Creating Altars to Celebrate Beltane

Flower Offering by Jenis Kelamin

Beltane is the English name for the very ancient and very pagan Gaelic May Day festival. Beltane is one of the 'cross-quarter days', the four central holidays that make up the cycle of the seasons. There are also the 'quarter days', which are the beginnings of the seasons -- the equinoxes and the solstices. Most commonly it is held on May 1st, or about halfway between the spring equinox and the summer solstice. This mid-spring holiday is about birth and rebirth, when plants are coming out of the ground, and young animals are being born. It is the celebration of renewed life after the long winter, as well as a celebration of sexuality, abundance and community. Earth energies are at their strongest and most active. So, an altar built on the earth's surface seems creatively perfect for this celebration, using the earth's own elements and offerings for its form and structure, to fertilize and enliven all manner of things for the coming season. Read more.

Shamanic Skin: The Art of Sacred Tattoos

Tattooed Maori

It has been estimated that 500 years ago perhaps 1,000 indigenous cultures practiced tattooing. Today, most of these groups have completely vanished from the face of the earth, and only a few continue to persist in the remote areas of Asia, South America, Africa, Melanesia, and Polynesia. Only fragments of this once rich heritage of body art remain in our modern world, but they allow us to gain a glimpse of a culture that connected tattoo, ritual, religion, myth, and nature from which indigenous tattoo culture ultimately sprang.

Why was it important for indigenous tattoo artists to create permanent designs on the body? Were they made for purely aesthetic impact or for other more sacred reasons? What deeper significance did these elements have for their makers and owners? And what did they communicate to others? Read more.

Women Artists of the Canadian Inuits

Kenojuak Ashevak, Spirit of the Raven

In sharp contrast to the Western art world where women have been largely sidelined or excluded, in the Canadian Inuit society of Cape Dorset, it is the women who are recognized as the leaders of the contemporary Inuit art movement. It is women artists who have won the most awards and accolades, and who have achieved the highest prices at auction for their artworks and received worldwide recognition. Co-operatives were created in which art could be produced in a changing economy for the Inuit people. Women artists often shared any economic gain, investing into the artistic processes in order to maintain community productivity. Many of the works contain a ritualistic and spiritual significance relating to the shamanic beliefs of the people. Read more.

Shamanic Artist Caroline Manière

"Sacred Drumming"

Born in 1968 in Dijon, France, Caroline Manière lives and works in Bourron-Marlotte (Paris region).

http://carolinemaniere.com/portfolio/femme-medecine/ 

https://www.facebook.com/caroline.maniere

SHAMAN’S DRUM

Oh! My many-colored drum

Ye who standeth in the forward corner!

Oh! My merry and painted drum,

Ye who standeth here!

Let thy shoulder and neck be strong.

Hark, oh hark my horse—ye female maral deer!

Hark, oh hark my horse—ye bear!

Hark, oh hark ye!

Oh, painted drum who standeth in the forward corner!

My mounts—male and female maral deer.

Be silent sonorous drum,

Skin-covered drum,

Fulfill my wishes.

Like flitting clouds, carry me

Through the lands of dusk

And below the leaden sky,

Sweep along like wind

Over the mountain peaks!

—Tuvas of Siberia

Shamanic Artist Collin Elder

Heliopause

Collin Elder began painting after leaving the realm of ecological conservation, which, along with a degree in wildlife biology, has focused his artwork on our deep and often mysterious connections with the natural world.  Collin sees his work as being a transition from conservation and how we relate to the past, into the redesigning of reality, inspiring a shift in our anthropocentric vantage-point. His paintings reflect a yearning to further pursue the depths of our links with the non-human, and hopefully connect their remembering with the health of our human community. In an effort to evoke a vivid sense of direct experience, Collin paints stories of re-inspiring our reciprocity with the fluid and ever-changing natural landscape. These stories are a reflection of an ancient desire to re-unite our mental concepts with our bodily awareness, grounding them in the living world. The paintings play with the idea of looking through our investigations, classifications, sciences and technologies, into active, subjective participation with an integral, holistic and mysterious ecosystem. You can view his art online at Collinelder.com.

Nets of Being: Alex Grey's Visionary Art

"Great Net of Being" by Alex Grey

Every once in a great while an artist emerges who does more than simply reflect the social trends of the time. Such an artist is able to transcend established thinking and help us redefine ourselves and our world. Today, a growing number of art critics, philosophers, and spiritual seekers believe that they have found that vision in the art of Alex Grey. His portrayals of human beings blend anatomical exactitude with visionary depictions of universal life energy. Grey’s striking artwork leads us on the soul’s journey from material world encasement to recovery of the divinely illuminated core. In this Huffington Post interview, Grey discusses how he turned from suicidal nihilist to visionary artist, the convergence of psychedelics and Tibetan Buddhism, holding together a marriage involving two artists, live-painting with Beats Antique and the Disco Biscuits, and his unusual spiritual portrait of Obama.

Painting the Landscape of Your Soul

Damini Celebre, is a fine artist, art educator, acupuncturist, a shamanic practitioner, and now, an author. In her new book, Painting the Landscape of Your Soul: A Journey of Self Discovery, Celebre combines her two passions, creative arts and healing arts, to synthesize a unique approach to awakening your creative self. Painting the Landscape of Your Soul engages and reawakens your innate creativity as a path to self discovery. This book is a step-by-step journey of empowerment, reclaiming your inner self with paint and paper. It incorporates trusting your intuitive voice with deep, underlying principles of healing such as energy medicine and shamanism. Pablo Picasso was once quoted as saying, "The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls." According to Celebre, the practice of art allows our soul's to talk to us, to be clear, and to illuminate the path of our soul's true purpose. More than a book about art, this is a much needed book about using a very innate form of expression to discover our true self. Celebre's book is available at Amazon.

The Transformative Power of Shamanic Art

"Flame Swan" by Denita Benyshek

Dr. Denita Benyshek is a professional visionary artist, an internationally recognized researcher on contemporary artists as shamans, and a psychologist who provides psychotherapy and coaching services to artists and creative individuals. Dr. Benyshek recently composed an article in which she explains how contemporary artists serve as shamans and demonstrates the transformative benefits offered by art. According to Dr. Benyshek, art can provide for psychological, social, physiological, and/or spiritual needs of individuals and communities. When an individual is engaged with art (as an artist, member of the audience, or collector), art can evoke memories, make new connections, heighten awareness, discharge repressed emotions, halt patterns of repression, lead to self-discovery, create empathy with individuals or cultures, remind society of social ills needing attention, and lead to individual and societal healing. To learn more read "The Transformative Power of Shamanic Art" by Dr. Denita Benyshek.

Yup'ik Shaman Masks

For many generations the Yup'ik (real) people of Alaska have created beautifully expressive masks for their traditional dances and ceremonies. Over the long winter darkness, dances and storytelling took place in the qasgiq (communal men's house) using these masks to honor and connect to the beings that made life possible in the Arctic environment. The masks were said to have made the unseen world visible. Masked dancing was once at the heart of Yup'ik spiritual and social life. It was a bridge between the ancient and the new, the living and the dead and a person's own power and the greater powers of the unseen world.

Many of the masks were visual representations of the shaman's journeys into the spirit world and often portrayed spirit helpers. The shaman either carved the masks himself or directed their carving. Masks were carved from driftwood collected on the shores and painted with natural pigments. The symbolic meaning of color varies with the creator of the mask and the story he or she is relating. Recurring colors include red which may sometimes symbolize life, blood, or give protection to the mask's wearer; black which sometimes represents death or the afterlife; and white which sometimes can mean living or winter. Painted spots appear on many masks and even on some participants. They represent snowflakes, stars, or eyes, depending on the mask's story. As in healing, the artist's touch may have been as significant as the mark left behind.

Masks were decorated with teeth, beads, animal hides, feathers and other organic materials related to the story being portrayed. They differ in size from forehead and finger 'maskettes' to enormous constructions that dancers need external supports to perform with. Ingenious theatrical devices were created and hung from the roof of the communal house, and beautiful costumes were sewn, all as part of a complex enactment of sacred stories.

After Christian contact in the late nineteenth century, masked dancing was suppressed, and today it is not practiced as it was before in the Yup'ik villages. However, the art of making masks is once again making its way into the traditional lifestyles of the Yup'ik. The elders are trying to get the young people involved and it's still a work in progress, but the revival of mask making is a hopeful story of Yup'ik continuity. 

Crafting Rawhide Rattles

Rattles are a universal, cross-cultural tool for inducing trance states and establishing connections with the spirit realm. Shamans believe that the sound of the rattle opens doors to the spirit world and attracts the attention of its inhabitants. The repetitive sound of the rattle, like that of the drum, helps induce shamanic trance. The shaking of rattles creates high-pitched frequencies that complement the low frequencies of drumbeats. The high tones of rattles resonate in the upper parts of the body and head. The low tones of drums act primarily on the abdomen, chest, and organs of balance. Rattles stimulate higher frequency nerve pathways in the cerebral cortex than do drums. This higher frequency input supplements the low frequency drumbeats, thereby boosting the total sonic effect. To craft your own rawhide rattle; view video.

Crafting a Shamanic Mask

My "Rainbow Man" Mask

Shamanic mask making is a very ancient art of bringing out your inner or spirit self and embodying it into a mask form. Crafting a spirit mask of your face can be a very empowering process -- one that enables you to see into the deeper realms of the self. You can journey within to access wisdom and archetypal energies that can help awaken your soul calling and restore you to wholeness. The process reconnects you with your deepest core values and your highest vision of who you are and why you are here. Summoning the energy of the true self, you then channel your discoveries into painting and adorning your mask of personal transformation. Wearing a shamanic mask heightens your sense of mission and purpose, empowering your personal evolution. To learn more, read Faces of Your Soul and visit The Art of Plaster Life Mask Making. To view my shamanic mask collection, click here. 

Transfigurations: The Visionary Art of Alex Grey

Every once in a great while an artist emerges who does more than simply reflect the social trends of the time. Such an artist is able to transcend established thinking and help us redefine ourselves and our world. Today, a growing number of art critics, philosophers, and spiritual seekers believe that they have found that vision in the art of Alex Grey. Transfigurations, the follow-up to Grey’s Sacred Mirrors--one of the most successful art books of the 1990s--includes all of Grey’s major works completed in the following decade. His portrayals of human beings blend anatomical exactitude with visionary depictions of universal life energy. Grey’s striking artwork leads us on the soul’s journey from material world encasement to recovery of the divinely illuminated core.

Coast Salish Shamanic Spindle Whorls

The spindle whorl, once an indispensable tool for aboriginal weaving, is no longer just a museum artifact, but a symbol that has been reborn as an icon to globally identify the cultural lineage of the Coast Salish people from the Pacific Northwest Coast. Salish women were unrivaled in their ability to produce beautiful textiles that had social and spiritual significance. Many Salish spindle whorls have sophisticated and powerful carved designs -- human, animal and geometric. The whorl was placed on a wooden spindle to add the weight needed to maintain the spinning motion, and to prevent the wool from falling off the rod as it was being spun. As the whorl turned, the designs would blur together into a swirling kaleidoscope, entrancing the spinner. This shamanic trance state was considered vital: it gave the spinner the ability to create sacred textiles imbued with spirit power. To learn more read The Spindle Whorl: An Activity Book Ages 9-12, and visit Coast Salish artist Susan Point's website.

Shamanic Music: Sounds of the Soul

© 2011 by Michael Drake

Shamanic music is traditionally performed as part of a shamanic ritual, however it is not a musical performance in the normal sense. The shaman is focused on the healing intention or spiritual energy of what he or she is playing, to the point that musical considerations are minimal. Shamanic music is improvised by the shaman to modify movement and change while actively journeying into the spirit world. It is a musical expression of the soul, supporting the shamanic flight of the soul. Sacred music is directed more to the spirit world than to an audience. The shaman's attention is directed inwards towards communication with the spirits, rather than outwards to any listeners who might be present.  

A shaman uses various ways of making sounds to communicate with the spirits, as well as relate the tone and content of the inner trance experience in real time. Shamans may chant, clap their hands, imitate the sounds of birds and animals, or play various instruments. Of particular importance are the shaman's drum and song. Each shaman has his or her own song. It announces the shaman to the spirits and proclaims, "this is me…please help me." The song is usually sung near the beginning of the ritual and is often accompanied by drumming.  

The sound of the shaman’s drum is very important. A shamanic ritual often begins with heating the drum head over a fire to bring it up to the desired pitch. It is the subtle variations in timbre and ever-changing overtones of the drum that allow the shaman to communicate with the spiritual realm. The shaman uses the drum to open portals to the spirit world and summon helping spirits. As Tuvan musicologist Valentina Suzukei explains, "There is a bridge on these sound waves so you can go from one world to another. In the sound world, a tunnel opens through which we can pass -- or the shaman’s spirits come to us. When you stop playing the drum, the bridge disappears."¹

When a spirit is invoked, there is often an accompanying rhythm that evolves. Shamans frequently use specific rhythms to "call" their spirit helpers for the work at hand. A shaman may have a repertoire of established rhythms or improvise a new rhythm, uniquely indicated for the situation. Shamans may strike certain parts of the drum to access particular helping spirits. The drumming is not restricted to a regular tempo, but may pause, speed up or slow down with irregular accents.

Shamans are also known for their ability to create unusual auditory phenomena. According to Scottish percussionist Ken Hyder, who has studied with Siberian shamans, "Shamans tend to move around a lot when they are playing, so a listener will hear a lot of changes in the sound…including a mini-Doppler effect. And if the shaman is singing at the same time, the voice will also change as its vibration plays on the drumhead."² Furthermore, in a recent ethnographic study of Chukchi shamans, it was found that in a confined space, shamans are capable of directing the sound of their voice and drum to different parts of the room. The sounds appear to shift around the room, seemingly on their own. Shamans accomplish this through the use of standing waves, an acoustic phenomenon produced by the interference between sound waves as they reflect between walls. Sound waves either combine or cancel, causing certain resonant frequencies to either intensify or completely disappear. Sound becomes distorted and seems to expand and move about the room, as the shaman performs. Moreover, sound can appear to emanate from both outside and inside the body of the listener, a sensation which anthropologists claimed, "could be distinctly uncomfortable and unnerving."³  

The Shaman's Horse

The drum -- sometimes called the shaman's horse -- provides the shaman a relatively easy means of controlled transcendence. Researchers have found that if a drum beat frequency of around 180 beats per minute is sustained for at least fifteen minutes, it will induce significant trance states in most people, even on their first attempt. During shamanic flight, the sound of the drum serves as a guidance system, indicating where the shaman is at any moment or where they might need to go. "The drumbeat also serves as an anchor, or lifeline, that the shaman follows to return to his or her body and/or exit the trance state when the trance work is complete."⁴

Recent studies have demonstrated that shamanic drumming produces deeper self-awareness by inducing synchronous brain activity. The physical transmission of rhythmic energy to the brain synchronizes the two cerebral hemispheres, integrating conscious and unconscious awareness. The ability to access unconscious information through symbols and imagery facilitates psychological integration and a reintegration of self. Drumming also synchronizes the frontal and lower areas of the brain, integrating nonverbal information from lower brain structures into the frontal cortex, producing "feelings of insight, understanding, integration, certainty, conviction, and truth, which surpass ordinary understandings and tend to persist long after the experience, often providing foundational insights for religious and cultural traditions."⁵

It requires abstract thinking and the interconnection between symbols, concepts, and emotions to process unconscious information. The human adaptation to translate an inner trance experience into meaningful narrative is uniquely exploited by singing, vocalizing, and drumming. Shamanic music targets memory, perception, and the complex emotions associated with symbols and concepts: the principal functions humans rely on to formulate belief. Because of this exploit, the result of the synchronous brain activity in humans is the spontaneous generation of meaningful information which is imprinted into memory.

Shamanic experience can be expressed in many ways: through writing, art, and film, however it must be created after the fact. The one artistic medium which can be used to immediately express shamanic trance without disrupting the quality of the shamanic experience is music. The shaman's use of sound and rhythm is an audible reflection of their inner environment. This is the traditional method for integrating shamanic experience into both physical space and the cultural group. To learn more, look inside Shamanic Drumming: Calling the Spirits.

Discography

Shamanic and Narrative Songs from the Siberian Arctic, Sibérie 1, Musique du Monde, BUDA 92564-2

Kim Suk Chul / Kim Seok Chul Ensemble: Shamanistic Ceremonies of the Eastern Seaboard, JVC, VICG-5261 (1993)

Tuva, Among the Spirits, Smithsonian Folkways SFW 40452 (1999 )

Gendos Chamzyrzn, Kamlaniye, Long Arms (Russia) CDLA 04070 (2004)
Shamanic Journey Drumming, Michael Drake, (2008)
Power Animal Drumming, Michael Drake, (2010)

Notes

1. Kira Van Deusen, “Shamanism and Music in Tuva and Khakassia,” Shaman’s Drum, No. 47, Winter 1997, p. 24.

2. Ken Hyder, ‘’Shamanism and Music in Siberia : Drum and Space,” 2008, p.2.

3. Aaron Watson, 2001, “The Sounds of Transformation: Acoustics, Monuments and Ritual in the British Neolithic,” In N. Price (ed.) The Archaeology of Shamanism. London: Routledge. 178-192.

4. Christina Pratt, An Encyclopedia of Shamanism (The Rosen Publishing Group, 2007), p. 151.

5. Michael Winkelman, Shamanism: The Neural Ecology of Consciousness and Healing. Westport, Conn: Bergin & Garvey; 2000.

 

Affiliate disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

Rock Art of Siberian Shamanism

In the introduction of Rock Art and the Material Culture of Siberian and Central Asian Shamanism, Ekaterina Devlet writes, "In Siberia and Central Asia - the 'homelands' of shamanism - there is no ancient tradition of written language, and consequently no direct descriptive data on the lifestyle and belief systems of the prehistoric population. Valuable insights can be however gained from the comparison of rock art images with ethnographic material, which indicate that a shamanic world-view was fundamental for the complex symbolism of the Siberians." A common feature in rock art is the portrayal of the shaman's drum. Even though there are different types, shapes, and images painted on the shamanic drum, it is clearly depicted in the rock art. The range of decoration used on the drums varied from simplistic to innately elaborate. The resemblance is remarkably illustrated, "In the Altai region, images depicted on historical shamanic drums demonstrate a striking similarity with what is shown on the rock engravings" (Devlet 47). Read More