Article 6: Russian Bells - Joining heaven and earth
An interesting article about bells.
from Hierodeacon Roman's The phenomenon of Russian church bell ringing /zvon/:
"The bell, the instrument, is suspended between the sky and the earth. It lives in and between two elements (two worlds) and by its sound, joins them.
from The Bells, by Elif Batuman, The New Yorker, April 27, 2009
In Russian history and culture, church bells occupy a mysteriously important position.*** Considered in Russian folklore to be animate beings, bells exercise a profound power over humankind--a power that lay dead or dormant for most of the twentieth century. The return of the Danilov bells represents the hope that this power might finally be recovered.
(Image courtesy of Danilovbells.com.)
In the Russian Orthodox faith, bells are widely considered to be 'aural icons....' Just as painted icons are not intended to be mimetic representations of a spiritual object but magical windows into the world of the spiritual, a Russian bell is not a musical instrument but... 'an icon of the voice of God.' A Russian bell, he said must sound rich, deep, sonorous, and clear, for how can the voice of God be otherwise? It must be loud, because God is omnipotent. Above all, Russian bells must never be tuned to either a major or a minor chord. 'The voice of a bell is understood as just that,' he said. 'Not a note, not a chord, but a voice.' Whereas Western European bells are tuned on a lathe to produce familiar major and minor chords, a Russian bell is prized for its individual, untuned voice, produced by an overlay of numerous partial frequencies, with only approximate relations to traditional pitches....
Against the backdrop of the rhythmic din of the other bells, the two men began to swing the (thirteen hundred pound) clapper slowly back and forth. Each time, the arc expanded, until finally the clapper touched the lip of the bell, producing a plangent, unforeseeable boom that made my whole body vibrate. They continued to swing the massive pendulum at the same rhythm, but varying the movement, so that sometimes the clapper hit both sides of the bell and sometimes only one side. When the peal came to an end and the bells had fallen silent, a hum continued to animate the air. Mishurovsky motioned to me to touch the big bell. The sensation resembled an electric shock."
Another article from our friend Pnosis.
From the above you can see where we get such phrases as 'ringing the changes' as bells are used in ritual to demonstrate a change in consciousness during ceremony. Useful during meditation with tibetan singing bowls as the clear tone can help to attain different mental states.
Take Care,
Sebastian