LANA Board Retreat – Madonna Sequence with Music
/A Summary from the Madonna Sequence Work at our LANA Board Retreat
Prior to our recent summer lyre conference, the Board of the Lyre Association met for our annual retreat on July 29th. In addition to exploring and refining a vision for our cultural, rights, and economic realms of work, we devoted a full afternoon to deepening our understanding and appreciation of the musical approach to the healing sequence of Madonna pictures (mostly by Raphael),which can be used for both therapeutic and hygienic purposes, most often accompanied by the lyre.
The first presentation was out of the combined work of Sheila Johns and Catherine Read (who joined the meeting just for this presentation). Twenty one years ago, Sheila and Catherine participated in a series of working sessions with Channa Seidenberg and Jean Anderberg at Channa's house in Philmont, New York, to work on Channa's idea that there may be a correspondence between the Zodiac and this sequence of paintings. Specifically, Channa thought that the twelve pictures appearing on the pentagram form (see the linked Faeth article) would have a relationship with the Zodiac. We chose to meet in the Holy Nights because Catherine had just returned from several days of working on the eurythmy gestures for the Zodiac with Marjorie Spock in Maine. The gestures were fresh in her memory as well as in her 'muscle memory'.
Catherine and Sheila further shared how, though dedicated sessions of spiritual research conducted over several years, they did come to an understanding of the correspondences of the zodiac and this healing sequence of paintings. The sessions proceeded with the consideration of the paintings using the following method: We would contemplate a card together, in the order they appear on the pentagram until Catherine felt an 'inner movement' evoked by the painting. Then she would determine the Zodiac gesture to which the 'inner movement' corresponded. Catherine would then name the Zodiac figure, do the movement, and the others would watch. Then we all listened to Channa improvise on the lyre in the key that corresponded to that Zodiac figure. We then determined together whether the key fit the painting, and we all agreed yes or no. In the rare cases when the response was 'no', Channa then improvised in the related minor key, and the answer after contemplation was always 'yes'. It is important to note first, that each painting elicited a unique Zodiacal 'inner movement'. No two paintings overlapped in this. And, second, Catherine was not intellectually familiar with the set of Zodiac figures as a whole. (The work with Marjorie was her first introduction to the circle of the Zodiac.) She had no knowledge of associated keys.
After we established the various relationships, for the next 15 years Channa used the keys that corresponded to the paintings to improvise music in the presentation of the healing sequence at her house during the Holy Nights. Many people attended these offerings, for which Cate Decker moved the pictures, and were deeply moved. Catherine, Jean, and Sheila also used the results of this research for Madonna offerings in their own individual settings over the following years and found it to be very satisfying.
The sharing of this information along with a number of related handouts provided the first half of our Board retreat study on the Madonna Sequence.
For the second half of our meeting, Debbie shared how she was introduced to the Madonna Pictures in postcards many years ago as a healing sequence to view before going to sleep at night, and how she was able to move better, with less pain, the next day after viewing them.
Later, she and Rose Edwards and Barbara Patterson held a workshop at the Rudolf Steiner Branch in Chicago to share the images with others, look at them in both black and white, as well as in color, and build the sequence without referencing the published outline.
Debbie began collecting music that had been written to accompany the Madonna Sequence, for piano or lyre, beginning with Edmund Pracht and including many anthroposophic music therapists over the years.
During the first Dorion School of Music Therapy Course, in 2002, Raffael Verlag revised the order of the images in this sequence after an article written by Reinhold Johann Faeth outlined his reasoning for the revision. Christof-Andreas Lindenberg shared this article, and recommended revising the order of music written to accompany the sequence to match the newly published order.
This year there have been a number of inquiries asking for LANA to share or publish music to accompany the Madonna Sequence. Further discussions with John Clark identified that this new sequence had not been taken up in the UK, and John reviewed the music available, recommending that only one series composed by Marja Slotemaker, and another composed by Johanna Spalinger could be most appropriately used for the new sequence, though all available music can surely be explored in connection with both sequences.
Debbie shared the music for several settings as well as the English translation of the Faeth article.
It was an informative and inspiring afternoon, and it set the stage for the LANA Board to work more deeply with these healing paintings and accompanying lyre music, which we hope to be able to share with our members and friends in the coming year through our website and perhaps in a workshop or conference setting.
