Liberating sound, voice, and language

Expanding waves

I often wonder about the silencing effect of language on our animal like voices. These multi-dimensional voices with texture and color become monotonous expressions of constricted life force. Even this unwholesome state has its own purpose in letting us know what needs expression and healing. What is the medicine for stifled voice feeling weak; drowning before its becoming, entangled on its obstructed path out into the world?

The medicine seems to be the journey itself, a process of coming back to our essence blooming in all its beauty; a journey of shedding what kills our spirit and embracing and remembering what makes us feel alive. Have you ever seen a baby uttering sounds so free you feel they express the forces of the whole universe? These are liberated sounds, unconfined yet by the rules society forces upon this sacred vehicle called voice.

Language seeks to channel our energies and sounds into an orderly form that expresses meaning. If we are to live as embodied beings who embrace every aspect of our humanity, then language must reflect our multi dimensional nature. How do we reconnect to language in such a way that it brings us back into our bodies, that lets us sink into the Earth? Unfortunately, our language, with all its patriarchal overtones, encourages us to live so comfortably in our heads that we forget to the let our heart, this river of emotions, express itself freely through our animal like self.

Before I learned what I ‘should’ be saying, there was already something waiting to ripen in my blood to flow into the Earth. My voice is my offering, my life force, flowing and weaving visions gestated in the emptiness of my belly. When I relax into this fertile darkness, emptiness starts to flow into form and light; unbound potential expressing itself in a myriad of ways.

There is a fundamental lack of comfort with surrendering to the wisdom of the body in our culture. We disrespect the wisdom of the animal world and in our efforts to subdue nature, we subdue ourselves. We continuously try to conquer the vast ocean of mystery within, our unconscious, without even taking the leap and plunging into its waters. Thus, we only relinquish magical treasures before even knowing of their existence, and make enemies of forces that could in fact be our allies.

In many native cultures, the body is sacred and not separate from the heart or mind. Their bodies flow and become sacred instruments of spirit. Their voices embody this sense of connection and belonging to the self, the community, and the land. Some of us, aware of this loss, grieve and seek ways to restore harmony and enter this sacred dimension again. We heal our disconnected and fragmented selves by being still enough to listen to the whispers of the heart wishing the body to reclaim its glorious freedom of expression.

Have you not listened to the animal within roar and reclaim its being, breathing heavy and pouncing, tearing apart the old self? Is this voice pushing through in ways you can’t recognize? If you feel an overall sense of uneasiness filling you from head to toe and inundating your heart, take the opportunity to dwell in the midst of this unpleasant feeling and become intimate with your longing.

Wishing to remember this lost language that inhabits every inch of my body, I descend into this sacred ocean of sound to bathe in its waters and continue on my journey to discover my true sound, weaving in and out of my renewed being.

What unsung melody will we find inhabiting our heart, waiting patiently to awaken like a dancing cobra, rising in rhythmic and healing motions?

May your sacred sound find expression!

Marjory