She literally woke up to her life's purpose in February 2010.
"That is to essentially support and facilitate relations between humans and the other species," said Danielea Castell, a soundweaver. "The strongest pull for me has always been trees."
For the past two years Castell's soundweaving focus has been with elder trees.
Now her focus flows to water. On Sunday at 9:30 a.m., as part of B.C. Rivers Day, Castell will lead a community soundweaving ceremony for the Fraser River at the sandbank at the foot of Patricia Boulevard off Queensway Street. Sandy Tanemura of Zahirah Bellydance Studio is drumming and dancing during the event.
Soundweaving is when a person uses the vibration in their voice with the intention of connecting with a particular tree, water or animal and sending love down the channel of the tone of sound, explained Castell, who is a voice mentor in a therapeutic way as well as for singing and sound development.
"Sitting with, meditating, talking to, chanting with, elder trees, in four places in the province, have been teaching me -- specifically, the Sitka spruce, the willows, the cedars and the cottonwoods. I've done projects with those in various places both with the public and privately. So that's what the last two years have been about and that culminated in an event called SoundWeaving BC Trees and Forests that I did February 14, 2012 (World Sound Healing Day) in Prince George in Art Space."
Doug Koyama, a regionally known singer who uses a specific technique to create uniquely layered sound using a looping station, joined Castell at the event.
"We created a slide show using beautiful photos of global trees, B.C. trees and clear cuts and damaged areas because I've been soundweaving in clear cuts as well," said Castell. "So the public was invited and we led it and it was mostly spontaneous chanting sending a sonic Valentine to those trees."
The event was the end of the hyper-focus Castell had with trees, she added.
"It was shortly after that when water came into my consciousness," said Castell. "When I first put my website up, I said on my soundweaving page that of all the relationships we, as humans, can restore with nature I believe that our relationships with trees and forests and with oceans and water are the most essential. And of course it is because the trees provide us with oxygen, which is air, a primary need and the oceans provide us with water - our bodies are 70 per cent water and we absolutely require it to survive. So that makes total sense if we're going to get ourselves back on track."
Castell said she went exploring in the Yukon and southeast Alaska this summer and did a lot of work, while personally spending a lot of time with water.
"Several rivers were very important," said Castell. "The Yukon River and the Chilkat River in southeast Alaska. So as I sat with them, meditated with them and was just myself -- who I was in that moment, I started to hear and to realize what some of the wisdom and teachings of water are for us. Some of the main teachings are, of course, flow - go with the flow, that's what the rivers have been showing and go with the flow also implies trust. Trusting the bigger picture, that I belong and I have my place and the river exemplifies this completely."
The other teaching, Castell said, is about forgiveness.
"Forgiving myself and forgiving others," said Castell. "Specifically in regard to the ceremony we're doing on Sunday, one of the chants I've been giving is one in which people will be given an opportunity to connect with judgments they're holding about themselves or those that have done things to nature. What I know is true is that the only thing that will bring us through this big shift and change is love and everything is included in love - just like the river. The river doesn't exclude anything."
For more information about soundweaving visit http://www.oneconsciousvoice.com.
