♥ Fabulous February
As Valentine's Day approaches, I am reminded that everyday is actually a love letter from the soul and that every moment brings the invitation to listen for the great symphony of love that hums at the core of everything.  For everything that appears in our existence, regardless of how it looks, is actually here to help us grow. Love is giving something or someone space and freedom to grow. When we open our hearts and hands we find that the service that we are longing to offer, the gifts we are longing to give, the visions we are longing to embody, the places where we are longing to grow.  The energy of sound activates the love that we are, liberating our truth and freeing our flow. As we allow the soundwaves to pass through us, we can feel expanded and connected to all that is, whilst returning to the quiet silence that is nothingness.

♥ February Events
Big thanks and shout-outs to all of you who came along to January events at The Green Note, The Garden of Roses with Faye Patton & Caroline Ophis and to all the amazing explorers at the Holistic Healing College who dived deeply in the Sound Healing Module - you're all wonderful!
My New Year of the Dragon started with an extraordinary download of divine love and inspiration from the Barefoot Doctor with Spencer Mac at InSpiral - and I am delighted to say I will be joining the Doc at a hugely exciting event for 12.12.12 - THE BIG OM
I will be celebrating Love in all its glory at The Garden of Roses with Illumina and Rebecca Rainbow on Feb 7th, and at Spiritual Connections with Cate Mackenzie and friends on February 14th. 
I am also inviting you to Love Your Voice this month - and will be running a special Singing Workshop on Feb 18th and am offering £5 off plus a 10 minute free gong bath for all Vocal Coaching Sessions booked by Valentines Day.
The waves are rising for World Water Day - March 23rd 2012 - The Ocean of Song - in support of Water Aid -  I am delighted to annouce that this will now take place at St Johns at Hackney, a church where my ancestors sang, and will feature seven choirs plus ensembles and soloists singing songs to raise funds and awareness for Water Aid. It's going to be truly extraordinary so make sure you reserve your ticket by mailing oceanofsong@gmail.com
Wishing you the liberated sounding of the love that you are - Katie xxx

Wisdom is knowing I am nothing. Love is knowing I am everything, and between the two my life moves - Nisargadatta Maharj

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L♥ve Y♥ur V♥ice in 2012

♥ 7th February - The Garden of Roses - Victorious Valentines - featuring Illumina and Rebecca Rainbow - 7.30-10.30pm - Inspiral Lounge, 250 Camden High Street, London. NW1 8QS - Free
♥  14th February - Valentine’s Celebration at Spiritual Connections with Heather Andrews-Dobbs, Cate Mackenzie, Andrew Marstrand, Katie Rose, Sabi Hilmi & Laurence Morland, The Spectator (downstairs), 6 Little Britain, EC1A 7BX. £20 - Bookings: Heather - 07773 127178
♥  18th February - Love Your Voice - A Workshop in Free Singing - Katie Rose in collaboration with C.R.I.S.P - 3-5pm, South Norwood, SE25, £20/£10 early bird by 1st Feb, £25/£12.50 after 1st Feb, bursaries available - Bookings: Catherine Pestano - catherine@naturalvoice.net

✬ Happy New Year 2012
2012 is the year of the Dragon, beautiful creature of flame and flight, inspiring us to ignite our highest ideals and take to our wings.  Unlike patriarchal myths where dragons are sources of terror which are hunted and slain, in Eastern traditions the dragon is a highly auspicious bringer of luck, prosperity and protection.  When we reclaim our inner dragons from the realms of nightmares, they reveal themselves to be angels with tails and the guardians of our inner treasures.  Befriending the swirling, fiery energy of adventure within us enables us to to write, paint, dance and sing our story in beautiful, bold swirling calligraphy on life's canvas.
✬ January Events
It has been a truly heavenly festive celebration this year - chanting with Nikki Slade and friends, celebrating at the Womens Anarchic Nuisance Cafe and precious family times.
Thanks to all who joined us at the Big Rosy Solstice Love-Up featuring the God of Poetry Andrew Marstrand and the Queen of Christmas, Cate Mackenzie & The Love Fairies. 
There will be more Love Fairy fun and dancing at The Kabaret of Kitsch at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern on January 12th, 8.30-11pm.
I am absolutely delighted to be supporting The False Beards at The Green Note on January 8th, the first of the fROOTs live music nights of the year and would love to see you there.
I'm also honored to be facilitating this year's Sound Healing Module at The Holistic Healing College.
Inspiral Lounge will be humming with Jubilant Jazz from Faye Patton, Caroline Ophis in the Garden on January 10th.
There will also be a very special Barefoot Doctor & Leakster event to bring in the Dragon on 22nd January.
The waves are rising for World Water Day - March 22nd 2012 - The Ocean of Song - in support of Water Aid - More details very soon!
Wishing you infinite blessings for a truly wonderful ride into 2012 on the wings of the dragon, love katiexx

* Solstice Blog *

Wishing you all a Truly Wonderful Solstice,

Christmas, Yule, Hannukkah, Ashura, Bodhi Day

and whatever else you feel like celebrating this festive season.

* * * A Sonic Gift for You!! * * *

With Love and Gratitude for All that You are and

All that You Share in the World.

Please click on the link at the side to listen and download.

Whilst working in Austria at the beginning of the month,

I found myself humming the carols Oh Christmas Tree and also Silent Night.

Both of which, it turns out, were composed in German - O Tannenbaum in 1824 by German organist and composer Ernst Gebhard Anschütz and

Stille Nacht in 1818 by Austrian priest Joseph Mohr and headmaster Franz Xaber Gruber.

I am sure the Austrian Tannenbaums like being sung to, and they certainly inspired me.

Despite the crass commercialism, potential pitfalls and family fallouts that can occur around the festive season,

I personally feel that a little bit of winter spice can be nice and having a big party at the darkest time of the year can be a very good thing

and can bring about alot of sparkly surprises. Not to mention a few miseltoe kisses.

I was deeply touched by the enthusiasm and outpouring of creativity at Christmas in Austria,

and an Austrian friend told me that every night in the Austrian Advent is a singing night.

This sounds like a very healthy and harmonious habit to keep, not just at advent.  

I wonder what would happen if we all wrote to all the big chains and superstores and told them we would like Christmas to start on 1st December instead of October.  

I wonder what would happen if we sang to our Tannenbaums instead of cutting them down.

I wonder what would happen if we remembered just how precious life is and cherished each other whilst also accepting that we will often drive each other crackers.

I wonder what would happen if we all agreed to stop running around buying stuff and simply made time to slow down, eat together and share the songs and stories of our lives.

These dark days are meant for reflection and letting go,

before the light of a new year appears twinkling on the horizon.  

I wish you a safe voyage through the deep and the discovery of many beautiful treasures.

With love and laughter

Blessings

Katie

xxx

PS:

If you would like to come and sing your way through the festive season, do join me at:

21st Dec - Women's Anarchic Nuisance Cafe Solstice Party

Theme: Activisms of Imagination: fancy dress - gatekeepers and mythical beasts.

Music by Naomi Natural Mystic Bhajans, Faye Pattenz & Katie Rose, Performances by Lazlo Pearlman and Angel.

7-11.30.  The Boys Club, 68 Boleyn Road, Dalston. £3 suggested donation.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/WANC/168072906547595

31st Dec - 1st Jan - Into 2012 - 5 Rhythms Dance & Kirtan -

with Tim Broughton, Nikki Slade & Alive Musicians

Kew Community Centre, St. Luke's Church, The Avenue, Kew, TW9 2AJ  

-  8.30pm- 1am, £25/£20

✬ December News
In these last darkest days of 2011, as we move towards the celebration of the light's return at Solstice, I feel as though I am looking at the glowing embers of an immense year. There are joyful memories still flickering in the fire and the sparks of challenges and creative projects that have yet to burst into flame. These last few weeks of the year is accompanied by a Mercury Retrograde which is always a confounder of plans and technology and a prompt to reflect and clarify all communications and intentions. It is time to listen for what and who is stepping over the threshold into 2012 with us.  The Occupy Movement is one of the Olympian torches being carried forward, inspiring us all to take a stand for a new way of being. The first space to Occupy, is the heart - and sometimes there are old wounds, griefs and ghosts that have to be healed and evicted before we can fully feel at home.  Releasing laments allows us to inhabit joy more fully and to occupy our space and purpose in the world more fully.
✬ December Events
The Global Harmony Ceremony on 11.11.11 at the Mind Body Spirit Winter Festival was truly extraordinary- the waves of love released continue to ripple - available to watch on Sounds Orange
The waves are rising for World Water Day - March 22nd 2012 - The Ocean of Song - in support of Water Aid -  London choirs and performers are confirming for this wonderful event in support of Water Aid- More details very soon!
You are all warmly invited to Sounds of Harmony on December 3rd a workshop and concert with Tim Wheater & friends at Haslemere Museum, Surrey - it's going to be exquisite!
I am delighted to be returning to Best of Spirits, Austria - where I will be giving individual sessions and seminars from 6th-11th December - http://www.bestofspirits.at
A huge Garden of Roses bouquet of thanks to Benjamin Brelain and Robin Baldock for a wonderful evening of mystical sounds in November.  
Please join us for a Great Big Rosy Solstice Love-Up featuring poetry from Andrew Marstrand and dancing with Cate Mackenzie & The Love Fairies on December 13th.
I will also be joining in sonic festive Celebrations with Nikki Slade and at the Women's Anarchic Nuisance Cafe - looking forward to celebrating with you all.
Wishing you a Festive Occupation of the Heart - with love ktxxxx
If you are not too large for the space you occupy, you are too small for it - James A.Garfield

December Blog  - Dancing with Dissonance

An exploration of the beauty of dissonance and how dancing to our own tune can makes waves in the world.

The reality today is that we are all interdependent and have to co-exist on this small planet. Therefore, the only sensible and intelligent way of resolving differences and clashes of interests, whether between individuals or nations, is through dialogue. - The Dalai Lama

Generally one cannot say that harmonious music creates beautiful patterns and heavy metal music terrible ones. That would be too simplistic. There are also water patterns from heavy metal that are fascinating. I am careful with the notion that dissonance is something bad. It has long been known that if music were always harmonious the listener would fall asleep. Dissonance is that moment that drives forward and produces tension – that then needs to be dissolved again.
 - Alexander Lauterwasser, German resonance researcher and photographer

I am writing this in some of the darkest days of the year, in a week which has included some crashing dissonant chords in its melody.   Moments of feeling exceptionally jangled or out of tune have been instrumental in making me dig deep to connect with the bassline of my own truth and values.  I’ve had to front up and apologise for blasting some bum notes and I’ve also had to drop out of some tunes which were setting not just my teeth, but my whole being on edge. But, because I’ve always liked a bit of jazz-blues I’m appreciating the richness these experiences are giving me.

One of the turning points in my early musical life was admitting to my piano teacher that I always wore pink to my lessons on the recommendation of my mother, and that actually my favourite clothes were my jeans and my flourescent orange jumper.  After that, I wore what I liked and started learning improvisational jazz and discordant modern music and the whole experience became a lot more exciting.   Discovering my love of dissonance in music was like being given a free trip to Mars and it has informed me ever since.

I love excavating words, so it fascinates me to find out that dis - can mean apart, away, lack of, not, do the opposite of whatever it prefixes.  It comes from earlier words meaning two, division, apart or asunder.  So a dissonance is a sound that points us in another direction to that which we are already hearing. It sets up an opposition or division in the sonic field and as such starts creating something new.  In the very earliest stages of life, within its first thirty hours of existence, the first thing a potential human being (fertilized egg) does, is split into two.  Division is necessary for life.

Since an early age I have worked, or more accurately, been taught by those who are labelled disabled and deemed dissonant by mainstream society.  Interestingly the word ‘able’ comes from the Latin verb habere - to hold - the ‘h’ got dropped along the way.  So ability means being able to handle something with ease.  Those with dis-abilities are therefore often considered unable to handle things or difficult to handle.  Certainly, having worked with children and adults with exceptionally challenging behaviour there have been some hair-raising moments which really stretched my perceptions of what I can handle.  I have discovered that I can actually handle being bitten, scratched, hit, pinched, screamed and shouted at, tugged, groped etc etc. I don’t like it, but I can handle it and that discovery strengthened me and taught me to look for the wound beneath the distorted behaviour.   Some of the toughest South London guys I met whilst working with challenging children told me that they felt learning how to handle being spat on had widened their tolerance for others and strengthened their capacity to control their knee-jerk reactions.  So I have often felt that far from being disabled, those who exhibit challenging or alternative behaviours have actually been my teachers and enablers.

I have been taught by those with different abilities to question the social norms of our society. Vocal Expression is one area where I learned so much.  Having conversations made up of all sorts of borrowed sounds and wordbits with children with autism taught me to question the conventions of language.  Watching verbally uninhibited adults interacting in the community also showed me the strange set of social rules around vocal expression.  In the street, there are only a few people who are given permission to be creatively and noisily vocal - market stall holders, soap box preachers, buskers.  There is general embarrassment and fear of those who sing, whistle, laugh loudly, talk to themselves or vocalise unusually which I am sure contributes to the general fear of public speaking.  At the same time the streets are full of people conducting private conversations in public on mobiles, many of whom wear earpieces and look like they are talking to themselves.  Increasing numbers of people are plugged into their ipods in an attempt to drown out the dissonances around them.

Augusto Boal, founder of Theatre of the Oppressed was fond of setting up pieces of Invisible Theatre - actors would get on the tube and start a loud dialogue or argument about important social issues, drawing others to participant and to reflect on their political reality.  A friend of mine experimented with this by going and singing outside the University Library to see what would happen.  She was considered unwell when she refused to stop and was sent to the nurse.   Nikki Slade is using this embarrassment around dissonant sounding to fundraise for Great Ormond Street Hospital - participants are sponsored to make a 60 second sound in a public place, and be recorded doing so.  Nikki was inspired by the work of Chloe Goodchild  who recently told me stories of her work in Ireland where she and singers participating in the Naked Voice workshops have been singing the Seven Sounds - the sequence of the Indian scale set to movement - in shopping malls and public sites and having some extraordinary responses.  One priest was reminded of ritualistic movements that previously formed part of worship and invited them to come and sing and move with the whole congregation.

In these examples, dissonant sounds introduced into the environment are setting up creative dialogue which actually widens the sonic references of the community and encourages others to become vocally expressed. Dia - means across and logue comes from the latin root for lecture and speak. So a dialogue enables us to speak across perceived boundaries and limitations. It is the bridge that allows dissonance to be heard and received.  As the Dalai Lama says, conflict and difference will always exist - and why should it not - for diversity makes the world a beautiful, stimulating, exciting and interesting place to be.  It is dialogue - singing, speaking and talking across the gaps - that allows us to each find and hold our own note whilst listening and learning from each other.

The current Occupy movement are setting up a beautiful dissonance by camping out in Wall Street and at other locations globally. Their peaceful sounding of another note is sending new wave of vibrations across the world with some spectacular results.  

Dissonant sounds, circumstances, people and events surround us and actually support us to find new forms of expression.  When we encounter those who are oppositional, we are prompted to grow and learn. Sometimes we need to listen deeply to that different drum beating within us which calls us to sing our own song rather than play along with the old broken record.  When we become at home with the electricity of our own eccentricity, we can become live-wires, broadcasting a new song to the world and dancing to the drum of our dissonance.

✬ November News
11.11.11- My understanding of the No 1 is that is relates to Leadership and all its qualities - courage, endurance, charisma, discipline, humility, compassion - amongst others.  All these 1's add up to 6 which is the number of Venus - Goddess of Love, Fertility, Creativity and Beauty. More than ever we are being called to heart-centred leadership - following the truth of our heart's call and in doing so supporting the growth of our beloveds, our community and our planet. Passing through the doorway of Samhain/ Halloween into the dark times of the year allows us to strip away anything that obscures our truth and to essentialise and crystallise our purpose.  Surrendering our head based ME ME ME allows to find our heart based leadership within US US US. Resonating clearly from the heart allows us to sound the strength of our passion and purpose and create ripples of song across the world.
✬ November EVENTS
There are a prolific amount of events happening around 11.11.11 - whatever and wherever you are I wish you an abundance of sonic fireworks!:)
I will be one of many offering sounds at The Mind Body Spirit Winter Festival - do join me in the Sound Oasis on Saturday 12th Nov at 5.15-6pm, hosted by the wonderful Anne Malone. 
I'm looking forward to the unique experience of The Singing Fields of London with Chloe Goodchild on 12th & 13th Nov - a place beyond right and wrong doing where people of all beliefs can meet to sound a new world into being - do come!
The Garden of Roses was graced in October by the beautiful Kath Haling and powerful poet Azrael - this month we welcome Benjamin Brelain and Robin Baldock for a wonderful evening of mystical sounds.
Two advance invitations - mark your diaries for World Water Day - March 22nd 2012 - The Ocean of Song - this will be an extraordinary event featuring London singers raising waves of awareness and funds for Water Aid.
Also on Dec 3rd I will be sharing in a Sounds of Harmony workshop and concert with Tim Wheater & friends in Haslemere - it's going to be exquisite - hope to see and sing with you there!
Saluting you as the Loving Leader that you are, one heartsong to another - blessings ktxxxx

It takes generosity to discover the whole through others. If you realise you are just a violin you can open yourself up to the world by playing your role in the concert - Jacques Yves Costeau

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Stewart Pearce, Narayani, Nikki Slade & Chloe Goodchild

October Blog - Creating a Community of Song

One question that has been deeply preoccupying me and will no doubt continue to do so until the end of my days here, is how can I use that which has been given to me to make a contribution to the world - as a singer, how can my song serve?

Asking that question has so far brought me to two passions - a passion for the power of song to bring unity - across religious, cultural, social barriers-  and a passion for the power of song restore a healthy connection with the natural world.  I have been honoured to witness and experience these two powers of song bringing about about breakthroughs on a personal and collective level.

My own experience of emerging from an intense experience of the evangelical christian church has given me the commitment to promoting inter-faith, cross-spiritual, cross-cultural understanding.  Experiencing the deep schism of separation that fundamentalism creates in the individual and collective psyche drove me to find another way.

I feel deeply grateful to evangelical churches for being the houses of devotion where I first encountered and experienced spiritual skydiving in song.  The ecstatic fervour that is encouraged in evangelical worship anchored my experience of voice in spiritual expression and allowed me to witness just what a powerful instrument of healing the voice is.  What I could never understand is why the love, healing and joy was only available to those who joined the club and why everyone outside the walls of the church was deemed to be destined for the fires of hell.  

I excommunicated myself and started communicating with those beyond the walls, travelling, learning and singing with people from all creeds, paths and cultures: buddhists, yogis, pagans, sufis, psychics, spiritualists, sound healers, new agers, folkies, afro-carribean shamans, arabic healers, kabbalists.  The songs of all these traditions deepened my devotion and my sense that every path flows like a river towards an indefinable mysterious ocean of unity.

I now lead singing groups and create music that incorporates material from many different global traditions, with a commitment to respectfully articulating their resonances and dissonances. The powerful unity that singing creates has allowed me to witness the dissolution of separation and conflict within myself and others.  It has allowed me to honour and celebrate difference, diversity and the joy of uniqueness within the huge symphony of life.  

I have begun increasingly to dream of seeing people from all faiths singing peacefully together.  This year I saw that dream embodied at A Space for Peace  at Winchester Cathedral created by June Boyce-Tillman.  Amidst a sea of choirs singing songs from all traditions, a Jewish Rabbi and a Muslim Imam sang a duet from the pulpit and lectern.  The harmonies of their melodies soared and danced in the cool cathedral air and seemed to have been destined to sing together.  It was a demonstration for me that peace is not only possible, it is natural.
More details about this event which will be held next year on 27th January can be found at:
http://www.winchester.ac.uk/campuscitylife/music/Pages/SpaceforPeace2012.aspx

The unity I began to experience through song extends to the natural world.  The experience of singing and camping under the stars at festivals amplified the inspiration I had always drawn from nature.  Discovering the world of pagan chant, with its celebration of the cycles of nature gave voice to this in a new way for me and also began to heighten my awareness of the disconnection we have been collectively experiencing.

The illusory separation from the natural world that the capitalist and religious mindset requires is a nonsense.   The devastating consequences of conceptualising the planet as a female body who is to be farmed, bred and raped for her resources are now showing themselves.  The conception of the planet as a grieving, victimised mother is also off the mark. Nature is beyond our concepts and beyond our command - one small earthquake will demonstrate that amply.   We are part of nature ourselves and thus can only project our ideas and opinions from within it. One source of our current crisis lies in the denial of that innate connection and in our innate responsibility towards each other in the mindful sharing and stewarding of resources.  

Singing and sounding arises from and articulates our relationship within nature.  The first shamans, singers and huntsmen learned to communicate by imitating natural sounds.  The first instruments emerged as we discovered the resources of earth could produce incredible sounds - the metal that melted in the first ovens became gongs, reeds became wind instruments, tree barks formed didgeridoos and flutes.   The first documented astrologers and philosophers discerned the influences of the musical vibrations of moons, planets and stars.

We live within a vast sea of vibration that is constantly changing.  As the study of Cymatics have shown, our sounds influence those of the environment and vice versa.  Every sound has the potential to be another Big Bang - to begin and initiate another vast wave of creation - or destruction.  Sounding mindfully enables us to return to the awareness of the innate natural power within our song and to return to our natural comm-unity with each other and the world around us.

Singing by the river amidst 800 singers who were all fundraising for Water Aid at The Thames Festival this September amply demonstrated how the community of song can send powerful waves across the world.  
http://www.wateraid.org/uk/get_involved/community_groups/sing_for_water/default.asp
I know this is just one of vast numbers of gatherings where people are singing in community for personal, collective and ecological transformation.  As the structures and institutions which have reflected our separation begin to collapse, the songs of new forms and ways of being are emerging.  I celebrate the power within all of us to honour, respect and unify with each other and our environment through song.

Wishing you the joy of inner and outer unity
Katie Rosex

Forthcoming Events
I am very excited about going to sing with the Tree of Life Community this weekend (22nd October) in Birmingham.
I also look forward to the explosion of sonic events taking place around 11.11.11 - do join me at the Mind Body Spirit Winter Festival
The Garden of Roses will be humming with the songs of Benjamin Brelain and Robin Baldock on November 15th, followed by a Solstice special with Cate Mackenzie and the Love Faires on December 13th.
I am also delighted to be sharing in a day of Sounds of Harmony on 3rd December with Tim Wheater and friends at Haslemere Museum.

♥ October Colours
As the trees burst aflame with colour, the quickening nights are brightened by the crispness of autumn starsong.  Drawing together to sing and sound enables us to find colour and vibrancy and to release our attachment to that which would make us dull puppets of conformity.   The reclamation of the deep voice within is a long process, yet each step towards connection opens up a whole new realm within, making a new world possible without. As our inner flame is kindled our outer flamboyance is liberated, opening up new realms of creative expression.
♥ October EVENTS
September has been a stirring month, with many startling surprises.  For me, Equinox is a time where the subtlety of the relationship between light and dark can be perceived and many illusory divisions or preconceptions can be challenged.  What excites me immensely at the moment is witnessing and experiencing the movement towards more and more group singing experiences - from the mainstream success of Popchoir to the meditative experience of kirtan, more and more people are gathering together in song.  The empowerment that arises from group singing enables individuals to be strengthened and join together to transform our current matrix of reality. 
It was absolutely extraordinary to Sing for Water in a choir of 800 at the Thames Festival, and to raise funds for Water Aid. Heartfelt thanks to all who donated and joined me on the day, it was so uplifting and has inspired me to create a very special World Water Day event in March 2012 - watch this space!!
Eliza Kenyon and Cornelius sang to an enraptured Garden of Roses at Inspiral and will be followed this month by the wonderful singer Kath Haling and performance poet Azrael.
I am really enjoying having bubbly, gurgly baby song time at Blissful Babybuds with mothers and babies at Living Water Satisfies - classes continue until October 20th.
I offer you an advance invitation to a Sonic Garden Party with Tim Wheater on 3rd December in Haslemere, where I'll be sharing sound as part of a wonderful array of sonic joy.
Wishing you the radiant rainbow celebration of your hearts note this October xxx
To change one's life: start immediately. Do it flamboyantly - William James

Words and Wordlessness                                                   
It has been challenging writing this month’s blog mainly because I encountered some welcome wordlessness and some deep processing within that silence.  No words wanted to come and dance on my page.  Now, they do.  I really appreciate this dance between sound and silence, which underpins my whole experience of music.  



I have recently been having encounters which have affirmed for me afresh the value of words and wordlessness.  I found myself sitting in silence with a newly met beloved and enjoying the liberation of letting the need for conventional conversation drop away.  Then a beloved wrote me such a beautiful affirmation in an email that I was deeply moved to reflect on the power of words.  That day, on the wall of the great virtual word-world that is Facebook, this quote emerged:

Words have a magical power. They can bring either the greatest happiness or deepest despair; they can transfer knowledge from teacher to student; words enable the orator to sway his audience and dictate its decisions. Words are capable of arousing the strongest emotions and prompting all men's actions. - Sigmund Freud     
                                     
It is easy to forget the truly magical power of words in the daily barrage of social chit-chat.  Talk is cheap as the old saying goes and there is plenty of it everywhere.   But in truth, word is encapsulated intent, containing information and conveyed with energy.  The ancients all knew that naming something was a magical act, hence why so many creation mythologies start with a sacred word or big bang.  Our name is our sonic tag allowing us to be found in the world and it is the power of naming that enables us to identify and process our experience of reality.   When for example we name our shame and release it in therapy, we are liberated by the flow of the energy - emotion - that words constitute.  We are also able to attune to any number of frequencies simply by naming them - hence why mantras are full of sacred names of divinities and life-enhancing qualities.

‘Let there be light’ certainly blew the cosmic circuit board and spiritual teachers are constantly reminding us of how we literally command our reality into being with the words we choose.  We sculpt our existence by sending our intent out into the world on the sound wave of speech and are shaped by the impact of receiving other people’s words.

For me, the sound sculpture of words is always accompanied and supported by silence.  For words are simply gestures towards our reality and as such are not reality itself.  Many experiences in life are beyond words and find their expression through sound, shape, colour, light, movement and silence.  In the gap between words and the reality they describe is a magical place of possibility where the spoken and unspoken dance.  The honesty of silence allows that gap to be felt and experienced and for a deep acknowledgement to occur of the vastness that is beyond words.   There is nothing like the silence that falls at the end of a piece of music or a full resonant chant.  Deva and Miten Premal say that they sing for the silence.  It is pure indescribable nectar for the soul.  

Writing this, I have realised that my own journey of voice proceeds from my heritage of sound and silence. My maternal grandmother was quietened at the age of four when she lost her hearing. She married a parson for the deaf, my grandfather, who was the hearing child of deaf parents and was a pioneer for the deaf community.  A highly expressive man, he was a great performer who always had a magic trick, joke or story to tell.  He used the power of the written word to promote awareness of Sign Language, the silent speech of the deaf world, in his book Please Sign Here.  My paternal grandmother was shy, gentle and quietly spoken and my father tells me that he can’t remember his grandmother saying anything.  My paternal grandfather was highly artistic and expressive, exploring painting, photography and landscaping an amazing garden which was magical to explore as a child.

This heritage of sound and silence continues to teach me. I have learned to honour and appreciate the quiet gentleness of the unspoken realms and have been lead to work with those who have no voice - from those with different abilities who communicate non-verbally to those who feel they cannot sing.   I have experienced deep companionship with those who speak through minimal sounds and have come to realise the value of the sound current in its vastly differing expressions in the world.  My artistic and creative heritage has lead me to explore writing, music, chant, mantra, theatre, performance and ritual as mediums of personal and social transformation.  The dance continues.

Music is formed from this dance of sound and silence, of the spaces and the resonances and within it that which cannot be spoken is said and that which is spoken is silenced. The deeply restorative wave of musical form is a three dimensional experience - moving as it does through the spoken spaces and silent songs within us.  Its rhythmic pulsation liberates breath and life-force enabling our innate creative intelligence to awaken.  In Sanskrit the word for the heart chakra - Anahata - means unstruck or unbeaten referring the the unstruck sound that is both soundless and deeply resonant within us.  Sound us takes us back to that place, striking chords that return us to the wordless wonder.

In the depth of my heart there is a wordless song - Kahlil Gibran

♥ 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

Cretan Goat:)

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.

July Blog - From Out There to In Here and Back Again.

I have just come back from a week’s work in Austria, which was a wonderful experience. Rolling mountains, trees, abundant flowers and openhearted, welcoming friends, old and new.  One of the many reasons it felt so nourishing was because without phones or emails I was able to focus on one thing alone – being there.

What I notice, in myself and in others, is how much of us can really be ‘not there’ and how much power and energy we can give away to all sorts of distractions.  All sorts of wonderfully helpful techniques exist to help us come back and re-focus our energies – hypnotherapy, regression, soul retrieval, yoga, martial arts etc. – for me, the power of sound enables me to gather myself in one spot.

I am often called powerfully into being present by the experience of standing in front of a large group of people. In that moment of ‘what now?’ where the emptiness and expanse of possibility opens out ahead of me, there is a feeling of both taking off and landing simultaneously. Landing, because I am instantly rooted to the spot and have nowhere to hide, taking off because I instantly have a heightened awareness of the creative energy that sparks in each moment.  Right now, I write this not knowing what sentence is coming next.  Life is continually teaching me to trust and to support others to trust that even in the most hair raising ‘what now?’ moments, creative energy, call it whatever you will, is always accessible and available.

Where the in breath meets the out breath is where In Here and Out There meet in our body.  This can sometimes give an illusion of separation, but any didgeridoo player will tell you that it is possible to breath in and out simultaneously.  The truth is that out there is always in here and vice versa.  There is no where to go to or return from and everywhere to experience within this moment.

Holding this remembrance peels off a lot of expectations, and pressure.  We so often feel that we need or want or should be doing more, achieving more, buying more, producing more to somehow rubber-stamp our existence.   We delay our take-offs with endless security checks – do I deserve it? am I ready? did I pack my toothpaste? am I wearing the right clothes? We have bumpy landings when we are still thinking of how it worked out last time or what might happen this time.  In times of heightened change, all manner of fears, resistances and scary monsters will appear to seduce us out of the moment and into a story that is happening somewhere else.  Letting go of needing to be anywhere other than right here, right now is incredibly liberating.

Standing right here, or sitting as I am, enables me to allow the chaos that arises, and to watch, befriend and understand its purpose.  For surely the divinity of distraction is to teach me to focus, the joy of anxiety is found when it reveals itself as exhilaration, the gift of pain is its challenge to me to discover new sources of strength.  

I have been honored to witness many beautiful, brave beings turn trauma into treasure this week and it inspires me beyond words. One of the most wonderful experiences to witness was seeing people realise just how easy and natural it is to do what they are longing to do and in so doing benefit everyone else.   So many 'shoulds’ and ‘have-to’s’ can be left behind when we discover our creative calling and liberate our innocence – our inner senses on every level – which flourish in the space of this moment.

Summoning up the sounds and songs from within allows us to express our heart’s yearning for our true vocations and to take a true vacation from the soap opera that we are conditioned to imagine life as.  For truly, every day is a holi-day, every moment is a new adventure.  Out There is In Here, Right Now.  When we value and connect authentically with In Here, our experience of Out There transforms radically.  Our truth can start resonating at new frequencies, enabling us to make powerful contributions to the world.

One example of the power of voice and song in action in the world is Sing for Water, happening at the Thames Festival on the 10th & 11th September. Many choirs will be participating in this amazing event raising funds for Water Aid.  I am very excited about singing with them, to find out more please visit my JustGiving Page - http://www.justgiving.com/KatieRose

For those wishing to explore their song this month, I will be leading Kirtan at Triyoga on 23rd & 30th and July. I am also inviting babies and their carers/ parents to join me for a free sounding session, Blissful Babybuds on July 21st at Crystal Palace - full details on my website.
www.therosewindow.org

Wishing you the jubilant expression of your summer song
Love Katiexx

♥ JOYOUS JULY
With the wonderful long light days, there are wide horizons and new vistas to embrace.  Summer holidays are designed for renewal, enabling us to take a fresh perspective on life, and everyday, given due insight can be a holi-day.  The word holos in Greek means wholeness and the aim of many holistic therapies is to restore the integrity of our being, re-attuning us with our own personal song.  One of the wonders of the world is that every person is a whole world unto themselves, with their own landscapes and languages.  When our worlds collide there may be sparks, embraces, conflicts, oppositions, attractions, adventures, expansions - all exchanges of energy which contribute to our growth and understanding that our own song hums amidst an infinite symphony of songs.
♥ JULY EVENTS
Solstice was so wonderfully powerful, thank to you to all of you who have joined me at the recent Midsummery events.
Big shout out to all of you heartfelt singers who have joined Catherine and I at Sing Your Heart Out  - there will be more singing happening in Autumn... Wonderful Julianne Jessop and Kristy Clark and so many lovely friends joined us at the June Garden of Roses.  This month Narayani will be leading powerful chanting and Alexander and Lucy will be taking us on a cosmic musical soul ride.  July is full to the brim of spaces to share in song - starting with the New Moon chant at Evolve on 1st July, Full Moon Chant on 17th July at the Yogi Tree and two Kirtans on 23rd & 30th July at Triyoga. I'm also offering a free taster for babies and their carers to come and sing and relax together here in Crystal Palace on July 21st - Blissful Babybuds.
Radio Lightworker has closed but I hope to be back online in another form soon, in the meantime, keep your frequency tuned to your inner song and keep singing!
Wishing you the blissful blossoming of your beautiful soul song this July - hope to see and sing with you soon. xxxx

There are various eyes. Even the Sphinx has eyes: and as a result there are various truths, and as a result there is no truth. - Friedrich Nietzche

Solstice Sphinx
Crystal Palace

June Blog - Pink is the New Blue - Going Beyond Gender

♥ May: A Challenge is a Miracle Waiting to Happen
Whether you are royalist or not, May is a great time to celebrate love, fertility and marriage, as all is in full flower.  Marriage celebrates the union of opposites and the oneness that arises within the self, in partnerships and in the world. Encountering the magnificent mystery of this May, I have been reminded that challenges and miracles are actually two sides of the same coin.  Which means that whilst it may be uncomfortable, I can welcome challenge as the prelude to something miraculous happening, just as a discordant phase in a music naturally gives rise to concord.  As the drama of conflict plays out on the political platform time and time again, it seems more and more people are finding their voice and expressing their desire for a different way of being with each other and our planet.  We may not know what exactly it is, but at this beautiful time of flowers bursting, we can be sure it is birthing from within, and that the more we open our hearts and find the courage to sing our song, the more unity will arise within and without. Wishing you a miraculous May and the loving, peaceful, marriage of all oppositions - with much love and blossoms xxxkt

♥ MAY EVENTS
Thanks to all who came and shared their songs with me at The Tree of Life Festival Party - it was an honour to be there with Barbara Mecklejohn-Freed - I'm looking forward to a wonderful May concert and to joining Barbara & Cate Mackenzie onstage during the Mind Body Spirit Festival, where I'll also be offering a Sound Meditation.  Thanks too to The Yogi Tree for a very peaceful chant, do join us for full moon Kirtan on May 22nd.  Kate Mckenzie shared the beauty of her peaceful music with me on Radio Lightworker and this month I'll be celebrating the power of Miraculous Music with singer and therapist Darren Abrahams. Janna Goodwille, Caroline Ophis and Kosmic Troubadour raised the roof at Inspiral with their soulful songs in the Garden of Roses and will be followed in May by Naomi Francis and Venus CuMara.  I am also delighted to announce the start of a new weekly singing group - Sing Your Heart Out -  uplifting afternoons of heartfelt singing. Do share your music with the world this May - sing in the shower, muse in the meadows, laugh out loud - I look forward to hearing you.

For Full Listings of Sound Events across London, sign up for the Newsletter :)

April Blog - Finding Peace in the Shadows

As another war starts in Libya, I have been dedicating this month’s events to Peace.  This has prompted me to take a deeper look at my own struggles and my sense of what peace is. It is oft proclaimed that peace in the world arises when peace is found within, but what does that actually mean?

As I understand it, peace is a natural, indwelling state within us which can be accessed at any time.  For me, it is the ability to be with whatever is happening and approach it from a place of stillness. To remain in this state requires a daily process of showing up in that place so that it becomes anchored and reflected in my life experience.   There are so many distractions and so many circumstances which trigger powerful reactions that to be moved from it is very easy, to stay with it much more difficult.  Peace however embraces even that whole process of moving away and coming back - because it can hold war in its arms, like a small child that is learning and making mistakes, and say ‘there now.’

I find it interesting that the word ‘arms’ is used for weaponry. Our arms extend from our heart, so when our heart is full of strife it is likely we will indeed be more inclined to pull a quick left hook than to offer an embrace.  In this sense we do not need disarmament but rather re-armament - remembering what our arms are really called for.  I am sure we have all felt the different energies of hugs, which can be infused with longing, passion, love, respect or admiration, each in their own way seeking to make connection, to restore a sense of unity.   Guns and knives are metallic extensions of the arms, weapons wielded in defense or offense. They are the fingers of power whose touch is deadly.  Hence to heal the heart of distortion is to make a step towards peace.

Where the heart is broken, shut down, disabled, disbelieving of its own incredible power to bring love and peace to the world, violence ensues.  Firstly towards the self - admonishing words, self-criticisms -  all bullets of the broken mind.  Secondly projected onto the other - seeing ‘you’ or ‘they’ as the reflection and source of all ills.  Every daily paper carries the picture on the front cover of the latest ‘they’ - whether it’s the PM, Phil from EastEnders, leaders of other nations, dysfunctional celebrities, footballers, anarchists, criminals etc.  Many social rituals, from Greek theatre to football matches, have employed this use of ‘othering’ to enable some sort of cathartic release of our need to embody our shadow in an outward form.

There is increasing recognition that it is the owning of our own shadow that will enable personal and social transformation.  That peace is not some sort of wishy-washy blissed-out state but is in fact a radically authentic way of being which allows us to face and embrace all that is within and without.   Previous editor of The Sun, David Yelland has written openly about his discomfort at choosing who the paper was going to point the finger at next, as part of his journey towards owning and healing his own alcoholism.  He saw that the vulnerable, damaged people in the eye of the camera lens were no different than the one he saw in the mirror everyday.  

Owning the shadow is not easy, because so much of the self becomes hidden by the desire to be included in family, social, cultural groups. Unconsciously we take on the belief that if we expose our vulnerabilities and indeed many of our gifts, that we will be outlawed, excommunicated, excluded from the tribe.  Ideologies which emphasise the ‘light’ /‘positive’ and invalidate the ‘dark’ /‘negative’ aspects of the self create inner conflict and oppressive self-policing.  Whatever is repressed in an individual’s background will emerge in a distorted form - paedophilia in celibate priests, madness in artists and visionaries whose gifts are de-valued, crime in young people labelled failures.

Peace heals the perceived dualism between the ‘light’ and ‘dark’ forces, enabling us to see that far from being at war, they are actually beautifully, mesmerically dancing together hand in hand.  The darkness supports and reveals the radiant brilliance of the light, which in turn enables us to illuminate the wisdom of the deep, dark, mysterious places.  As Monica Sjoo points out in her book, ‘Return to the Dark/Light Mother’, it is in the dark earth that seeds germinate, in the dark womb that we incubate, in the dreamtime that we process our daytime lives.  A world without the dark has been a powerful war propaganda used by western politicians and leaders throughout history who saw themselves as the great white aryan brotherhood, justified spiritually by a hierarchy of white light masters/ God, conquering the earth and all other cultures.  We have an opportunity in these times to restore respect for all ways of life and the wisdom of the planet.

It is the whole self that requires space to flourish, as Jung pointed out, and often our shadow contains our power.  When we allow our so-called dark aspects to be seen and heard, magic can happen. Just recently I had to own up to some jealousy I was experiencing, and thankfully a dear friend was able to help me see my projection and to own the power in myself.   She modelled for me the peace that can hold and see beyond the frightened child that all our different emotional states proceed from and helped me find the gift in my process.   

What we fear in ourselves often turns out to be not a demon but a companion at our side. Sometimes we need access to the deep, dark well of the shadow’s wisdom in times when a light, bright affirmation will not do the job - for we all encounter endings, deaths, tragedies in life.  Sometimes there is useful discernment in my inner critic which I realise is usually just trying to keep me safe.  Sometimes the saboteur is just a mischievous imp seeking to spice things up a bit -  it’s part of being human to mess up sometimes - how else can we learn?  We can embrace our inner children, take them in hand and learn together.

Abstract sounding can be phenomenally helpful in facilitating safe expression of outlawed emotions.  All of the ancient healing arts involved movement and sound to enable us to meet and master our most primal impulses.  It can feel terrifying to approach volcanic mountains of stored anger, but blowing off a bit of steam whilst shaking or dancing can be very liberating. Screaming, shouting, singing, crying, wailing, lamenting - the sound current has so many ways to pass through us, taking debris with it like a transforming river of peace.   

Focused chanting is also an incredible tool for entering and anchoring the place of peace within - Om Shanti, Ya Salaam, Shalom, Dona Nobis Pacem - whatever mantra is right for you.  Singing, speaking, whispering, silently intoning mantra injects a new frequency into the music of the mind, restoring balance to disjointed mental processing.   Singing together and learning each other’s songs builds connections and unifies communities.  In 1914 German and English soldiers famously learned each other’s Christmas songs and were able to put down their guns and celebrate together in No Man’s land.  So often when we climb over the trenches of division we find that those on the other side are just the same as us.

I greet you eye to eye, child to child, shadow to shadow in my own struggles, offering you peace as I know it today, in hopes that we can re-arm our world with loving embraces.

Katiex

* By kind invitation of Nikki Slade, I will be sharing kirtan at Triyoga, Primrose Hill this Saturday - 6.30-7.45 pm - www.triyoga.co.uk
* Do join me at The Yogi Tree, Greenwich for a Peace Kirtan on Sunday 17th April, 5-7pm - www.theyogitree.co.uk
* Peace is the theme of my radio show on April 19th featuring Kate Mckenzie and tracks from her album ‘The Peace Room’ plus ‘Om Shanti’ from Dreamtime Journey by Denise Leicester and Tom Simenauer.  - http://www.radiolightworker.com/KatieRose.html
* Join us at Inspiral for soulful songs in the Garden of Roses with Janna Goodwille, Caroline Ophis & the Kosmic Troubadour on Tuesday 19th April 7.30-10.30pm. - www.inspiralled.net
* I also wholly recommend the heart coaching and workshops of Cate Mackenzie. www.catemackenzie.com

Blessing Water – Singing to Heal the Waters of the World

We are approaching World Water Day in the wake of the tsunami and earthquake in Japan.  As the world is shaken and stirred to the core by these events, it feels very timely to be reflecting on our relationship to our inner and outer waters.

Nothing is softer or more flexible than water, yet nothing can resist it.- Lao Tzu

Water is an incredibly versatile substance which is inextricably connected with sound.  Existence begins in many creation stories with water and sound.  Our own life starts in the waters of the womb, in which we develop our first sense, hearing.  Hence why the sound of ocean waves and rippling rivers has the power to induce a hypnotic state of calm.  The sonic capacity of water ranges from the drip of a tap, to percussive rainfall, to pounding storms, wild waterfalls and the boom of a tsunami.

The flow of our own inner waters is essential for our health and wellbeing. Water makes up 70% of our body, most of which is found inside our cells.  The rest forms the fluids that transport vital substances around our body and a tiny amount is held in contained places like our eyes and spine.  Water makes up 70% of the world’s surface, most of which is ocean water.  Only 2.75% is drinkable freshwater – found in lakes, rivers, ice and groundwater, making it a very precious commodity.

Water has the ability to conduct sound four times faster than air, which enables whales to communicate with each other and navigate long distances.  The sounds of the earth moving (infrasound) can be detected by many animals whose ears are highly sensitive to these frequencies and will become unsettled hours before a storm or earthquake. Cosmically, water conducts the songs and sounds of the planets - the cycle of the moon influences the tides within and without.

Water literally and figuratively represents our ability to flow in and out of our life experiences on all levels and in all aspects – mental, emotional, physical and spiritual.  We are each as deep as the ocean and as playful as the sparkling waves.  Our songs and words are like the foam dancing on the sea of our existence.  The more keenly attuned we are to our deeper selves, the more accurately we can express ourselves and be received in the world.   We rebirth when we allow our deepest emotions to be heard and expressed safely.

There is currently much discussion of a process of Awakening/Ascension in these times, connected with the end of the Mayan Calender in 2012, and certainly there is a surging wave of interest in spiritual practices.  More and more people are seeking out ways to soothe their own troubled waters and to restore the flow of connection in their lives.  It occurs to me that there is also an accompanying Descension – coming down to the shaking earth with a big bump for a reality check.  The comforts of the Western industrial world are bought at devastating costs to vast numbers of people and wildlife globally.  The addiction to an oil-powered, consumerist society is maintained by a dazzling array of multimedia distractions – Facebook, TV, movies, computer games etc – which means we inhabit increasingly disconnected virtual realities.  This numbs the mind to the emotional, political, social and ecological impact of daily living, which we are in fact registering all the time subconsciously.

The pollution of water by industrial, nuclear, agricultural and domestic waste now means that 14,000 people die daily from water pollution issues and 500 million people lack access to drinking water.  Countless species of aquatic wildlife are now endangered to the point of extinction as a result.

Water is also being polluted sonically.  Military sonar uses powerful sound waves in order to determine the location of other vehicles by the frequency of the echoes which are returned.  This disrupts the natural communication system of whales, damaging their sensitive ears and causing them to decrease their songs, become disorientated and beach themselves. Explosions from nuclear testing and underwater drilling create shockwaves, damaging the hearing of whales and causing them to surface too quickly.  Many species of whales are endangered.

If it follows that the waters of the world can be deeply disrupted by sound, it also follows that sound can influence water positively. Dr Masuro Emoto has illustrated the effects of different types of words and sounds on water crystals, giving scientific legibility to the practice of blessing water.  Practitioners of many spiritual traditions have always understood the power of water to carry sacred intent.  We can restore this respect for water in our own daily lives in so many ways:  being careful about our water consumption, using eco-friendly products, supporting the work of water charities, treading gently when we visit natural water, offering water blessings (singing in the shower!) and by being mindful of the flow of our own energies.  With our intent, we can visualise clean, pure water for all and take action to find sustainable solutions for a healthy world.

Personally I was jolted into awareness by the oil spill last year, which inspired one of the songs on my latest release, Shiva’s Rain.  I absolutely know that I have been addicted to the mirage of the modern world and I am endeavouring to break free and wake up to our connectedness -  to the planet and each other.  The tears in Japan are made of the same water which flows from my eyes and like so many of us who are witness to their grief, I offer my thoughts and songs.

I invite you to join with me in singing to the water.  Let us send out our own powerful sonars of love and compassion to the seas and to the troubled waters within and without.  Let us learn from water to become fluid, receptive and to listen to the sound currents of one another and the planet we inhabit.

There are a number of events happening across the world on March 22nd World Water Day. These can be found at http://www.worldwaterday.org/
Water Aid - Sing for Water - http://www.wateraid.org/
The World Walks for Water - http://www.worldwalksforwater.org/
Greenpeace Oceans Campaign  - http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/oceans/

Wishing you the rippling, laughing, bubbling, effervescent flow of your own sparkling waters
♥ Love Katie x ♥ x ♥ x ♥

Please join me in singing for the water at the following events:
March 15th - Healing Water - featuring Carina Coen & Katie Rose, 7-10.30pm  Inspiral Lounge, 250 Camden High Street, Camden Lock N1 - www.inspiralled.net
March 20th - Spring Equinox Kirtan at The Yogi Tree, 5-7pm, 193 Woolwich Road, Greenwich, London SE10 0RJ - www.theyogitree.co.uk
March 22nd - World Water Day - Singing For Water - 7-9.30pm, Spiritual Connections, The Spectator, 6 Little Britain Street, London, EC1A 7BX - www.spiritual-connections.co.uk
March 22nd - Miraculous Music on Radio Lightworker -  Celebrating the power of music to heal the waters of the world  - www.radiolightworker.com
For full details please visit the Events Page on my Website - www.therosewindow.org

Rose Sounds - February News from Katie Rose
As the light of spring begins to emerge on the horizon, its time to listen for the love on the breeze, for the song of the shoots peeping up above the wintery ground.  
Hear and Heart are only one letter apart, and so often there's a song in our heart which is longing to come out. Every moment becomes a heartfelt miracle when we hear it fully.  
Life is one great love song composed of an infinite multitude of interweaving melodies. Within every challenge is the whisper of a new miracle, a melody waiting to be heard- Listen!
January has been a wonderful month of inner adventures, as I'm now focussed on completing my new album, Shiva's Rain, which is due to be released in March.
I'm also super excited to have been invited to host a show on Radio Lightworker - Miraculous Music which will go out for the first time on 22nd February.
I saw a dream embodied at the Space for Peace at Winchester Cathedral - a multitude of people singing peace songs including religious leaders of every path - thanks to Catherine Pestano for inviting me along with the Croydon Choir.
It was a joy and honour to share sounds with students at The Holistic Healing College this month. Thanks and love also to Sally Garozzo & Suzy Condrad who serenaded us beautifully in the Garden of Roses.  
You are most warmly invited to come and get showered in Divine Love Petals at my Valentines Chant at Triyoga on 12th Feb and with Illumina, Cate Mackenzie & the Love Fairies in the Garden at Inspiral on the 15th.
Thank you for sharing the vulnerability and the courage of your heartsong - Katie xxxxx

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January Blog - The Power of Contraction

As I’ve noticed how many people seem to be apologising for going a little slower in winter time, even though it is a natural instinct, I wanted to offer a few insights which have come to me on the benefits of contraction.  Having been born a sun-loving Leo in the middle of a drought, these are gleaned from many a year struggling with the deep, dark teachings of wintery times.  It still doesn’t come easy, but the invitation to go inward often yields buried treasure.

Rose Sounds - January News from Katie Rose
**** Glorious Rose Song of Thank You's for 2010 ***
* To all who have sung and shared with me this year, Thank you!
* To those who have hosted and supported my events, Thank you!*
* To those who have read this newsletter and passed it to others, Thank you!
* To those who have listened to the songs of my heart, Thank you! *
* To those who have collaborated with me in creating events, Thank you!
* For all the magical moments of sound which I will hold in my heart forever, Thank you! *
* To All Beings in the Universal Symphony, Thank you!
* It truly has been a year of miraculous surprises. *
* I wish you a heartwarming start to 2011, that the doorway opens to many more beautiful songs and that the music within you awakens and is heard to its fullest resonance.*
December has been an extraordinary month - bringing to a close an extraordinary year, looking with much joy and delight towards new adventures to come in 2011.
If you would like to dance and chant your way into 2011, do join me at New Year's Eve with 5 Rhythms @ Kew including Tim Broughton, the Alive Musicians and special guest Nikki Slade - http://bit.ly/iavpcC
You are also invited to join me in a special chant to open our hearts to the New Year at the Special Yoga Centre - the enChanted Heart - on January 2nd.
Our Super Sparkly Solstice Full Moon Garden of Roses with Performance Poetess Becs and Cate Mackenzie & the Love Fairies was truly magical, thanks to everyone who came.
I will be joined at Inspiral this month by the very wonderful Sally Garozzo and Suzy Condrad on January 18th and will also be sharing Kirtan at Triyoga on January 29th.
I am looking forward to teaching another Sound Healing module this month at the Holistic Healing College - thanks to all who came to December's course -  http://healingcollege.co.uk
I was also honoured to share some solstice gong at the Womens Inspirational Nuisance Cafe - a magical monthly event held at Passing Clouds, Dalston - see below for more details.
As this is the season for giving, I highly recommend Guru Rinpoche Mantra a very special DVD created in aid of Tibet by Christian Kyriacou- beautiful heart-stirring images set to the music of Deva & Miten- http://www.kyriacou.com/shop.html
* Wishing you a delicious, delightful and deliriously lovely start to 2011 - singing your dreams into being... Love Katiexxx *

White Christmas
and a Bright White
Blank Page
for 2011

Thank you!

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Wishing you a

Radiant Rainbow of Celebration this Midwinter

**Happy**

Solstice, Christmas, Yule, Ashura, Yalda, Hanukkah, Bodhi Day, Saturnalia

Thank you for all you have shared and given this year.

Wishing you love, blessings and lots of adventures in 2011

Salaam, Om Shanti, Dona Nobis Pacem, Shalom

Deep Peace of the Infinite Peace to You

Please join us at the following Festive Events:

* Garden of Roses -

Solstice Sparkles - Full Moon Solstice Celebration with Becs, Cate Mackenzie & the Love Fairies Tuesday 21st December - 7.30-10.30  - Free! Inspiral Lounge - www.inspiralled.net

* New Years Eve 5 Rhythms Dance Party

with Tim Broughton, Alive Musicians and Nikki Slade - 7.30-1am @ Kew Community Centre, TW9 2AL - http://bit.ly/fz3aCM

* Special New Years enChanted Heart Kirtan

Singing our Intentions for 2011 - 2nd Jan, 6.30-8pm, Special Yoga Centre www.specialyogacentre.org.uk

I Am Not

I am not a Christian, yet Christ is all around

I am not a Buddhist, yet Buddha is my ground

I am not a Muslim, yet Allah's here in all I see

I am not a Hindu, yet Krishna speaks to me

I am not an Atheist, yet nothingness counts too

I walk the path of Yahweh, although I’m not a Jew

None of these and all of these, all of these and more

If one excludes the others, love’s truth goes out the door

Come build a mighty rainbow, embracing all beliefs and creeds

Form something even greater than our wildest dreams exceed

Dream this mighty rainbow encircling the earth

Sacrifice our dogma and celebrate rebirth

JJ Middleway 1988

(Thanks to the Buddhahouse, Ibiza for sharing this)

Much Love

Katie

Rose Sounds - December News from Katie Rose
As the commercial Christmas machine rolls into action, taking out forests of fir trees and filling the shops full to the brim of stressed shoppers, we can take a moment to be still and look for the miracles admidst the midwinter mayhem.  We can fly in the sapphire skies of clear frosty days, create midwinter rituals that resonate and use the cool, crisp, energies to crystallise clear plans. As the door to lighter days swings open at Solstice, we can re-source and re-centre in nourishing retreat time spinning tales, singing songs and dancing like dervishes towards 2011.
November has been a heart warming and toe tingling time, thanks to chanters at the Tree of Life, Special Yoga Centre and Yogi Tree. 
Thanks also to Energy Brown for for hosting me so warmly on Spiritual Matters, Radio Verulam.  Listen online to his show, every Wednesday, 8-10pm at www.radioverulam.com
December promises to be a festive feast of sound with many practitioners offering deep sonic nourishment at special midwinter celebrations. 
I am looking forward to teaching a Sound Healing module this month at the Holistic Healing College - http://healingcollege.co.uk
We had a heart opening, tide turning time in the Garden of Roses this month with mermaid Carina Coen and the Priceless Duo Miss Magikal and Natty Natstar
Do join us at Inspiral for a Super Sparkly Solstice Full Moon Special on December 21st with Solstice Shimmer Performance Poetess Becs and Queen of Love, Cate Mackenzie with the Love Fairies.
Thank you for continuing to sing and shine brightly in the darker days  - wishing you a Sparkly Solstice, Crispy Christmas and Merry Midwinter - Katie xxxxx

Honoured to be invited to share an article on the new  Go Yogic Website
Creating success in Your Office  - http://www.goyogic.com/creating-success-in-office/
xx

Rose Sounds - September News From Katie Rose
As leaves turn from green to gold, Autumn can be a nostalgic time, as memories sail on the breeze of time, whispering songs with old melodies.  We can turn our stories over under the eye of the mellow autumn sun as we reflect on those projects, relationships and encounters which have ripened to fullness and dream of those yet to come.   To re-member is to be mindful of the interconnectedness of our experience - to reconcile the past in the light of the present and appreciate its gifts and challenges. Members of our community who have influenced us, memories of places we have known, warm embraces we have felt - all these remain in our consciousness and in our body - which also becomes re-membered and restored to wholeness as we redeem the past. As we sing we can harmonise past experiences, acknowledging their place in the symphony that is our life and surrendering them into the joy of the present.

It was wonderful to see so many friends, old and new at One World Festival this year.  The sound baths were truly extraordinary! Colin and I look forward to sharing a Sound Journey - Into the Heart of the Moon in London in October - details below.
Also great to celebrate the power of creative women at the Women in Music Festival in Birmingham with ladies including Nadine Daniels, Gerico and the wonderful Sally Garozzo.
This month I am will be singing along with the Ghosts from the Basement - please join us at Cecil Sharp House on September 25th for a truly comprehensive trip down folky memory lane.
Following dark and delicious chocolaty sounds from Cam Ringel & Skopje in August, this months Garden of Roses features the mesmerising Diana Rosa and heavenly healing tones from Ashera Hart.
Other exciting events happening this month include The Festival of Life - packed full to the brim with re-vitalising workshops, performances and talks plus the Yoga Groove Festival in Seaford.
Thank you for singing your song and sharing your beauty with me and the world - Katiexxxxx

Rose Sounds - August News From Katie Rose
The harvest of a beautiful summer - the smell of baking bread, the petals wafting on the breeze - gently calls us to question - what will I retain and what will I offer up this August?  The answer is in the call of the heart.  The longing to be - be-longing - to be that which we already are - prompts us to thresh the corn, to sift the wheat from the chaff, to wander through fields of gold, to dance barefoot in the rain ... and yet the precious jewel is within, always there, infinite resources of love emanating soft perfume, calling us home - in the centre of the rose, the heart.  Nowhere to run to baby, no where to hide. Just right here, right now in the soft unfolding of every breath.

July has been truly joyful - I had a wonderful time in Istanbul offering sessions and workshops at Bilgi Paylasim with children and adults and look forward to returning there soon.
fol-de-rose is featured in the August/September fROOTs magazine - join an international community of music lovers and infinitely expand and enrich your experience of music at www.frootsmag.com
Many thanks to all of you who came to the Garden of Roses Birthday Party - featuring Venus Cumara, Cate Mackenzie & the Love Fairies -  it was an extraordinary explosion of Lion Hearted Love which I am still buzzing from! 
August promises splendid songful treats - I'm topping and tailing the month with two Kirtans at Triyoga, with a trip to One World Festival in between.
Towards the end of the month Cam Ringel and Skopje will be serenading us in the Garden - a treat not to be missed - and I'll be joining a big sing up at the Women in Music Festival in Birmingham.
Many of you wonderful soundstars are out and about at festivals of all shapes and sizes, creating, exploring, revolutionising the world - I wish you a fruity, frenzied, frothy time and hope to see you along the way! 
Thank you for listening and sharing your love and songshine in the world - Katiexxxxx
Let yourself be silently drawn by the stronger pull of what you really love - Rumi

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Rose Sounds - July News From Katie Rose
July is the fullness of summer - flowers blooming, sun at high tide, long campfire evenings.  We have passed through the Solstice Gateway and may be feeling a little stretched in all directions by the recent astrological Grand Cross. The Cross, ancient symbol which forms the structure of medicine wheels and returns us to the Great Tree, reminds us that we are whole beings formed of earth, air, fire and water.  We are fluid beings who can dance to the north, south, east and west.  We are vibrations, resonating through tears, laughter, songs and words.  We are this and yet we are not this.  We are all of it and none of it.  We are absolutely in it and completely beyond it. We are impacted by everything that happens to everyone whilst being also precisely individuated.  So when the waters of the world are polluted, our tears taste oily; when we sing for the creatures of the sea, the vibrations are heard and felt.  We are intimately detached from all that occurs.
The trick is to allow and experience all directions, sensations, emotions, creations, recognitions fully whilst not crucifying ourselves.. or each other!!?
Wherever in the stretch you are, I wish you the ongoing discovery of your innate preciousness as you find your place in the sea of stars, forming and re-forming constellations with those who shine around you.

June has been an exquisite month.  It's very exciting to have released an EP of folk music, fol-de-rose, quite by accident.  A track is featured on the wonderful free fROOTS July Podcast - http://www.frootsmag.com/radio/playlists/10/07/
I had an absolutely wonderful time singing for the trees at the Tree of Life Festival - beautifully held by Joginda and Marketa - check their events out at:  www.treeoflifemagazine.com.
I'm looking forward very much to returning to the magical city of  Istanbul this month, an experience which always touches my heart, sparks my imagination and ransacks my soul to reveal new treasure.
I also invite you to come and celebrate your inner Lion and my birthday in the Garden of Roses this month, it's going to be a truly huge-hearted event - so do be outrageous and wear a pink wig :)
There's all sort of wonderful events this month including the Tibet Festival in the Park to celebrate the Dalai Lama's Birthday, so please do invite your beloveds to take a peep through The Rose Window so they can see for themselves! :)

Love and Songshine  Katiexxxxx

June News From Katie Rose
June promises Jubilation and Re-Joy-cing as Juno, Goddess of Fertility and Celebration invites us to re-cover our Joy this month.
Finding the bliss of our truth can be like hunting for treasure without a metal detector.  We may find ourselves in mental labyrinths or meeting dragons at the door to our preciousness - or maybe our dream got so buried under so much lifestuff that we can't even remember where or what it was... As the roses bloom,  however we may catch the scent of inspiration and dare to dig a little deeper, to break out from the bud and unfold in the summer sun, allowing our beauty to be seen.

May has seen many changes for me.  I wish to extend heartfelt love and gratitude to all those of you who connected with me at Alchemy The Centre.  Special thanks to Nicole Hambro, Amir Jaan, the Kundalini Yogis and all who came to my class.  It was truly an honour to share the Voice of the Soul with so many beautiful singers.  A new space to sing will be coming soon, in South London, where I am now re-locating. I will be singing out and about and working on some exciting creative projects over the summer which I look forward to sharing with you soon ...:)

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ROSE SOUNDS  - May News

It's the foolish time of year again, time to get silly with spring and run impetuously into the open arms of life, to fall over laughing at the utter ludicrousness of it all.  To initiate any change requires admitting we are always at the beginning, starting once again with the fresh breath of a new day. Emerging like chicks from shells we can feel like we crack up as we crack open.  To resist the chaos and madness is just to invite further insanity, so lets embrace it all and dance left-footed with glorious abandon along the spring songlines.
Whatever cosmic jokes life is playing on you, may you tread lightly this April.  Love Katiexxx


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***  HAPPY EQUINOX ****
At last! at last! at last!- Spring is cracking through, with glimmers of sunsmiles, starry flower faces, a fresh new perfume on the breeze and longer, lighter days... :)

As a special Spring Equinox treat, there's a * FREE SINGING TREE CD * for everyone who books an individual Session!:) - Check out the Individual Sessions Page!
Hope you are enjoying  the Freshly Spring Cleaned Rose Window Website for details ...

Dont forget to check out the New Spring Equinox Poem below
And do leave a comment or a poem of your own - I'd love to hear from you!

** VOICE OF THE SOUL TIME CHANGE ** - my weekly class will be at 11.30am on Tuesdays at Alchemy from now onwards  www.alchemythecentre.com
Tuesday 28th March - will be a very special FULL MOON VOICE OF THE SOUL Class.
Do join me for an exuberant celebration of the Moon in Libra.

To celebrate this years Equinox here are two special events-  *enCHANTment for children* & *The Garden of Roses Spring Equinox Celebration.* - see the Events Page for Details

Hope to see and sing with you soon!

Wishing you a Joyous and Jubilant Spring Emerging - Katie Rose xx

"Always laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine." - Lord Byron

Equinox

Golden gateway of possibility
Yawning open at the turn of the year
Streaming sunshards of laughter
Beckoning towards spring

Miniature angels of grace
Lift daylight on the backs of their wings
Redeeming truth
Spinning suncircles of love

This is the springboard to a new realm
A place where the fragrant burst of Creation
Emerges victorious with resonant
Perfumed songs of effeverscent growth

Its time to renew, cleanse, unwind
The clocks to make more time
More light, more passion, more dancing
Of soft clouds puff powdered over blue skies.

Singing sap rising in the pulsing veins of trees
As they stretch their budding arms towards heaven
Tiny tears of leaf laughter burst at their seams
Exuding intoxicating nectar of spring's almost-blooms

I can taste spring, I can feel it ruffling my hair
Whispering to me - "Step into a new adventure
Dare to ride bare back on the wild wild wind
Its time for change

For admidst the green daisy strewn fields
Secret paths await discovery,  Trees stand tall
With silent mysteries to share, Birds are calling
Come, come, come - step, dance, fly!"

Katie Rose March 2010