She is the great velvet blackness at the beginning of time.
She is the Formless Void.
She is uncondtional love.
She is the Dark Mother of Creation.
From Her womb all life in the universe is created.
She is the Circle, the Sacred Zero.
She is the nurturer and the destroyer.
She wraps Her love around us at all times.
She is Everything and Nothing.
She has a thousand names.
She is the circle of life.
She is Sacred Mother Life.
Her ancient symbol is the downward-pointing triangle.

JOURNEY TO THE COSMIC MOTHER

Each of us has a personal story of re-discovery of the Great Mother Goddess. It is a journey of remembering through time, ancestral time-lines and memories of ancient rituals and ceremonies. The repression of women and the Sacred Feminine for the past 3,000 years is directly related to the Great Mother Goddess as the Primal Life Force of the Universe. We are still living within that patriarchal framework, in which religious male supremacy is the dominant force on Sacred Mother Earth.

My personal journey of seeking the Sacred Feminine began thirty years ago, when I was actively involved in Gay and Women’s Liberation in Central London. It was an intense, and dangerous time. We were daring to speak out and be visible. Especially as lesbian women. It seemed to be the trigger that invoked male rage. We did not need men. The political decision to be separatists gave us a new, intoxicating power. I was singing and playing my music all around London in ‘OVA’, and one night in 1976 I found myself playing in an exhibition in a basement near Trafalgar Square.

The pictures in the exhibition were by Monica Sjoo, the Goddess artist. The painting we stood and perfomed in front of was ‘God Giving Birth’, which of course started influencing my music. From then on, I was looking for the Goddess-Creator , which I found when I visited Silbury Hill, West Kennet Longbarrow, and Avebury Stone Circle in 1981. This ancient, original Goddess Temple contains within it each stage of pregnancy and birth:

GODDESS MUSIC:

I AM A WOMAN © Jana Runnalls
I am a woman, a deep, deep woman
My memory goes so far

This physical manifestation of the worship of the Ancient Great Mother was the catalyst for all my Goddess music. I wrote my first Goddess song, called ‘Bloodstream’ in 1981 next to the Swallowhead Spring near Silbury Hill, which is the source of the River Kennet. Within a couple of years I was learning about the Dianic Craft, which inspired my first album, ‘Ancestral Dream’ in 1985.

At that time I was visiting many ancient sites and stone circles all around England, Scotland and Wales and creating chants and songs where ever I was. The land and the stones gave me all the information I needed to find my personal connection to the Goddess. ‘Eye of the Womb’ is my second Goddess album, recorded over 18 months around different parts of England.

During that time I was visiting a friend, Bron Bradshaw who lived near Glastonbury, who had just planted a Celtic Tree Circle. I was so inspired by the energy that we composed and improvised ‘Tree Magic’ together, both in the actual tree circle and also in my studio in London.

After that time I moved out of London to Totnes in Devon and began my Shamanic training in 1991. This was a time of deep spiritual growth for me, so when I eventually moved into Glastonbury, the ancient Isle of Avalon in 1994, my music reflected the journey into the underworld that I had undertaken: ‘Speaking in Tongues’ is a Samhain journeying album and very much influenced by the mists of Avalon!

The magical qualities of living in such a powerful energy-centre as Avalon are reflected in the next album that I made with my partner Kat in 1997: ‘Lady of the Lake’ is a physical and metaphysical journey into the ‘otherworld’ – the world of the faery and the ancestors of this land. It is the journey of a pilgrim, crossing the lake to seek the Lady of Avalon and to find union with Her. Within this album lies my first song from the God – ‘Gwynn the King’ refers to the God of the Underworld who lives inside Glastonbury Tor. It is sung as if I am the God... inviting the Goddess into my Crystal Hall. It is, for me, the first song that shows my longing for the Sacred Marriage in my life – the balance of the Sacred Feminine and Sacred Masculine within and without.

My next two albums in 1999 are singalong albums to the Goddess – raunchy and powerful, containing a wide selection of all my chants to that point: ‘I Sing Her Praises’ and the compilation album, ‘Return to the Goddess’. After that, it felt I had given my heart and soul to the Goddess.... I felt the need for reflection and contemplation – and no words – ‘Earthbeat’ is a drumming album that I wrote in the summer of 2000 – rhythms of Avalon, watching the seasons and elements around the wheel of the year.

The distillation of my chants and spiritual searching came to a peak in 2004 when I recorded ‘Sacred Home’. This album is a magical earthy celebration of both the Divine Feminine and the Divine Masculine. The natural evolution of my work is that the Goddess needs a mate.... the God is part of Her Creation, his spark ignites Her Life-Force into being. She is formless, He is form.

From the time of my Dianic Craft until now, I feel that I am expressing my personal journey – I am no longer a separatist, and have not been so since 1990 after the death of my father. My music reflects the longing to find balance and harmony within – as a Gay Pagan I am exploring my ancestral memories and re-discovering my roots. I am, like most people, a mixture of bloods – Cornish Celtic and Anglo-Saxon. My soul, however, echoes with the sounds of our aboriginal origins, when we were one tribe upon Sacred Mother Earth. I find that the Medicine Wheel teachings of the Native American tribes resonate within my heart the most strongly and I channel that primal energy of our ancient past.

Journey to the Cosmic Mother has now completed a cycle in my life. I recorded this album in 2006 after the death of my mother in November 2005. It is a dedication to the Sacred Great Mother, with a guided visualiztion and spoken commentary as well as chants and songs – some new, some old. It has been recorded it in English, Hungarian and Spanish.

ENJOY THE JOURNEY!
September, 2006

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Contents ©Jana Runnalls, 2005, 2006