How Sound is Your Life

By ShirleySienna & Anthony Kilner

My personal journey into sound, and the healing qualities it brings to our body mind and spirit in various ways, began as a child as my family was musically inclined. We would sit in my grandparents lounge around the piano and sing while my uncles, aunts and family friends harmonised. Voice was important to us.

Various instruments, as well as voice, were also in my childhood home: piano, triangles, flutes, recorders, guitars, drums and bongos.

I was introduced to the power of sound and vibration by my mother and by having information readily available in the home on topics such as sound, breath, colour and the aura.

Books on spiritualism and metaphysics were also available to me, which is how I discovered Ted Andrews’ books. He wrote on just about anything of a psychic or paranormal nature, back in the 1980’s and 1990’s.

His book on sacred sounds explained that sound can heal through vibratory energy and the power of this on the human body.

My journey and interest in sound continued into the 2000’s, when I was mentored and tutored by a fabulous sound teacher and author named Llarah Starr. This was just before the time I opened a wellbeing centre and crystal shop in Melbourne in 2009, where we had many wonderful drumming and sounding gatherings. The freedom in the knowledge that you do not have to be a singer to be a sounder, is exhilarating and gives you license to make some pretty strange noises.

Over the decades, I have continued to instil sounding into the groups and classes I facilitate. People who try this for the first time can be quite shy, but I find they quickly open up and get in the ‘groove’, because as said, there is no classification of talent, just inspiration and intention.

Sound bathing as a group is also a very powerful way to clear and heal. Standing as a group around a person, voice toning and using instruments like Tibetan bells, gongs, and bowls and taking turns to be the recipient is an amazing experience.

For a while I was involved with a group of women who spent dedicated time building with toning and sound. We built structures of etheric volume and countenance to send healing and positive vibration around the Earth, inside the Earth and beyond the Earth, to the persons and creatures that exist and to all that is.

Over the years, I have delved deeply into many forms of sound and healing. Steven Halpern and Jonathon Goldman, two well-known and respected western sound workers, led me on a sacred journey for many years and, in my opinion, they have discovered the epitome of sound in its most powerful and sacred form.

Sounding with voice or instrument creates waves of vibration that attunes to certain frequencies. From the angelic to the shamanic, from inner earth to the heavens and the cosmos there is a unique and specific frequency that links to everything that has and will ever exist.

This constantly changing pace, tone and level of mathematical equation, is infinite in possibility. Once you understand that there is no limit, you can basically do anything you want. Find a sound healer, teacher,

book, viewpoint or information that resonates with you, be open to change and allow yourself the freedom that begins with the breath.

You will find many different ideas, levels of tone and the sounding techniques that vary in culture and perception, so remember there is no right or wrong, only options.

The word ‘tone’ is an anagram of ‘note’. Finding your soul note will shift and raise your vibration and the ‘tone’ of your life may change often and rapidly. We are born with a divine chord, an octave that is ours only, which can be realised in a few different ways, and literally put to music and played.

Some years ago, 2013, I was privileged to attend a conference in Mt Shasta, in the US. At the close of the retreat, the most beautiful violin symphony was played, which was the soul notes, chord, and notes within the octave of

Jose Arguelles and his particular ‘kin’, Spectral Monkey.

I took time after that to work out my own, and others, and put them to music as intuitively guided by the technique that was shared.

Meditation, Mantra and Mindfulness are all part of the sound journey. There are many ways to enjoy and enhance the experience. I hope that you are inspired to add your ‘voice’ to the power of ‘the word’ and, most importantly, remember that sound is not only audible to the human ear, but also to the psyche!

Following on from what ShirleySienna has written there is no right or wrong when it comes to working with sound. Personally, I’ve never been able to read music; everything I’ve done is intuitively based and how I teach my sound workshops. If the sound is right, the feel and the healing will be right!

I’ve always loved drumming, hand drums especially, and my world is filled with sound. From

the birds to the wind through the trees, it is all part of my being. Just sitting in the car with the indicator ticking away like a metronome, I manage to tap rhythms on the steering wheel – drumming is a part of life really!

I am often asked when I really started my sound journey and it was when I attended a talk by Native American Indian, William Two Feather. He explained that learning a flute was easy, even without understanding scales and notes. He further explained that on the reservation he taught the kids to play the flute and each hole of the flute was represented by an animal or bird.

A couple of months later, I received my flute from the Oregon Flute Store – there was no eBay back then - and my journey started. I played intuitively with my spirit teacher placing the song in my head and I would try to match it. When it was wrong it sounded horrible and my spirit guide would disappear for a bit. Then he’d come back and we’d start again. I very soon began to see colour as a sound frequency then, when playing in a group, different notes would form a colour to work with the people in that group. This is called Synaesthesia and so, my energy work began.

From there, my interest in sound led me to hand create and play Native American style hand drums; I loved that experience. Next Crystal and Tibetan bowls became a part of my life, then my Thunder drum rolled up, a Djembe, Gong, Darbuka, pan drum, rattles and the list goes on.

I studied sound healing and meditation here in Australia before spending three months in India, learning sound and energy healing with a Tibetan Master, Indian Guru and Tibetan monks. These were special days indeed!

Soon I had started a band called Divine Light Orchestra and, with some very skilled musos, honed my craft. There were weekly Djembe classes and sound and frequency became my life.

All these skills have come to the for when I created

which utilises a raft of skills working with energy, crystals, sound and frequency. This is the culmination of all my learning and teaching and there is still so much more to come. Read the article HERE.

I’m sharing my story as a counterpoint to ShirleySienna’s, as we grew up in two different worlds. I really didn’t get into sound energy work in a big way until my early 30s. I work totally intuitively and I hope that I can offer some inspiration to any readers out there who are not sure they can work with sound – YOU CAN!

ShirleySienna and Anthony combine to create Kin 58 ‘White Rhythmic Mirror, in the ‘Dreamspell’ calendar. The Rhythmic tone of equality, and the reflection of the mirror kin has led them to share the stage and many facets of psychical work together for well over a decade bringing a full spectrum of colour, tone, energy, and lots of fun to all that they do.

Image Credit: ShirleySienna, Anthony Kilner, Darren Clarke Photography, Stax