Sonic Enchantment: The Magic of Sound

Ring the bells! Raise your voice! Bang the drum! Sound can play a major role in your magical practice. 

For centuries, our ancestors recognised the quality of sound. Chanting, drumming, humming, and singing was common across almost all ancient cultures, and continues today in many modern practices. 

In ancient Egypt, the priestesses of Isis would chant invocations over and over, inviting the mother goddess into their temple, and raising her energy through their voices. The northern European shamans – the Sami noaidi – performed drumming rituals to maintain their trance states, as they accessed the spirit world and knowledge from the gods. Buddhist, Sikh and Hindu practices include the famous ‘Om’ – also known as ‘the wave of the universe’, when hummed or intoned it reinforces universal connection.

And yet, it’s easy to take the magic of sound for granted, or overlook it entirely as the powerful tool it can be. 

First, The Science-y Stuff

Stick with me here! To understand how sound works on a spiritual level, we first need to understand how it’s created, and how our brains perceive it.

(I promise to be quick on this!)

Basically, sound waves are invisible forces that allow us to hear (or connect to) the world around us. They travel through different mediums, like air, water, or solid objects, by creating vibrations. Just like ripples spreading through water when you drop a stone, sound waves move in a similar way, except they travel in all directions.

When something makes a sound, like a musical instrument, your voice, or even a door slamming shut, it creates vibrations. These vibrations compress and rarefy (i.e. make less dense) the particles in the air, which then cause the neighbouring particles to vibrate as well. This chain reaction continues, creating a wave of vibrating particles travelling through the air in cute little waves.

When these sound waves reach our ears, they vibrate our eardrums, which then transmit these vibrations to tiny bones in our middle ear. These bones then amplify the sound and send it to our inner ear, where it’s turned into electrical signals and finally sent to the brain.

Pretty cool, right?

This is how we perceive sound and understand the world through hearing.

So why is sound so important when raising energetic vibrations? The answer lies in the fundamental principle that everything in existence is energy. And as we now know, every sound carries a distinct frequency and energy. 

Using Sound In Ritual

When sound intensifies, its energetic vibrations rise higher and higher. We can connect with these vibrations, and the divine energy or spirit attracted to it. Our sound – whether it’s our lone voice, or a drum, or a group of people chanting – becomes a bridge, connecting the physical realm with the spiritual realm.

Crystal singing bowls, drums, bells, or especially your own voice are all powerful sound tools.

To include sound in your ritual, you first need to decide the intention behind it. Is it protective? Welcoming? Are you seeking a connection, or cutting one? Once you know what you want to achieve, then you’ll find the sound you use or make will be all the more powerful.

As you make your sound, imagine it weaving its way through the space around you. Focus on the intention you set for it, and let your sound embody that intention. 

Let the tones rise and fall with your breath and emotions. Allow yourself to surrender to its magic.

See where your sound takes you – you’ll be surprised by its potency!

Let your voice be your wand, and let the power of sound guide your witchcraft to new depths of spiritual exploration.