THE MAP > THE MUSE AUTUMN VOICE : VERSE 3 : FROM CACOPHONY TO POLYPHONY
VOICE
Verse 3 : From Cacophony
To Polyphony
When the world speaks with us.
Last month’s Muse invited us to look into which (welcomed and less welcomed) voices speak within us, and which voices we want to invite to the table of our being and communities. It is a radical step of self-discovery and reclaiming of our lives to become aware of this, because only then can we sever the ties that no longer resonate with who we are, however deeply buried we might feel under layers of conditioning.
And it is a slow, patient, and continuous work of saying ‘YES’ over and over again to our deep values, deep longings, and most sacred vision of a life well lived.
This month I ask of us: what do we define as voice?
How do we, as humans, put limits on what voice is, that might or might not allow us to enter into dialogue and kinship with the world of which we are part.
And what if we understood the world as speaking with us?
It is easy to narrow the voice down to the articulated, intentional sounds we humanoid bipeds make. But are we not taking away the voices of most living beings with such an anthropocentric definition? And doesn’t the constant buzz of modern human communication create such a cacophony of layers upon layers of voices speaking or screaming out into the ethers of the internet, advertising, corporate channels etc., that voices turn into noise, drowning out not only the other forms of voices of fellow living beings but our very capacity to perceive them as voices?
What would it feel like to live in the world knowing it is constantly speaking with us, through a thousand, a million tongues? Would we still feel alienated from it?
Can there be a voice without a listener?
If no one knows how to listen, what does a voice matter?
This might be one of the most important questions of our days. But do we know how to listen anymore? Listening implies consciously choosing where to focus our attention and being present with all of our being to not only decipher the words from one another but also to note the rhythm, the tone and the grain of voice with which they are spoken.
We say what we say with all of these elements, and it takes a true listener to perceive the many layers of the voice, and bring them together into the tapestry of our message.
Yet, for many of us communication is increasingly bereft of at least one of these layers, as it gets more and more digitalised, remote, and less and less simultaneous. I add the tone of voice to a written WhatsApp message that currently suits my mental and emotional state, and not always that of the person who sent it.
How much do I ‘listen’ to what they are saying, or how much to what I think they might be conveying?
And who has the time or space for this, entangled as we have become in the cacophony of social media, ads, emails flooding the mailbox, visual stimulation, etc…?
The world around us can feel so loud, and not so much one where all voices can express themselves and be heard, but rather one in which voices turn into screams and noise drowned out in the never-ending carousel of putting content out there for recognition, clicks, ‘conversion’, money, etc… Who can listen through all of that? Who wants to anymore?
So let me ask again: what makes a voice a voice?
Because voice, sound and noise are most definitely not one and the same.
Noise and sound are both auditory impressions, perceived by our sense of hearing, the former generally less pleasant, and more disruptive than the former.
On the contrary, voice is the conscious use of sound by someone to articulate and communicate a message to another, about something that is intrinsically real or dear to the utterer. It involves an effort from the one expressing, and a willingness and capacity of comprehension and interpretation by the other party.
Voice involves a relationship, in which both parties honour the efforts respectively made to express and listen.
If we are completely honest about most of the voices we come across today, how many of them actually try to relate something of importance to them to someone else. How many try to create a relationship that is more than unidimensional and unidirectional? And do we honour them by giving them our full attention?
Moving from cacophony to polyphony: expanded listening
And if most voices nowadays are little more than sound or noise, maybe it is time we humans stop assuming that voice is something only we possess.
Because what we define as a voice determines what we pay attention to, what we are prepared to relate with. It amplifies or limits our ability and willingness to connect to others as members of a shared reality, that have a right to assert their existence, needs, wishes and ways.
Remember how Ancient Greeks called non-Greek speakers Varvaros, giving birth to the word barbarian?
The problem then, as is the problem now, is the assumption that gibberish, and the resulting lack of understanding, comes from an inability to speak the same (the right?) language, rather than an inability, or lack of willingness, to be fully present and attentive to make sense of the many layers of communication happening at any given time.
What would happen if we listened with all of our bodies, not only to other humans, but also to other living beings, to the world around and within us?
What if we relearnt to be fully embodied to create a fertile soil to partake in communication?
Animistic cultures understand the world as a large community of sentient beings, be they plant, animal, insect, human, spirit, natural or artificial elements. Their cosmologies know that each and everyone has a way of speaking, a voice that has wisdom to share about the state of existence and our relationship to it. The many rituals and observances of these cultures are centred around maintaining, honouring and nourishing the relationship between the sentient members of the world, by first listening to them and their wisdom, then responding to them, and committing to remain in dialogue. And the whole body is always involved here because to them the world is in a constant state of exchange. It lives as a web of beings sharing information, wisdom and resources in the ways, in the voices, that they possess to communicate.
So what if we expanded our understanding of both voice and listening?
If voices became all signals shared by our fellow living beings, that we listened to with all of our senses, the sound of wind through leaves full of sap, or dry leaves because of drought or autumn would tell us very different stories. If we learnt anew how to listen to that would how we live in the landscape remain the same?
Inspired by this podcast episode of Emergence magazine, I have made it a ritual to walk through my garden first thing in the morning to wake up all my senses to the reality of nature around me. I listen to the wind in the trees when there is some, or to the birds around if they sing. And if they don’t sing when they should be, their absent voices tell me something. I miss them like I miss my family.
And I know something is amiss for them to be gone. I have also begun to recognise the individual song of my neighbouring birds. The way this sparrow does not sound like the one living in this other tree, or how different it sounds today compared to yesterday. Or the way the crows change tone and cadence whether they are building their nest, or caring for their young.
Doing this I wake up to the whole of my world. I feel that I belong here. I don’t delude myself into thinking they sing FOR me. But they speak with me as much as to one another, as we all speak with each other, relating to this reality, this moment.
The cacophony of sounds then becomes a polyphony of voices.
A choir in which each individual voice, with its unique way of speaking, finds its place and vibrates with one another, creating a unique sound tapestry: the tapestry of life.
A tapestry that thrives from reciprocity and respect, curiosity and compassion.
And this is really the intention of our Voice tapestry, this collage of sounds we have gathered from our community, and are sharing with you with this MUSE.
When we take away the words, we still understand each other. We can still make sense of what this voice is telling us, what they are carrying in their tone, their cadence, their grain, their depth in terms of emotion and state. We are still communicating, maybe to an even more direct degree.
So as you listen to the collage, maybe this or that voice speaks to you, to how you are feeling now, or to some past moment and strikes a chord. Maybe you feel what this voice expresses in or with some specific part of your body. Because voices don’t speak only from mind to mind, but from whole body, whole being to whole being.
Because we have a whole being to enter into dialogue with one another. And if this or that expression reaches you more than any other, you can play it again in the library of individual sounds that together made up our collage, our polyphony.
LISTEN
READ
MOVE & MEDITATE
Audio Journey:
Insights on the times we lose track of ourselves and it feels as if everything is falling with us.. like the rain, downpouring.
How would we live if we were able to trust the downpouring rain too?
Daily Meds:
Enter into a state of flow. Embodied movement and exquisite attention. Drop in and immerse into an experience of self.
Heart Cave:
An extremely deep and very grounding meditation practice to connect you to the five brains - feet, neo cortex, gut, heart, reptilian.
