I’ve been doing this long enough, putting together and promoting events through the divine feminine app that the sacred feminine (Mother God) has Her hands in, that when I see some of them, I know I have to be there. Eileen Bray’s Candlelit Winter Solstice in Nashville was one of these. It meant over five hours of driving to get there and back with work on either end, and that made me think twice. Especially since at the moment, smack dab in the middle of a busy contract and the Holy Days, I don’t have a lot of extra.
But I had the feeling this would be special.
I was right.
Eileen is an Irish born and bred SoulSinger who spends her time these days between Ireland and Nashville. After being introduced to mantra and chant through Kundalini Yoga in 2012, Eileen’s journey deepened through teacher training in 2016/17. Celtic Kirtan was subsequently birthed in 2020 from her deep reverence for the Gaelic language and the indisputable similarities between it and other ancient sacred languages.
The night began with an Aramaic Kirtan invoking the Angels Mikael, Gabriel, Uriel, Raphael, Shekinah El and then Yeshua.
“Yup,” I thought to myself, “this is where I need to be.” More and more these days, the weave, that wanders through my life, leading me here, tying me to this, spiraling off and away from that, amazes me. I spoke to my good friend Dale Allen yesterday morning and we each spoke about the beauty of these Solstice days and this time in general with so much going on, some very good and some very bad but the importance of focus with what resonates and draws us, then: Dropping the Oars.
Drop the Oars.
That is not a simple task for many of us but more and more I see these synchronicities. I wrote about this in a Feminism and Religion article about my experience at the Parliament of World Religions where I was drawn, after many years of no involvement with them, to the Universal Dance of Peace offerings at the Parliament. I see the similarities between the Universal Dances of Peace and the work that Eileen is doing. Again, everything spiraling back to center.
I started this journey of the divine feminine app a decade ago when a friend of mine did a Full Moon Circle in my backyard incorporating the Universal Dances of Peace. Last night, one of Eileen’s mantras was one that made a deep impression on me at the recent Parliament in Chicago:
Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu
May All Beings Everywhere Be Happy and Free
Eileen’s bodhran’s (Irish drums) had ‘Love’ and ‘Freedom’ in Ogham written on them.
Freedom begins and ends in your mind.
Eileen sang the Lokah mantra with her Harmonium blended in with the Prayer of Francis of Assisi. We repeated many times, the line, ‘Where there’s War let there be Peace.’ I felt the music, the peace and the love reverberating throughout the room, bouncing off my skin, absorbing, reflecting and healing.
Chrissy has made a beautiful spot at the Spiritual Home for Artists in Nashville. Eileen called it a temple, and I agree. The Kirtan was held in a basement. The thirty or so of us were packed in like sardines, but once we all settled in, it made a powerful container.
Eileen spoke of the silence between the mantras in Kirtan being as important as the music. She explained each piece so wonderfully.
Kirtan, like most my favorites things, is influenced by the Sacred Feminine: it is participatory. It is not a performance by the musicians, but an interactive weaving of all of us.
At the end of the night’s performance, I closed my eyes, and I saw a silhouette of all of the people in the room lit up inside as a candle flame. A perfect Winter Solstice moment.
Eileen has a newsletter that you can sign up for on her website here.
You can see the events at the Spiritual Home for Artists here.
In the midst of great pain and suffering all over the world, you may think it silly to sing ‘where there is war, let there be peace’ and feel as if you are doing something, but it is not. Like all of the great truths, like all of the sacred languages that weave our world together as Eileen has done with her Celtic Kirtan, love is the unifying force, and it will create this new world.
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