Bardic Harp & Healing

by Jane Valencia

The 21st century bard is an important voice for our emerging culture-- a culture that is rooted in the natural world, sustainable, just, spiritually-connected, considerate of future generations, honoring of the past, and above all, hopeful. In my opinion the bard of our times would do well to consciously craft performances and his or her artistry to inspire us to connect more deeply with ourselves, our nature, our heritage, our future.

As a 21st century bard, I feel that my artform is woven of the following:

• song and harp artistry
  
• folklore, poetry, and other aspects of heritage, art, and the "immense inner language of the soul"
  
• a quest to weave stories to nourish a positive future right now
  
• a call to live our deep-rooted, unique magical nature
  
• personal journeying into our indigenous nature as humans in relationship to one's ecology and as humble members of the more-than-human earth community.

As a bardic healing artist I apply this bardic perspective of belief in the possible, the weaving of sacred space (encircling and providing sanctuary for my client), the gentle probing of story of my client's story--why she or he is here, now--and a celebration of him or her. This is all mingled with the sound and energy healing to rebalance, restore, and nourish the body, mind, heart, and spirit of the person before me.

Here are some quotes to inspire you on your path as a 21st Century Bard or Bardic Healing Artist -- or both (these days artistry is by nature a healing art, I believe).

"The bards of old inhabited a magic reality of their own making, and they made of their lives a fairy tale. They could not be caged by possibilities, nor could they be bought. Poetic insight is more important in our lives than ever in this computerized, industrialized age. We desperately need people who are passionately alive in an enchanted reality, cohabited by the spirits, the ancestors, and the gods."

-- Robin Williamson, forward to The Bardic Sourcebook, ed. John Matthews.

"There is no shortage of mysteries. What would happen if you were to understand one of them?"

-- Rumi

"The true university is the forest. .... We need simply to open ourselves to the life around us."

-- Brooke Medicine Eagle, forward to Sacred Plant Medicine by Stephen Harrod Buhner

"We are mythic by nature. We find the subtle symbolic ground hidden in ourselves. Myth is the second nature of the world. Nature with its rhythm, cyclical activity ... is the first."

-- Michael Meade, Entering Mythic Territory

If any of these ideas speak to your soul feel free to contact me at jane-orale at this domain.

Wild blessings,
Jane Valencia

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