Alexander James Adams, including his collected articles here on Pagan Song, his bio, and links to Alec’s sites on the web, check out Alexander James Adams’ page on Pagan Song.

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