A special note from Caiseal:

 Over the last 12 months since we started presenting the Dreaming Tree we've had some amazing experiences as musicians. And we've learned an immense amount about the process of helping people to achieve an open state- a state where they can perceive and remember their dream-visions and journeys.

From now on we'll be incorporating some very ancient and effective modes and rhythms into the music. These modes have been used for thousands of years in an unbroken chain that stretches back at least to the ancient cultures of Sumer, Babylon, Egypt and Assyria.

These timeless patterns can be heard echoing today in the melodies of traditional Persian, Arabic, Moroccan, Egyptian, Balkan, Flamenco and Turkish music as well as the most venerable surviving Hebrew prayers from the time of the exile. Traditional Greek music is also loosely based on these modes.

Music based on these archaic modes is thought to have been popular in the Celtic lands up until the 15th century. It may have been more familiar to our Irish and Scots ancestors than what we call traditional Celtic folk music today.

The music we perform at Dreaming Tree differs from modern music in several key aspects. First the instruments are tuned differently. Second, this alternate tuning allows great freedom to work with an underlay of soothing drones. And third, the drone uses a slow cycling pulse that can accentuate rhythm as well as freeing the musicians to improvise around the melody.

Two thousand years ago the mystical branches of Christianity, Islam and Judaism used music such as this to reach heightened states of ecstasy- to establish contact with the Holy of Holies- the essence of divinity. The mystical sects were dominant in the monotheistic religions into the 12th and 13th centuries when there began a backlash against them by the Orthodox, Fundamentalist and Literalist sects of the three religions.

The mystical branches, the Gnostic Christians, the Sufis and the Essenes encouraged a personal experience of the divine reality of the Dreaming Place. Through abandonment, for a brief time, of all rules, structures and beliefs about the material world they sought communion with the eternal.

The Mystic Branches are more interested in experience than dogma- more focused on opening the connection to the Otherworld than in denying it. On the other hand the literal sects seem to be crowded with people who are extremely frightened of letting go of this world or their expectations of it.

Since the late 17th century western music has been dominated by the literalists- I call them the left-brainers. Since then music has slowly transformed into a commodity that only specialists can produce, rather than a sacred ceremonial offering anyone may experience first hand.

Modern instruments are tuned to the tempered scale, a system that only became popular quite recently, in the mid-to late 17th century. It's actually a very limited system in many ways. Prior to the 17th century musicians tuned their instruments quite differently. They also often performed with a drone to underpin the melody rather than using the intricate harmonies we're used to hearing today.

Drones create a deep sense of relaxation and allow the musician great freedom to improvise spontaneously. Modern western music is all about left-brain dominance, sticking to rules, restraining the imaginative process within strict guidelines and according to rigid conventions. It's about repeating the same experience time after time in exactly the same way- a kind of fast food approach to music.

For the most part fast food music isn't conducive to meditation or deeper states of consciousness. It's built on a foundation of dry calculated mathematics expressed in a written musical recipe called a score.

An example of how profoundly the literal nature of mathematical music affected the modern world can be found in the story of the famous composer Ludwig van Beethoven. By the age of 26 Beethoven was already going deaf, it is said, from syphilis. Yet he produced what are considered his greatest works after deafness set in.

You see, Beethoven calculated his music using, numbers, pen and paper. Whether he heard the melodies in his mind no one will ever know. But he certainly never heard his greatest compositions with his ears. It wasn't necessary for him to hear his works performed because they weren't designed to move the heart. They were created to satisfy his head, as is much of the music created by our culture today.

Don't get me wrong. I believe this left-brain approach to music has an important place in our culture. It's just not something I find satisfying or worth my while learning to mimic. I've personally never worked out how to read the recipes.

The form of music we perform at Dreaming Tree couldn't be more different from the recipe style. The Dreaming Tree is extremely free. It's unrehearsed, improvised and may take unexpected directions- yet it doesn't have the chord structure of jazz and is unrepeatable.

The foundation of the whole performance is the drone and some basic rhythms. This underpinning allows the musicians a wonderful degree of freedom to express emotion, melody, ornamentation, personal style and above all, the journey.

In the course of a typical Dreaming Tree Event the musicians slip into a very deep trance. Seven hours passes very quickly for us. We experience powerful visions and encounter deeply moving states of bliss and timelessness. Most of the audience experience altered states of consciousness along with us. Some describe their experience as similar to Lucid Dreaming or the deepest of meditations.

I play a very demanding and evocative instrument, the Bowed Tanbur. Speaking for myself I can become completely lost in this instrument. Usually after a few minutes I no longer feel that I am playing the Bowed Tanbur but that it is using me to bring out the melodies.

It mimics the human voice at times yet has a distinct quality all of it's own. And it's a very addictive instrument to play. It's like some magical instrument out of the tales of Aladdin.

The deep meditation the musicians slip into is known as Sama in the Sufi traditions. It represents a kind of magical doorway to the Otherworld that is opened by the music. Other traditions refer to this experience as the Vision Quest or the Aisling or the Ecstatic Trance.

In the modern world Sufis and practitioners of the Kabbalah are frowned upon with suspicion by Orthodox Muslims and Jews. The Gnostic Christian tradition was all but wiped out with the destruction of the Cathars in the 13th century.

Science- the new religious dogma of the west- absolutely denies the reality of the spirit world or indeed the existence of any deity. Science also belittles the significance of ecstatic states. So there isn't much awareness of this sort of experience. For most western people this is a totally fresh and exciting approach to meditation. I am inspired by that combination of ancient and new.

With every Dreaming Tree we perform we're reaching deeper and deeper experiences and new doors are opening all the time. We're finding a number of people returning again and again and we certainly feel the audience is with us, journeying into the bright lands of the spirit.

If you'd like to join us at any of the up coming events, you'll need to book soon...

Dreaming Tree:

A Night of Magical Encounters in the Realm of Dreams.

Soundscapes and Music by Caiseal Mór and Friends (guests include: Dorianne McLeod, Laine Griffiths, and Samantha Star)

Come prepared to take flight beyond the bounds of material existence and to experience a spirit journey like no other. Caiseal mixes soothing sounds, stirring melodies, subtle percussion and live performance to

support you on an epic voyage into the Otherworld of Dreams.

While he and his Friends perform their music participants will spend the night sleeping, dreaming, adventuring and exploring a place that is all but ignored by modern culture. The Dreaming begins around midnight and will end not long after dawn. Dream-voyagers can be assured of a safe,

nurturing space, created and maintained by a small team of helpers who can offer support and guidance if required.

In the ancient Greek tradition those seeking guidance, healing or

inspiration would spend the darkest hours of the night in a special enclosure called the Asclepieion. As they drifted off into dreams they were watched over by musicians, magicians and healers.

Dreaming Spirit will appeal to those who would like to practice the art of Lucid Dreaming, those wanting more contact with the Otherworld or anyone seeking to explore the deeper parts of their own imagination.

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Advanced Sigil Magic:

(we currently have no Sigil events scheduled - if you would like to attend one, please contact us with the request and where you would like to see one held)

Best-selling novelist, musician and artist, Caiseal Mór is a student of the mystical practices of the alchemists, sorcerers and shamans of old.

In this workshop you’ll learn to manifest your dreams using your

imagination through practicing a very simple magical technique

sorcerers have used for thousands of years- Sigils.