Pagan Music Can…

Discovering my path

I had just graduated from Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA and moved to Orlando, FL in 1990 when I began hearing the voice of the Goddess speak to me in my dreams.  First initiated only a year before into the Alexandrian craft, already the plans She had for me started to manifest.

Spontaneously, I began to write songs about Her, along with what I was seeing in my dreams, and what I was experiencing through my ritual work with others.  Pagan music can express.

At the same time, “Enchantress” by Gypsy Ravish was released on cassette tape in 1990.  After hearing Gypsy’s recording, it dawned on me that Pagan music could also be Pop or Rock! (duh!) What is Pagan music anyway? It was like a light came down from above and inspiration hit me squarely on my soul.  I had been writing all of these songs with no plans for them.  Now, they had purpose, meaning, and direction.  Pagan Music can inspire.

I started organizing my web of ideas and half-written songs, along with the ones that were complete, creating a plausible full album flow.  Gypsy had inspired me, and I have since told her this in person, to which she kindly just smiled knowingly.  Gypsy is a well trained and experienced Priestess, and she understood then, what I was just beginning to learn; how we are all connected and everything inspires everything else and everyone.  The Butterfly Effect.

Setting my direction

The resulting album, “The Mother, The Magick, The Music” was released on cassette in 1992 on my own Earth Tones Studios label, and it was digitally remastered and re-released in 2000 on CD.

Who knew that the comedy song, “Cool to Be a Witch” would become the most well known song on the album?  That song spread like wildfire, which was no small feat back in the “before time” (pre-internet).  The cassette tape was pirated and the music traveled.  Yes, that still happens today unfortunately, just faster.  But it also served as a method of discovery.  When the internet came, my music was already out there, and people were already looking for it.  Pagan Music can travel.

That’s when my husband Victor and I created Earth Tones Studios’ website at www.PaganMusic.com, in 1997.  We became the largest Pagan music store in the world for quite some time, stocking music from distributors as well as directly from the recording artists themselves.  Believe it or not, we are still liquidating the stock of CDs, Bumper Stickers, DVDs, etc that we had.  We have some things that are no longer in print, so check it out!  Pagan Music can prosper.

Helping others

I’ve had countless emails, letters, and conversations (that ended in hugs), that my songs have helped them through tough times, and even changed their perspective of the world.  I even had one lady tell me that she played my song “Listen to the Wind” on repeat for 2 hours while in the bath.  She cried and cried over the loss of her husband, and without my song to comfort her, she said, she doesn’t know if she would have made it through.  That song came through in one complete piece while sitting under a tree meditating.  I never edited it.  Pagan Music can heal.

“listen to the wind,
as it sweeps the land.
listen to a storm,
it shouts for your hand.
listen to the rain,
it knows your name,
and it knows your pain;
listen to the wind! listen!“

(Alexian, 1992)

Another song from the same album is “Save Me”.  “Save Me” came from a dream as a song about saving Mother Earth from man’s destruction. In my dream, the Crone mother came to me and presented herself sitting on the porch of an old cabin.  I was asking who she was and if she needed help when she told me that she was worried about her health, and that she was afraid she was going to lose her children (the animals and us!).  When I awoke, I set pen to paper immediately and the song unfolded. Pagan Music can plead.  

“save me, you can make it better,
just try a little harder as you go through life’s plans.
save me, can’t hold on forever,
it’s all up to you, it’s in your hands!
save me, we’re in this together,
i’ve gotten so bad, i don’t know what to do.
save me, no need to be clever to know,
if i go, surely you will too!”

(Alexian, 1992)

Fast forward

After 3 decades, we are still fighting to save Mother Earth, and I’m still creating songs about life and our relationship with Her.  “The Challenge” was just released in 2022, with words by Grandmother Elspeth and music by myself.  When I was at a gathering, Elspeth asked me to come over to where she was sitting and handed me her poem.  In a “matter of fact” voice, she said, set that to music Alexian.  I said, “Yes mam!”.  When a crone asks you to do something, you do not refuse.  Crones can be commanding.

“i challenge you, by mystery & magick,
become the person you were meant to be.
to cherish the earth!  honor the winds!  nourish the fire!
drink deeply, of the living waters!“

(Alexian, Grandmother Elspeth, 2022)

I had started teaching private music lessons, after college graduation, in 1990, although I previously taught them as a teenager to adults back on the farm in Missouri.  While teaching voice, piano, music theory, songwriting, lyric writing, ear training, solfege, etc, my students have often called me not only a music teacher, but their therapist. I counsel my music students, so that they have the best outcome when writing or performing music. That is why I love teaching and still teach music today.  I brought my music education training exclusively online in 2010, and now have students from around the globe. It brings me joy to see their musical skills blossom and to witness the joy music brings to them.  Pagan Music can educate.

Which brings us to today

So here I am 30+ years later, a 3rd degree high priest of the Alexandrian coven, Twisted Oak http://twistedoakcoven.com (which I founded in 1993), Pagan recording artist, and online music educator. 

My current song project is a song for the “Red Album”, a collection of songs from Pagan artists about the overturning of Roe vs Wade.  Pagan Music can protest.

https://www.facebook.com/people/The-Red-Album/100082989506379/

I am happy to announce that I’m taking my music lessons from my mundane online business and plunging them into the Pagan world on my recording artist website.  I’m slowly working on releasing Music Education video courses, with a Pagan flare, on www.AlexianMusic.com along with video courses in Divination, Meditation, Craft and Magick as well. Many new ideas and exciting projects are being developed now!  I have always longed to fuse my mundane life with my Pagan life, and it’s finally happening!   

Join me in the journey at AlexianMusic.com, because…  Pagan Music CAN!

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

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