RockOm

Sting is set to release a new CD on October 27 entitled If On a Winter’s Night… The album will feature two original works as well as a collection of traditional songs, carols, and lullabies from the British Isles. The entire album is based on Sting's affection for the winter season. "The theme of winter is rich in inspiration and material," Sting said in a statement released on his website. "By filtering all of these disparate styles into one album I hope we have created something refreshing and new."

Sting goes on to further explain the allure of winter stating, "Our ancestors celebrated the paradox of light at the heart of the darkness, and the consequent miracle of rebirth and the regeneration of the seasons."

Sting's lyrics often carry solemn themes-he has written about the dangers of nuclear energy, the "disappeared" of Chile, and about death and destruction. He has also infused his songs with transformative and uplifting words and isn't shy about his spirituality (think "Brand New Day," "A Thousand Years," "Ghost Story," and "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free").

As we await the release of If On a Winter's Night..., let us take a moment and allow Sting to speak for himself on the subject of spirituality through these various interview excerpts we’ve compiled [various sources].

"I've never accepted any of the categories of music as being anything but artificial labels, and I see music as a common language that links all cultures, races, and historical periods. I enjoy moving through that continuum without any self-consciousness or feelings of boundaries. It's more fun that way."

"Spirituality is becoming increasingly important to me as I get older. Philosophy, about what happens after death is particularly fascinating to me."

"The only meditation I would have done before (Ashtanga yoga) would be in the writing of songs. In the composing of music you have to enter virtually a trance state to transmit songs. I don't think you write songs. They come through you. It's trusting that they exist out there and you have to be the transmitter. For that you need a certain amount of mental purity. Yoga is just a different route to that same process. You're taking something from our higher selves and putting it to use in normal life, I think."

"I hear music all the time. Sometimes it drives me totally crazy. In absolute silence I hear music. I hear music, I hear rhythms, I hear bird song. I live in an aural world. It's never totally empty."

"I think in my life, to a large extent, I've only paid lip service to a spiritual life. I was brought up as a Catholic and went to church every week and took the sacraments. I was educated that way, but it never really touched the core of my being. As I get older I find that I am unwilling to accept an existential universe without a God. It doesn't actually make logical sense anymore. To me I feel that there has to be a higher level of compassion, of understanding, than merely a human one. It's embodied in all of us. I just think we have to decode it. The Godhead, or whatever you want to call it - it's better not to give it a name, is encoded in our being. There are various methods of decoding it and I think that Yoga is perhaps one of them. Music is another, [as is] meditation and prayer."

"What I'm facing at the moment in my spiritual life is the enormity of [the possibility of manifesting love and compassion], which I find quite terrifying. I'm working with that enormity. It's certainly not easy. It's not an easy path. Like Yoga, the spiritual life is actually very difficult."

"Up until quite recently I've actually thought I was immortal. As ridiculous as that sounds, most young people think they're immortal. Particularly when things are going well, when you're successful, when you're happy and you have a lot of stuff going for you. How could you possibly die? The bad news is, of course you can. And the good news too, is that you die. I think we have to embrace the idea. We have to accept that it's as natural as being born, as natural as breathing out, as breathing in. It's part of life. Sometimes I fight against it, as we all do, but acceptance, I think, is the most positive thing we can do. That doesn't mean being miserable or totally obsessed with the idea to one's detriment. If anything, I think, the acceptance of death gives you more of a stake in life, in living life happily, as it should be lived. Living for the moment. I'm learning this. Again, I'm not speaking as someone who has reached satori or anything else. I'm a student."

Sources: Yoga Journal Magazine by Ganga White and Stephen Dalton.
AOL Interview 1995