Don’t miss our Third Annual Great Mother Chant, coming up Saturday, May 13, 2017, from 7 -10 pm, at Tula Yoga Center, St. Paul, MN.
Three hours of chanting and spiritual music in honor of the Divine Feminine. With the Wild Moon Bhaktas, Temple of Light and Colleen Buckman (Kalyani). Recommended door $13-25 A portion of the proceeds go to environmental causes. We hope to see you there!
The Wild Moon Bhaktas brought their collection of sacred music, chants, kirtan and Sufi poetry to the St. Paul Yoga Center in February and March of 2017. This is one of the finest – and longest running – yoga centers in the upper Midwest. We are happy to play there!
Outside in the Minnesota winter night, it was chilly. But inside, the room was full of shakti, music, and the joy that wells up in your soul when you turn and invite your essence in.
Wild Moon Bhaktas at the St. Paul Yoga Center, February 11, 2017. Will Kellerman is sitting in on percussion.
Wild Moon Bhaktas at St. Paul Yoga Center, March 25, 2017.
Here’s a poem by the greatest Sufi poet, Jelalludin Rumi:
Don’t worry about saving these songs! / And if one instrument breaks, it doesn’t matter. / We have fallen into the place where everything is music. / The strumming and the flute notes rise into the atmosphere, / and even if the whole world’s harp / should burn up, there will still be / hidden instruments playing. / So the candle flickers and goes out. / We have a piece of flint, and a spark. / Stop the words now. / Open the window in the center of your chest, / and let the spirits fly in and out.
Thanks to all who made 2016 another delicious year for the Wild Moon Bhaktas. We are grateful to the owners and leaders of the centers and churches who welcomed our music, and to the yogis, sufis, mystics and seekers of all persuasions who joined us, chanted with us, made music with us and invoked the beauty of the Spirit with us. We are looking forward to 2017! Here are a couple of images from this last year. 
Wild Moon Bhaktas at First Unitarian Society, June 2016
WMBs at Tula Yoga, Sept. 2016
The Wild Moon Bhaktas and Kirtan Path led the chanting and music for the Second Annual Great Mother Chant at the St Paul Yoga Center, May 14, 2016. It was a memorable event: three hours of chants to the Great Mother! Om Shakti Ma!
A third of the proceeds were donated to the World Wildlife Fund. We are already looking forward to next year.
The Wild Moon Bhaktas, from left to right, David Ballman, David Schmit, Gary Waryan and Christine Larson
Pascale LaPoint of Kirtan Path, with Will Kemperman on percussion
The wonderful group who came out to sing and chant. Om Shakti Ma!
Great Mother Chant Flyer
The band continues our monthly program at First Unitarian Society, in Minneapolis. Last Saturday of the month. Chanting, kirtan, spiritual music and more. Music is good for the soul. Chanting is equally good for the soul. Being together with spiritually- minded people and raising our voices up is even better! No experience necessary. Join us!
Here is a poem by Hafiz, the 14th century Persian Sufi poet (version by Daniel Landinsky):
Become a pen
In the Sun’s hand.
We need for the earth to sing
Through our pores and eyes.
The body will again become restless
Until your soul paints all its beauty
Upon the sky.
Don’t tell me, dear ones,
That what Hafiz says is not true.
For when the heart tastes its glorious destiny
And we awaken to our constant need
For that Love
God’s lute will beg
for your hands.
“The Wild Moon Bhaktas are a spiritual/musical force to be reckoned with! Live, and on their debut CD, From the Ganges to the Mississippi, they share a passionate and exuberant call to the Divine. Virtuoso guitar, accordion and tabla playing give rise to gorgeous musical landscapes. Sinewy violin lines weave around gospel infused masculine voices, pulling chant participants into an open hearted meditative space. In both live and recorded formats, the Wild Moon Bhaktas are not to be missed!”
-Mike Cohen, Kirtan Leader Institute founder
“The Wild Moon Bhaktas, a great midwestern bhakti band you should get to know. Love this.”
Thanks to the nearly 70 people who packed the Center for Performing Arts Chapel who helped make our seventeenth annual Rumi Night another success. Many thanks to the individuals who strode to the microphone and shared their illuminating, heart-breaking, and hysterical Rumi poems. Thanks also to Jack Norton for videotaping the event and shooting this photo. And of course, kudos to Hakim Bushnell, Karima Bushnell, Ted and Kristen Eide Tollefson and all who made it happen. Thanks also to Coleman Barks whose English versions of Rumi from the original Persian has aided in this renaissance of a 13th century mystic’s astonishing poems. Next year, we will need to find a bigger room. A good sign!
Sunday, December 13 at the Center for Performing Arts in Minneapolis, 7:30-9:30. Our seventeenth annual evening of music, chanting, Sufi poetry and sacred dance in honor of Sufism’s greatest poet, Rumi.
Third Annual Great Mother Chant
Our annual Great Mother Chant featuring the Wild Moon Bhaktas, Temple of Light and Kalyani (Colleen Buckman) happened at Tula Yoga in St. Paul on May 13. We raised $320 for the climate change advocacy group, the 350 movement. Thanks to Tula Yoga for making their wonderful space available, and gratitude to all the musicians who dedicated their time and talents to our night of chanting for the Divine Feminine. Much gratitude also to the many people who turned out for the event. Jai Ma!
Temple of Light at the 2017 Great Mother Chant
Kalyani (Colleen Buckman) performing with Will Kemperman
The Wild Moon Bhaktas at the 2017 Great Mother Chant