Last week I went to the Watersong Peace Chamber in Saxapahaw, North Carolina. This was my second visit. I first heard about the Native American visionary and holy man, Joseph Rael, and creator of the Sound Peace Chambers, over 20 years ago when I was in Canada teaching a sound healing workshop at a Course in Miracles retreat in Markham, Ontario, outside of Toronto.
Joseph, whose Tiwa name translates as Beautiful Painted Arrow, is from the Picuris Pueblo and Ute Indian traditions and currently lives on the Southern Ute reservation in Colorado. His teachings focus on the Tiwa world view that all creation is vibration and the role of vibration in the creation of conscious reality. In 1983 he had a vision to create a chamber for the purpose of chanting for world peace, which has led to the creation of at least 80 Sound Peace Chambers around the world.
As it happened there were some students of his in the workshop and they told me about a Sound Peace Chamber on Owen James’ property in Grafton, Ontario. James is a medical intuitive and a close friend of Joseph. I immediately felt a strong pull to visit so I called Owen. I told him a bit about my own work and he invited me out to visit the chamber and his property where they also hold certain sacred dances that Joseph created specifically to share with with non-natives, as well as other ceremonies.
I went out there and, as it turned out, he knew an ex-boyfriend of mine who had worked with vibroacoustic therapy and sacred geometry. Owen had bought a sound table from him which had never been set up and balanced properly. He asked me if I could him get it set up when I was out there, which I happily did, glad to be able to contribute in some way to the energy and intention of the sacred soundwork as a whole and did some toning in the chamber. I remember the property on the whole as feeling magical and sacred, full of angels, fairies and devas- reminiscent of how I think Findhorn must feel. (As it turns out there are a surprising number of Sound Chambers in Scotland. To see more of the Sound Peace Chambers around the world click here)
The sound chambers seem for me to be something that appear on the radar and then get quiet for a while. As it turns out, where I am currently living there at least three within a few hours for me and the urge to spend time in them is strong. I hadn’t thought about them in a while. In November an old friend invited me to Durham to have Thanksgiving with her and a few of her friends. As we were talking she mentioned that she thought there was some kind of a chamber in Saxapahaw. She said she thought it was for sound. “One of Joseph Rael’s Peace Chambers?” I asked. She wasn’t sure. I looked it up online and sure enough there it was! I was so excited that there was one near me and I immediately called the number. My now new friend Cheryl answered and said, “Yes, come visit!” On the off chance that I could perhaps play some music in there I brought with me a gong with an easy stand to set up, a small collection of Himalayan singing bowls and a few flutes.
I fell in love with space the instant I walked in.
No. Actually before I walked in, just seeing it from a distance. It turned out that they were happy to have me do a sound meditation in there, so a very small group of us gathered- Cheryl, her husband David, my friend Hillary and her dog Nettles, and myself- and I played for about a half an hour. They also had 3 crystal bowls which were just “happened” to be perfect with the instruments I had brought with me!
My first visit to the Watersong Peace Chamber…
When I got back home from my first visit to Watersong, the first thing I did was order two more of Joseph Rael’s books and promptly started reading his beautiful autobiography House of Shattering Light. I had already read Being and Vibration a few years earlier. I couldn’t get the Peace Chamber out of my head and within a few days I called Cheryl and said, “I’m having this fantasy of bringing a whole bunch of instruments and setting up in there for three days- and just playing music… whatever inspires me in the moment… sound journeys, toning, chanting peace prayers, kirtan. I don’t care about having an audience. I just want to be there and be free to play in that space.” Cheryl totally resonated with the idea and said that since I had left she kept seeing me in there, so she thought it was meant to be.
This time I brought everything- instruments I don’t normally bring like my tamboura. I sat in there and played the tamboura calling on the devas, played the didge calling on the wandjina- the lightning spirits who brought the didgeridoo to the aborigines. I played my guitar and sang peace prayers. I sang, toned, laughed, cried and just plain vibed in there. I spent long hours calling in spirits with my Native American flute and did a sound journey for a group of ten or twelve beautiful souls.
And at the end I thought, three days isn’t long enough. Next time I need to come back for five days!
