Hymns Old and New -- Anthem

I've been a huge Leonard Cohen fan since I was a teenager in the early 1970s, so I was very sad to learn of his death last month at 82 years old. Apart from being an amazing Canadian poet-singer-songwriter, his spiritual search and questioning always drew me to his music. He had no illusions about the nature of love, spirituality or the world, yet dedicated his passion and heartbreak to all three.

I consider his song Anthem to be a modern hymn in every sense of the word. It is his profound meditation on the Divine and the human spiritual journey.

The birds, they sing

At the break of day

Start again, I heard them say

Don't dwell on what has passed away

Or what is yet to be.

Yeah, the wars

They will be fought again

The holy dove

She will be caught again

Bought and sold and bought again

The dove is never free.

Ring the bells that still can ring

Forget your perfect offering

There is a crack, a crack in everything

That's how the light gets in.

We asked for signs

The signs were sent:

The birth betrayed

The marriage spent

Yeah, the widowhood of every government

Signs for all to see.

I can't run no more

With that lawless crowd

While the killers in high places say their prayers out loud

But they've summoned, they've summoned up a thundercloud

They're gonna hear from me.

Ring the bells that still can ring ...

You can add up the parts

You won't have the sum

You can strike up the march

There is no drum

Every heart, every heart

To love will come

But like a refugee.

Ring the bells that still can ring ...

Ring the bells that still can ring

Forget your perfect offering

There is a crack, a crack in everything

That's how the light gets in

That's how the light gets in

That's how the light gets in.

I love every aspect of these lyrics but two images in particular resonate deep within me. First, the very Jungian concept that it is through our imperfections and repressed selves (our shadows) that wholeness and healing (formerly known as salvation and redemption) are achieved. There is a crack, a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in. Human perfectability is a harmful lie and there's no point in expecting this or holding anyone to that unrealistic standard. Everyone and everything is flawed by its very nature.

And the second image strikes me to the core as well -- every heart, every heart to love will come, but like a refugee. I think the word "love" as used here is code for "the Divine." This image expresses a great and profound truth about the spiritual journey. People sometimes naively think the spiritual journey is all about hearts, flowers and blissful insights but in reality, it's an arduous, devastating and often perilous experience. By the time you arrive at the end of your search, you are indeed like a refugee -- battered, bruised, a survivor of the immense pain and suffering of life but also so very grateful to be safe at last, at long last, in a new home. The spiritual journey is not for the faint of heart.

Thank you, Leonard Cohen. May you rest in peace, your long journey done.

Hymns Old and New -- Spirit of Life

For about 10 years, I was a member of the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Winnipeg. The UU religion (for lack of a better term) is a non-Christian, non-creedal liberal humanist movement. It is a spiritual home for theists, agnostics and atheists alike. Lesbian pagans are welcome and fit right in! I enjoyed my time with the UUs and have nothing but respect for them. My UU experience was an important, even crucial, part of my spiritual development.

Anyway, like many church-goers, UUs love to sing. One of their favourite contemporary hymnists is the spiritual feminist songwriter and social activist Carolyn McDade. Her most famous modern hymn is probably "Spirit of Life." With its beautiful melody, secular lyrics and emphasis on compassion and justice, you can see why it's so popular with many liberal religions of whatever stripe, including Christian ones.

In 1997, Carolyn McDade came to Manitoba and held a weekend choral workshop at a First Nations ministerial training centre north of Winnipeg. My girlfriend at the time absolutely adored all things Carolyn McDade and so we attended. Once we got there, the First Nations staff offered to hold a sweat lodge for us on the Saturday night. I figured "Sure, why not participate? Might be interesting." Little did I know what to expect!

Next post: My Sweat Lodge Experience

Hymns Old and New -- Imagine

I used to think that the greatest hymns were all written in the 1800s or earlier when the Christian church was at its peak. Then one day I realized that no, this is not the case at all. Hymns are still being written in our own day and age. It's just that they are largely secular hymns, not overtly Christian or even religious, but still steeped in humankind's timeless yearning for our highest aspirations to come true. The modern hymn that caused me to have this epiphany was John Lennon's Imagine.



John Lennon was shot and killed 35 years ago today on December 8, 1980. I grieved his loss then and continue to do so today.

Hymns Old and New -- Gabriel's Message

I adore Christmas carols. I would listen to and sing them all year long if I could, except for the certainty of death or dismemberment at the hands of others. How can people get sick of Christmas carols? How?

For this month's "hymn old and new," I'm highlighting one of my favourite carols, Gabriel's Message. Originally an ancient Basque folk song, it was translated into English in the Victorian era by Sabine Baring-Gould, the British composer of Onward, Christian Soldiers. It enjoyed some popularity but faded into obscurity in the 20th century. Then Sting recorded it on an album almost 30 years ago and his revival of the song caused it to build a new fanbase in our times. Thank you, Sting!

This video of Gabriel's Message by Jars of Clay displays the lyrics for easy reading and, best of all, has quite a nice zippy tempo. Enjoy!



I love this carol because it praises the Divine Feminine in Her Christian guise as the Virgin Mary. Christianity reduced the ancient Goddess archetype to a subordinate role and a restricted scope in its patriarchal mythology, but She still has a crucial part to play. And, of course, devotion to Her by ordinary Christians far exceeds each and every narrow boundary placed around Her by the Church.

In the lyrics, I especially like the fabulous imagery of the first verse's phrase: "his wings as drifted snow, his eyes as flame." Yowza! Contradictory, paradoxical, powerful, pure. Just what you want in a Messenger of the Divine. Sounds like Gabriel rocks.

And if you want to hear this beautiful carol in its original Basque tongue and bouncy dance tempo, check out this recent post by Willym over at Will He or Won't He? It also includes lots more fascinating info and a nice Celtic rendition as well. I'm glad we both love this carol, Will!

Hymns Old and New -- How to Sing

It is so important that hymns be sung in the proper spirit! Thanks, Riot Kitty, for suggesting that I post this hilarious video by Eddie Izzard about how Christian hymns are typically sung. As always, he's spot on! (Please note: the hymn singing part starts about 0:42, after Jesus gets "tarted up a bit.")



Love it! This video reminds me of the only good thing I learned from the Baptists when I was in a Baptist youth group as a teenager. At my own United Church, the congregation always sang in the quiet, dreary manner described by Eddie Izzard. But at the Baptist church, the minister exhorted the congregation to belt out the hymns as loudly as we could, at the very top of our lungs. It doesn't matter in the least, he said, if you can't carry a tune in a bucket. God doesn't care if anyone can sing or not and neither should we. The important thing is that people walking down the street outside the church should hear the hymns blasting out and be drawn in by the conviction of our singing.

He was wrong about a lot of stuff, that Baptist minister, but he was right about singing out in a full-voiced, unselfconscious way. All voices are worthy in the ears of the Divine and everyone should be encouraged to participate in the joy of devotional singing.

Hymns Old and New -- Southland of the Heart

I've been a huge fan of Canadian singer/songwriter Bruce Cockburn since the mid-1970s (yikes, that's 40 years now!) Many of his songs concern the spiritual journey and our relationship with the Divine. Although he is a devout Christian, the imagery he uses is not explicitly Christian nor even explicitly spiritual. "Those who have ears to hear, hear, and eyes to see, see."

To me, one of his most profoundly spiritual songs is Southland of the Heart. Actually, I've always regarded it as a modern, updated equivalent of Abide With Me. Cockburn's imagery for the abyss is the arid, shadeless, remorseless desert -- the southland -- to which we are driven by our own experiences and our own demons. There the only sanctuary and peace is to be found in the Divine, the "help of the helpless," who gently invites us:

In the southland of the heart . . .

Lie down,

Take your rest with me.

And yet, the genius of Cockburn's songwriting skill is that it's entirely possible to interpret this song in a purely human, non-spiritual way as well. It can easily be seen simply as a dialogue between two people, one of whom is comforting the other and offering them a shoulder to lean on during difficult times. That's why Cockburn's music is so universally appealing -- no one's experience is alienated or excluded.

Southland of the Heart is found on Cockburn's 1994 album Dart to the Heart. The whole album is fabulous. Hard to believe it's been 20 years since it came out. (Man, I really have to stop feeling so old about every little thing, LOL!)

P.S. -- Watch for the photo at the end of the video of Bruce Cockburn's own Canada Post stamp which was issued a couple of years ago!

Hymns Old and New -- Abide With Me

In the spiritual journey, the "dark night of the soul" is often fraught with mortal peril. Moses may have met the Divine up on the mountaintop, but all too often the Divine is actually encountered deep in the abyss when death is near. Which is exactly when and where the encounter must occur if you hope to emerge safely from the depths again. If you do not meet the Divine in the abyss (and not everyone does), all will be lost and you will not return to life's surface. The difficult thing about an encounter with the Divine is that it cannot be willed, forced or fabricated. Those who return from the abyss know that the meeting occurs only by divine grace beyond our control.

Abide With Me has always been a favourite hymn of mine because it expresses so compellingly the comfort and strength which the Divine may grant in such an encounter. The words were written in 1847 by Henry Francis Lyte, a Scottish Anglican dying of tuberculosis. It was set to music in 1861 by William H. Monk, whose young daughter had just passed away. These men knew the abyss and what it is to look death in the face.

"Help of the helpless, oh abide with me."



Although the words of this hymn utilize the Christian idiom, it goes without saying that the abyss and divine grace are equally well known in paganism and every other form of spirituality. Many gods and goddesses embody the ancient myth of descent, death and rebirth which expresses the same truths about this spiritual experience. It was the Great Goddess Inanna and her Dark Sister Ereshkigal who called my own name so many years ago now.

Thanks to dbs of think.stew blog who suggested posting this recent rendition of Abide With Me by the fabulous Scottish singer Emeli Sandé -- I agree with you, dbs: whoa.

Hymns Old and New -- How Can I Keep from Singing?

Faith, hope and joy in the face of adversity is the theme of the old Quaker hymn How Can I Keep from Singing? It was written in the 1860s and then fell into obscurity, but the hymn enjoyed a popular revival 100 years later when folksinger Pete Seeger recorded it. Seeger omitted or modifed most of its overtly Christian references and popularized it as a protest song against the McCarthy era's anti-communist witch hunts. In the 1990s, Enya recorded a New Age version of it on her album Shepherd Moons and brought it to the attention of a whole new generation.

One of my favourite Canadian singer/songwriters, David Sereda, has recently posted his beautiful a cappella version of this hymn, which I just love. Here's the audio post, if you'd like to have a listen:

Sell music on itunes at ReverbNation.com

David Sereda's own songs are about gay life, pride, love and survival. I'm sure he intends a similar interpretation for the hymn's lines -- "When friends by shame are undefiled / How can I keep from singing?"

Hymns Old and New -- Intro

[papercraft art by Jodi Harvey-Brown]

As I've mentioned before on this blog, certain Christian hymns and devotional music still resonate strongly with me, despite the fact that I have not been a believing or practising Christian for over 35 years. Part of this is due to fond childhood and cultural memories, but more of it is simply due to loving the beauty and profundity of genuine spiritual expression in music, no matter its source.

My taste in devotional music definitely leans towards the joyous expression of love, hope, gratitude and praise, rather than militant expressions of religious supremacy or grim dirges of punishment for sin. Monty Python's God best summed up the value of those particular songs --

God: What are you doing now?
King Arthur: I’m averting my eyes, oh Lord.
God: Well, don’t. It’s just like those miserable psalms, they’re so depressing. Now knock it off!

So I'm starting a new series of periodic posts highlighting some of my favourite hymns, both old and new. And by "new" hymns, I mean modern songs from contemporary singer/songwriters who express deep spiritual longing and truth in popular music without using explicit Christian imagery. I'm sure I'll throw in a few of my favourite pagan and Goddess songs and chants too.

I've been meaning to do this series for a long time. And now that time is here! But don't worry, I'll still be posting lots of other things too.