Mandorla
I chose the name Mandorla for its meaning in my life (see more about the Mandorla, below) and for the way it describes the powerful birthing of something new from the overlap, intersection and purposeful engagement of differing forces.
Spring and I are family. Growing up 10 years apart, we shared a lifetime love of music, singing, performing and exploring the places voice and melody can take performers and listeners. Our experiences with music and the styles and artists who've most influenced each of us are quite different, so we thought the merging of two voices with such diverse interests might create a beautiful Mandorla of its own.
Having another voice to blend and flow with my own, inspiring me to feel even more into a song, to enjoy its energy and beauty in new ways, is a gift and a joy - something I've experienced too seldom in my life as a solo performer. Spring is a force of nature in her voice and presence. All of you who know and love her know exactly what I mean by that... My sometimes quieter style is teased & called out into a different expression when our voices are joined in the songs we've been learning together.
That's an explanation of my use of the name Mandorla for our musical collaboration (Randy and Spring)
MORE ABOUT THE MANDORLA:
The Mandorla is an ancient symbol of two circles coming together, overlapping one another to form an almond shape in the middle.
The two overlapping circles, representing the interdependence of different worlds or energies, form the Mandorla, a shape revered by multiple cultures around the planet. The Italian word for "almond," Mandorla refers to the union of opposites, such as Heaven and Earth, Masculine and Feminine, known and unknown, and other sometimes paradoxical partners.
The Mandorla is used to depict sacred moments which transcend time and space
Although the symbol may have its roots before the Christian movement began, the early Christians used the symbol as a method to describe the coming together of heaven and earth or spirit and matter. Also, the early Christians would make themselves known to one another by scrapping into the walls two lines indicating a stylized fish-which is the Mandorla. One would scratch a small circle in the wall, and another would come by and make another circle slightly overlapping, thus completing a Mandorla.
The mandorla is the place of poetry. It is similar to the duty of a true poet to take the fragmented world that we find ourselves in and make unity of it.
"Our own healing proceeds from that overlap of what we call good and evil, light and dark. It is not that the light element alone does the healing; the place where light and dark begin to touch is where miracles arise. This middle place is a mandorla."
- Robert A. Johnson
MANDORLA REFERENCES FOR THE ABOVE INFORMATION:
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http://eikonal.wordpress.com/2010/12/10/mandorla/
http://www.mandorla.com/context/what.html
http://www.spiritsite.com/writing/robjoh/part4.htm
http://www.mandorla.com/context/implications.html
http://www.mandorlaseminars.info/
