Earthsong
The elements of the planet Earth are wind, water, fire and dust. These elements make up the wind in our lungs from the air that we breathe, the water in our bodies that keeps us from withering away like a dry prairie, the fire stoking our heating systems that offsets the water from the cooling systems and regulates our temperature, and the dust of the ground from which every cell and bone and tissue and atom and marrow in our physical bodies derives itself. It is these elements which cause us to live and to thrive. We belong to Earth as much as it belongs to us.
The planet has a natural intonation of its own; something I called 'earthsong.' The elements of earth can hear one another. However, we have gotten so far away that we are not only out of touch with nature, but out of touch with one another. We hear "ringing" noises in our ears and think that it is unnatural, but it's not. It is a part of the fiber and core of our being. Sometimes, we feel as if our bodies are motorized (vibrating). It is because of this same natural connection to earth.
Our bodies make music (hum and impart rhythm) without instruments. We often call this singing, or moaning; other times, it happens unawares. Instruments are made to mimic sound that others have heard vibrating in the earth. My parents were both musicians, so we grew up listening to earthsong the best they could interpret it.
Earth's core is filled with the sound of music and various harmonies. Stars sing and scientists declare that they have been able to record it. Music is called the universal language for a reason, and there is a reason why the wildest beast will take a back seat its sound. This is the constant common thread that runs through everything that lives and moves.
Death is nothing more than the day the body stops harmonizing in sync with earth. Many who knew they were about to pass over were soothed and comforted in their last moments by a song or a melody that someone sang or hummed as they closed their eyes for the final time.
When we hear music, our mood and our spirit changes. When it is loud and grating, we feel 'bad' or violent; want to kick something or at least act wild, carefree or out of bounds. But when it is soothing and lovely and resonating, we tend to calm ourselves and forget about everything else, even forget things that we were thinking only seconds before.
Background music dictates the mood of thousands of people in the same room at the same time. When we 'hear, but don't hear,' it is still in control of our reasoning faculties and senses, all the way from cafeteria Muzak to elevator music to Christmas music in retail malls during the holiday shopping season. It puts us "in the mood" to buy. We cannot even watch a movie without music to enhance the mood of the scenes or scenery. People bore easily and will not even try to "get it" without music. With that said, one of the reasons so many people are out of sorts and in constant disease (dis-ease), disconnection and disharmony with one another and with our world is because humanity has lost its way.
The connection we once had to the heart of the earth is overrun by the sounds of honking horns, trains, planes, sort of in the same manner as city lights drown out the stars. Unnatural interference keeps us from hearing the nature of earthsong, with few exceptions.
I have used music to take away simple pain, stress, headaches, depression, nausea, change the tension in the mood around me, and to inspire me to lift myself up on the days when I was filled with anxiety and disgust and not able to take any more. It is also the world's most natural aphrodisiac.
Music, at its heart and from its root, touches our senses and bodies in places where medicine and surgical spears and darts, and where psychological counseling cannot go.