Hey Chad, I never heard you play. Do you have any recordings?

"This works well with the alchemical motto "As Above, So Below" - and places the celebrant - symbolically - directly between the two worlds of thought and form."

As a wind instrument, I like "Breathe in, breathe out..."

Kind of the basic continuous and constant cycle of life, no? :)

Good post I will respond but I wish to contemplate first. Hmmmmmmmmmmm


Namaste

I can't find any fault with your reasoning although I can see other correspondences that would fit as well. As I was reading your post it got me thinking about what I was looking for when I posted the topic. I would have to say that I really had no real objective when I posted it. And I have been delighted by the responses I have received it has given me a lot of food for thought. To see how people view the didge in a spiritual manner has been an eye opener. And I guess that is really what I was looking for, was to see how people viewed it in a spiritual manner
I appreciated your post on your take on its uses in ritual. But as I was thinking about it I started to really get what you were talking about when you said pigeon holing the didge. I think by you giving me what you thought I wanted helped me to see what you were saying. Hopefully I can explain if you will bear with me I will use the traditional correspondence of Fire to Athame and Air to the Wand.

It could correspond to Fire in the way that it fires the blood and inflames the body. But also in the generative way as it is sometimes the seed of so much whether it is the desire to explore the instrument for someone new or a change of perspective you can see it on some faces when they hear it an almost ecstasy infects them and they have the look of stunned amazement. The instrument can plant the seed of so much and all without direct words. I could see it as a tool to draw a circle or especially to invoke or banish typical Athame uses.

Water in the way that it takes your rhythm's and gives them life Fire can be a seed but Water is where life begins these are typical creative forces invoked by Water. And in the way that it can effect the emotions. All of us have heard a didge excite us and also lull us into another state of being. To either stir the emotions into a whirlpool or to still them and allow you to the see the reflection of the divine in yourself. The Chalice is used not only to symbolize the consecrating power of Water and the Goddess but also as holy anointments and purification and I could see the didge used in this way as well. As a purification of the spirit and a way of putting someone into that receptive state that is a gift of Water.

Air in the way of not only its way of communication but also in the way that it transmits ideas. And helps to form those ideas for it takes your words and reworks them into a new form. As the sound leaves the didge it is reworked by the space that it fills. I see this as the final vetting of the sound and the formation of the final product.

Earth in its physical form but also in its sound and the feel of the sound. There is wisdom to some sounds and the sound of the didge just sounds very earthy. How it grounds the people in the now and lets them feel the moment all very Earthy things. Also in its way of purification as you noted yourself.

I could say that anyone using it in these manners could make a valid argument for its use. However what I am really talking about is music and the sacredness of making music. Music like words can be used in place of any ritual object, I have seen and been part of groups who sing the circle into being and use song to call the Lord and Lady and although this is not BTW I have found it to work just fine. The power of music I would go so far to say is an even more powerful than the spoken word. A musician casts a spell over his crowd he beguiles, bewitches, inspells, and commands his crowd when he plays the crowd feels love and when he changes his tune they start crying if this is not magic I do not know what is. The most powerful spell is a love song no other spell affects so many so profoundly. Music has changed lives and the course of the world more times than can be counted and the power of those spells that they have cast is still with us today. The power of music and its magickal component is woefully underrated in the esoteric community.
As I look at the didge to put it into my perspective I would say that the didge is sacred but that I would resist pigeon holing it into any particular category for the music it creates can travel through all realms of the elements. When I play I have come to look on it as me as the Fire the generative spark as I start the rhythm, as it travels into the didge it transforms and is given life by the didge in a Watery aspect becoming a living thing far greater than the spark that created it. I would see it as Air as it leaves the didge as it transmits the message and in it’s forming of the rhythm in the open air the final cutting away of the debris. As Earth as it hits the people with the sound of life and grounds them in the spell.

Namaste