Name that Karmic Lesson

Being a professional musician I have quite a few instruments in my collection. Purchasing a new instrument is usually an exciting venture . . . but sometimes awful things happen to me . . . as happened just recently. Let me explain what two purchases and then I'll explain my recent incident and I would like your opinion. I feel that Karma is trying to teach me something but I'm not sure what.

1) I was a young university student at the time and I was visiting a Celtic Festival. I wanted to purchase a harp but didn't have a lot of money. I negotiated with a harp builder explaining I was a student and I worked a church musician (at that time). He agreed to sell the harp for a lower price of $3000 because he wanted to help me. Also during that festival I met a lovely bodhran (Irish drum) builder. She had some amazing drums and offered to sell it to me for $60. I borrowed some money from my mom and picked that up as well. When I got home I had an email from the harp builder telling me that he had spoken to the bodhran maker and I was cheating him out of money. He was angry and told me that I didn't seem "Christian" at all . . . as I worked in a church. I was angry and wrote back and explained the situation.

2) I had acquired my first full-time job and decided that I had to have a piano. I answered an ad in the paper and visited an elderly man who wanted to get rid of his piano that his deceased wife had played. I decided that it seemed reasonable and gave him a cheque for the full amount of $500 and would send movers later at a mutually agreeable time. We agreed on the weekend but then the man phoned me screaming and yelling how I didn't leave enough time for the cheque to clear and that I was trying to cheat him out of money (they cheque had cleared). I had to get the police involved . . . I finally got the piano but the old man gave the movers a big sob story and the movers thought I was a criminal and asked me many embarrassing questions.

3) I recently wrote to a store asking about the price of a harp. The store owner told me the harp was one price and the case was another. I had also been talking to other stores across North America about their prices. Since this store was in Toronto I went to try it out. I really liked it and thought that I would just buy that one. The store owner wasn't there but the two sales people told me that the case came with the harp at no extra cost. I did not remember the price quoted in the email and I had no reason to dispute the employees, so I paid for it and left. The next day the store owner emails me that the employees had made a mistake and she wants to invoice me for the case. I write an email explaining the employees should know the costs of the instruments/cases as anyone could have come in and bought it and the transaction has been completed. This was a mistake on her part for not putting price tags on the cases and not training her staff properly. I explain that this is a really bad business practice. She then writes and tells me that it was unacceptable to "test her staff" like that. Now I'm furious!

Two questions: (1) What is the universe trying to teach me in terms of karma? Why does it always involve instruments? (2) What would you do in case scenario #3? All of my friends have given me the same answer but curious what you think.

Moving Energy with Music

Whoa! What a busy week! I had a big concert to pull off this week that I was in charge of that included over 100 people. It was quite successful and included diverse genres of music from all over the world. I love putting together concerts that really keep people's attention because styles of music keep changing. In this particular concert we performed Motown, rock, jazz, Brazilian folk music, Tibetan folk music, and a lot more . . . even Bollywood!

Even more interesting for me, beyond the genres, is how to move energy in a crowd! Because I grew up with professional rock musicians for parents, I learned at an early age how to choose music to keep an audience's interest. My mother (who's practically a witch and jokes about it but never commits to it) was an expert at moving energy in an audience and commanding attention through performance. She would always choose the right mix of music. If I did something on my own or with another group where the audience became bored or disinterested, I could definitely feel it. Until I figured out how sensitive I am to energy and sensing emotions, I never fully understood it . . . but now I am starting to. The most awful feeling in the world is when an artist is losing their audience. There is a saying that people say they can feel something in "the pit of their stomach" but I think it is the solar plexus chakra. That's where I feel the emotions of others quite clearly. In a situation like that I wish I could jump up and intervene to keep the audience engaged. If it is something that I'm performing musically that makes people feel that way (and I can sense it) . . . I'll change what I'm doing on the spot.

What was great about the concert this week is that I was able to program the music in such a way that the audience got really excited. My musicians were shocked about the energy that came from the crowd and how that helped them performed. I told them that I learned that skill from my mother but they should be careful that they know the music really well because it can also work to your detriment. In this situation you often run on adrenaline and if you don't have a good handle on the music you'll get lost because your brain isn't functioning like it normally does.

I was also able to raise energy like this in Christian churches when I worked there. I knew how to pick hymns or other praise music (especially gospel) in such a way that I could raise the spirits of my congregation or bring them into a contemplative state for prayer. As a solitary witch I wonder how that would play out if I were part of a coven and used those skills to produce magick in a circle. I've started to experiment a bit on my own when I cast circles and raise energy through song and drumming . . . but this is nothing like working in a group. I'm curious!

Oh, and I also bought this small harp! That's not me playing it though.