| “I
always had kind of a spiritual nature,” says Rafael Bejarano,
of his childhood growing up in Mexico.
When he was 16, this musician, artist and healer had what he can
only describe as “an experience of enlightenment.”
Driving home from a spiritual retreat with a friend, Bejarano,
who uses sound in ritual ceremony and performance — particularly
the vibrating rhythms of the didgeridoo —recalls marveling
at the landscape passing them by with a newfound awareness of
everything around him being a physical manifestation of the Divine.
“We were really taking a moment to feel that, to feel God
or Creator or whatever you want to call it, to really feel the
presence of Spirit in everything, when something beyond ourselves
began to happen,” he says.
What followed he can only describe as “an experience of
enlightenment.”
“I began to feel my body vibrating … there was just
this state of ecstasy and love and peace and realization. There
was some sort of access to knowledge or wisdom or information
that happened so fast — this state of immediate knowing,
where my mind just entered into a complete silence of ‘There
is nothing else I need to know.’
“It was definitely for me the realization of heaven or paradise,”
says Bejarano. “It was that place we know within ourselves
that exists, the place that we’re longing to come back to.”
For nine remarkable hours, he and his friend remained in this
state of euphoric consciousness. And though he admits to initially
feeling undeserving of this experience, he came to accept it as
a gift, even as he expected a test that would show his willingness
to be used as a vessel for Spirit.
“Just follow the voice of your heart. That’s what
I heard,” he says. “It almost sounded like it was
too easy, but I think what I understood was that … love
in the highest expression is not just a feeling, it’s actually
the presence of God himself, of Spirit itself. And when we open
our heart and when we follow that which can make us feel that
passion, that aliveness, it’s opening the doorway for God
to act through us. Following the voice of your heart, I understood
it as, that’s how God manifests through you every minute.
And that’s the only guide you need.”
Bejarano, always a bright student, had been studying computer
technology at the time. But he left school, and shortly after,
through a series of synchronicities, found himself at a gathering
of indigenous elders where he got to share his story. That gathering
led to others and eventually to his inspiration to become a healer,
offering massage and Reiki. Then an invitation to swim with some
dolphins opened him to the possibilities of using sound for healing,
too.
“When swimming with the dolphins, I had another experience
of revelation and information of how sound is energy and how through
vibration and sound we can access those higher states of consciousness,”
he says.
Although he knew then that he wanted to use sound to bring healing
to others, Bejarano had little aptitude for music. But a sound
healing session with a practitioner who incorporated the didgeridoo
gave him the solution he sought. He learned to play the ancient
wind instrument, but before he could bring its gifts to others,
traveled to Australia to ask the permission of the Aborigines
to use it in sacred ritual. Not surprisingly, an elder had been
waiting for someone from Mexico to arrive, and Bejarano was instructed
to journey to the highest peak on the country’s east coast,
where he would greet the sun at sunrise as part of his initiation.
“I was told to take my first breath, inhale that light and
then visualize that light coming as sound on the breath,”
he says. “For me, that’s what sound is — it’s
that light. It’s the Spirit.”
Today, the 33-year-old, who makes his home in Pennsylvania, calls
himself a ritualistic musician. He makes his own didgeridoos,
as well as the huaca, a multi-chambered clay flute inspired by
the ancient Peruvian whistles. His musical expertise has expanded
to include numerous indigenous instruments and he travels extensively,
offering sound healing circles, performing concerts and presenting
in school assemblies, helping youth to tap into that heart energy
while also sharing the wisdom of the ancients and discussing themes
of ecology, diversity and cultural awareness. He has released
three CDs, Sonidos de la Creación, The Eternal
Presence and his most recent, The Journey, a tapestry
of chanting and sound, inspired by place, serendipitous connections
and the instrumental and vocal talents of a cast of artists and
healers, including Tibetan Buddhist teacher Keutsang Rimpoche
and didgeridoo virtuoso Ash Dargan.
His intention is to help others unearth that sacred seed, the
potential of the Divine within us that when activated empowers
us to share our gifts as a manifestation of love.
“We can live from that place and nourish the seed of consciousness
and choose to work the path of the heart or not,” says Bejarano.
“And it is a choice. Do you choose to keep the heart open,
do you choose to love no matter what, and to love meaning always
being the best of who you are. It’s not about perfection.
We all know we are dong the best we can.
“The purpose of ritual and ceremony is to create that state
of realization — we are God, we are the vessel, we are the
instrument, and the heart is the core of who we are.”
Naila
Francis is an editor and writer with a Philadelphia area daily
newspaper, an officiant with the ceremonial ministry Journeys
of the Heart, and an ordained interfaith minister.
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