Spiral Dragonfly Coaching
Mary's Magical Musings
Silence and Fasting
5/12/2009
I recently returned from a twelve day retreat Heart Initiation. Toward the middle of the twelve days, 3 days of silence and fasting were scheduled. When I considered going on this particular journey, I was most scared about this period of time. I had never fasted and found it very difficult to spend even half an hour in silence. I prepared by packing several books. Acknowledging the sanctity of the period of fasting and silence, I packed non-fiction books that I had been meaning to read but hadn’t taken the time, preferring to read murder mysteries for relaxation while at home.
During a different conference this spring, I discovered that not everyone has the same definition of silence. One of the keynote speakers at this particular conference discussed how much she looked forward to traveling because she listened to her MP3 player and spent her flight time in “silence”. For her, “silence” meant not engaging with other people; not being interrupted by the ringing of the phone; possibly not being bombarded by television messages. She disengaged by putting on her headphones and being in “silence”.
Discussion ensued among the participants at the beginning of the retreat as to what “silence” might entail. We had been requested to leave cell phones and computers at home; to let the important people in our lives know that we would be unavailable during this 12 day period. We had already disengaged from our ordinary lives. What more would be requested of us? Speculation ranged from no music (most of us had MP3 players with us) to no vocal music. I wished that we had been given some guidelines so I could have prepared an instrumental only playlist. We talked about whether or not we could write notes to each other so we could coordinate hikes in the nearby state park.
I was amazed when the definition of silence was given the night before we were to begin the period of silence. There would be NO music. How was this possible? We had been using music as part of our meditation and ritual practices since we arrived. We were even sent a piece of music prior to our arrival. No music!!! OK, I can do this. I still have my books. Then the worst piece of information I could receive; no external stimuli of any sort. No books, no music, no notes, no sign language. We were directed to the art supplies, our journals, our Tarot cards, and the desert.
Next week I will share with you my experience of silence. If you have experience with periods of silence, I would love to hear from you. My email address is mary@spiraldragonfly.com.
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