Her Story
Music is a beautiful, creative, healing energy that Cora Flora is here to share. With intention and wisdom, she creates songs from the channel of her heart for the highest good of all, with magical guitar and sincere honesty. Although many of her songs are inspired by her personal experience, she also calls upon universal wisdom and loves to share intuitive prayers as they flow with the music.
Born this lifetime in southern Ontario, she has since been on a gypsy path of following her heart across North America, Europe, Hawaii and beyond. Along her journey she has birthed five albums, all independently recorded and released. Her most recent album “Victoria” dives into the challenging soil of sexual healing; finding the courage within to honour the truth and transforming the wounds with transcendent illumination.
Cora is on a blossoming path, touring to bring healing, joy, love, and inspirational vibrations to Mother Earth and all her lovely children. Once you feel the deep resonance of her songs, you will be inspired to connect with your soul’s harmonious music and enjoy your infinitely creative amazing life!
Born this lifetime in southern Ontario, she has since been on a gypsy path of following her heart across North America, Europe, Hawaii and beyond. Along her journey she has birthed five albums, all independently recorded and released. Her most recent album “Victoria” dives into the challenging soil of sexual healing; finding the courage within to honour the truth and transforming the wounds with transcendent illumination.
Cora is on a blossoming path, touring to bring healing, joy, love, and inspirational vibrations to Mother Earth and all her lovely children. Once you feel the deep resonance of her songs, you will be inspired to connect with your soul’s harmonious music and enjoy your infinitely creative amazing life!
Photo by Bradley Boyle :: July 2011
My Story
Music is metaphysical. You can’t touch or grab Music, you can only allow it to flow through you, while absorbing and savouring every moment of it you can. (Life life!) All of my life I’ve been accompanied by the Muse. She is the spirit of Music, endlessly singing with song of the waves of the ocean. I feel the Muse’s whispers like emotions, like a gentle summer breeze. Sometimes I hear lyrics to songs that my mind hears and heart feels, but my ears can’t find the source.
To me, the Muse is a manifestation of the Goddess. It is she who inspires, mysteriously and lovingly. It seems to be that in this time on Earth, the Muse has been manipulated. She’s been pulled out of her temple and punished, made into a prisoner of business and patriarchy. As the rich traditions of the Goddess-honouring cultures have almost been forgotten, it is clear to me that now we must rise and sing her songs.
When I was a floating in my Mom’s womb, her and my Dad used to play Music for me in utero. As a child growing up, there was always Music around the house, albeit often commercial songs of the 1980’s and it’s “music industry”. I later gravitated to the sensitive geniune hearts of Sarah McLachlan, Jewel, Patty Griffiths, and as I became a teen, the more Kali-esque Alanis Morisette and Ani DiFranco. I also discovered sweetness and sincerity in male voices, like Nick Drake, Sufjan Stevens, and James Taylor. I remember listening with my headphones to entire albums over and over, soaking in the wisdom and emotions of Music which, I realize now, felt so watery ~ like the womb, like the ocean, like the Goddess.
I still have intense soulmate-discovering feelings when I hear songs by sincere souls for the first time. Feeling the emotion in Imogen Heap’s masterpieces (um... Mistress? No, Motherpeaces!) lured me into her intense waves of emotions, eroding new worlds of feeling in my heart. Listening to Claude Debussy’s “Clair de Lune” and “La Mer” still move my Spirit in ways so powerful, nourishing, and dream-like that I feel a connection to the spirit of moonbeams and the ocean.
My parents always supported my love of Music, and enrolled me in piano lessons at a young age. My first piano teacher was Connie, a gentle grandmotherly woman with fluffy yellowish hair. She taught my sister Natalie and I the rudimentary notes, rewarding us with stickers. Then we moved on to Mrs. Steevens, a sweet-voiced mother of 7, who helped us learn the prescribed songs and scales o the Royal Conservatory of Music so we could pass to higher grades. At this point I started to lose interest in piano, as it started to become a punishment – I was always being criticized for not practicing. The truth is, I’m not a very good robot. In that I mean, reading the notes to a song someone I don’t know wrote, just so I could pass a test and gain approval of my teachers and parents, while being punished to perfection, didn’t fuel my love of Music anymore.
In high school, I took every Music class I could, as it felt like a peaceful oasis compared to the boring mind garbage (ahem, curriculum) I was force-fed in the rest of my classes. My Music teacher Mr. Coyle was very encouraging of my musical ear, and helped me learn to play the French Horn, an instrument that is emotional, humble, and whale-like. Around that time, I decided to push myself to get my Grade 8 from the RCM in piano because it would count as a high school credit. So I began lessons with Mrs. Abbott, a tough British woman who told me how terrible my playing was until I worked so hard to prove her wrong, that I received Grade 8 with Honours, and the credit which I ended up using to free myself from the suffocation of high school. I’ve since forgotten the scales and songs (except “Pink”, a song inspired by the colour of unconditional love).
I found my musical freedom with the guitar. Oh, guitar, portable harp with womanly curves, how I love thee! I remember my urge to play guitar came surprisingly and suddenly, and after my Mom showed me how to read tabs, I knew I found my path. My Mom’s musical friend Kathy, who styled our hair while humming in her Amazon voice, told me all I needed was 2 chords and voila, I could write a song. It felt so easy, once my passion grew callouses on my fingertips. I took a few lessons from a local guitar enthusiast, Mark, who taught me fingerpicking patterns which I expanded on my own. I knew I wanted my guitar path to be free and fuelled by passion, so I promised myself only to play when the Spirit moved me ~ no more punishment to practice. I did take 1 or 2 lessons from a classical guitar player towards the end of high school, to see if I would be interested in pursuing a University education of classical guitar. Although I love the beauty of classical guitar, it didn’t feel right for me.
I feel I intuitively learned the essence of what I feel Music is: PLAY! Which reminds me of the French word for beach, plage. The sunshine, the waves, the water dancing on the sparkling sand ~ a blissful playground for so many children. Who knew how fun it could be to simply enjoy a day. For me it is the same with Music.
My mother Carol, the musical mermaid she is, has a beautiful singing voice that I remember her sharing in her most joyful moments, most often as a sincere expression of love for us or our beloved pets. Our family dog Chi Chi, a sweet sheltie, was the Muse who inspired many devotional love songs and humorous improvised ditties from my Mom. I quickly learned by example and enjoyed making her laugh by singing funny call-and-response songs across the house and making her swoon with beautiful, heartfelt, homemade harmonies. This ability to harmonize from the heart is something that no choirs or sheet music could teach me, only my mother’s love could. Carol has always supported my song-writing and honoured the emotional essence of each song, which I’m truly grateful for.
My father Andre supported me by buying musical instruments, recording equipment, “music industry” education in Toronto, printing of CDs, and offered his Capricorn business brain to calculate the right formula for financial success... However as my musical path became spiritual, and led me away from the patriarchal man-made God, I felt that pushing myself in to the bowels of the industry would strip me of my creative freedom. I also struggled with the ego and Music ~ how so often fame or fortune creates the illusion of superiority. This had made me give up the dream of being a musician so many times, only to have it come right back to me naturally.
I feel that like the Earth, I am not an object to be owned, or a product to be sold. In the past on Earth, women have been considered “property” like our Mother Earth. When a spiritual expression such as a woman or a tree became a tool to own and manipulate, Man fell into the illusion that he could have power over it, that he could use force to overpower the loving yin nature of a soft sweet woman, or the gentle wise voice of a tree rooted for centuries.
Even though it has led me down a scraggly, muddy, weeded path, I trust and follow the same love I feel in Music ~ the love which flows through my heart from a Source I feel like the wind dancing with the trees, like the awe-inspiring natural beauty of a flower. Instead of pursuing a traditional music path, my heart led me out west, opening my mind in Vancouver, and spending time working in a garden on Hornby Island, BC. It was there that something magical awakened in me, and many songs from the album Flourish were born.
Music also helped me through a dark underworld of healing, wherein it was the light that got me through, and is now the gift I can share with others. Songwriting helps me transform a wound into a piece of wisdom and art. Trusting my heart, I know that I am always at the right place at the right time, and I will continue on this path of Music, traveling the world and sharing the inspiration that pours through me.
Love, Respect & Harmony ~
C o r a
To me, the Muse is a manifestation of the Goddess. It is she who inspires, mysteriously and lovingly. It seems to be that in this time on Earth, the Muse has been manipulated. She’s been pulled out of her temple and punished, made into a prisoner of business and patriarchy. As the rich traditions of the Goddess-honouring cultures have almost been forgotten, it is clear to me that now we must rise and sing her songs.
When I was a floating in my Mom’s womb, her and my Dad used to play Music for me in utero. As a child growing up, there was always Music around the house, albeit often commercial songs of the 1980’s and it’s “music industry”. I later gravitated to the sensitive geniune hearts of Sarah McLachlan, Jewel, Patty Griffiths, and as I became a teen, the more Kali-esque Alanis Morisette and Ani DiFranco. I also discovered sweetness and sincerity in male voices, like Nick Drake, Sufjan Stevens, and James Taylor. I remember listening with my headphones to entire albums over and over, soaking in the wisdom and emotions of Music which, I realize now, felt so watery ~ like the womb, like the ocean, like the Goddess.
I still have intense soulmate-discovering feelings when I hear songs by sincere souls for the first time. Feeling the emotion in Imogen Heap’s masterpieces (um... Mistress? No, Motherpeaces!) lured me into her intense waves of emotions, eroding new worlds of feeling in my heart. Listening to Claude Debussy’s “Clair de Lune” and “La Mer” still move my Spirit in ways so powerful, nourishing, and dream-like that I feel a connection to the spirit of moonbeams and the ocean.
My parents always supported my love of Music, and enrolled me in piano lessons at a young age. My first piano teacher was Connie, a gentle grandmotherly woman with fluffy yellowish hair. She taught my sister Natalie and I the rudimentary notes, rewarding us with stickers. Then we moved on to Mrs. Steevens, a sweet-voiced mother of 7, who helped us learn the prescribed songs and scales o the Royal Conservatory of Music so we could pass to higher grades. At this point I started to lose interest in piano, as it started to become a punishment – I was always being criticized for not practicing. The truth is, I’m not a very good robot. In that I mean, reading the notes to a song someone I don’t know wrote, just so I could pass a test and gain approval of my teachers and parents, while being punished to perfection, didn’t fuel my love of Music anymore.
In high school, I took every Music class I could, as it felt like a peaceful oasis compared to the boring mind garbage (ahem, curriculum) I was force-fed in the rest of my classes. My Music teacher Mr. Coyle was very encouraging of my musical ear, and helped me learn to play the French Horn, an instrument that is emotional, humble, and whale-like. Around that time, I decided to push myself to get my Grade 8 from the RCM in piano because it would count as a high school credit. So I began lessons with Mrs. Abbott, a tough British woman who told me how terrible my playing was until I worked so hard to prove her wrong, that I received Grade 8 with Honours, and the credit which I ended up using to free myself from the suffocation of high school. I’ve since forgotten the scales and songs (except “Pink”, a song inspired by the colour of unconditional love).
I found my musical freedom with the guitar. Oh, guitar, portable harp with womanly curves, how I love thee! I remember my urge to play guitar came surprisingly and suddenly, and after my Mom showed me how to read tabs, I knew I found my path. My Mom’s musical friend Kathy, who styled our hair while humming in her Amazon voice, told me all I needed was 2 chords and voila, I could write a song. It felt so easy, once my passion grew callouses on my fingertips. I took a few lessons from a local guitar enthusiast, Mark, who taught me fingerpicking patterns which I expanded on my own. I knew I wanted my guitar path to be free and fuelled by passion, so I promised myself only to play when the Spirit moved me ~ no more punishment to practice. I did take 1 or 2 lessons from a classical guitar player towards the end of high school, to see if I would be interested in pursuing a University education of classical guitar. Although I love the beauty of classical guitar, it didn’t feel right for me.
I feel I intuitively learned the essence of what I feel Music is: PLAY! Which reminds me of the French word for beach, plage. The sunshine, the waves, the water dancing on the sparkling sand ~ a blissful playground for so many children. Who knew how fun it could be to simply enjoy a day. For me it is the same with Music.
My mother Carol, the musical mermaid she is, has a beautiful singing voice that I remember her sharing in her most joyful moments, most often as a sincere expression of love for us or our beloved pets. Our family dog Chi Chi, a sweet sheltie, was the Muse who inspired many devotional love songs and humorous improvised ditties from my Mom. I quickly learned by example and enjoyed making her laugh by singing funny call-and-response songs across the house and making her swoon with beautiful, heartfelt, homemade harmonies. This ability to harmonize from the heart is something that no choirs or sheet music could teach me, only my mother’s love could. Carol has always supported my song-writing and honoured the emotional essence of each song, which I’m truly grateful for.
My father Andre supported me by buying musical instruments, recording equipment, “music industry” education in Toronto, printing of CDs, and offered his Capricorn business brain to calculate the right formula for financial success... However as my musical path became spiritual, and led me away from the patriarchal man-made God, I felt that pushing myself in to the bowels of the industry would strip me of my creative freedom. I also struggled with the ego and Music ~ how so often fame or fortune creates the illusion of superiority. This had made me give up the dream of being a musician so many times, only to have it come right back to me naturally.
I feel that like the Earth, I am not an object to be owned, or a product to be sold. In the past on Earth, women have been considered “property” like our Mother Earth. When a spiritual expression such as a woman or a tree became a tool to own and manipulate, Man fell into the illusion that he could have power over it, that he could use force to overpower the loving yin nature of a soft sweet woman, or the gentle wise voice of a tree rooted for centuries.
Even though it has led me down a scraggly, muddy, weeded path, I trust and follow the same love I feel in Music ~ the love which flows through my heart from a Source I feel like the wind dancing with the trees, like the awe-inspiring natural beauty of a flower. Instead of pursuing a traditional music path, my heart led me out west, opening my mind in Vancouver, and spending time working in a garden on Hornby Island, BC. It was there that something magical awakened in me, and many songs from the album Flourish were born.
Music also helped me through a dark underworld of healing, wherein it was the light that got me through, and is now the gift I can share with others. Songwriting helps me transform a wound into a piece of wisdom and art. Trusting my heart, I know that I am always at the right place at the right time, and I will continue on this path of Music, traveling the world and sharing the inspiration that pours through me.
Love, Respect & Harmony ~
C o r a
