February: The Hum and the Holler
From last month’s hush, we’re moving now to the art of listening. Imagine you’re outside on a spring morning, listening to the world. You notice loud calls from crow and jay, the high shriek of a hawk. They’re like bright colors painted over interlacing melodies of songbirds, crickets, and frogs—and all of that dancing on the drone of bees, thoughts, and hummingbird wings. When we listen—to our friends, to the news, to the world—there are always at least a few stories happening at once. The holler and the hum. The text and the subtext. The occasion of what’s happening and the feelings that imbue it. This month we’re noticing what hollers and leaning into the hum.
Advertisements holler at us all the time, filling our minds with a hum of insecurity. Our nervous systems hum along until a shock makes them holler with an echo that can rattle us for years. Right now, the hollering pain of the world is so many voices, raised for so long, it turns into a hum if you try and hear it all at once. The hum is what is buried, shy, hidden, subtle, and all-the-time; it asks us to pause, to hunt for it, to look under what is noticeable to see what’s taken for granted. The holler is a moment, an outburst, the obvious. It’s bright red lipstick, hunger pangs, a gunshot, a downpour, a chorus of uproarious laughter. Unlike a holler, It’s often hard to locate the source of the hum. Leaning into the hum is a huge part of the practice of listening--we don’t know what we will hear.
Working with the Spell
Attunement is both difficult and radically simple. It can be difficult to interrupt our regularly scheduled broadcasting in order to pay closer attention to what’s underneath it. What’s not being said. What assumptions aren’t being questioned. Who is being protected, and at what cost. But the space created for attunement is a release, a pause, an uncomplicated presence. Hearing is a modified form of touch and listening is profoundly relational. Working with this spell, we notice: which of our own voices won’t stop talking when we’re trying to listen to someone else, or do something new? When was the last time we felt attuned to?
Our brains love to be certain, even if what we’re certain of is terrible. The known human world with its broad shapes and colors can feel reassuring to us even while it's destroying us. Working with this spell means letting yourself want more than what’s being given straight away—more nuance, more points of contact, more time to integrate. It means aligning yourself with subtle voices, stranger messages, and hard-to-look-at facts. In this dance between the known and the unknown, we can arrive at larger truths without getting stuck in dogma, or lost in relativism. Working with this spell means we’re willing to desire and be curious, rather than needing to be right. It takes support, patience, and gentleness to keep finding this courage. Please, take your time.
Meditation on this Spell
Please find a place to rest where you are as comfortable as can be. Take your time transitioning into this contemplative state, let your thoughts and gaze wander as your body gets used to the position you’re in. When you’re ready, begin to pay attention to your breath. Imagine it like ocean waves -- distinct movements rising up from and falling back into a larger whole. As your breath continues to move on its own, let your ears open to the sounds in your environment. As much as is possible, let go of the names of the sounds, the source of the sounds, and listen to them all as a kind of single tapestry with various colors, patterns, and textures. Practice this for many breaths… Can you add your breath into this larger weave of sound… Can you add your thoughts, too? Notice, what aspects of your experience stand out as distinct from the hum you are meditating on. Can you dance your attention back and forth, from hum to holler, from ocean to wave? Does tying this create tension, or excitement, frustration, relaxation, or delight? Simply notice the qualities alive in you right now. If you’d like to close this practice, let yourself forget everything but your breath. Imagine each inhale and exhale sweeping your mind and body clear of effort, until you feel ready to rejoin your day. Or, if you want to keep playing and weaving, open your eyes and slowly transition back into your day with this attunement still intact--noticing individual aspects of your reality and remembering them as a part of a whole, as a part of the hum.
This month:
Hey, did you know we have a podcast now? For more insight, stories, and forecasts each month you can listen to The Hum and the Holler on all the popular platforms, or support our Patreon for ad-free and bonus episodes.
We were sold out, but are now getting a few dozen calendars back from retailers and will be very excited to sell them to you and people you love. If you know someone who didn’t get one, pass this on! We’ll let y’all know as soon as they’re back in stock. And thank you all for supporting our biggest print run yet!
As always, you can follow our shenanigans at @abacuscorvus on Instagram. And you can find out what each of us is up to by following @corinadross and @jocelyncorvus
In it together,
Jo & Corina