Umbra means shadow. In particular, it is the darkest part of a shadow. It also means a shadow cast by something that is opaque, not a solid state. I think about how even things we don’t see as being solid can take shape, like our thoughts becoming real. You know that phrase by Emerson, “You become what you think about all day long?” – I think that is true. Those shadows are thoughts, and those thoughts become beliefs.

We are all made up of light and dark, just like the equinox, a fine balance of sun and moon within. I find shadows so evocative. Perhaps that is why I have written more than one song about them.

The song Umbra comes on the return of a trip to see my family home for the first time in two years. This song had a dark feeling to it, it starts off minor but then ascends into a Major place. When I ask my students if they can hear the difference between minor and Major, we often describe feeling of minor as Halloween, sad, spooky, or lonely. Being in the shadows of not knowing can feel similar.

The word umbrella is related to umbra, which is to hide beneath a shadow. Underneath an umbrella one becomes part of the shadow, keeps hidden behind, even protected by that shadow. I shield myself from “negative never-will” (as I call it), which is to say voices of over-critiquing and self-doubt, from other people and myself. I preserve myself in those shadows by making art and music so that I may get to the light.

At this time of Equinox, how can we be present with shadow feelings and thoughts? This song is about chasing the darkness in us and around us. I choose to look toward the sun and acknowledge how the shadows behind me can offer mysterious wisdom.

In my tune with The Daphnes, In the Shadows (of Enchantment) gives power to the inner shadow.

When there is nothing left to save your wounded heart…
But the broken pieces you must pick apart…
What stays?
What goes?
Only the shadows know…