Life is a Spiral of Meetings and Partings

The past year has left no one and nothing unchanged. It began as a temporary adjustment, a bizarre deviation from a normal to which we would quickly return. This slowly morphed into a new reality characterized by estrangement, unpredictability and multi-faceted loss.

The week leading up to the Spring Equinox 2020 found all of us putting on pause trajectories that had felt so certain. For musicians, this meant a hiatus from in person performing and even rehearsing. With the passing of Spring Equinox 2021, Spiral Muse found ourselves irrevocably altered and grieving not only the year we lost but, sadly, the future to which we had been hoping to return. Below is a message from beloved Spiral Muse singer, songwriter and priestess, Kathleen.

"Spiral Muse has been an integral part of my life journey since 2013. When the Divine Feminine began to call to my heart that year, inviting me into a new relationship with myself and the Sacred, She placed this group in my path.

"Spiral Muse became one of the key ways in which I embraced Her love and, literally and metaphorically, found my voice as a priestess of the Sacred Feminine. My participation has brought me healing, friendship, spiritual community, and profound joy in the resonance of our voices and instruments proclaiming Goddess’ love and liberation.

"Over the past year it has become clear that, like so many families right now, my husband and I need to leave the San Francisco Bay Area. We are moving to the East Coast this summer. This decision fills me with grief, but also with hope - grief for saying goodbye to the many incredible blessings of my 12 years in the Bay Area, most especially Spiral Muse; and hope for a future that will allow us to create a more balanced life, and allow me to move into full-time Divine Feminine ministry.

"I am forever grateful to have had the opportunity to co-create the divine resonance of Spiral Muse’s sound. I pray and trust that Goddess will continue to bless this group and to sing out Her message of love and healing to the world in Spiral Muse’s voice."

There are no words that can fully convey what Kathleen’s musical and spiritual participation in our band and in our lives has meant. Her patience, precision and vision co-created the greatest musical blessing of all of our lives. In Dionne’s words, “Kathleen has a calling. Her music has the Divine Feminine woven through and through. When making music with Muse, harmonizing in rhythm, the Divine vibrates my soul. I will miss what we had while I also embrace what is emerging from this year of change."

Our choice of the word “spiral” in our band name is in reverence to the ever changing, non-linear nature of life and of all that is sacred. As much as we resist this, nothing stays the same forever. Everything that comes into existence eventually changes form, even seems to disappear completely. Many of us alive on this planet today understand the impermanence of life in a way we did not when 2020 began. While our journey as a musical foursome comes to a close, we recognize that far greater and more painful losses have taken place and continue to unfold all around us. And, for us, this grief is significant and a part of our hearts will forever ache for the harmonies we created together.

And yet, we move forward, each of us with our spiritual and musical paths. For the three of us who remain in the Bay Area ~ Dionne, Alison and Lana ~ a new chapter is beginning as we resume a more regular rehearsal schedule and move towards an outdoor show later this year. We are exploring the possibility of working with other musicians as our individual needs and capacities continue to evolve. And, most exciting for us, we are working on new music that speaks to the grief, hope and strength of this unique time on our planet. We hope to share video clips of this music soon and are very much looking forward to the day when we can be safely reunited with you all in song.