Eileen’s first Celtic Kirtan appeared in the Almanac on June 28, 2021. In this re-print, hear the origin story of her sacred art of chant weaving, and for the first time enjoy the recording of the mantra available now on our web site today.
I first discovered Mantra (sacred chants) about nine years ago in a yoga class at the YMCA when during Savasana, I heard a recording of Snatam Kaur’s angelic voice sing, “Long Time Sun”. I was absolutely captivated, rushed home to research her and subsequently purchased three of her albums. Through Snatam's music I discovered Kundalini Yoga. I had always loved to sing, and I fell deeply in love with Mantra and sacred chant as I started to practice at our local studio, Kundalini Rising Nashville. The ancient Gurmukhi and Sanskrit languages, while “foreign” to me, felt so familiar and resonated so deeply as some of the root sounds are very similar to Gaelic, the first language of my homeland Ireland. I had an intuitive sense that these ancient languages emanated from the same place.
After deepening my journey with Kundalini Yoga and Mantra for a couple of years, in the Fall of 2018 melodies started to percolate through and I began to blend the ancient Indian mantras with Gaelic. These accumulated as notes and recordings in my phone until I was gifted the time (due to COVID) to finally formulate and arrange them. By March 2021, Celtic Kirtan was born!
In this chant that starts with what’s known as the Magic Mantra in Gurmukhi from the Kundalini tradition, I marry and honor the four elements of Earth, Wind, Fire and Water in Gaelic:
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