‘In the Garden’ – Van Morrison

Jim writes:

Van Morrison was born in 1945 into a Belfast protestant family. He left school with no qualifications and ‘showed little empathy for others’ and an ‘aggressiveness’. His father had a huge blues collection and it was this sense of dislocation among black musicians that Van tapped into from an early age. He grew from show bands and hit pop groups like ‘Them’ to a major (some would say giant) figure in music. His words, arrangements and voice are a unique interwoven combination. He creates poetry and music, both of which can stand alone, but move seamlessly together.

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Van has sought particularly from 1968 onwards to express a journey of the soul. He takes from many faiths to do this. He believes his songs come to him from an outside source. He has often said he considers himself to be a Christian mystic. He might well draw back (depending on what day of the week it was I suspect) from terming himself a practicing Christian. However, there is a lot in his ‘Caledonian Soul’ music for a Christian to use and grow within.

This song poem, ‘In The Garden’ is perhaps one of his greatest and most successful contemplations of the soul. He says that he intended it to be a meditation; he intends to lead the listener and reader through to a sense of tranquillity.

There is a strong tradition of meditation in the church that gradually lost its way from the 18th Century, but had a resurgence in the 20th Century. The 1965 Vatican Council and the Pope Benedict XXVI re-emphasized its role in Lectio Divina, sacred writing. Methodism has had a resurgence of interest in meditation. It has become a valued part of services and in 2005/6 the Methodist church encouraged people to ‘pray without ceasing’ which lasted over 14 months.

The poem/song grounds itself in a person and a place. It gives a starting point for the spiritual musings and journey. It sets up the senses with the use of rain in the streets and then the garden, transposing that to the tears of the girl. This is to move the observer into empathy, a physical as well as spiritual empathy. And this in turn sets up a contrast as we see the new radiance in the girl. The garden is a renewing and renewed place of grace, of joy, of rapture where God and human meet. Again physicality is linked to God at work. The breeze blows, the colours change on her skin. And then the writer is caught up in the ecstasy of the scene:

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“And as the shiver from my neck down to my spine ignited me in daylight and naturein the garden.”

One almost feels and sees a trail of gunpowder with a flame traveling along it to ignite a bonfire of feeling.

The writer draws us beyond observing into the feelings of those ecstatic spiritual moments and commune with the world and God. This is a key part of many Christian meditations; the moment when intellectual thought, mental awareness, heightened senses, heightened awareness and spiritual openness co-join with the presence of the Holy Spirit – or, as Van puts it, the Holy Ghost. Often Methodist meditation will use a physical object, like a candle to draw in and focus the mind and spirit. It is about being in a place where the presence of God, the Holy Spirit, can be recognised and felt.

Sarah Middleton writes in ‘Sensing God’ that all five senses are to be employed. She cites so many places in the Bible that enjoin the senses in the moment of realisation of God at work. Among these: Psalm 34:8, ‘taste and see that the Lord is good’; Psalm 141:2, ‘Let my prayer to you be as incense.’ St Paul says that we are God’s incense, the aroma of Christ to the world.

Not many know that the painter Vincent Van Gogh was, at one time a Methodist auxiliary preacher. He wrote about seeing Christ in the eyes of others and referred to Jesus as the ‘ultimate artist’, creating not pictures but people. This is the link between meditation and the senses. Someone like Van Morrison or Van Gogh draws in our physical antennae unites them with our intellect and uses that intermingling toopen up our souls to spiritual awareness.

Here is Van painting with words and music and the very physical strains of his own voice, wrestling with the words, his emotions, his limitations to achieve a meditative state for himself and his listeners. He dives into the streams of his engagement with God by portraying it in a sensual and physical action:

“And as it touched your cheeksso lightly. Born again you were and blushed and we touched each other lightly.And we felt the presence of the Christ.”

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He then places the experience into a context, saying:

“No Guru, no method, no teacherJust you and I and natureAnd the Father and theSon and the Holy GhostIn the garden wet with rainNo Guru, no method, no teacherJust you and I and nature and the Holy Ghost.”

This is not about religious rules and advice. It is about face-to-face, sense-to-sense encounter with the infinite, with God. It is a personal responsibility. Some might decry that as quite New Age. But it goes much deeper than some of that trend’s superficiality.

The music allied to the words: The chord structure has a lilt and flow like water changing its force at different parts of a stream, gathering itself in places, then falling faster down a hillside. Van sings it straight for a few lines and very vulnerably with the guitar strumming harder and softer to show the ebb and flow of emotion. Then gradually he starts to play with the range of notes adding a roughness at times. What follows that is speaking with a singing voice. There is tender whispering over extended lines which gradually, in the repeated last verse, gains steam.

One can feel the awe in Van’s voice, the trembling in his senses, the spiritual impact of the experience of encountering God. The musicians get louder, the guitar is more visible and Van’s voice more strident and full. Then everything drops away to a hush and time slows; a time for the listener’s mind to wander into its own feelings and thoughts.

And at the very end Van begins to bring us out of the meditation; but he leaves an anchor for the experience so we can go back to it. The Father in the Garden. The Infinite standing in this world.

Find out more about Van Morrison at https://www.vanmorrison.com/

Source: https://gardencourte.com
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