Shiva's moon is a thin crescent: as white and translucent as a clipped baby's nail. It rests on his head in association with his consort: the silver river Ganges. His body is the universe - his voice all sound - his embellishments the moon and stars . It is Shiva who becomes the Lord of Dance, who reveals his dance to humankind in ashes - dancing in the burning ground - destroying the ego and all wordly illusions - releasing countless souls from the snares of materiall existence.
One of the most intriguing phenomena of the modern musical world is the recent rediscovery of the Cristian Gregorian chant by popular culture - despite the fact that the chant contains a spiritual time bomb. Gregorian chant is based on texts expressing extreme reverence for the doctrines of Christian faith. The offertory, for example, from Low Sunday (one week after Easter), reads: "The Angel of the Lord descended from heaven and said to the woman:the one you seek has risen" The chant is exqu isite and appropriate: one can hear the angel's wings come to rest in the lyric; the decent is outlined and the point of origin, "heaven" described
Angels may be acceptable to the current world view, at least metaphorically - but the concept of Christ's resurrection is not as palpable to many. in the concert performance, the music is often presented stripped of its textual content in order to avo id upsetting any members of the audience.
