Notes from a Bard and Bender (c)1987, Leigh Ann Hussey and The Rocky Mountain Pagan Journal First of all, let me thank everybody (somewhat belatedly) who made Dragonfest such a great time for me. After all, what Leo doesn't like to be lionized... And thanks again to all the participants who made my ritual on Saturday night a success. It's always good to know that a ritual I've written actually works! I didn't get Grandmother's dream until two days after our return to California (what She gave me that night was a solid night's sleep!), but it was a strong one. I hope everybody there got as good. Those who were there may have noticed my method of leading a guided meditation/trance induction. Gary asked me months ago for an article on it, and I couldn't figure out what he wanted--until I myself noticed what I was doing! So here are a few performance pointers. First of all, your "inductees" are literally hanging on your every word. A difference in vocal quality can mean the difference between a really effective trance and an incredibly boring recitation. You want your listeners to get caught up enough to live it themselves, not just to sit on the sidelines squirming and wondering when you'll get it over with. Effective use of tone, dynamics, speed and emphases make the difference. There's nothing more deadly than something delivered in monotone, and that includes a trance induction. You want to put people in a trance, not sound like you're zoned out yourself. Let your tone change depending on the content of the text (or the visualization, if you're not using a script). For example, in an elemental meditation you might let your voice be whispered for air, harsh for fire, smooth for water, deep for earth. Tone and dynamics are pretty much inseparable. Dynamics in music means volume, but changes in volume; that's why it's dynamic. You don't want your voice to be so loud that it's "keeping them awake", but neither should it be so quiet that they have to strain to listen (which will also keep them "awake"). A soft, low voice can be very effective, but don't be sub-audible. Speak or don't speak, but don't mutter. In a section where the visualization takes an exciting turn, for example, "rushing down the stream-bed, rippling over the rocks, foaming and leaping on and on and on..." should be read in a light, medium-loud tone -- you do want them to be excited, yes? And it should be read quickly. The speed of your voice corresponds directly to the speed of the happenings in the vision. It's very effective when reading a passage like that river-run quickly (but remember, smoothly and without rushing), to suddenly slow on something like "...and down to the salt flats and the sea." By the time you get to the sea, you want to be much slower. And finally, a little judicious emphasis of words and syllables can keep the thing in rhythm if you don't have a drum (and even if you do, the word-drum interplay is more effective that way--more on that in a moment). I don't mean that you should pounce on every word. Let your use of emphasis work har- moniously with the rest of the vocal tools, and it will pretty much work of itself. Hint: study the poetic metres. It's very effective if you're rolling along in iambs to throw in a spondee--the effect is for emphases exactly like the riverto-sea illustration above is to speed. For me, I guess, the trick is to visualize as clearly as I want my listeners to visualize, and then I can't help but describe it with the right vocal qualities. If you can rub your stomach and pat your head at the same time, you can deliver a trance-induction and drum at the same time. But everything I said about voice goes double for drums. Tempo, dynamics, rhythm, and time-signature can be applied in the same way as the vocal tools. A heartbeat rhythm (in 3/4, dum-DUM-rest dum-DUM-rest) is good. But remember that the drum is the listeners' anchor, and while they're in trance the speed of the drum really does affect their heart-rate. So be scrupulous! You can't really induce trance vocally and play a flute at the same time (though you can induce trance with just the flute-but that's another article). However, harp, guitar, and even violin-despite its being played under the chin (though as a violist I naturally think the viola is better for trance ..) -can be used to accompany a trance induction (or solo, as I said). Your tools here are rhythm, dynamics, and mode. The harp is the modal instrument par excellence, but other instruments can play in the modes and should (the modes and their effects are also another article). And there's always the ubiquitous bard-box. Audio tape is fine for background music-but be critical in your selection. Nothing blows a good meditation like the wrong tape-there you are, blissfully drifting along somewhere in the upper atmosphere, and there's a sudden HONK in the music and down you go. Depending on the subject of the meditation/trance, environmental tapes can be really effective (I'm using that word a lot, but by now you should realize it's an obsession with me...). Nothing like a good thunderstorm tape to back up a meditation on the Thunder Beings! So here you are, all dressed up and no place to go, that is, all ready to read a meditation but with nothing to read. So the rest of the column will be on how to compose a guided meditation (talk about 'hutzpa! Well, don't worry, my credentials are good, as anybody at DFest will tell you). To begin with, you have to decide how you're going to get your listeners into and out of the trance state. I prefer a two-part induction, first into light trance, then deeper. I do light trance by having my listeners move their awareness out of the rational brain and into the brain stem. The feeling I want to get across is of rolling gently down a hill and dropping into a lake (ever ride a rolling innertube down to the swimming hole?). The awareness achieves a neutral buoyancy somewhere just under the surface of consciousness, and that's where the light trance state is. Going into the deeper trance state is not too hard from here. A clear visualization is important; a few possibilities are through a tunnel in the earth, through water, through fire, and carried by the wind. When the people come out the other side, what do they see? The keywords here are: Let your imagination run away with you. What is your purpose in the first place? Here are some possibilities: elemental work, travel to the Upperworld (the realm of the Gods), travel to the Underworld (the realm of the dead), travel to the Otherworld (the realm of the spirits or the faeries). All these have the common purpose of education. In the case of the Otherworld, there is also the purpose of meeting a spirit-guide or totem animal, which leads us to another reason for trance-work/ meditation: empowerment or energiz- ing. The elemental journey's lesson is in experiencing the elements, or visiting such elementals as the Thunder Beings. A visit to the Gods reveals the larger purpose of things, the Dead one's inheritances from ancestors and past lives, and the Spirit one's personal part in the grand scheme. Building some sort of structure on the astral is often a cause for group trance-work; it's a good way to learn to work together and to feel the energies of other people in trance. And finally, a guided meditation may be for no more grandiose purpose than to get rid of psychic junk and bolster flagging energy. A last few hints: make your images clear as ordinary sight; pay attention to details (but don't get lost in them unless you want to); and most of all, love the language. Use language as your artist's brush, and get familiar with the ways that different styles (mostly Anglo-Saxon based words, mostly Latin-based words, various mixtures of both; words of many or few syllables; long run-on sentences or single words, etc.) can colour the meditation. This brings us around again to the fact that the leader's voice is a most important part of a guided meditation; beautiful images and mouth-pleasing text complement each other. Blessed be, and Good Travelling!