Chanting with Mala Beads

I have always been spiritually eclectic, lost in a sea of esoteric and pagan traditions. 

One tradition that always fascinated me, yet I never actually practised, was chanting with mala beads. I would see the Sadhus on TV, with their beads swiftly flowing over their fingers as their minds and souls would soar over the Ganges. 

Only recently did I finally decide to purchase my first set of mala beads. I did my research and decided on a chant that I liked and felt right. 

The first time I did a full round of the beads with my chant, my mind became crystal clear and needle sharp, I couldn’t believe how wonderful it made me feel. 

I haven’t stopped since. 

Chanting has helped me to reach a higher state of consciousness, connection and wisdom. 

I reach a place of peace and serenity that I rarely reach in any other form of meditation. 

In its simplest form, it makes me feel great.

I love the idea of the mala beads, ‘garlands from heaven’ I see the beads as they are in this world, often beautiful, strings of beads, maybe with embellishment or a tassel. 

But in the other world, through my shamanic eye, I see its true form, a garland of sacred flowers plucked from heaven itself.

There are 108 beads, and I suspect that many reasons why there are 108 beads. 

My favourite is that there are approximately 108 meridians that run through the heart chakra, seat of love, compassion, creation and manifestation. 

There is also a guru bead, which we never chant on or cross, it is left as a holy bead, it is sacred, reserved for gratitude and thanks to our teachers, God, higher self.

I love how chanting with these beads fit so well with any other tradition, for example; I sit, every Saturday evening, along with my fellow shaman, with our mesa’s open, dreaming our world into being. 

I still do this, but I end by chanting a full cycle of a world prayer. 

I’ll tell you about that later.

So how do you do it? 

Acquire a set of mala beads, either made or bought. 

Dedicate them in your way. 

Bless them, in your way. 

Drape the beads over your middle or ring finger, (never the index finger, the finger of ego) use your thumb to gently squeeze, roll, or stroke the bead whilst you chant your chant, (silently or out loud) then you push it along, continuing with the next beads. 

Once you have made your way to the ‘guru bead’ at the beginning, you can turn it around and start again.

For some reason only my higher self knows, I decided that I needed a set of mala beads for each of the chants I use. And so, it began….

My first is a rudraksha mala, they are the seeds of a holy tree that only grows in the Himalayan mountain ranges. 

Rudraksha beads are good for protecting you from heavy energies and supporting your energy field. They also help to purify your body and mind. 

It connects me to the Hindu part of myself.

The chant I use for this set is; Om Namah Shivaya. 

It is thousands of years old. 

Om is the sound that came out of the void of potential, before existence came Om. 

Namah, means literally bow. 

Shivaya means God, higher self, divine self, the inner self, future potential. ‘Om, I bow to my sacred self’

{Aum-num-ha-shi-way}

I was in the Hippy Market in Ibiza when I me my second mala, it was love at first sight. 

Connecting to my Buddhist side to my soul, I acquired a Tibetan Yak bone mala. 

I knew the very mantra that this one would connect too.

Loka Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu. 

Loka, means all the people, the universe, all is one. 

Samastah, means All beings in the same time and location. 

Sukhino, means free from suffering, centred on happiness. 

Bhuv, means the state of unified existence, unity consciousness. 

Antu, means May it be so. So may it be.

{Loka-Sam-a-star-sook-e-no-buv-antu}

My third mala I acquired in Portugal. Another Buddhist mala, lotus seeds. 

The lotus flower rises up from the deep dark muddy waters towards the light of the sun and the stillness of the pool. 

They represent spiritual development, enlightenment and the open heart. 

Om Mani Padme Hum is my chosen mantra for this mala, fitting as you will see…’Om, behold the jewel in the lotus of the heart!’ 

For me this beautifully phonic chant opens up the heart chakra to love, munay, compassion and a fierce one heart flame. 

I dedicated this mala recently to this exact cause, the dawn of the One Heart Flame. 

There is so much to know within this mantra, I couldn’t possibly go through it all now. 

It purifies; pride, jealousy, lust, prejudice, judgementalness, violence and apathy. 

{om-man-ee-pad-me-hum}

I recently made two more mala bead sets, to go with two more chants that I use, both strangely are linked to the Divine Feminine.

The first is a Goddess mala. 

This was inspired by witches necklaces that I have seen, normally jet and amber, my pagan mala is made of; jet, wood, lava, tigers eye and quartz crystal, with a antler guru bead in the shape of a Mother Goddess. 

Om, Shanti, Shanti, Shanti is my chant, simple and pure, raising ones energy field to that of peace, bliss and the Divine feminine. 

It is literally the word ‘peace’ repeated three times, for each of the three worlds within us.

{om-shan-ti-shan-ti-shan-ti}

The second mala that I made was a pretty powerful experience. 

Firstly, they are (to be) dedicated to Kali Ma, the dark Goddess within the Hindu cosmology. 

She is a Mother Goddess, yet she is also the destroyer, a terminator of time, ego and all hatred and apathy. 

She is one of my favourite Goddesses to work with, so powerful and so beautifully dark. 

The chant I use has been said to be only used by very few initiates due to its purgative nature, you literally call Kali to come and destroy all that does not serve you, destroying the ego, fast-tracking you to enlightenment. 

Strengthened by the word ‘Shi’ which is an expression of greatest respect, and the word ‘Maha’ meaning Great. 

She is a waka, a primitive and galactic pillar of universal energy. 

The black beads that I acquired had to be literally impaled and broken open so I could thread them, I used black leather thong for its strength, and I used tiny wooden skulls within the mala. 

The guru bead is a red skull with a dark blue tassel, like the skin of Kali Ma. 

She is still waiting to be used and dedicated too…I’m waiting for the right time… 

Om, Sri, Maha, Kalikayai Namaha.

{om-shree-maha-kar-lee-ka-yay-na-ma-har}

Mala beads and the chants are such a blessing, and I implore everyone to try it out and see what you think. Experiment, and find your voice. 

Ask the universe for a garland of flowers direct from heaven, maybe you will find one that suits your practise.

Namaste – I bow to the Divine within you

An Evening with Mac McCartney

 “Mac is an international speaker, (a TED talker too) writer and change maker. 

Mentored by indigenous people over many years, he has acquired profound and original insights into questions preoccupying many contemporary leaders. 

Mac seeks to inspire the emergence of the leader in each of us. 

The leader who will take courageous actions for a better world.”

This was taken from Mac’s website www.macmacartney.com so when Outrider Anthems announced a free talk by the guy himself I jumped at the chance!

First of all I’d like to bring attention to Outrider Anthems, a small but growing organisation in my home town of Reading. 

They dedicate themselves to artistic vision, imagination and conjuring magic in everyday spaces, my kind of people! 

Please check them out www.outrideranthems.com

Something they are doing now is ‘Festival of the Dark’, a year of festivities surrounding the deliciousness and fertility of the Sacred Dark. 

Mac’s talk, Reflections on Darkness, is a part of this festival.

I’m not going to quote him on his talk, I would do a disservice to his almost private talk. So instead I will try to convey what was said and what else I heard from my own spirit. (plus, I have a poor memory and can’t read all my notes)

Opening with the importance of dreaming got my ears pinned instantly. 

The unassuming and almost stoic man stood haloed by a beautiful art backdrop of the holy chalice in the chapel of St James Church. 

He spoke of three types of dreams, anxiety dreams, the usual ones we have, the dreams our subconscious mind creates as it tries to understand this so called human life. 

Then there are prophetic dreams, dreams we all have had, when something comes true. ESP, clairvoyant, psychic, they are either a prediction of the future or the present. 

Then there are almost Divine dreams, when God seems to talk to you, a dream that inspires you to change, to take action. 

I love this not just because I have always been a dreamer, but also because a huge part of my role as shaman is to dream our world into being, and teach others to do the same.

Sleep is important not only to dream but to also be held in stillness. 

We sleep in the dark, a wave of darkness shrouds us every twelve hours or so, and we collectively all sink into a state of unconscious bliss. 

In the darkness, we can dream. 

The world was created in a void of darkness. 

Life came out of the dark primordial waters of our mother earth. 

Seeds sit germinating in the dark, wet and tangled earth, waiting to be stirred by the light and warmth of the sun. 

We, humans, were all once upon a time, held in the dark, wet wombs of our mother. 

A fetus is sitting in the in-between, not really alive as we know it and yet not in the world of spirit it once knew. 

They are in a deep state of dreaming. 

Dreaming its world into being before it is even born. 

Tonight, as you lay in bed, feel the darkness around you, feel the safety and comfort of this night-blanket that enables us to enjoy the dark beauty of sleep, and the opportunity and privileged of dreaming; memories of your womb time.  

Mac spoke of his time in Colombia, working with the tribes and shamans there. 

Much of Colombia’s villagers have associations with the big drug lords, so life can be tough. 

When a woman of the tribe is pregnant, her baby is tested to see if the child will be a shaman, if the test is positive then she is taken away to the dark. 

Deep into the mountains she is taken, along a long tunnel at the mouth of a cave (I know this place well.) 

They travel deeper into the cave, the light disappearing slowly as darkness prevails. 

And there she waits to give birth. 

For seven years her and her baby live a beautiful and sacred life in the darkness. 

The child is trained and taught and played with. 

The only thing he hears is the soft murmurs of his select guardians, all he sees is shadows and darkness. 

The only smell is the cool damp rock and tastes, on purpose, only the blandest of foods. 

Loved, cherished and adored, they are asked to dream, dream their world into being. 

Trees, clouds, food, colour, mountains, the moon and stars, they dream them all. 

When they reach the age of seven, they are slowly taken out of the womb like cave of darkness, slowly they emerge into the slightest of light, down the birth canal of the cave tunnel. 

Imagine what that child must experience as he sees for the first time a shard of sunlight pouring from the mouth of the cave? 

Imagine what thought as he first heard the sound of birds singing and children playing in the fields? Imagine what he felt when he saw a tree for the first time, a forest, his mother’s face, his own hands. The colours of the world, the smell of the earth after the rain, the warm earth beneath his feet…It is said these children never recover, permanently in a state of awe and wonder. 

They never get over that first sight of our worlds beauty. It’s done this way because a shaman’s role in their community to remind them of the beauty in our world. 

I had tears as I listened to this story. Is this my responsibility too?

Mac gifted us three questions that we could choose to carry with us on our journey through life;

What is it you most deeply and profoundly love?

For me this speaks of not only love but of moral codes of conduct, our integrity, our truth, our journey itself.

What are your deepest and profound gifts?

I think this could also be, what is your dharma? 

What is it you love to do, what is it you do that no one else can do the way you do it, what can you share with the world, your community, your family, what is your service to humanity?

What are you deepest and profound responsibilities? This I feel is about your connection with the world, God. My responsibility is to my son, my husband. 

But we can also choose to widen our responsibility, I can choose to be responsible to all those I touch with my work. 

To remind others of the beauty in our world…

Mac spoke of something about being a leader, about being in right relationship with the world and God, with an alignment with your heart and mind, being in the here and now. 

For us in our tradition of the Inca, this is called Ayni. 

When we live our truth with integrity being wholly who you are, we become leaders. 

Only then can we say, despite what is happening right now in the world, in my life, I choose to do what I love, speak my truth, and live each moment, each day throughout my life knowing I lived well.

Mac left us with an exquisite insight. 

It was about eight in the evening, the darkness of spring was shrouding us, and he said these words;

At this moment, there is a wave of bird song, a dawn chorus, hurtling towards us at great speed, as the sun chases the darkness away.