Orpheus Charming the Animals · Marcantonio Raimondi, c. 1505 · Cleveland Museum of Art 1930.579

Sonic rituals and meditations, made for headphones. The first is called ENODIA, after the goddess of the road.

Sound

The cards turn

The very beginning of ENODIA, before it began. A fire and a slow, breathing hum, from our Samhain letter. Headphones help.

Three minutes by the fire3:04

Press play and put the phone down. Light a candle if you have one, and close your eyes.

You’re in a small room with a fire in it. A bowl rings three times.

At the first, think of something you carried in here. At the second, something small you could leave by the fire. At the third, something you’d like to take back out with you.

When the sound ends, open your eyes and blow out the candle.

Works

ENODIA · Sonic Rituals & MeditationsSoonTwo Torch-Bearers · Heinrich Aldegrever, 1538 · Art Institute of Chicago 1919.2230Enodia means “on the road”. The road is hodos, which is also inside method and exodus.Walk to a song you love and see if your feet fall into the beat.
The Descent, with soundOpens at nightfall, 22 SeptEuterpe, music, from the tarocchi · Master of the E-Series Tarocchi, before 1467 · Cleveland Museum of Art 1924.432.18Symphony is Greek for “sounding together”. Telephone and microphone carry the same phone, “voice”.Close your eyes for a minute and point at each sound you hear.

The cards turn is made from recordings on Wikimedia Commons, public domain or CC0: a cave by Bojan Marušič, a Chinese gong by the_very_Real_Horst, singing bowls by BambooBeast, and a gong, a wood fire and a cellar door by stephan, an old book by cori, a page by planish. Choir and strings from the GeneralUser GS soundfont by S. Christian Collins.