It’s an honor to share this very special work I commissioned to support the release of Alice Coltrane’s album Kirtan : Turiya Sings.
Turiya is short for Turiyasangitananda, the Hindu term for a female religious teacher. Alice wrote and recorded this music for her spiritual community and the followers of the Ashram she led. Created as a vessel for sonic healing this music was not intended to entertain. This is devotional music, intended to foster meditation and deep spiritual connections, enlightenment, higher vibrations, higher consciousness and peace.
I sat with the music for weeks, studying her teachings and the rich history of Vedic iconography and symbolism. I envisioned a virtual temple, a meditation space with no barriers. A space like her Ashram, where anyone could enter, free of charge, and experience the deep sonic healing this music was intended to bring.
The hour long film is structured around the practice of creating an altar for personal prayer and the contemplation of spiritually charged objects to calm and focus the mind during meditation. I wanted the movement to be as slow and captivating as a sunset. At first it seems nothing is changing but in time you realize everything is changing, everything is always changing.
This film was made with the support of Alice’s children Ravi and Michelle, who graciously lent us personal photographs of their mother to place on the altar. They also advised that Alice would have wanted our central deity to be Shiva, the destroyer and the creator of all things.
Full film and credits on YouTube