Sound Healing for Heart Opening: Hu Knew?

Last evening our moon goddesses gathered under the nearly full moon for meditation.

After a few minutes of socializing, we settle into our places, making the transition from busy outer world to quiet inner world.  We place our feet on the ground, drop our shoulders, slow our breathing.

I read from Mark Nepo's The Book of Awakening. 

Surrender Like a Duck

I was walking along the shore of a lake in the middle of the day, and there in the sun, a good ten yards out, was a duck curled into itself, asleep.  With its slick tufted head tucked into its body, it bobbed peacefully in the lapping water.

This little scene undid me, for here was an ultimate lesson in trust.

We take in the peacefulness of this image.

Now we go around the circle, each one volunteering a glimpse into their lives:  snippets of Mother's Day humor, on-going family tension, an innovative project to clear negative energies from one's home, a new art class, fatigue, small successes and set-backs.

For tonight's meditation we'll be chanting the mantra Hu. I recently learned, in a workshop with Drunvalo Melchizedek -- Awakening the Illuminated Heart -- that this sacred sound, pronounced who, opens the heart chakra.

On the first day of this live-streamed event, the hundred or so attendees, along with the rest of us around the world, entered into meditation while chanting Hu.  Our ultimate goal was to enter the Sacred Space of the Heart; but first we were warming up by activating our heart centers with this mystical sound.  In Sedona, attendees were scattered around on the floor; I sat on my cushions in Connecticut with a steaming cup of tea, looking out on my rainy back yard.

It took me a few minutes to synchronize breath and sound, toning Hu on the out-breath.   The rhythmic chanting stirs the center of my chest with subtle vibration. Eventually I feel myself merging with the group on my screen and across the globe -- all of us toning together.  Resonance builds until  the vibration is tangible -- it hovers in the air, but also hums within.  My heart feels like a buzzing hive of bees.

It's this  I want to re-create for our circle tonight.

Jonathan Goldman, an expert in sound healing, says:

Mantras are words of power....a means of achieving different states of consciousness....

Hu is considered to be the highest vibratory mantra that can be sounded.  Chanting Hu is said to lead one to transcendence -- to God realization and enlightenment.

Hu creates extraordinary energy for balancing and clearing.  Many believe it activates both the heart and crown chakras.  When sounded together in a large group, it is extremely powerful and transformative.*

To support our practice, I play a sustained intonation of Hu, a backdrop of sound for us to blend our voices with.*

At first, I can't tell how it's going. Is everyone too self-conscious to chant aloud, even softly?  But as I move around the circle, placing my hand on each heart, I feel the thrumming.

Soon we're buoyant on undulating waves of sound.

Adrift, unbounded by time.

Floating in an inlet of  safety.

Resting in the tender territory of the heart.

Willing to trust like Nepo's napping duck.




There are four evenings left in the Moon Goddess Meditation Circle until we break for the summer. All are welcome.  Details can be found under Meditation Workshops above.

*Planetary Healing Sounds, online article.
*The Hu Song by Lennie Ann Alzate, Youtube