An Experience of Perception

Magic, then, in its perhaps most primordial sense, is the experience of existing in a world made up of multiple intelligences, the intuition that every form one perceives--from the swallow swooping overhead to the fly on a blade of grass, and indeed the blade of grass itself--is an experiencing form, an entity with its own predilections and sensations, albeit sensations that are very different from our own. -David Abram, The Spell of the Sensuous


I am reading this book currently and I am spellbound by it.  It makes me think, makes me feel.  My brain is being stretched into new realms of thought.  It's opening me up to new ways of understanding and perceiving.  And sometimes it's simply putting to words what I've already been experiencing and feeling.  As I sat outside reading today, I started to think about perception.  I kind of touched on this in my blog post These Moments, written over a year ago.  Basically the idea that what I perceive only exists by the very act of me perceiving it.  The perceiver and the perceived cannot exist apart from each other.  Abram says it more eloquently, "...perception...is inherently participatory...always involving, at its most intimate level, the experience of active interplay...between the perceiving body and that which it perceives."   There is a dance going on here.  We are engaged by the things we are perceiving.  Those things, whether we term them as animate or inanimate, are actively engaging us in the act of perception.  For me, this gives dynamic life to everything!

So I sit here, on the swing in my front yard, perceiving or being engaged into the act of perception, by the tree in front of me, the squirrel cautiously observing me, the grass under my feet, the cool rain drops falling on my skin.  And I can't help but wonder...is the rain perceiving me?  I can more clearly see that the squirrel or the birds or the crickets and especially the mosquitoes (!!!) obviously perceive me.  My presence is engaging them into the act of perception, as they are engaging me.  But how about the other forms that make up the totality of nature? Nature is alive with perception.  If the tree can experience the gift of the sun or a thirst quenching rain, surely it experiences my body as I lean up against it.  If I can experience the shift in energy in the woods when the sun sets, then surely the woods experiences my energy, the energy I bring into that place with me.

My imagination begins to roam wild with the possibilities.  As I perceive the sensations of the earth as I walk with barefoot feet, is the earth perceiving my footsteps upon her?  As I perceive the rain falling on my skin, is the rain perceiving this warm body it lands upon?  As I perceive the ocean surrounding and engulfing me, does the ocean perceive this dense body floating through it?  As I perceive the air gently swirling across my skin and through my hair, does the air perceive this resistance to its flow, this object it must move around? Does any of this exist without me? Do I exist without it?  It's exciting to me and adds a whole new dimension to my time spent in nature.  As I hike through the woods, as I watch the honeybees, as I hang out in my yard, as I sit quietly in nature, I am the perceiver and the perceived.  In the moments I experience nature, nature is also experiencing me.  Maybe not in the same way I experience, but in its own unique way.  It surely is magical!

The Rhythm of Life

There's something that happens inside me when I hear the beat of a drum.  Any drum I suppose, but particularly hand drums.  I feel something being stirred deep within, like a remembering.  I feel that remembering slowly pulsing and vibrating from my heart center out into the rest of my body and I want to just close my eyes and be swept away with it.  This is why I love participating in drum circles.  I love being part of creating the rhythm as well as experiencing it.  I can sit there, allowing my hands to drum that simple basic beat, and let my awareness flow into the energy of the circle.  Everyone finds their unique style, their variation of the beat, their individuality, but we're all connected by that central pulse.

At the most recent drum circle I attended, I was one of four who played the large center drum for one of the sessions.  We were the keepers of the central pulse.  I had this image of being part of the earth's core.  We were the earth's center, her rhythm emanating from this drum, providing the foundation of the life-giving rhythm to all the other drummers in the circle.  These individual drummers weren't just people anymore.  The drumming of each person came to represent life on this earth...the rhythm of the trees, birds, insects, humans, flowers, rocks, fish, animals...the rhythm of each species that inhabits this earth.  Each has its own unique rhythm, and yet we are all connected by that central pulse.  We are separate and yet one.

The leader of the drum circle pointed out how drum solos can be a beautiful part of the circle.  One person rising above the rest, leaving the main rhythm to express their gift, their beauty, their uniqueness for a few moments and then returning to the natural beat.  There is magic in this ebb and flow, expressing and receiving. But he also pointed out how problems can arise when one person monopolizes the solo, playing on and on.  Being so focused on hearing his/her own expression and forgetting that they are only one piece of what creates the magic in the circle.  "It sounds great for the person playing the solo, not so great for the rest of the circle."

I thought about this today as I walked barefoot through the woods.  Maybe humanity has been playing it's solo too loudly and for too long.  We just keep going and going, forgetting that we are simply one species of life making its home here.  We are not the 'end all, be all'.  For our lives as humans, as the whole of humanity, we need to step back and listen.  We need to remember the sacred rhythm of the earth's pulse.  We need to pay attention to and receive the solos of all the other species of life here.  Just as nature's rhythm keeps the central beat for us, we also need to step back for a while and be the ones holding the central beat steady.  In this way, we uplift and support the rhythm for all other forms of life on this planet.  No one species is meant to drown out and deafen.  We are here to add our beat, as one small part, to the larger rhythm of life.  I think when we can truly find this balance, this remembering, we will see healing...healing for humanity and healing for our earth.

"...it's more important to pay attention to the spaces between the notes, because that's where the magic takes place." -Dave 'Drumhead' Curry


For more info on drumming, check out Dave's website Drums for One and All or find him on Facebook.