Ascension Journeys with Music

Music has been part of my life as I am sure it has been for many people. I use to play my mom’s accordion, play records on the record player, dance, sing and have a good time. I received a recorder in 3^rd grade that I loved to play and my mom bought me a guitar in 4^th grade and then a clarinet in 5^th grade. I taught myself how to play the various instruments from books as well as from lessons in school and eventually decided to focus on playing the clarinet.

I took private lessons on clarinet in middle school and decided to become a music teacher at an early age. I played in the band, jazz band and marching band and sang in the choir in both middle school and high school. I went to college and majored in music education and especially enjoyed my theory classes where one wrote four part harmony music and scores for and entire symphony. I also had to learn how to play all the instruments as well as learn how to conduct and listen to all the various instrumental lines playing at once. I was eager to have my own band and practice my listening and conducting skills.

Teaching music to students in grades K-8 became my focus for eight years. I conducted many bands and choirs as well as worked with many children in the classroom setting where we sang, danced and created songs. We put on many musicals, skits and plays and I enjoyed supporting and encouraging children of all ages to express themselves in all venues of music.

During this time, I also began to explore energy work and began to incorporate some visualization and energy movement exercises in the classroom in combination with music activities. The kids loved this for it was so different from what they knew yet it was so natural and they began to tell me stories of angels and divas they had seen and some monster stories as well. My journey as a teacher culminated to being chosen teacher of the year for my school district; however I felt like I had lost myself in the “school” and started to call myself back energetically. I taught for two more years and then decided to “retire”.

The fall of 1997 I traveled to Costa Rica to learn Spanish with the hope of living there, however I ended up returning to the states where I finished my master’s degree in music education and continued to teach music for another two years. I wanted to be “done” with teaching music and do something different but I did not know what this would be. I also was “done” playing the clarinet and wanted to play something new. I decided not teach anymore, took out my teaching retirement money to live on and started to think about what I wanted to do. It was in the fall of 2001 I came across the SSOA website and began my conscious journey of ascension.

I enjoyed reading the website and utilizing all their tools and techniques for managing the field and clearing karma. I also enjoyed looking at the Language of Light tones for they had a sound, movement, rhythm and color and I began drawing the different symbols. I also started to hear very short and simple melodies that I would sing during the day. They were only four measures to start with and then grew to eight measures. They were very “catchy tunes” and I liked them, or should I say my body liked them for I was actually tuning up my field with my own melodies. I wanted to remember them so I decided to write them down on manuscript paper. This brought me joy for my love of composing came back. It is almost like being an artist for you have to color in the little notes on the lines and spaces and attach them with little stems.

I also began to connect to some other creative ancestors for I began to draw pictures of various animals from a tarot deck using colored pencils. Drawing was another passion I had as a child and it was fun to have this return as well. I also took up crochet and made a sweater and a shirt and I also sewed a quilt! I made a lot of intentions that New Year’s eve and in the Spring I decided to sell everything, pack up the car and head west where I would live in Montana. I also decided to bring my recorder, purchase a concert flute and this was the beginning of another ascension journey with music.

I camped the entire way and took many beautiful pictures of all the animals, lakes, mountains, forests, streams and rivers I slept next to. I serenaded them with my recorder and flute and would write songs in honor of them. On the road, I would sing in the car and when a “catchy tune” came out, I took out my mini tape recorder and recorded the song. Then, after pitching my tent and cooking dinner on the camp stove, I would take out my notebook, listen to the song, and write it down. It was fun! Hawk followed me the entire journey and I wrote songs to all the animals and nature kingdoms I encountered including buffalo, dragonfly, deer, hawk as well as the lakes, mountains, rivers and the rolling hills and prairies.

When I arrived in Montana, I decided not to settle down and my cross country journey turned into visiting all the national parks and monuments in the west including Glacier, Yellowstone, Teton, Arches, Zion, Bryce Canyon, Mesa Verdi, Bandelier and the Grand Canyon. I collected many records and ancestors and experienced many energetic “anomalies” my ancestors had encountered in times past. My journey came to an end in the fall and I decided to drive back to Connecticut, regroup and plan my next journey which was to attend my first conclave in Hawaii 2002.

Conclave was fun and I even sang to the group during participant sharing some of the songs that came to me on my cross country trip. I fluttered around singing my dragonfly song and lumbered like a buffalo singing my tatanka song. Mila and Oa shared that I was expressing my own symphony within. I stayed in the islands camping and in the spring I traveled to Australia for an intensive and then in the summer I headed to Jasper for the SSOA events.

I continued to write songs and my eight bar melodies, grew to sixteen measures, then to thirty two including chorus sections, introductions and codas (endings). I began to notice that some of my songs had the same chord structure; meaning if I were to play the melodies together they would sound good and create a harmony. I began to play along with my tape recorder; where one song was recorded and I would play the second song to create the harmony. It was truly my own symphony. I looked back on the many songs I had written during my cross country trip, and several of them could be combined together to create a symphony; a song about the birds, combined with a song of a lake with another about a song for ascension.

That fall, I ended up returning to Connecticut and started to teach music part-time, for I had run out of money and needed to regroup. I also had been let out of SSOA due to health problems in my ascent where I did not have supportive genetics, so I was also in need of healing. It was a growing experience as well as another turning point in my music journey. My whole approach to teaching music had evolved into co-creating with the children beautiful musical compositions and creations. I facilitated their musical expressions and let them create skits, plays, musicals and steered the topics towards being nature related. I also downloaded simple software onto my computer and started to type in all the songs created during my thirteen month traveling journey. I was able to put the songs I felt harmonized together one on top of each other into one song and had the computer play them back to me. It was nice to hear them sound together in symphony even though it was computer generated.

I finished the year of teaching, picked up and intended to integrate any schisms I had with the land and my family and decided to head out on another cross country journey for I realized Connecticut could not support me energetically any longer I felt healed within due to a lot of inner work and many readings with an SSOA initiate and I was ready for another huge shift in my life. In my last cross country journey I took the northern route so this time I decided to take the southern route, camping along the way and eventually ended up in southern Louisiana. I camped for two weeks picking up records and releasing records and stuck energy in the land. I parked my car and belongings at the closest airport parking lot and flew to the 2004 Hawaii conclave. I rejoined SSOA and entered the Community program.

I returned to Louisiana, picked up my car and headed to Taos Mexico where I was a housekeeper for the winter and into the spring. I did not compose many songs however I did start collecting a few more mineral pieces for my alter and worked with my inner music via learning new movements from the mineral kingdom. Perhaps I also was going through a metamorphosis; time away from the Athena university dance to separate more fully and completely with pyramidal energy flow which allowed me to integrate new energy movements I learned in Hawaii. I ended my job in July and journeyed to Jasper for the events and shortly afterwards rejoined the Mastering the Living Dream Program. After conclave, I drove to Oregon and picked up a part-time music teaching position.

The dance in this new Oregon school system was much different than what I had previously experienced, for I felt like a hired contractor, going in to teach but not being a part of the faculty or school environment. I continued to co-create with the students allowing them to create songs and I even wrote a play where the kids put music to it. I taught for six months and then began to substitute teach in charter schools. I felt that I had really stepped out of the teacher identity and programming of the public schools and Athena dance in full. I thought my music teaching career was over, however after the summer Jasper events in 2006, I received an email asking if I would like to teach high school music on Kauai, which I accepted. I sold my car, gave my camping gear away, bought a plane ticket and headed to Kauai to start the next leg of my ascension journey.

This was the first time I had ever taught high school music and I had many, many new experiences (see article “Lessons of an Ascending Teacher”). I remained separate from the staff but not isolated and enjoyed meeting many magnetic people whom I shared with many ancestors. I stayed in my own dream and allowed them their dance and was able to fulfill upon important energetic work with the land and the school.

My teaching style and creating with music changed dramatically from spring for I was orchestrating energy movement amongst groups in the school. With the band and chorus groups, I watched how each student’s inner music and energy interacted with other students in the group. As I taught class, I worked with the group energy and their ancestors to create a flow that supported everyone in the group. Their were many days this did not work but as the school year went on, the dance became smoother and smoother and by the end of the year, I felt I had an understanding of conducting an orchestra or a group of people on a more grandeur scale. I also orchestrated and managed other groups in the school including the athletic department, student government, ROTC and other teacher’s classrooms for their energetic dance would interfere with the groups I taught creating many “hiccups” in the overall energy movement of the school. This was a great learning experience and there is still much to learn regarding being a conductor of this type of group energy dynamics.

My ascension journey as of late has taken me to the gorgeous hills of Northern Idaho, and this school year I have decided to substitute teach, allowing more flexibility and freedom to work with ascending initiates by offering one-on-one consultations as well as having more time to focus inwardly on my own ascension. I intend to continue to work with the various schools and assist the land and communities in balancing out the dream amongst them as well as clear my karma and learn more valuable lessons along the way. My journey with music is also starting to take on a new direction and passion for Earth Mother through Mila has been writing more about the importance of tuning up the field and keeping one’s inner music “sweet”. This allows one’s field to be strong, healthy and stay in balance throughout the day and it also allows one to dance in harmony with others around oneself.

I feel there is much I can offer to other ascending initiates in this area of keeping one’s field “tuned up” and “sweet” and this Hawaii conclave, I will be offering readings to tune up one’s field and connect to one’s inner music. This brings me great joy for I am taking my ascension journey with music to another level by working with others on their ascension path with the focus on music being “ascension style”, and in the future I hope to offer a series of readings focusing on tuning up the field and “sweetening” one’s inner music.

There are many paths to choose from in one’s ascension and the more one ascends the more scripts one has access to; creating a fulfilling and joyful expression in one’s life. Whether it is music, drawing, sewing, painting, woodcarving or anything else, there is always a way to incorporate one’s heart desire and creative passion into one’s ascension journey. One does not have to be limited to a single expression of creativity for one’s ancestors have been skillful in many facets of creative projects. In allowing them to come forward and express through you, one may discover a new skill or creative project to explore that brings joy and fulfillment to one’s life.

Many blessings to you on your continued journey and may it be filled with sweet music and joy.

Namaste,

Rhonda

Rhonda is in the Mastering the Living Dream program and enjoys working one-on-one with other initiates on the ascension path. For more information you can read her bio and reading series offerings in the consultation section. Rhonda can be reached at danceoffreedom@earthlink.net