Sacred Space, Sacred Sound: The Acoustic Mysteries of Holy Places [Paperback]

Susan Elizabeth Hale (Author), Don Campbell (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2007

Visionary singer Susan Hale believes that early peoples deliberately built their structures to enhance natural vibrations. She takes us around the globe-from Stonehenge and New Grange to Gothic cathedrals and Tibetan stupas in New Mexico-to explore the acoustics of sacred places. But, she says, you don't have to go to the Taj Mahal: The sacred is all around us, and we are all sound chambers resonating with the One Song.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Chartres Cathedral Cathedral space is perfectly suited for chanting because the voice too has immense space, great depths and soaring heights. The voice can be a nave waiting to be filled with praise, a passageway for the Divine. The voice can be a reflector of silent interiors, a deep well of knowing, an altar to receive communion. Sound travels up through the body. The voice is the place where spirit and matter merge, where heaven is brought to earth.

The Crypt

Sometimes we need to be witnessed by others for these mysteries to unfold. On my second day at Chartres I toured the crypt with six others. I asked the guide if I could sing, still reverberating with my experience singing the night before. "Oui, Madame." After I sang a brief song, a Belgium couple came up to me. The man said, "It was you Madame! It was you we heard sing in the cathedral last night. Do you know that your voice filled the entire cathedral? We went all around looking for you." He said his name was Franz and introduced me to his wife Beatrice. Since he spoke fluent French I asked if he would mind asking the guide if I could return to the crypt to sing for a longer time. "Yes, will you allow us to accompany you?" I was moved to have companions with me on my song quest.

The three of us returned later that afternoon and had an hour alone together in the crypt. Wordlessly I went to the altar of Our Lady Under the Earth. Franz and Beatrice sat on different sides of the aisle. We were silent, each in our own state of prayer. I closed my eyes breathing in the narrow chapel and heard centuries of pilgrim voices still lingering in the air. I heard the sound of my heart, a song of the moment emerged, first with deep blue "Ouuu's" that changed into rosy "Ahhh's." The "Ah" became Ave Maria. I felt I had sung here before with these two people. I was drawn to walk down the aisle singing. From the back of the crypt I heard the overtones of my Alleluia resonate off the far wall where the Black Madonna sat. I imagined what it would be like if the room were filled with other singers. Suddenly the lights went out and just as suddenly tiny rose colored lights illuminated the aisle. A group of about twenty singers entered the crypt singing Alleluia. They formed a circle around the altar and sang. I moved slowly towards them. Franz joined me and we walked down the aisle together. The group opened to include us and we all sang as one, becoming the rose singing together in praise of the mystery.

After several songs in Latin we processed slowly up and down the aisle singing Alleluia, singing this pilgrim's path. Some sang with their hands over their hearts, others with their hands extended out. Some walked with their eyes closed. Mine were open in ecstasy. Then, without a word or cue, following some other voice, they left singing. We heard their voices linger in another part of the crypt. Then it was quiet.

Beatrice was crying. She looked at me with tears streaming down her face. I sat in front of the Black Madonna and now it was my turn to cry. I felt so small compared with all this glory and beauty. I couldn't comprehend any of it. I heard the Black Madonna speak to my heart, "Yes, you are small, tinier than you can even imagine. Do you know how vast the universe is? You can't begin to understand the powers that move through me. Do you know how big you are? How much you are needed? Do you know how important it is that you sing?" I sat with her words, humble and grateful, moved to trembling.

As we were leaving Beatrice paused for a moment and then went to the altar. She stood silently and then sang a song in Dutch, her voice shook with emotion and praise. We emerged from the crypt, hugged and then parted. Later that day in the cathedral I met the three English ladies who had been with us on the crypt tour. When they asked me about my day I told them the experience I had in the crypt with Franz and Beatrice. While we were talking they appeared. I introduced them to each other and asked Beatrice about the song she had sung. She told me she was scared, that she had never sung alone, but knew it was something she must do. As she translated the song into English the three ladies beamed, "we know that song! It's written by Rudolf Steiner. We must all sing it together in the center of the labyrinth." Franz said "Yes! The cathedral and the human cathedral must meet through the voice!" Together we walked into the petals of the labyrinth, six of us, from Belgium, England and America, one for each petal.

In Search of the Holy Grail Do we wander from land to land...

I left Chartres, that great Lady of Roses, on a bus to southern France. As I climbed aboard I saw an African woman dressed in a long blue satin gown with a blue satin turban on her head. At her breast was a nursing child. The Black Madonna has traveled with me ever since.

About the Author

Susan Elizabeth Hale M.A., is a music therapist, singer, storyteller, and author of Song and Silence: Voicing the Soul (La Alameda Press, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1995) and the forthcoming book from Quest Sacred Space - Sacred Sound: The Acoustic Mysteries of Holy Places. This book chronicles her research and experiences singing throughout the world including at Chartres Cathedral, Stonehenge, Avebury, Newgrange, the prehistoric cave of Lascaux and the temples and pyramids of Egypt.

Susan has a Master's degree in Creative Arts Therapy from Goddard Collage. She teaches workshops to help people find and free the natural voice throughout the United States, Britain and Canada. A pioneer in the fields of music therapy, creative arts therapy and sound healing since the mid-70's, she has been at the forefront of exploring music, sound, voice, word and image as healing arts. As Director of the Songkeeper Apprenticeship, she has acted as a midwife to access the hidden voices of her students.

Susan's background as a trainer in the Bonny Method of Guided Imagery and Music, a Fellow of the Association for Music and Imagery and teacher of Archetypal Psychology grounds her in guiding people through mythic realities for personal growth and creative exploration. She is an innovative and dynamic leader whose joy and sensitivity help even the shyest people to express themselves more authentically. She has led pilgrimages to sacred sites in Britain and the Southwest.

Susan has spoken to the following groups:

International Sound Healing Conference 2006, Santa Fe, New Mexico

International Science and Consciousness Conference, 2005, 2006, Santa Fe, New Mexico

Keynote Speaker, Kansas City Art Therapy Association, 2006, Kansas City, Missouri

Invited Guest Speaker, Giving Voice Conference, 2002, Aberystwyth, Wales

Keynote Speaker, Canadian Music Therapy Conference, 1999, Vancouver, B.C.

Product Details

• Paperback: 318 pages
• Publisher: Quest Books; annotated edition edition (January 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0835608565
• ISBN-13: 978-0835608565
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #618,996 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sacred Space-Sacred Sound sings, September 9, 2007

By 

James D'angelo (Gloucester, England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sacred Space, Sacred Sound: The Acoustic Mysteries of Holy Places (Paperback)

REVIEW OF SUSAN HALE'BOOK
SACRED SPACE SACRED SOUND

SACRED SPACE SACRED SOUND
THE ACOUSTIC MYSTERIES OF HOLY PLACES
By
SUSAN ELIZABETH HALE
Foreword by Don Campbell

Susan Hale takes us on a autobiographical spiritual journey to many magnificent holy sites and illuminates for us what the experiences can be within sacred spaces. The principal thrust of Sacred Space Sacred Sound is to reveal that the sacred is not about religion in the strict sense and that it is found in many places around the world. What draws us into the picture is the easy, natural flow of her lively poetic writing. This is not the long-winded, heavy laden jottings of a researcher and/or scientist with no particular gift for prose.

The other side of the coin of this book is "sound" and how it is expanded, resonated and enhanced within the confines of the spaces she has visited. Her background as a singer, music therapist and workshop leader working with sound again gives her an advantage over the typical researcher. Like an intuitive acoustic archaeologist Hale writes totally from deep personal experience so that we are brought into the living presence of sacred spaces transformed into magical temples of harmony where the potential for healing is so magnified. Even if we have been to these places her writing will awaken new perspectives for the eye and the ear.

At the outset Sacred Space Sacred Sound is well-grounded in some basic ideas regarding acoustics and our human capacity to create sound, especially the vowels and their accompanying harmonics, through the brain, tongue and breath. From here we are on her autobiographical sound journey around the world as she sacralizes the natural world of caves, the body of the Earth, mountains, singing tombs and stone circles. Hale is constantly re-enchanting these places so that the reader identifies with the wonder and the knowledge the early peoples would have had. And wherever Hale enters into those worlds sound follows. She hears these landscapes and experiences them of temples of sound. For example she writes: " Each forest, depending on its genus, has its own keynote." and "Stones have been used to create medicine wheels, stone circles. cathedrals, burial chambers and figures in the landscape. Each type of stone has its own acoustic property.".


No book on sacred space and sacred sound would be complete without such sites as Newgrange (Ireland), the Avebury and Stonehenge circles, the Egyptian pyramids and the Tibetan stupas, the latter described by Hale as "representations of the legendary Mount Meru, the central pole between heaven and earth." Hales devotes a chapter to each of them and offers her insights as well as those of researchers Paul Devereaux, Aaron Watson, David Keating, and Iegor Reznikoff on the sites links with sacred sound.. With Newgrange we learn that its entrance "acted as an acoustic projector that amplified tones in the chamber", with Avebury that when Hale placed her face and chest into one of its crevices and sounded into it, "overtones began to ring through me as well as the gray sarsen."; with Stonehenge that "the horseshoe arrangement of stones in the center to be subtly shaped to focus sound in a way similar to the way light can be focused by a parabolic mirror" ; and with the Egyptian pyramids that it is possible that "the sounds from the (ancient Egyptians') instruments and from the King's Chamber sarcophagus had impinged upon the ancient scribes and subliminally influenced the design of written symbols"

The intoning of mantras and chants are recurring themes as they are the essence of sacred sound phenomena. Wherever Hale goes she brings them into play and explains their meaning and significance. For example, one chapter is given over entirely to Gregorian chant. Also, having lived many years in the American Southwest she brings us very close to the spirit of Native American chanting. For Hale there is never a moment when the voice cannot be used to return to the natural bliss that the pure soul contains.

Hale is powerfully drawn to the English and French cathedrals, especially Notre-Dame Cathedral at Chartres, and to Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland, made famous in the book The DaVinci Code. With the English cathedrals she is enamoured of their great choral tradition as it is revealed in Evensong (Chapter 15). She writes of Chartres: "Chartres is not only a place where music is played. Chartres is music. The cathedral echoes the slightest sound. Even whispers sound like angels beating feathery wings through heavenly space." Fascinating knowledge emerges in the Rosslyn Chapel chapter regarding the stone cubes that appear on the curved arches between the pillars in the Lady Chapel. There is a general belief that "these cubes relate to some kind of musical notation". This has been pursued by Scottish composer Stuart Mitchell who thinks he has unravelled this mystery and created a musical score of these cubes (See Caduceus Issue 72)


Sacred Space Sacred Sound is so very well balanced between intellect and emotion. It is well-researched (containing copious footnotes with suggested listening, a discography, a categorical bibliography and index) and has a wealth of knowledge of the sound phenomena and the history of the sacred sites. At the same time it is always heart warming and inspirational as Hale relays her experiences as a gifted travel writer and poet. So the knowledge is assimilated so enjoyably and easily. She has presented us with familiar landscapes and great architectural spaces and transformed them into spiritual oases. The book lends fresh meaning to the word "sacred" and is a glorious hymn to both the ecstasy and serenity to be found in sacred spaces and Nature itself.


James D'Angelo, author of The Healing Power of the Human Voice

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sacred Song!, October 1, 2007

By 

Kathy Parra (AZ) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sacred Space, Sacred Sound: The Acoustic Mysteries of Holy Places (Paperback)

From the moment this books touches your hands it begins to sing to you and the Earth.
If you have ever thought of sharing your voice whether in sacred ceremony or in the shower, by chapters end you will be singing, humming, whispering and listening to your own sacred space and sound.
In this book Susan takes your hand as if traveling right alongside her, traveling through the mountains of Taos to the "Isle of Glass" to the space of Norte-Dame de Chartes to the labyrinth in her own back yard, the invitation to sing, make sound, and song, reverberates the soul to a divine space around and within you, allowing it to delight your senses in silence with the precious gift of breath.
It is best said in her book " Song is a way to arrive at silence, Listening is a way to arrive at prayer."
Kathy Parra-

5.0 out of 5 stars sacredspace, January 28, 2011

By 

Helen F Wright - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Sacred Space, Sacred Sound: The Acoustic Mysteries of Holy Places (Paperback)

This is truly excellent. The style of writing is engaging and personal. The decription of sacred sound in ancient sacred sites is inspirational, and mind opening. I thoroughly recommend the book and the author. Thankyou.