Original chant from Elizabeth Combs:
Mercy is the warmheartedness pulsing through all things.
This chant was inspired by Cynthia’s writings on Jacob Boehme.
Cynthia writes:
Our visible, created universe is not simply an object created by a wholly other God in order to manifest God’s love, but the created universe is that love itself—the very heart of God, fully expressive in the dimension of time and form.
When we speak in these terms, of course, we begin to use the classic language of the mystics, the language of visionary utterance. For Jacob Boehme (1575-1624) the name in German for mercy was Barmherzigkeit—“warmheartedness.” Boehme saw mercy as “the holy element”: the root energy out of which all else in the visible universe is made. The Mercy is “holy substantiality”—the innermost essence of being itself. It is that “river of God,” running like the sap through the tree of life.
Lest we be inclined to discount this insight as merely the rambling of a God-intoxicated mystic, it is astonishing to discover virtually an identical insight revealed by the eminently sane psychotherapist Gerald May (1940-2005). May affirms that from a clinical standpoint, once the various differentiations and feeling-tones have been stripped away from our subjective emotional life, what remains is a raw, root energy that is, finally, none other than divine love. “It is as if agape [divine love] were the base metal, irreducible and unadulterated,” he writes. “The universe runs on an energy that is, at its core, unconditionally loving.”
May’s vision of agape—divine love—is very close to Boehme’s notion of the Mercy. Far from pity or condescension, it is the very heartbeat of God resonant in creation; the warmth that pulses through all things as the divine Mystery flows out into created form.
From Elizabeth Combs:
I have been chanting and singing my whole life, and it is the practice that most grounds me in my heart, mind and body. I remember singing Southern Baptist hymns as my first prayer of breath and vibration. I found my way to Wisdom chant through Cynthia’s work with Darlene Franz, after many years chanting Sanskrit mantras in the yogic tradition. I enjoy creating chants — which is more like receiving chants from the atmosphere or the imaginal or wherever it is that chants come from. Some of my inspirations are sacred texts from many traditions, Teilhard’s works, poets ancient and modern, old Baptist hymns and spirituals, as well as direct from Spirit and Earth. I like to play my crystal bowls and shruti box outside in the Trees. At other times, I can be found caring for clients in my energy balancing practice, crafting herbal remedies or hanging out with my son Jack. I endeavor to be at home wherever I am, mainly in Bellingham WA and Winston- Salem NC. Singing every day reminds me that, really and truly, it is all about LOVE.
Contact Elizabeth at elizabeth.s.combs@gmail.com or 360-319-2164 or www.elizabethcombs.com