Apollo of the sacred sound...

Apollos is a God of art, music, dancing and all manner of forms of expression of the emotional self to the external world. While he himself is seldom painted as an overly emotional being, he is none the less depicted as a being that expresses emotion in ways that are controlled and full of silent passion.

Art, for example, is a means of expressing great emotion. Anger, rage, love, passion, lust, they are all emotional states of being that we human beings experience on a daily basis, and the artist expresses in song, paint, sculpture or any other medium of artistic expression you can imagine.

Like apollo, I am a rather reserved person. I express in writing, in artwork, and in my choice of music and while singing in the shower. I have come to fall in love with a certain kind of music and chant that has its origins in the Eastern world, India, to be precise, and it is very much part of the hindu, Hare Krishna, and Buddhist movements today, and to some extent the Pagan movements of the world.

A good example of this is the Mantras put to music of such artists as Deva Premal and Rasa, and I have wondered for a while now how we might, as Hellenists, seek to put Mantras devoted to our own gods to work in helping us achieve a greater sense of connection to the Gods.

I was a little inspired, and so I wrote one for Apollo.

I started with an English mantra, which is essentially something short that can be repeated over and over in the mind, either simply spoken or chanted to a rhythm or music.

Lord of Light.
Lord of Song.
Lord of Art.
Break the walls that surround me!
Come forth and enlighten me!

I then ran this through a translator, as my Greek is basically phrase book stuff at this point.

Λόρδος του φωτός.
Λόρδος του τραγουδιού.
Λόρδος του σπασίματος αρθ.
Oi tοίχοι που με περιβάλλουν!
Ελάτε εμπρός και με διαφωτίστε!

Now, I can pronounce this. It will take me a while to get it memorized so that I can chant it in a varying set of rhythms so that can actually meditate as I do so, using it as a way to set the mind into a meditative state, but I think it will work. At this point, however, I need someone to look at this and correct it so that it is in proper Greek (Modern, not ancient, as I do not subscribe to the idea that ancient Greek is somehow more sacred than modern)

I also translated it into Spanish:

Señor de la luz.
Señor de la canción.
Señor del arte.
¡Rompa las paredes que me rodean!
¡Venga adelante y acláreme!

and Portuguese:

Senhor da luz.
Senhor da canção.
Senhor da arte.
Quebre as paredes que me cercam!
Venha adiante e me ilumine!

(I couldn't remember the word for enlighten. I guessed, I think correctly, but if it's wrong let me know)

I tried Italian, but I am very very very rusty...

In any case, I am going to give this mantra a shot, gotta find something instrumental that will work, like Enya or a Maire Brennan instrumental, and hopefully I can stand before Apollo better, perhaps better understand him this way, by expressing my heart to him in a way he sems to rejoice in. Controlled and purposeful.