Bardic Kundalini

Giving voice to stories of the inner experience

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I’m an Irish musician, composer and author. My harp CD, Cumha and my book, A Shamanic Kundalini Awakening are mutually complimentary expressions of my spiritual path.

  • New Singers of the Oldest Song

    The English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, upon first discovering English folk music said that he felt a sense of recognition, of something he had always known, yet hadn’t known was there. He said,

    ‘a folksong is like a tree, whose stem dates back from immemorial times, but which continually puts out new shoots. In one aspect the folksong is as old as time itself; in another aspect it is no older than the singer who sang it’. 

    We can also rediscover that which has always been there, waiting patiently for us to remember and become new shoots of shamanism, new singers of the oldest song.

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  • A Shamanic Kundalini Upanishad

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    There is only one soul, this is the Spirit within all things

    The essence of this Spirit is Love

    You are that Spirit within all things.

    It is this One that looks out of every eye be it grasshopper or great whale

    It is this One that knows the heat of the sun as mineral or tree,

    Through every aspect of creation this One Spirit knows itself

    There are two aspects to the Great Spirit

    She that creates the Sacred Illusion and He that experiences

    These aspects are not separate but one

    Duality and Oneness exist together in the Great Mystery

    Know you are the One by going to the forest

    There, in meditation journey with the spirits of the animals and plants

    Let them reveal to you the illusion of your separation from them and all that is

    With your drum remember the heart beat of the mother

    Sit in meditation and know Her as the serpent, like the serpent move softly on the earth and shed your skin

    Sitting with spine erect be fearless like the jaguar

    Let the anaconda swim up the spine as the salmon up the waterfall returning to source

    On the wings of the condor you will remember who you are

    Know that the anaconda, jaguar and condor are one

    Feel the legs of the cosmic spider dancing at the fontanel as you enter the unitive state

    The cosmic spider pours forth the web of creation from within itself, then rests within this web at its centre

    As both container and contained, aware of all activity within its web, the Great Spirit remains untouched, unensnared.

    Realise the unitive state of stillness in activity, do no harm, only through a loving life can Love be known

    The wise know the universe as unlimited manifestation and possibility in eternal unchanging consciousness

    You are That

    This is the Upanishad

    Om shanti shanti shanti.

    (from A Shamanic Kundalini Awakening)

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  • Black Bear Drum

    In a magical dream/vision, a shamanic drum appeared to me in perfect detail. The inside of the drum became a portal and I was given a further vision of bears, that roamed the far north in ancient times. Following this, the spirits of Sami shamans came and showed me exactly how the drum was to be made and the spirit of the black bear came repeatedly during this time. The drum is made from reindeer skin, has an oval ash hoop, and is trimmed with reindeer fur. The claws are resin casts of black bear claws, I prefer to leave real claws on bears!

    The first sense that awakens in the womb is sound, the first sound the fetus hears is the drumming of the mothers heartbeat. Sacred drums literally re-connect us to the Mother…The word mantra means ‘mind tool’ and the mantras of the Vedas are said to have been divinely revealed. I sense the same with shamanic drums, that they are revealed by Spirit as tools to be made for the spiritual enrichment of the world. (from A Shamanic Kundalini Awakening)

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  • Cumha

    Cumha, is a beautiful Gaelic word.  In Scottish Gaelic it denotes a lament and is found as a prefix to many of the old harp tunes.  In Irish the meaning is more subtle, implying a sense of melancholic separation.  Many of us are in a state of cumha, separated from nature, ourselves and source.  Learning the harp helped me overcome my own cumha, and I offer the music on this CD in the spirit of healing.