Tag Archives: Spirituality

When one thinks of “Healing Music”, the one piece that immediately comes to mind is Mike Rowland’s, The Fairy Ring—composed circa 1982. The story behind Mike’s inspiration for this composition revolves around a little walk he took one day in the forest and suddenly encountered an ethereal melody that seemed to appear out of nowhere…a gentle, humble melody that permeated his being. Arriving back in his home, Mike recorded the music to the best of his recollection; he then distributed copies of the recording to his friends and later sold them in local stores. Soon afterwards, The Fairy Ring became the best-selling New Age composition of all time; I mention “New Age” because that was the category it sold under for many years, but since those early years in the 1980’s The Fairy Ring defies any one classification—indeed, it encompasses many musical genres—including meditation and classical. I believe that Mike Rowland was inspired that day in the forest by a Sacred Healing Muse, because although delightfully meditational in spirit, the music has been a source of healing for thousands of people over the years. I’ll always remember The Fairy Ring with a special fondness as I once loaned it to a married middle-aged couple I was counseling back in late 1988; they had just experienced a miscarriage and were completely devastated. Mike’s music offered them much needed solace and they were soon comforted by those magical, soothing and healing notes. The Fairy Ring is not a high-tech polished creation—in fact the strings appear at times to overwhelm Mike’s piano—I deduce that he used an early Kurzweil Synthesizer; but it doesn’t matter—the elegant simplicity of the melody seems to gently reach out and give you a loving, healing embrace. Truly this shows that the pure-stuff of Spirit doesn’t have to be a neatly packaged Madison Ave production. Personally, I never tire of The Fairy Ring—playing it over and over again induces an aura of healing, peace and wholeness. read more