12 Ancient Songs To Soothe Your Anxious Mind

The ancient origins of music are rooted in humanity's quest to understand what lies behind the veil. Modern science is only beginning to understand what the mystics of antiquity were able to fully grasp: we are all vibrations emanating from one eternal source.

Please join me on this journey through Gaia's varying spiritualities to raise your vibration. At the end of this article you will find two playlists for your continued aural pleasure. Scroll through if you wish to experience the music without explanation, or if you're the intellectual type let us dive right into the deeper meaning.

Lord's Prayer in Aramaic

Being raised a Christian, Lutheran to be specific, I feel it's fitting to begin with The Lord's Prayer or The Prayer of the Cosmos as I've now come to know it. A few years ago I discovered a book by Neil Douglas-Klotz which reinterpreted Yeshua's prayer using not the Greek, but instead favoring Aramaic, Yeshua's native tongue. What this radical new translation reveals is a mystical, feminine, cosmic Christ which can help our culture wipe away the centuries of Patriarchal abuse doled out by the christian church.

With Aramaic being a complex, mystical language Douglas-Klotz gives each line of the prayer several possible meanings. Here I present my favorite flow through the only prayer Yeshua left his followers:

O, Source of all sound,

help us breathe one breath.

Unite our will with yours,

that we may create in divine cooperation.

Fulfill our daily need of bread and insight.

Forgive our pasts, as we

forgive the pasts of others.

Keep us from delusion,

by your eternal Wisdom.

From you is born all strength,

power and the will to do,

the song that beautifies all --

from age to age it renews.

Amen.

Does that jive with your soul a little more? I know it did with mine.

Psalms 104

The members of the Yamma Ensemble were all born and raised in the Middle East. They create a blend of soulful, exotic music accompanied by ancient musical instruments (kopuz, duduk, hand drums) native to their homeland. Performing contemporary Hebrew music alongside traditional music and material of the various Jewish diasporas of Yemen, Babylon, and Sefarad, while incorporating the fascinating forms and rhythms that have been preserved by generations of Jewish traditions.

Here they present Psalms 104 in ancient Hebrew which gives voice to the many aspects of nature. The Psalm embodies a complete cosmos: sea and land, cloud and sunlight, plant and animal, light and darkness, life and death, are all proved to contain the presence of the God.

Here I present a few excerpts:

(3) You make the clouds your chariot

and ride on the wings of the wind.

(10) You make springs pour water into the ravines;

it flows between the mountains.

(11) They give water to all the beasts of the field;

the wild donkeys quench their thirst.

(19) You made the moon to mark the seasons,

and the sun knows when to go down.

(20) You bring darkness, it becomes night,

and all the beasts of the forest prowl.

(27) All creatures look to you

to give them their food at the proper time.

(28) When you give it to them,

they gather it up;

when you open your hand,

they are satisfied with good things.

La Hawla Wala Quwwata illa Billah

La Hawla Wala Quwwata illa Billah translates as:

There is neither power nor ability save by Allah.

This is an Islamic prayer which repudiates our egoistic claims to control and ability by asserting that all actions emanate from one eternal source. Within Islam this source is called Allah, and if we circle back to Yeshua he would have used a similar word, Elaha. Remember Jews, Christians, and Muslims are all worshiping the same God.

Imam Abdullah Ibn ‘Alawi Al-Haddad sums up the meaning of this prayer better than I ever could:

Hence the meaning of la hawla wala quwwata illa billah is the denial of one’s possession of autonomous power and ability, and the simultaneous confession of the existence of that (relative) power and ability to make choices that Allah has given Allah's servants to be their own.

Sa Ta Na Ma

Sa Ta Na Ma explores the seed sounds of the mantra Sat Naam which is commonly translated as:

The Name Is Truth

Some will encourage the practitioner to forgo all meaning of the sounds to simply enjoy their vibrational quality, but we'll dive a little deeper. I feel understanding the how and why of what one is doing to be highly beneficial.

Sa indicates the infinite source of all creation.

Ta encompasses birth of physical form and life.

Na undergoes a transformation of form.

Ma ends in rebirth.

This is a mantra which can be employed for change if something is not working out physically, financially, or emotionally in your life. It encourages energy to rise up the spine expanding into the mind.

Maha Mantra

Let us change gears with a duo who combines ancient sounds with modern technology. The daughter of a jazz pianist, Marti Nikko spent her childhood in nightclubs, absorbing the art and wisdom of many great musicians. She met DJ Drez shortly after high school, when they began performing and recording together. Over two decades, their collaboration has become an intimate musical language that effortlessly translates into and between many styles of music, including hip hop, reggae, kirtan, jazz and soul.

So, what is the Maha Mantra?

Have you ever seen a scene like this while walking down the street?

This group, colloquially known as the Hare Krishnas, chant the Maha Mantra over and over and over and over again, and it is a prime example of divine simplicity consisting of only three words.

Hare refers to the energy/shakti of God.

Krishna embodies the source of creation in physical form and possesses every quality in and out of the universe.

Rama is another name for God meaning reservoir of eternal pleasure.

The mantra proceeds like this:

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna

Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama

Rama Rama Hare Hare

And, it is said that the Maha Mantra translates as such:

O all-attractive, all pleasing Lord, O energy of the Lord, please engage me in Your loving devotional service.

Om Tare Tuttare Ture Soha

Within Buddhism Tara is a Bodhisattva, a compassionate being who has postponed their own enlightenment to remain in this realm until all other beings have also achieved enlightenment. She can be described as a forerunner to feminism. When asked if she desired to be reborn as a man in her next life she vowed to keep taking birth as a woman (rather than in male form, which was considered more advanced on the path to enlightenment) to continue helping others.

She is considered the "Mother of all Buddhas" encompassing 21 forms, each with a different color and spiritual attributes. Here I present the mantra of Green Tara who is associated with enlightened activity and abundance.

Let us break it down.

Om is the sound of the universe, said to contain all that was, is, and ever will be.

Tare calls upon mother Tara who liberates all beings from true suffering.

Tuttare is a request to liberate oneself from ignorance, attachment, anger, pride, jealousy, miserliness, doubt and wrong views.

Ture asks to liberate oneself from all disease which is rooted in our ignorance of oneness with all beings.

Soha establishes the root of the true path within our hearts.

The Lama Zopa translated the mantra as this:

To you, embodiment of all the Buddhas’ actions, I prostrate always — whether I am in happy or unhappy circumstances — with my body, speech and mind.

Man Kunto Maula

Here we return the Islam through the Sufi tradition of sama, meaning deep spiritual listening. Out of this practice rose a form of music called Qawwali which uses traditional instruments such as the harmonium, tabla, dholak and sarangi. It is experienced as a communal performance with hand clapping from the audience emphasising the rhythmic structure. This creates a mystical atmosphere through repetition, improvisation and variation.

Enter Abi Sampa who updates this traditional form of music for the modern age. She is a London singer trained in the art of Qawwali who appeared on the Voice UK in 2013. She graduated from university as a dentist, but gave this up after enjoying success on The Voice.

Here we have her beautiful orchestral rendition of a Qawwali classic Man Kunto Maula the lyrics of which translate as this:

King of the brave,

lion of God,

[and] strength of God.

There is no one like Ali [and]

there is no sword like Zulfiqaar.

Ali is my master, I am devoted to him.

thousands of lives can be sacrificed for the sacredness of the name Ali.

To whom I am the master

Ali is the master.

Ali is the king of the brave and the great leader

because after the Prophet, there is Ali.

Wait, I thought Allah was the source of all Power? Who is this Ali you speak of?

This song was composed by Amir Khusro in the praise of Ali ibn Abi Talib, Prophet Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law. It's based on a saying of the Prophet Mohammad:

Whoever accepts me as a master, Ali is his master too.

Psalm 23

Another singer who is working to breath new life into the world of ancient prayer is Shani Ferguson. She is an Israeli artist who draws from the depths of a biblical Jewish worldview to create and produce Israeli Worship music in Hebrew and English.

Here she layers the ancient Hebrew of Psalm 23 over a pulsating electronic beat. If you don't remember how this Psalm goes the first few lines may remind you of this famous poem.

God is my shepherd; I shall not want.

You maketh me to lie down in green pastures: you leadeth me beside the still waters.

You restoreth my soul: you leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for the holy name's sake.

Ra Ma Da Sa

Ra Ma Da Sa is a modern mantra first heard in the summer of 1973. It was designed as a healing prayer calling on all the elements to aide heal oneself or to send healing energies to someone else. It consists of several Sanskrit letters which are themselves perfect mantras each representing one of the seven chakras.

Ra represents the sun and the root chakra.

Ma represents the moon and the sacral chakra.

Da represents the earth and the navel chakra.

Sa represents impersonal infinity and the heart and throat chakras.

Say represents the totality of infinity and the third eye chakra.

So represents the personal sense of merger and identity and the crown chakra.

Hung represents the infinite and sends energy from the crown back to the root chakra.

It is often translated in this way:

Sun, Moon, Earth, Infinity: All that is in infinity, I am Thee.

Heart Sutra

Yogetsu Akasaka is a 37 year old buddhist monk who went viral on Youtube last May by layering sounds and chants all from one instrument — his voice. Using a mixture of beatboxing and live looping he creates entrancing, improvised version of these ancient chants. He had been beatboxing for several years before following in his fathers footsteps by becoming a monk. Needless to say he's found a truly unique way to combine the best of both world's.

This beatbox live loop of the Heart Sutra is what initially sent his music viral. The Heart Sutra is spoken by the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara to Śariputra, the first disciple of the Buddha. It is said to contain all of buddhist wisdom within it's 260 Chinese characters.

Now that is one decisive tweet!

It describes how the Two Truths of Buddhism while accurate descriptions of conventional truth, are mere statements about reality—they are not reality itself—and that they are therefore not applicable to the ultimate truth that is by definition beyond mental understanding. And ends with this mantra, gate gate pāragate pārasaṃgate bodhi svāhā, which can be translated as this:

United we go to the other shore, the shore of enlightenment.

Agni Parthene

Now let us return to the Greek origins of Christendom with this Marian hymn composed by St. Nectarios of Aegina in the late 19th century gloriously sung here by Aleksandra Spicberga. St. Nectarios reportedly composed the text for this poem after having seen a vision of the Theotokos, Mother of God, in a dream where she asked him to record this poem. The original script can still be viewed on the prayer table in his bedroom at his monastery.

It became wildly popular due to St. Nectarios becoming a popular modern-day Saint, even stirring controversy as it has been used as a communion hymn and a hymn to begin Vespers services.

The text is in 24 stanzas or invocations, each followed by the refrain "Hail, unwedded bride". This is a translation of the final stanza:

I supplicate thee, Lady/ I humbly call upon thee

O Queen of all, I beg thee/ to grant me thy favor

O spotless and most honored maid/ O Lady all holy

I call upon thee fervently/ thou temple most holy

O thou my help, deliver me/ from harm and all adversity

And by thy prayers show me to be/ an heir of immortality

The Halluci Nation Ft. Black Bear - Stadium Pow Wow

We'll end our journey through the world of prayer with another modern take on ancient sound. The Halluci Nation, an electronic music group out of Canada consisting of members of the Nipissing First Nation, the Mohawk of the Six Nations of the Grand River, and the Cayuga First Nation, illustrate the tension that Native North Americans feel between modern culture and their ancient ancestral culture by creating a new genre known as powwow-step.

This genre can work like magic to heal the wounds that have been inflicted upon The First Nations People as it combines the sounds of the White Mans children with the sounds of this ancient land. Music is one of the great equalizers, something all of us, regardless of race, have in common, and the Halluci Nation are making their mark on this common ground that we all share.

We've made it to the end!

I know, I know, that was a lot of information to take in but you can now fully enjoy these playlists with a deeper understanding of their spiritual meaning.

Now, go be free.

Spotify:

Youtube:

Namaste,

Charlie Le Fol