O People, learn to dance, or else the angels in heaven won’t know, what to do with you
Attributed to St.Augustine
We have all heard of christmas carols but did you know the carol was also a dance from the middle ages ? France named it “Carola”, or Carol. In Northern France it was called “ronel” and in Germany the “Reigen”.
The circle dance, where people formed a circle and held hands and sang or chanted. I remember doing this as a kid but not these days. It seems the circle dance has largely vanished from the west, perhaps only holding on in cultural strongholds like Norway and of course indigenous ritual and ceremonial circles.
The circle. People holding hands around a table to pray over food, where energies are contained, magnified and transmitted.The circle, a sacred configuration where people are connected through meditation and intention. Thanksgiving.
There is something very powerful when people as a group set their minds to things.
This months music is a carol – albeit a long and slow one at 48 minutes ! The theme is a returning one – a loop and it uses simple instruments : 3 pianos, a harp and a cello as well as some gorgeous synths.
Use it as prayer and imagine that you are slowly turning in a slow embrace with all the special people and places in your life, bringing into your body their grace and spinning it outwards again, back into the world with a gesture of gratitude.
Circle Dance. Illustration ©Erica Brisson
Stephen Fearnley is an award-winning filmmaker, artist and composer. He composes transformational soundscapes for the meditation journeys guided by Naomi Carling and facilitated by Naomi Janzen for One Mind Live – a unique worldwide online group meditation community. To sample One Mind Live, go HERE