September Songs

♥ SEPTEMBER SONGS

As the leaves begin to bronze in the mellowing sun, the passion of autumn is painted on the trees. There can often be a wisp of nostalgia in the breeze, as we tip away from summer at Equinox towards the longer nights. Passions from the past can be re-ignited like the burning leaves. Taking inspiration rather than inhibition from the past requires courage and the unswerving commitment to stay in the spontaneity of the present. When we allow ourselves this gift, the past can become a treasure trove rather than a burial ground - and be seen as our own personal harvest of experience to support us on the onward journey. What will you carry forward this Equinox - what makes your heart sing in the Autumn days?

♥ SEPTEMBER EVENTS
My August yielded the harvest of many fruits. My retreat with Yoga on Crete was a wonderful experience full of seaside stretching, dancing, laughter and ...goats!:)
I had a marvellous time at Tribal Earth with friends old and new - thanks and love to Sangeeta Chohan, Rebecca Rainbow, Nikki Slade, Mark Fisher and all the lovely singers for a truly technicolour celebration of love.
I've now landed back in London town, ready for September singing - do join me at Opening to Autumn Kirtan at Evolve on 2nd September, Full Moon Kirtan at The Yogi Tree on the 18th Sept and Passionate Peace at Antenna Studios on 23rd Sept where I'll be teaming up with Catherine Pestano and Kate Mckenzie to celebrate London Week of Peace.
Babies and their carers are most lovingly invited to a series of Blissful Babybuds singing sessions in Crystal Palace.
It's a great honour to have Cornelius and Eliza Kenyon opening the Autumn season of Garden of Roses at Inspiral - do join us for a very special evening of heart-healing song.
I also offer you a belated Rose Window Blog written just after the death of Amy Winehouse about Creativity, Madness and Addiction - do click here to read and leave your comments!
Finally I'd love to invite you to visit my Just Giving Page about Sing for Water at the Thames Festival - I'll be amongst hundreds of singers raising funds for Water Aid - http://www.justgiving.com/KatieRose
Wishing you a wonderfully songful September xxx

What we plant in the soil of contemplation, we shall reap in the harvest of action. - Meister Eckhart

Creativity Madness & Addiction

Creativity, Madness and Addiction

Are artists mad? Does madness enhance creativity or is it society that is insane and the artists the only ones telling the truth?

A friend asked me to blog on the death of Amy Winehouse and on the link with other artists, similarly ending their life arc in their youth - Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain and Amy all died at the age of 27. Their work and lives all touch on epic themes, which are impossible to deal with in one blog - addiction, creativity, love, loss - and as such that was their service to the world - to explode like stars on the sky of consciousness and to raise huge questions. They weren’t here to be sorted, ‘normal’ sane, happy people - they were here to embody the most talented and tortured aspects of human living and hold up a mirror to those who witnessed them.

Tragic though it is for those who grieve their loss, I feel it is important not to make it wrong. These artists lived and died as they chose to. What actually is wrong with dying - after all, everyone and everything does it. Dying is just as creative an act as being born.

My sense of all lives - whether long or momentary - is that they each have their purpose and that there is an innate intelligence both within and beyond a person that decides when their time of transition arrives. That whilst indeed I feel immense compassion for the suffering Amy Winehouse visibly endured, I respect her choice - on whatever deep unconscious and/or higher conscious plane it occurred - to let go and move on. Also, everyone is addicted to something. I, for example, am still addicted to breathing, drinking, sleeping and eating. Those are the addictions that come with the job of inhabiting a body. Yogic thought states that with immense discipline and dedication, it is possible to transcend them without dying, but its not something to try at home. Depending on what happens in early life, plus genetic and karmic downloads and each individual’s personal eccentricities, a whole plethora of other behaviours can evolve from those fundamental addictions - from getting high on substances that can be sniffed, snorted or swallowed to compulsively checking all the gas taps and door knobs before bedtime.

As I observe it, an addiction is often based on a belief system which has at its core an unresolved need, wound or trauma. There’s usually a big black void - an emptiness - that the belief is there to plaster over. Our innate vulnerability as beings when we arrive naked in this world never leaves us but we dress it up with beliefs. I saw one stand up comedian say he had to drink in order to be funny - he truly believed he needed alcohol to be a comedian. Beliefs are supported by justifications - ‘a friend of mine saw me sober once and agreed with me, I’m just not funny when I’m not drunk.’ No, probably not, that’ll be the withdrawal kicking in. The illusion is that we need the booze, the poppers, the routine, the attention, the car, the mortgage, the shopping trip to look and feel good and stay alive.

For me, the issue is not so much the addictions or the deaths, its in the personal, cultural and social frameworks which create a breeding ground for false beliefs. It is the persistent media glamourisation and morbid fascination with celebrities and their hangups which sets the stage for someone like Amy to dance distortedly on and off in just a few short years. It’s the massive binary media message given to artists - “Yes - we want you as entertainment, as freak shows - the wierder the better, as a place to dump projections and we’ll pay mega bucks for a good show as long as we don’t have to associate ourselves with you, because - No - we don’t want you, you are too untidy, unruly, unlawful, out of place, broken, wounded - get thee to rehab and how dare you ask for money for your art, why don’t you be a useful member of society and get a proper job?“

It is the education process which, in my experience of it, priveleges the rational mind over the creative and grooms children to perform and compete for adult attention and abstract grades instead of teaching them to value and know themselves. It’s the religious and spiritual practices that send people spinning out into the atmosphere like meditative junkies seeking a God-fix without any real grounding or support. It’s the basic message of capitalist society - that our value as beings is measurable by our output and is validated by something or someone outside of us.

There is a lot of psycho-therapeutic research into whether artists are bipolar or somehow identifiably crazy. Comedian Stephen Fry has done much in his brave sharing of his own struggles to bring discussion of mental health issues out from behind closed doors and white coats. Can artists be anything but bipolar given the bizarre messages they receive?

But artists are far from victims. Amy Winehouse was well aware that all publicity helps sell records, even if it is tabloid trash. The power in her voice let you know that she was all there - all of her - highs and lows - the lot - that’s why people loved her and mourn her now. Artists are immensely powerful people which is why they are alternately deified and demonised and why they behave as saints and sinners. Artists channel the power of high voltage creative energy through their chosen medium and are therefore prone to blowing all their circuits. If there is a bipolar aspect to creativity it is simply the natural surge of charge passing between negative and positive, structure and chaos, wisdom and innocence, sublime and ridiculous.

For if there were less dressing up and pretending and media glam, the void that gapes so obviously from within the soul rending songs of broken artists could be seen and befriended. The various masks and identities in the social parade could be seen for what they are and the fear of the dark, void places could be welcomed and acknowledged. For who in this world is not vulnerable and subject to moments of delusion, confusion, bewilderment, despair, sadness, illness, compulsion, obsession and all the other kaleidoscopic colours within shade. And who in this world is not a creative artist - when just to breathe is an creative act that can open doors to realms of ecstasy? There is intelligence to be found within all spaces - dark, light and all that lays between. So who is to throw the first stone at those who go back to black?

If we re-frame the camera angle, we can see that all the dramarama is only one part of a vast creative picture and choose where we place ourselves. I am honoured to know a great many gorgeous, talented artistic, people who express their gifts in uniquely beautiful ways and in so doing contribute immensely to this world and are able to maintain their poise and well-being. Some of the qualities that I notice within them are - an unswerving dedication to self-observation rather than self -indulgence, a dedication to some form of creative practice that supports them daily, the ability to laugh at themselves and see the nutty side of everything, an ability to create mutually supportive connections and projects within their community, a willingness to examine their blindspots and dark places and a willingness to jump over the edge and be seen for the wonderful, whacky, wild and wilful creatures that we all are.

For it is my belief that our essence - that part of us which has the capacity to watch our obsessions, addictions, victories, triumphs and madnesses - is beyond taming. It is a wild thing that will not fit into religious, social or cultural categories and does not want to be given a name tag. And no matter however many traumas, restrictions or limitations it may choose to explore or encounter in human form, it will always seek freedom. It is as bright as the brightest star and as dark as the deep, velvety night and roams through all colours of the rainbow and far beyond. It is as wild and wonderful as the beautiful woman who just left this realm on a one way rocket.