Silence as a spiritual practice

In ancient Rome, the time of February 19- 20 was given over to Dea Tacita, the Goddess of Silence. For the Romans, she was a Goddess of death and they seem to have associated death with silence. This makes sense even to us today, however, there are many more ideas about death now that do not assume silence in the afterlife.

A time to contemplate silence does seem useful for our noisy world. Silence can mean the lack of any sound which is hard to come by these days with all the notifications we get on our phones and even our appliances that make noises to let us know what they are doing.

Even in nature, it is not completely quiet and a lack of noise in a natural environment is actually not a good sign. My experiences in caves is the closest I’ve come to silence in the natural world.

Silence can also be the cessation of talking and I was pleased to learn that our ancient Pagan ancestors saw value in silence since in modern times we associate silence with certain monastic orders. Silence in spiritual practice helps us to understand our own minds. Buddhist meditation is known for such practices and it is our internal dialogue that they seek to calm down. They seek to perceive the brief moment between perception and the creation of a mental concept.

Silence helps us listen to what our deities may be saying to us. Listening, to me, is part of silence. When we are silent, we can listen more intently to what is around us or to the person we are communicating with. True listening is giving all of yourself to that activity and not thinking about what you will say next. In our ritual spaces and with our loved ones, we can proactive listening to each other, bringing ourselves completely in the moment. Truly listening to can enhance our relationships and create more intimacy.

Some people cannot abide silence and need constant noise of some sort. Try it for a moment. Be silent for 30 seconds. How do you feel? What happened in your brain? Do you feel calmer or anxious?

People can feel silenced when their experiences are not validated or they suffer oppression. We may want to be silent to make a space for those who have been silenced to speak their truths.

Recently, I read an article by Brenden Meyers in the Pagan Dawn magazine where he was talking about being more proactive about climate change. He suggests creating one day a week where we turn off all our electronics, such as our phones, TVs, etc and focus on our relationships with family and friends. We could also set aside some time to be silent, to let each person including ourselves explore what silence can bring to our awareness, perhaps to meditate and watch our minds calm down or focus our attention to one single activity such as a visualization or a mantra. We might take a walk in nature in silence to listen to the sounds we might miss if we were talking, to listen to what nature has to tell us.

Lao Tzu tell us silence is a source of great strength. Being silent is about entering sacred space within yourself. Silence takes us to our innermost being where we can discover the unconditional love that is the core of us. Silence is a gift we give ourselves, since silence is a choice we make.