Historical and Spiritual Uses of Bells

Early humans invented all sorts of useful tools to aid them in their everyday needs and struggles for survival. In addition, there is something in our nature that drives us to invent and create art, music and spiritual/religious tools. Our earliest examples of art, some dating back 40,000 years, such as cave paintings found throughout the world, and the voluptuous Venus of 
Willendorf statuettes are considered to be spiritual in nature. 

Bells and the purpose of their invention may never be known for certain, but there is some compelling evidence of spiritual uses of bells around the world throughout history. It is said that the very first bell was simply a hallowed rock struck by a stick whose sounds reverberated off of cliffs to far way places.

Excavations in China have revealed one of the earliest types of bells was made out of clay and was called a ling.  Lings were simple bells, having a handle at the top of a hollow cavity with little or no decoration.  Lings were later cast during the Bronze Age in China and have also been discovered during recent excavations of archeological sites.  These types of early bells were thought to be used as a ritualistic musical instrument for important occasions or ceremony.  

Bell artifacts have been created and used by cultures throughout the world including such places as Assyria, Rome, Central America and Africa.  Thought to be used as combination of ritual, representations of power, and musical value, bells have even been found in tombs with mummies of ancient Egypt, giving them a powerful place in the afterlife of the dead.  In ancient China, bells were used in groups, such as on a spinning wheel or long strip of wood, signifying more power through their sound as the number of bells grew.  It was during this time period that bells began to become symbolic as well as functional, often accompanied with stories and songs, especially when individuals were able to cast them into metal objects and embellish them with images and symbols.  

As ancient cultures developed more concrete, secular religious practices, bells became an integral part of those rituals.  In Christianity, bells were used to call people to services, and later, developed in Rome, one large bell was placed atop a public meeting house, so that only one bell was rung to call many people from a village, instead of many small hand bells being rung in the streets.  The Romans used bells to notify the public that the public bathhouses were ready, so it was thought a natural progression took place to notify, with a bell, the calling to religious service.  Many bells were hand-hammered metal, made in Ireland during early Christianity, and these became to be known as the sacred bells of Ireland and were revered like many other saintly relics.  Many people in early times came to feel that bells were the existential voice of God and possessed sacred powers.  During the early days of this newborn religion, too, many early Christian churches and monasteries used bells to control all aspects of life, from service time,  curfew bells, turning in and out of sheep into the fields, and the indication of the final bell of the day, when it was time to extinguish the fire and go to sleep.  Churches and the religious leaders in these newly formed communities found that the bell helped regulate the society and remind the followers of certain tasks and duties.  People relied on these bells to aid them in their religious quest in these hamlets and towns. Usually, these bells were affixed to a central tower or region, to be better controlled for ringing and notification over a broader space of distance.  

Bells were made out of many materials with many different methods.  Early bells were molded by hand out of clay and fired in a pit.  As the ages progressed, and metallurgy was more fully understood, bells were made of bronze, iron and other metals.  The techniques varied, but older bells were much more crude, being riveted together from two to four pieces, and either having a clapper or being run on the side with a mallet.  As time and industry progressed, bells were poured into castings and could be made larger and more intricate in this way.  During the time period of more prolific bell manufacturing, bells became more sacred to churches and were often blessed and even named, such as in the Russian Eastern Orthodox Church.

Bells can be found with history deeply rooted all over the globe, and in many different cultures and religions.  Bells can be used and were used for such purposes as protection, warding off evil, meditation,musical enchantment and as discussed previously, calling to prayer. They seem to have the deepest roots in the eastern countries and ancient Asia.  In India, bells were often placed on the outside doors of temples.  It was thought that if one rang a bell before entering, that it would ward off any evil spirits from entering the temple along with the praying visitor.  Bells in these temples also served a more common purpose, as these places sometimes did not have doors, so ringing of the bells would also ward off any animal that might have wondered into the shelter during the night.  In Tibet, tingsha bells are two cymbal bells that are rung on each other in prayer rituals and in ceremonies.  Singing bowls are also classified by some as inverted bells, being more of a bowl shape that one rings by tapping the bowl bell on the side with a mallet, causing a vibration or “singing” which is thought to aid in meditation or healing practices.  The connecting tie that runs through all of these eastern cultures is that bells were revered, used firstly in ritual and spiritual practices, and later used to make music and aid in meditation, prayer and joyous gatherings and cleansing rituals of sacred spaces and altars.    

Believed to begun in ancient China, bells have grown in scope, size and significance to religious groups and individuals who utilize them for any number of given purposes.  Bells are used for ritual, music, protection, meditation and healing.  With their immersion between worlds of culture and religion, these ringing tools seem to withstand the test of time.  Bells vary in shape, size, sound and material, but one thing remains clear, across cultures and time, bells ring loudly to those who listen to their song.  

I stumbled upon the creation of  ceramic bells by inventing an art form I call gargoyle bells. One day back in the year 2001, I was making a pinch pot and I noticed that the pot sort of looked like an open-mouthed face. Thus began the development of the idea to create bells that look like faces with wagging tongues. Over time, I realized that my expressive faces looked like gargoyles and began researching the meaning and purpose of the mysterious grimacing creatures that sit atop Gothic cathedrals. After lots of research, it dawned on me that I was creating a type of protector that rang. I completely fell in love with the concept. I realized that, not only can people use the gargoyle itself to scare away evil and  protect themselves, they can also ring them to clear the negative energy with musical vibrations and resonance.

Since that first day years ago, I have made thousands of grimacing, goofy-faced, tongue-wagging ringers. I simply cannot stop making them! At present, my gargoyle bells encircle (and protect) the globe, having gone off to collections and homes in Australia, Italy, Great Britain, Russia, Korea, South Africa, with most sprinkled evenly across the United States.  For more information on gargoyle bells and their uses, please visit www.gargoylebells.com