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Life PassagesLife PassagesLife PassagesLife PassagesLife PassagesI’ve been working with music in a spiritual way for a numberof years now, following my desire to create and integratemusic into our life passages and changes. Historically,people have used music for sacred events from birthing todying to the planting of seeds, but corporatization hasturned music into entertainment so that it is no longercentral to our spiritual life and the day-to-day life of thecommunity. We have very little music to help us through experiencesof loss and change and death. My interest in using music inthis way came to me partly through my own life crisis—anintense period of personal loss and change. When I madethe album called She Carries Me, I received many letterssaying, “I used this when my mother died,” or “ . . . when mylover went away,” or “. . . when I was ill.”

A DesirA DesirA DesirA DesirA Desire Catce Catce Catce Catce Catches Firhes Firhes Firhes Firhes FireeeeeI had been leading trips to Malta with Joan Marler forseveral years. About one and a half years ago, we wereable to go to the Hypogeum—an “underground tomb”that had been closed to the public for many years due toa restoration project. The Hypogeum of Malta wascarved from solid limestone around 4000 B.C., beforethe time of metal, and is one of the most beautiful andextraordinary works of art on the planet. It was such an experience to walk those steps, threestories down into the underground chamber and to beinside the Earth, inside the body of the goddess. I hadheard for many years that there is a room in theHypogeum made specifically for sound. Even inmainstream archaeological journals and articles, this roomis referred to as the “oracle chamber.”

I was singing inside the earth, in a place thathad been used thousands of years for ritual,for oracles, for prophecy. It was obvious thatthe people who built it had an incredible un-derstanding of acoustics and of the value andpower of sound for healing.

Looking back at the ancient peoples gives me alot of hope and strength. I see that it is possiblefor us to live on this earth in a different way.Maybe we’re not going to see the change in ourlifetime—probably not—but time is a verymysterious thing. Things do not always happenin the way we think they are going to.

ReTurningRRRRRecorecorecorecorecorded in the Oracle Chamberded in the Oracle Chamberded in the Oracle Chamberded in the Oracle Chamberded in the Oracle Chamber

in the Hypogeumin the Hypogeumin the Hypogeumin the Hypogeumin the Hypogeumat Hal Saflieni, Malta.at Hal Saflieni, Malta.at Hal Saflieni, Malta.at Hal Saflieni, Malta.at Hal Saflieni, Malta.

An Interview withJennifer Berezan

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For me, as amusician, this wasincredibly exciting. Awonderful mannamed Joe, who is thecustodian of theplace, allowed me tosing in the oraclechamber. This wasone of the mostremarkable sonicexperiences of my life.The oracle is a roomin the larger series ofchambers that makeup the Hypogeum. Itis carved of solidstone. The sound ofsinging there is notunlike that in thegreat cathedrals ofthe world. I have sungin St. James Cathedralin London, as well as in other cathedrals, andthis experience was comparable. Yet it was alsovery different. There were overtones andqualities of different and unusual sounds,and it also seemed that the Hypogeum itselfwas “tuned” to particular notes. I was singinginside the Earth, in a place that had been usedfor thousands of years for ritual, for oracles,for prophecy. It was obvious that the peoplewho built it had an incredible understandingof acoustics, and of the value and power ofsound for healing. After having this chance to sing and doritual with our group in the oracle chamber,a desire to record there caught fire in me. As Iwas walking out of the Hypogeum, I knew thatI had to come back with recording equipment.After months of negotiations with the museumauthorities, and then through the help of someMaltese friends, I was given permission to gothere and make a recording. This was theextraordinary opportunity of a lifetime—onethat might never be granted again.

TTTTThe Musical Jhe Musical Jhe Musical Jhe Musical Jhe Musical JourneyourneyourneyourneyourneySome things that happen are so much biggerthan we are. We step into a moment of time,and a door opens that takes us beyond oursmall personalities and ego understandings.

That is how this felt. Once the final “yes” was spoken, all the doors flewopen. To the mind, it was risky to take expensive digital recordingequipment to the Mediterranean, go underground into this chamberand make a CD-quality recording. But the whole process was absolutelybeautiful and easy. We were given the extraordinary gift of being trusted to becompletely alone in this space for three days, with some of the world’smost important archaeological works of art. Throughout theHypogeum and on the ceiling of the oracle chamber were 6,000-year-old red-ochre paintings. It’s very hard for me to recount what it waslike. Initially I described the experience as being in an “altered state,”but as I felt into that I realized that it was a deeply “authentic state.”The world “out there,” after I left the Hypogeum, seemed to be thealtered reality. Being in the Hypogeum felt like home—comfortable, healing andgrounding. A sense of compassion was awakening within me there formyself and for the friends I was with. I felt a profound peace andecstasy—not just from being in this place, but from being able tomake sound there. The whole place vibrated with our songs; it wasexquisite, and beyond words. Because I had only three days, I had prepared a chant in advance—arepetitive chant that sings, “returning, returning, returning to themother of us all.” I also made the space to just listen to the placeitself, to be with what was there, and to be attentive to what wantedto come through. Musically, it was a free and improvisationalprocess. For three days, we recorded whatever emerged. Later weedited and mixed the tapes. I knew I needed an incredible engineer, someone with a deepunderstanding of acoustics who could express and capture on tape

Oracle Chamber Ceiling, The Hypogeum at Hal Saflieni, Malta All photos provided by Jennifer

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the profound quality of the soundthere. So I asked Don Benedictson, afellow Canadian with whom I hadworked on my last record, Refuge.He’s known for his work with Ferron.Chris Webster also came with me.She worked on She Carries Me andsings on all my records. Her sister,Catherine Webster, an opera andearly-baroque singer, came as well.We also took some sisters who hadbeen to Malta before, and other goodfriends who had not yet made thistrip. I wanted to create a sense ofcommunity, and to know that friendsand priestesses were holding a sacredspace while we recorded. Some Maltese friends came as well,including Marie Mifsud, a wonderfulMaltese woman who has helped me with the tours andhad opened many doors in Malta for Joan and me formany years. Marie helped with the logistics of therecording and was instrumental in getting us permissionto record there. Marlene, another Maltese friend, alsohelped. This felt like a three-country project, representingthe United States, Canada and Malta, and a very wonderful,mixed community of support.

Modern EntrywaModern EntrywaModern EntrywaModern EntrywaModern Entryway to the Sacry to the Sacry to the Sacry to the Sacry to the SacredededededBecause the Hypogeum is being turned into a tourist site,the entrance is different than it was historically. It’s veryinteresting, actually. You drive down a street in the townof Paola and there it is—a doorway that says “Hypogeum.”This is not what most people would imagine—an ancientsite oddly located in the middle of a bustling town. You get out of your car, walk in the front door, and youare in the lobby of a new visitor’s center. When we werethere, they were just beginning renovation. We wentthrough construction zones upstairs, and then descendeddown a spiral staircase. We emerged in the midst of acomplex of adjoining circular rooms. Three floors of suchrooms were carved from one solid piece of limestone,using flint and obsidian tools. Their beautiful roundshapes have incredible ridges with complex lines. Theshapes found in the temples of Malta above the groundare repeated underground in these egg-like, lobe-shapedrooms, resembling the forms of a female body. The bones of thousands of people were found in oneof the rooms. It was obviously used as a burial chamber,the bones apparently brought down after the flesh haddecayed. We do not know about the actual ritual, butwe do know that many Neolithic people practiced two-

stage burials. After vultures and other birds of prey hadde-fleshed the body above ground, the bones werebrought down, perhaps at specific seasonal times.According to the great archaeologist Marija Gimbutas,the Hypogeum was not only the tomb; it was also the womb. An area in the Hypogeum called the “Holy of the Holies”contains a model of an aboveground temple, linking whatis above to what is beneath the ground. Most of the above-ground temples are aligned to the sun at the equinoxes andsolstices, and to the stars and galaxies. Underground, onehas the sense of being inside Earth, the deep womb of thegoddess, and also of being connected to the sun and sky. Tothe ancients there is a continual cycle from birth to deathto regeneration. It’s not that above ground is life and belowit is death. There is a sense that all is held within the wombof the Mother-Creator. All is functioning within that. Lifeis not separated or dualistic. Reality is whole, and cyclical.There were certainly rituals for the dead, but the whole ofritual life in the Hypogeum was probably very muchabout the living as well. In archaeological manuals, I have seen aerial viewsof the Hypogeum as a series of adjacent chambers.Some theories indicate that the complex has not beenentirely excavated, and that one hypogeum may belinked to another through underground tunnels. Thisis not a mainstream theory yet, but there are all kindsof possibilities and much more archaeological workto be done in Malta. Through the coming years, I thinkmuch more will be revealed. In fact, some underwatertemples have recently been discovered off the Maltesecoast. Some people believe that the dates of thesetemples and therefore of all the other temples in thearea could be much earlier than is currently believed.

Hypogeum at Hal Saflieni,

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Spirals and DrSpirals and DrSpirals and DrSpirals and DrSpirals and DreamseamseamseamseamsA major motif in Maltese art is thespiral. There are so many differentkinds of spirals that they form theirown language. On my last trip, Itook pictures of these. The spiralsthat are present everywhere speakto the reality that life, death andregeneration are all being heldwithin the body of the goddess. A famous sculpture called theSleeping Lady of Malta was foundin the Hypogeum. One theory isthat she is pregnant, or wants tobecome pregnant, and has goneinto the Hypogeum to incarnate thespirit of a dead ancestor. Or, maybethe Sleeping Lady of Malta came

down into the temple to do dreamincubation. Her position is similarto some Tibetan Buddhist dream-yoga poses. Associations with birth,with dreams and visioning forprophecy, greater wisdom andunderstanding add weight to thetheory that the Hypogeum wasmuch more than a burial chamber.

RestorationRestorationRestorationRestorationRestorationMalta is the home of many culturesbuilt on top of one another. Presently,its population is ninety-nine percentCatholic. Most Maltese people arenot aware of the impor-tance of thesesites, and many have never been tothe temples. This is partly because thegovernment itself did not take muchinterest in them until the rest of theworld said, “Wow! These are the oldestfree-standing temples in the world!”Stonehenge dates to about 3000 B.C.,and the pyramids are considered tohave been built around that time.Therefore, Malta’s 6,000-year-oldtemples are significantly older. Several years ago, the Hypogeumwas put on the UNESCO list ofprotected sites and closed for restor-ation. In 1996, sophisticated controlswere installed to regulate airtemperature and humidity. Now,rather ugly metal railings establishcontrol over where people can walk,and metal floor coverings protect thestones from wear and tear. Thiscertainly changes the acoustics, theaesthetics and the emotional impactof this awesome and powerful spacewhen it reopens soon. The good thingis that nothing has been drilled intoor attached to the stone. Everythingcan be removed at any time. Somepeople I talked with in the museumare not happy with the way it looks,but they are happy that the mobilepieces can be removed or changed asneeded. It’s a balancing act betweenprotecting the structure itself andpreserving the spirit of the place.

TTTTTheory vs.heory vs.heory vs.heory vs.heory vs. Knowing Knowing Knowing Knowing KnowingIn January 1999, when we made ourrecordings, there were a couple ofmetal railings, but the floors were stillthe original pure stone. This is onereason that our opportunity was suchan historic occasion. In my trips to sacred goddess sites,women very often have a sense ofreturning to something they feel theyabsolutely know, and of having beenthere before. Certainly there weremoments, when we were singing, thattime and space seemed to becomenonexistent. It felt as if somethingwere opening, as if the crack betweenthe worlds were widening. That feltdeeply familiar to me. The archaeological world isinterested in these sites, but itsinterpretation is different from thatof Marija Gimbutas, who proposed asacred goddess culture and peacefulegalitarian society in NeolithicEurope. There has been an enormousbacklash against her work. Some Maltese archaeologists aremore open, but even they have beenaffected by those in their field whorefuse to deal with Marija’s evidence.Marija’s theories turn establishedarchaeology on its head and threatenthe traditional understanding ofhistory, of civilization, and of genderrelations. Having gone to sacred sitesand museums over the years, I haveno doubt that Marija was right on. Some male archaeologists questionwhether certain female figurines areindeed female, suggesting that theymay be androgynous priests. Onetheory, published in ScientificAmerican, proposed that the templesof Malta were made at a time whenpeople were experiencing a greatamount of stress due to environmentalproblems, and that food and survivalissues made different tribes competeto build them. Such wild extrapo-lations and reactionary theories arebeing published as plausibleSpirals from the Tarxien temple, Malta

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mainstream ideas. Yet theprimary audience for suchtheories is academia itself. On the other hand, ahuge groundswell ofpeople is becominginterested in Neolithiccivilization to gain abroader understanding ofhistory and of how we gotwhere we are. People areeager to find other modelsfor ways of living andbeing. Thousands of menand women are studyingMarija’s theories and aretraveling to ancient sitesto feel the energy firsthand. Prehistoric Malta wasdevoid of weapons. Thepeople were highly artistic,highly devotional, andconnected to the cycles ofnature. They livedpeacefully in every way forthousands of years. That’sa remarkable achievement.If you look at our world,you cannot point to anything likethat, and yet many people arelooking for a different model torebuild our world People who wantto go to school and work withMarija’s material are having a hardtime, since many professors are sonarrow in their under-standings.The real change is happening at amuch more grassroots level. On adeeply intui-tive body level, peopleare linking, dreaming, and startingto have a direct experience of an oldertradition. That is also why there is suchan interest in my music. I receive emailsand calls from all over the world. Right before the Bronze Age, theNeolithic people of Malta dis-appeared. No one knows where theywent, so this is an unsolved mystery.Maybe they left because they knew thepatriarchal incursions were moving intheir direction. Maybe they moved

MusicMusicMusicMusicMusicI have made five albums.Some reflect more of mysinger/songwriter folk-musicpersonality. Refuge, a veryrecent acoustic record withstrings, cello and guitars, hasa lot of Buddhist themes.Other music reflects mypolitics and my love ofEarth. All of this music feelsvery personal, whether it ispolitical in content, or a lovesong, or of a spiritual nature. I began to understandthe power of repetitivechanting through workingwith Vicki Noble in herhealing circles for manyyears. We would sing andchant and drum for hours.Whereas pop songs playedon the radio can be no morethan three and a half minuteslong, indigenous peopleunderstand the power ofsinging all night long. They

sometimes sing and dance and pray fordays. Ceremonies use the power ofmusic—drumming, rhythm andrepetition—to change our state ofconsciousness and to heal our bodies,psyches and emotions. This opens thedoorway to our most authentic selves, tothe other worlds, and opens our hearts. She Carries Me (1995) explores therealm of meditative and trance musicspecifically designed for rituals andlife passages. This album features atwenty-four-minute multi-layeredchant track in honor of the Buddhistgoddess Kuan Yin, the Tibetan goddessTara and Mother Mary. It also featuresa spoken work by Olympia Dukakisand music by acclaimed violinist DarolAnger. It is being used in so manyways—at countless healing centers,hospitals, in the death-and-dyingmovement, at birthings and otherrituals, and for personal meditation.

west and connected with the peoplewho built the temples at New Grangein Ireland. There are certainlysimilarities in their symbolism,building technology and alignments.This is interesting to think about. For the last two years, Joan and Ihave led groups to Malta, and led aspring equinox ritual at the Templeof Mnajdra. We have been witness tothe fact that these ancient peoplealigned their temples to the rising sunon equinox morning. As the rising sunshines through the entrance of thetemple, it lights up the altar in theback. This is an incredible phenom-enon. There is also a theory that thistemple is aligned to the Pleiades at thistime, which would display a deepastronomical understanding.

Two views of Mnajdra Temple, Malta

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ReTReTReTReTReTurningurningurningurningurningFor my new album, ReTurning, Iwanted to make an entire CD withoutbreaks. It consists of one piece that isfifty-two minutes long. At the base isthe chant “to the mother of us all” thatwe recorded in the Hypogeum. To thatwe added layer upon layer of drone andimprovisation. In my desire to pray toand bring forth our whole legacy offemale deities from all over the world,I added in the whispered names ofhundreds of goddesses. I have been following a Buddhistpractice for many years, and felt drawnto chant a prayer from the Heart Sutrain the Hypogeum—Gate, Gate,Paragate, Parasamgate, Bodhi Swaha.It is about the impermanence oflife—“Gone, gone, gone beyond, gonebeyond the farthest beyond” andevokes the Goddess of Perfect Wisdom.The Goddess changes everything shetouches; all things are changing andcyclical. We brought back all theselayers on tape to Berkeley. I wanted to make the album abeautiful weave of various culturaltraditions. African-American singerLinda Tillery added a beautiful song/prayer to the West African goddessYemaya, the Ocean Mother. SharonBirch, a Navajo singer, chants inNavajo for Mother Earth. Qwaalisingers Sukhawat Ali Khan and RiffatSalamat sing in the Pakistanitradition, improvising in an easternscale, which to me felt similar to musicoriginally played in the Hypogeum.A beautiful trance-like drum carriesthe whole thing forward; the handdrums and percussion are played byRick Lazar (percussionist forLoreena McKennitt). The music came together on its own,without much planning. The entirelayered piece moves and grows andchanges, as an expression of cyclicalreality, and turned out much morebeautiful than I had planned. What

magically emerged when we mixed allthe sounds together was somethinglike an underground river: You canchoose to follow different pathways,but because there are other streamsflowing simultaneously at the sametime, the rational mind has to let go.This great release helps you naturallyenter into another state.

BioBioBioBioBioAs a little girl, I started playing myguitar in the second grade. I grew upCatholic, and after Vatican II I noticeda more mystical-nature base and folk-music presence in the church music.I was very connected to that until Ibecame a feminist and got an under-graduate degree in comparativereligion. Eventually I left the church,but continued to develop as amusician, playing in coffeehouses,bars and lounges. Eventually, I movedinto concert circuits and conferences.I played at politicalevents in Alberta,Canada, for peacegroups, Latin-Amer-icanand African solidarityevents, and for everywomen’s issue youcould think of. Imoved to the States,studied with Mat-thew Fox at theInstitute for Cre-ation Spirituality,and completed mymaster’s degree in1984. At that time Ialso started mak-ingconnections in thewomen’s spir-ituality world andplaying music inthat context. I co-teach a classwith Arisika Razakcalled “Women’sSacred Art” at the

California Institute of Integral Studies,lead trips to sacred sites and teach aworkshop for women called “The Ecstasyof Sound” in which I use sound, song,chanting and rhythm in a ritual contextto connect women to their ancientroots. I also still perform folk music. The project I’m most excited aboutnow is the concert/ritual we areproducing on February 6, 2000. Overseventy musicians, dancers, poets andritualists will perform ReTurning as aprayerful and ecstatic communityevent. (See ad p.13) It is beingsponsored by the California Instituteof Integral Studies and is a benefit forthe film and book projects aboutMarija Gimbutas and the women’sspirituality department at CaliforniaInstitute of Integral Studies (CIIS). Jennifer can be reached by email at:berezan@sirius.com. Her record companywebsite is at: www.edgeofwonder.com.

Jennifer Berezan Photos provided

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