For many of us music is about movement. A piece of music is often called a movement. To create music air moves and vibrates. Music is never still, as creativity is never still. Nothing is ever truly still. Even when we sit still, we are a part of life that is all about movement. Just because our sense cannot pick up the movement, it does not mean it is not happening. Like a fish swims in water that is constantly moving, thus we move through life that is never quite the same. Life is flux. To slightly misquote Heraclitus, no one steps in the same river twice, because the river is not the same and neither is the person who steps into it.
I was thinking of music the other day. There are basically two forms of popular music, obviously there are variations on themes, but throughout human history there has always been two types of music. There is song, which is essentially story telling music and then there is music that is created to enable people to dance, dance music. Yes of course some music is for both, a right song and dance. I have always preferred song. This is no doubt obvious, as I am singer, I am not much of dancer.
Dance and movement in general is not my forte. I am a singer, not a dancer.
Having said that I do love to a go a wandering, singing along at the same time. I also, just for a bit of fun, enjoy gambolling from time to time. A friend sent me something about gambolling, not to be confused with gambling the other day and I gave it a go. For those that don’t know gambolling is a form of movement where you can run, jump or skip around in a playful kind of way, think of a lamb or goat perhaps. Maybe this is where acting the goat comes from. I did not gambol gracefully, but I did have a lot of fun. It was suggested to me as I was dealing with some pretty stressful stuff at the time. It had such an effect that I sat down in the park with Molly and wrote a song, recorded and shared it with friends, as a way of spreading a little joy. It is a play on the old classic song “The Happy Wanderer”, it is called “The Happy Gamboler”. Would you like to hear it? (You can hear it in the video devotion at the bottom of this post)
"The Happy Gamboller"
Chorus:
Gambolli, Gambolla,
Gambolli,
Gambolla-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha
Gombolli, Gambolla.
A Dude must always abide.
I love to go gambolling,
With Molly by my side,
We skip and dance and sing our songs,
A Dude must always Abide.
Chorus:
Gambolli, Gambolla,
Gambolli,
Gambolla--ha-ha-ha-ha-ha
Gomolli, Gambolla.
A Dude must always abide.
I love to gambolling
And dance under the sun.
So joyously folk call to me,
"Come! Join my happy song!"
Chorus:
Gambolli, Gambolla,
Gambolli,
Gambolla--ha-ha-ha-ha-ha
Gomolli, Gambolla.
A Dude must always abide.
I wave and smile at all I meet,
And they smile and wave back to me,
And blackbirds call so loud and sweet
From ev'ry green wood tree.
Chorus:
Gambolli, Gambolla,
Gambolli,
Gambolla--ha-ha-ha-ha-ha
Gomolli, Gambolla.
A Dude must always abide.
High overhead, the skylarks wing,
They never rest at home
But just like me, they love to sing,
Until all this world shall gambole.
Chorus:
Gambolli, Gambolla,
Gambolli,
Gambolla--ha-ha-ha-ha-ha
Gomolli, Gambolla.
A Dude must always abide.
Oh, may I go a gamboling
Until the day I die!
Oh, may I always laugh and sing,
Beneath God's clear blue sky!
Chorus:
Gambolli, Gambolla,
Gambolli,
Gambolla--ha-ha-ha-ha-ha
Gomolli, Gambolla.
A Dude must always abide.
(Additional note the line "A Dude must always abide, is a homage to a favourite film "The Big Lebowski)
It cheered a lot of folk up, it concerned a few others. It got the funny bones moving though. The next morning Keiron in café nero was feeling a bit blue, so I sang it to him and it cheered him up too. Later that day Natasha from the MDA sent we a video of some hilarious movement that folk were trying, which I gave a go at too. It got so much laughter and joy moving through folk who were struggling along with one or two things, although it was in itself a bit of a struggle in the intense heat.
We are moving creatures. We move in so many interesting ways, we are moving, even when we are stood still. I have spent the summer observing all kinds of movement. There were many types of movement based sessions at this years summer school. All kinds of flow and sacred dance and so much laughter. I had a go at some line dancing, which was slightly chaotic, but fun. I also had a go at ecstatic dance, which was pretty out there as well. In fact at one moment Molly and myself were dancing together, she on her hind legs while we danced away. Now while dancing doesn’t come naturally to me it is fun to join in, in my own way. Makes you grateful for this grace, even if I don’t myself move so gracefully. Like water though we human beings are made for movement, we are not meant to be still. Movement has a way to bring stillness to the mind and soul.
Dance and movement has always been a sacred thing.
Let it be a dance with do, may I have this dance with you, through the good times and the bad times too, let it be a dance.
Dancing and movement are sacred things, part of the sacredness of being alive. The God of my limited understanding is alive in this life or not at all. I need to know God through my bodily being, or not at all. Sacred the body, God has created, temple of spirit that grows deep inside.
Friedrich Nietzche said “I would believe only in a God that knows how to dance”
Is there anything more divine that being fully alive and yet too often in sacred circles the body is decried. If there are such things as angels I am sure that they sing and dance at being alive, in their angelic way and not just on the head of a pin. This brings to mind the wonder poem “Questions about angels” by Billy Collins
“Questions about angels” by Billy Collins
Of all the questions you might want to ask
about angels, the only one you ever hear
is how many can dance on the head of a pin.
No curiosity about how they pass the eternal time
besides circling the Throne chanting in Latin
or delivering a crust of bread to a hermit on earth
or guiding a boy and girl across a rickety wooden bridge.
Do they fly through God's body and come out singing?
Do they swing like children from the hinges
of the spirit world saying their names backwards and forwards?
Do they sit alone in little gardens changing colors?
What about their sleeping habits, the fabric of their robes,
their diet of unfiltered divine light?
What goes on inside their luminous heads? Is there a wall
these tall presences can look over and see hell?
If an angel fell off a cloud, would he leave a hole
in a river and would the hole float along endlessly
filled with the silent letters of every angelic word?
If an angel delivered the mail, would he arrive
in a blinding rush of wings or would he just assume
the appearance of the regular mailman and
whistle up the driveway reading the postcards?
No, the medieval theologians control the court.
The only question you ever hear is about
the little dance floor on the head of a pin
where halos are meant to converge and drift invisibly.
It is designed to make us think in millions,
billions, to make us run out of numbers and collapse
into infinity, but perhaps the answer is simply one:
one female angel dancing alone in her stocking feet,
a small jazz combo working in the background.
She sways like a branch in the wind, her beautiful
eyes closed, and the tall thin bassist leans over
to glance at his watch because she has been dancing
forever, and now it is very late, even for musicians.
The spirit lives to set us free, it is ever moving, as is all life, as are we.
In “Dance – The Sacred Art: The Joy of Movement as a Spiritual Practice” Cynthia Winton Henry wrote:
"At the beginning of nearly every culture, dance arose at the foundation of collective spiritual life. Just as inconceivable as separating out deities and goddesses from everyday activities, dancing was intrinsic to the religiosity of indigenous groups. It could not be extricated. It was manna, daily bread. More than mere expression, dancing served as the primary means of knowing and creating the world. It carried technologies of healing, entertainment, and most definitely of praying.”
You see movement and dance right there at the heart of the Hebrew Scriptures. In the beginning God did not merely breathe life into being but moved through it too. The Psalms were sung with movement and dance. Isaiah declared, 'You shall go out with joy and be led forth in peace: The mountains and the hills shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field clap their hands' (Isaiah 55:12). The Divine danced in and through us bringing the people out beyond themselves.
Think of circle dancing, the Hebrew word for festival being “Haga” meaning to move in a circle, it is there at the heart of festival and ceremonies. Just because dance isn’t written down in holy scripture it does not mean that the religious life was some solitary solemn thing, rejoice, rejoice, rejoice is there at the heart. In “The Sermon on the Plain” in Lukes Gospel Ch 6 v 23 Jesus instructs those who listen “Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their ancestors treated the prophets"
Dance is at the heart of Taoism, the origins of the Tao. When the ancients attempted to understand the flow of the Tao, they danced; when they tried to put it into practice, they danced.
Dance and movement is at the heart of the ancient traditions, they danced to bring about rain. High priests danced in the patterns of the stars constellations, to commune with the Gods. Yoga is in flow. Dance and movement is in everything. When we think of spiritual practice we think it is about being still and silent, but it really isn’t. it is about movement and life, dance and song, as life was moved and not just breathed into being. We come to life, stillness and silence is the end of life, but the spirit, well I reckon that moves on.
To dance it to be like water as Bruce Lee said. Water moves its way into life, it always finds away and it is never quite the same. The river is not the same and neither are we as we move into and through it.
Life is movement, it is forever changing, nothing stays the same. So, we may as well dance with it. Why should we resist, we ought to go with the flow and dance in the dance of life. Why not join together as part of the dance of life. Dance together.
In joining in the dance we are being faithful to life, to the spirit in it all. In so doing we play our part in creating the universal web of life, we play our part fully in the universal process and in so doing encourage others to come and join in the dance too.
So will you come and dance with me…Let it be a dance we do, may I have this dance with you, through the good times and the bad times too, let it be a dance…
I’m going to end with a bit of Mary Oliver. A poem titled Prayer”
“Prayer” by Mary Oliver
May I never not be frisky,
May I never not be risque.
May my ashes, when you have them, friend,
and give them to the ocean,
leap in the froth of the waves,
still loving movement,
still ready, beyond all else,
to dance for the world.
It cheered a lot of folk up, it concerned a few others. It got the funny bones moving though. The next morning Keiron in café nero was feeling a bit blue, so I sang it to him and it cheered him up too. Later that day Natasha from the MDA sent we a video of some hilarious movement that folk were trying, which I gave a go at too. It got so much laughter and joy moving through folk who were struggling along with one or two things, although it was in itself a bit of a struggle in the intense heat.
We are moving creatures. We move in so many interesting ways, we are moving, even when we are stood still. I have spent the summer observing all kinds of movement. There were many types of movement based sessions at this years summer school. All kinds of flow and sacred dance and so much laughter. I had a go at some line dancing, which was slightly chaotic, but fun. I also had a go at ecstatic dance, which was pretty out there as well. In fact at one moment Molly and myself were dancing together, she on her hind legs while we danced away. Now while dancing doesn’t come naturally to me it is fun to join in, in my own way. Makes you grateful for this grace, even if I don’t myself move so gracefully. Like water though we human beings are made for movement, we are not meant to be still. Movement has a way to bring stillness to the mind and soul.
Dance and movement has always been a sacred thing.
Let it be a dance with do, may I have this dance with you, through the good times and the bad times too, let it be a dance.
Dancing and movement are sacred things, part of the sacredness of being alive. The God of my limited understanding is alive in this life or not at all. I need to know God through my bodily being, or not at all. Sacred the body, God has created, temple of spirit that grows deep inside.
Friedrich Nietzche said “I would believe only in a God that knows how to dance”
Is there anything more divine that being fully alive and yet too often in sacred circles the body is decried. If there are such things as angels I am sure that they sing and dance at being alive, in their angelic way and not just on the head of a pin. This brings to mind the wonder poem “Questions about angels” by Billy Collins
“Questions about angels” by Billy Collins
Of all the questions you might want to ask
about angels, the only one you ever hear
is how many can dance on the head of a pin.
No curiosity about how they pass the eternal time
besides circling the Throne chanting in Latin
or delivering a crust of bread to a hermit on earth
or guiding a boy and girl across a rickety wooden bridge.
Do they fly through God's body and come out singing?
Do they swing like children from the hinges
of the spirit world saying their names backwards and forwards?
Do they sit alone in little gardens changing colors?
What about their sleeping habits, the fabric of their robes,
their diet of unfiltered divine light?
What goes on inside their luminous heads? Is there a wall
these tall presences can look over and see hell?
If an angel fell off a cloud, would he leave a hole
in a river and would the hole float along endlessly
filled with the silent letters of every angelic word?
If an angel delivered the mail, would he arrive
in a blinding rush of wings or would he just assume
the appearance of the regular mailman and
whistle up the driveway reading the postcards?
No, the medieval theologians control the court.
The only question you ever hear is about
the little dance floor on the head of a pin
where halos are meant to converge and drift invisibly.
It is designed to make us think in millions,
billions, to make us run out of numbers and collapse
into infinity, but perhaps the answer is simply one:
one female angel dancing alone in her stocking feet,
a small jazz combo working in the background.
She sways like a branch in the wind, her beautiful
eyes closed, and the tall thin bassist leans over
to glance at his watch because she has been dancing
forever, and now it is very late, even for musicians.
The spirit lives to set us free, it is ever moving, as is all life, as are we.
In “Dance – The Sacred Art: The Joy of Movement as a Spiritual Practice” Cynthia Winton Henry wrote:
"At the beginning of nearly every culture, dance arose at the foundation of collective spiritual life. Just as inconceivable as separating out deities and goddesses from everyday activities, dancing was intrinsic to the religiosity of indigenous groups. It could not be extricated. It was manna, daily bread. More than mere expression, dancing served as the primary means of knowing and creating the world. It carried technologies of healing, entertainment, and most definitely of praying.”
You see movement and dance right there at the heart of the Hebrew Scriptures. In the beginning God did not merely breathe life into being but moved through it too. The Psalms were sung with movement and dance. Isaiah declared, 'You shall go out with joy and be led forth in peace: The mountains and the hills shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field clap their hands' (Isaiah 55:12). The Divine danced in and through us bringing the people out beyond themselves.
Think of circle dancing, the Hebrew word for festival being “Haga” meaning to move in a circle, it is there at the heart of festival and ceremonies. Just because dance isn’t written down in holy scripture it does not mean that the religious life was some solitary solemn thing, rejoice, rejoice, rejoice is there at the heart. In “The Sermon on the Plain” in Lukes Gospel Ch 6 v 23 Jesus instructs those who listen “Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their ancestors treated the prophets"
Dance is at the heart of Taoism, the origins of the Tao. When the ancients attempted to understand the flow of the Tao, they danced; when they tried to put it into practice, they danced.
Dance and movement is at the heart of the ancient traditions, they danced to bring about rain. High priests danced in the patterns of the stars constellations, to commune with the Gods. Yoga is in flow. Dance and movement is in everything. When we think of spiritual practice we think it is about being still and silent, but it really isn’t. it is about movement and life, dance and song, as life was moved and not just breathed into being. We come to life, stillness and silence is the end of life, but the spirit, well I reckon that moves on.
To dance it to be like water as Bruce Lee said. Water moves its way into life, it always finds away and it is never quite the same. The river is not the same and neither are we as we move into and through it.
Life is movement, it is forever changing, nothing stays the same. So, we may as well dance with it. Why should we resist, we ought to go with the flow and dance in the dance of life. Why not join together as part of the dance of life. Dance together.
In joining in the dance we are being faithful to life, to the spirit in it all. In so doing we play our part in creating the universal web of life, we play our part fully in the universal process and in so doing encourage others to come and join in the dance too.
So will you come and dance with me…Let it be a dance we do, may I have this dance with you, through the good times and the bad times too, let it be a dance…
I’m going to end with a bit of Mary Oliver. A poem titled Prayer”
“Prayer” by Mary Oliver
May I never not be frisky,
May I never not be risque.
May my ashes, when you have them, friend,
and give them to the ocean,
leap in the froth of the waves,
still loving movement,
still ready, beyond all else,
to dance for the world.
Please find below a video devotion based on the material in this post
