"The Shamanic Drum" eBook Sale

Read an eBook Week is March 4 - 10. Talking Drum Publications is participating in the event by offering 50% off our eBook The Shamanic Drum: A Guide to Sacred Drumming. Click on the preceding link and enter the coupon code REW50 prior to completing your checkout to receive a 50% discount. Coupon expires 03/10/2012. Book description: Shamanic drumming is an ancient approach that uses rhythm to promote healing and self-expression. Trained as a ceremonial drummer in the Mongolian shamanic tradition, Michael Drake presents the first practical guide to applying this ancient healing art to our modern lives. Through a series of simple exercises and lessons, he teaches the basic shamanic methods of drumming. Whether you are an accomplished percussionist or a total beginner, this user-friendly book will help you harness the power of drumming.

Siberian Shamanism and the Western Imagination

Information on Siberian shamanism is sparse and often filled with cultural biases. In Shamans: Siberian Spirituality and the Western Imagination, historian Ronald Hutton sifts through first-hand accounts and scholarly studies in order to present the reader with a comprehensive work representing the entire body of research on Siberian shamanism. From what he's able to derive from various sources is that traditional shamanic practices can be reduced to three essentials: there must be identifying ritual dress, such as a robe or animal skin; the shaman must use a supportive musical instrument, usually a drum or rattle; and the shamanic performance must be public. Shamans is a prized work for scholars in Siberian shamanism, folklore, and cultural studies.

"In Search of Traditional Shamans"

Susan Grimaldi, M.Ed., Field Associate for the Foundation for Shamanic Studies, and John Lawrence, Ph.D. videographer and photographer, recently undertook an expedition seeking Daur Shamans in northern Inner Mongolia, China, and to the Tsaatan nomadic reindeer herders in the East Taiga of northern Mongolia. In both places, they observed shamans working and witnessed their ceremonies, interviewed and filmed them. Here is Susan’s report: "In Search of Traditional Shamans"

Shamanism and Grief

Sandra Ingerman, author of Awakening to the Spirit World, offers insight into moving through stages of grief in a recent article, "How to Deal With Grief." Her approach to coping with grief could be applied not just to the loss of loved one, but to distress following any life transition. As Ingerman puts it, “Every change in life is some form of death which leads to an ending that can create a state of grief for us as something familiar dies. We might change jobs, move, get divorced, experience a change in how we feel as we age, a life threatening illness or the death of a loved one. Death is not an end, rather it is a new beginning. And the experience of grief is important for our growth and evolution." Read more.

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.

"Plant Spirit Shamanism"

In Plant Spirit Shamanism, Ross Heaven and Howard G. Charing explore the use of one of the major allies of shamans for healing, seeing, dreaming, and empowerment--plant spirits. From their years of in-depth shamanic work in the Amazon, Haiti, and Europe, the authors present the core methods of plant shamanism used in healing rituals the world over: soul retrieval, spirit extraction, and sin eating. They explain the techniques shamans use to establish connections to plant spirits and provide practical exercises as well as a directory of traditional Amazonian and Caribbean healing plants and their common North American equivalents so readers can explore the world of plant spirits and make allies of their own.

Shamanism as Evolutionary Psychology

Shamanism has achieved a dramatic modern resurgence. A recent study by one of the foremost scholars on shamanism today reveals that the contemporary world still hungers for transcendent experiences because the shamanic narrative is hard-wired in us all. In his 2010 book, Shamanism: A Biopsychosocial Paradigm of Consciousness and Healing, Michael Winkelman presents the shamanic paradigm within a biopsychosocial framework for explaining successful human evolution through group rituals. According to Winkelman, shamanism is based in innate functions of the brain, mind, and consciousness. Shamanic experiences such as trance states, soul flight, and death and rebirth are natural manifestations of human consciousness rooted in psychobiological structures. The psychobiological basis of shamanism provided it with functional roles in survival and cultural evolution, producing an evolved psychology that has applications in relatively intractable modern problems such as the treatment of addictions and in addressing the consequences of violence, trauma, alienation, and disconnectedness. Read more

"Catastrophobia: The Truth Behind Earth Changes"

In her book Catastrophobia: The Truth Behind Earth Changes, Barbara Hand Clow examines legendary cataclysms and the fear they have instilled in our collective consciousness. Scientific data reveals a great cataclysm occurred only 11,500 years ago, which geology calls the Late Pleistocene Extinctions and theologians call the Flood or the Fall.  According to Clow, this collective trauma has not been processed, afflicting our species with an intense phobia of catastrophes. Crippled by fear of an impending disaster, people do not care for the Earth and its inhabitants. Moreover, we project our collective fears, creating a coming apocalypse as a self-fulfilling prophecy. This occurs, because consciousness creates the material world. 

The disaster, however, already happened! It is the past, not the future. Scientifically speaking, although there are periodic asteroid impacts and severe climate changes, an event as great as the Cataclysm of 9500 B.C. occurs about every 30 million years in our solar system. Instead of the world ending in December 2012, Catastrophobia explores the probability that the stage is set for a major evolutionary breakthrough -- a great spiritual and intellectual awakening. Clow asserts, "We are a wounded species on the verge of recovery, and we're poised to undertake the brave journey back to our previous brilliance."

"Your Homunculus Is A Liar"

The person who lives inside your head may seem rational and honest, but who is fooling who? If you are fortunate there is only one voice and if you are sober the voice should be sensible. Or so we would like to think. Two recent studies suggest otherwise. As it turns out, our homunculi are unrealistic optimists and veritable liars. While this may sound calamitous, it isn’t. There are good evolutionary reasons for lying to ourselves and being cheerful about it. Read more

The Azure Dragon and the White Tiger

by Michael Drake

The 2011 Winter Solstice will occur at 05:30 (or 5:30am) Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) on December 22, 2011, when winter begins in the Northern Hemisphere. Solstice means "Standing-Still-Sun." At Winter Solstice, the Sun journeys farthest south in its orbital path and for the next three days it rises and sets at virtually the same place on the horizon, appearing to stand still, and then it slowly returns north. 

Like the sun, my journey south has ended. I am returning north to rest in my Oregon home. Compelled by Mother Earth's birthing pangs, I left home to shamanize the meridian system of her numinous web. Earth, human, and solar processes are interwoven through a vibrational resonant network around the planet. These energy ley lines contain a two-fold element, a male and female, positive and negative, expanding and reverting breath, resembling two magnetic currents--the azure dragon and the white tiger. At the intersection points of the planet's energy web exist holy places, power spots, or acupuncture points. Like acupuncture needles, humans are capable of maintaining the harmonious flow of the planetary energy meridians by making an Earth connection at power places.

Many magical things happened during my two month pilgrimage. I soaked in the healing waters of Umpqua, Buckeye, Travertine, Whitmore, and Keough Hot Springs. I camped at Panther Meadows on Mount Shasta. I hiked among the oldest living things on the earth in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest.  

By happenstance, I encountered my dear friend and master drum maker, Judith Thomson in Bishop, CA. Judith and I began facilitating workshops together in 1993. She was called by spirit to teach drum making and I was called to teach shamanic drumming. Unbeknownst to me, Judith had journeyed from her home in Packwood, WA to facilitate a drum making seminar in Big Pine, CA. I helped Judith teach her final class before retirement and she helped me and thirteen other participants birth the most beautiful singing drums I have ever heard. Thank you Judith!  

After the seminar, Judith returned to Packwood and I was asked to stay for a drum blessing and workshop the following weekend after the wet rawhide drums had dried. The drum circle was held outside next to Birch Creek. We asked each of the six powers/directions to bless our drums. We thanked the animal spirits for giving their hides for our drum heads. We thanked the trees for the wooden rims and asked that our drums' hoops be connected to the World Tree which enables all trees to sing our prayers while drumming. Our drums were consecrated and we journeyed to meet our power animals. 

The Azure Dragon

Over the next six weeks, I facilitated two more workshops, taught classes, and administered drum therapy treatments in a creek-side yurt at the base of Birch Mountain on the east side of the Sierra Nevada crest. It is here that I met a protective mountain dragon. The Sierra Nevada range embodies the spirit of a great green dragon. The azure mountain dragon has empowered my life immeasurably. Dragon carries me higher and deeper into myself than any energy I know.

The Chinese Year of the Dragon is in 2012. The last Year of the Dragon, which occurred in 2000, was fraught with fear. There was a lot of trepidation about the collapse of our technological world, the Y2K bug and other millennial prophecies that turned out to be more hype than bite. The Year of the Dragon is again just around the corner and fear is once more an issue. This time it's the Mayan Calendar and the alleged prophecy that the world will end. Is the Chinese Year of the Dragon, which comes around every 12 years, truly something to be feared?

According to Cherokee wisdom-keeper Dhyani Ywahoo, the energy of the Ukdena, the great dragons used to protect this land, but the dragons have now become tied into the mountains or moved into another dimension. She believes that the connection between these dragons and the mind of humans is significant in these changing times. Ywahoo explains, "Basically, the dragon is the unconscious of all nations, the untamed energies of anger and fear, waiting to be called into the light of clear thought. Until people awaken to their own minds, the dragon appears to be dangerous; when emotions are tamed, the dragon becomes a winged angelic being." (Voices of Our Ancestors: Cherokee Teachings from the Wisdom Fire, p. 16)  

The White Tiger 

Prior to my final workshop at Mammoth Lakes on December 7th, I planned a four day desert exploration. In one day I drove from Mt. Whitney (the sacred masculine), the tallest mountain in the continuous 48 states, into Death Valley (the sacred feminine), the lowest elevation in North America. Shortly after entering Death Valley National Park, I took an 8 mile detour north along the Saline Valley Road to visit a Joshua Tree forest at Lee Flat. The Saline Valley Road is very rough and progress was slow, but I eventually reached the magical forest. A cold wind buffeted me each time I left the confines of my truck to hike and photograph the forest. I would have camped here for the night if not for the high elevation and bitter cold wind (winds follow the tiger). I camped instead at Panamint Springs Resort, 22 miles inside the western border of Death Valley National Park. 

The following day, I explored Darwin Falls and the remote Panamint Valley, adjacent to Death Valley. I camped for the next few days at the far northeast end of the South Panamint Dry Lake, a small wetland, grassland, dune system and mesquite bosque. The warm sulphur springs of this desert oasis provide habitat for frogs, shore birds, marsh hawks, and wild burros. A short-eared owl visited my campsite each evening at dusk and a white tiger prowled my dreams each night. Few things are more serene than the deep stillness of the desert on a starry night. 

Oh, how I love vagabonding. Like drumming, nomadic wandering alters your consciousness. It is another means of habit annihilation, for reimprinting on alternate realties. When you leave home, meet new people, experience new stimuli, and process new information, you're soon intoxicated on a natural high. Vagabonding is nothing less than reality transformation, and its power is not to be underestimated. It is essentially meeting people, and every person that I met on my journey has enriched my life in some remarkable way. 

To view my photo travelogue, click here. 

The Hollow Bone Teaching

Frank Fools Crow was a revered Lakota Holy Man who taught that you must become like a "hollow bone" to be a great healer. He believed that to become a conduit for the source of all creation fulfills the destiny of the human spirit: to sustain the order of existence. According to Fools Crow (paid link), "We are called to become hollow bones for our people, and anyone else we can help. We are not supposed to seek power for our personal use and honor. What we bones really become is the pipeline that connects Wakan Tanka, the helpers and the community together." In his becoming a hollow bone, Fools Crow believed that he went through four stages:

1. First, he called in Wakan Tanka (Great Mystery) to rid himself of anything that would impede him in any way, such as doubt, questions or reluctance. 

2. Then he recognized himself as a clean tube, ready to be filled with hope, possibilities, and anxious to be filled with power.

3. He experienced the power as it comes surging into him.

4. Finally, giving the power away to others, knowing that as he is emptied out, the Higher Powers will keep filling him with even greater power to be given away.

Becoming a Hollow Bone

Close your eyes and breathe slowly and deeply seven times. Let your abdomen rise and fall as you breathe. Inhale for a count of four, hold for a count of four, and then exhale for a count of four. Focus on the breath as it enters the nose and fills your lungs, and then gently exhale any tension you might feel, clearing the energy channels of your body. Release all of your worldly concerns, doubts, and fears, allowing them to drift off on the air of the wind, on the breath of life. Feel yourself relaxing with each breath.

   

When you are fully relaxed, ask the "Higher Powers" to remove any blockages that prevent you from functioning as a hollow bone. Repeat the affirmation, "I choose to be a clean, hollow bone." Visualize yourself as a hollow bone or tube that is all shiny on the inside and empty. The cleaner the bone, the more energy you can channel through it, and the faster it will flow. 

Now begin drumming a steady tempo of about 3 beats per second and imagine the power of spirit flowing through you. You may feel it, see it, sense it, or simply imagine it. As you focus on it, it will occur, for all energy follows thought. If your mind wanders, bring the focus of your attention back to the beat of the drum. Drumming opens portals to the spirit world, draws spirit in, and opens you up to receive it.

Shamanic Drumming Workshop in Mammoth Lakes

Power Animal Drumming Workshop
Facilitated by Michael Drake
Wednesday December 7, 2011
6 to 8 pm in Mammoth
Workshop Fee: $69.00 per person
Scholarships Available

In this two hour workshop we will learn the art and practice of power animal drumming. Power Animal Drumming is a shamanic way to evoke and internalize animal archetypes. An animal archetype represents the spirit and attributes of the entire species of that animal. Shamanism is the endeavor to cultivate ongoing relationships with power animals to gain insight, healing methods, and other vital information that can benefit the community. Learning to shift your consciousness, to align with and adapt your energies to power animals, opens your heart and mind to the wisdom and strength of the animal world.

When an animal spirit is invoked, there is often an accompanying rhythm that comes through. Shamans frequently use these unique rhythms to summon their helping spirits. As Ted Andrews explains in his book Animal Speak, "Some are so skilled at drumming, they can duplicate the rhythms of various animals. There is snake drumming, wolf drumming, hawk drumming -- a drumming for every animal. As the rhythm is created it plays upon the metabolism of the individual causing entrainment -- the individual’s own heart and metabolic rhythm is brought into synchronization with the drum beat. This is used to facilitate a shapeshifting, an aligning with the archetypal forces represented by the animal." (Animal Speak, © 1993 by Ted Andrews, p. 224)

Workshop learning objectives:

To learn basic shapeshifitng techniques

To learn drum rhythms for summoning power animals

To learn ways of developing a relationship with power animals

Testimonials

"Michael's ability to hold sacred space in the now moment and special way of teaching makes clear to us the importance of clarity of thought and intent as we drum."

  --Judith Thomson, Inner Workings Workshops & Retreats, Packwood, WA

"Michael is a pioneer in the healing art of ceremonial drumming. He does not reanimate a tradition; he builds a sonic world. His workshops are not to be missed."

  --Richard Hamersma, Ph.D., Psychologist. Growth Process Center, Chicago, IL

"Michael combines an extensive knowledge of the rhythmic patterns of the shamanic drum with a safe, warm, and personable style of teaching that is always popular at his workshops at Cedar Mountain Drums."

  --Patrick Pinson, MA, Cedar Mountain Drums, Portland, OR

The Birth of a Shamanic Drum

The birth of a shamanic drum adds a new branch on the World Tree/Tree of Life, which links the Earth and Sky. This central axis exists within each of us. Through the sound of the drum, which is invariably made of wood from the World Tree, we are transported to the axis within and conveyed from plane to plane. When you make or acquire a new drum for shamanic work, ask each of the six powers/directions to bless your drum. Thank the animal spirit for giving its hide for your drum head. Thank the trees for your drum’s wooden rim and ask that the drum’s hoop be connected to the World Tree which enables all trees to sing your prayers while drumming. 

My Journey

Spirit is calling me. Mother Earth is birthing a new beginning. She is dissolving the existing order and fashioning a new arrangement from the pieces. The earthquakes, erupting volcanoes, tsunamis and climate changes are the birth pangs of this new world. As her birth pangs grow stronger and stronger, I feel compelled to travel to the sacred sites that beckon me. I travel with my drum, medicine bundle and helping spirits. As I travel, I am overwhelmed by the beauty and power of nature. Each holy site is a portal to the womb of the sacred mother where I am reborn again and again. I do not know where my journey will take me or when it will end. I am currently performing ceremonials and workshops near Big Pine, CA. To learn more or to participate, click here. To view my Picasa photo travelogue click here.

Bagby Hot Springs Journey Tubs

by Michael Drake

One of my favorite sacred sites is Bagby Hot Springs located about 67 miles southeast of Portland, OR. I make periodic pilgrimages to Bagby to soak and journey in the hollowed-out cedar log bathtubs. The cedar log tubs symbolize and embody the "World Tree," which is the central axis linking the three inner planes of consciousness: the upper, middle, and lower worlds. Moreover, the thermal waters of Bagby are a link between the lower world and the middle earth plane. Like the classic Steppenwolf rock song, a shamanic journey here is nothing short of a "Magic Carpet Ride." Though I savor the divine natural sounds of Bagby, the profane human sounds can be distracting. I recommend that pilgrims bring shamanic journey music and a portable audio device with headphones to support your journey:

I like to dream yes, yes, right between my sound machine

On a cloud of sound I drift in the night

Any place it goes is right

Goes far, flies near, to the stars away from here

 

--"Magic Carpet Ride" by Steppenwolf

Seeing With the Eyes Shut: Ayahuasca Visions

The hallucinogenic brew Ayahuasca has been used for centuries by South American rain forest shamans as a religious sacrament. The "spirit vine" facilitates mystical visions and revelations, and is believed to have healing properties. Though there have been very few studies of its effects on brain function, a Brazilian research team reports one of the very first functional neuroimaging studies of the drug's effects. Results indicate that Ayahuasca visions stem from the activation of an extensive network involving vision, memory, and intention. In the primary visual area, the effect is comparable in magnitude to the activation levels of natural images with the eyes open. By boosting the intensity of an inner image to the same level of a natural image, Ayahuasca imparts a valid sense of reality to inner experiences. Read More

"Tribal Drum: The Original Instructions"

According to Ojibwe author, poet, painter, sculptor and computer artist, Turtle Heart, the "Native American Tribal Drum has status as a 'person;' not as an 'object'. Its makers and keepers are expected to understand the original instructions. The North American Indian drum is not one drum, it is many drums." Read more.

Mongolian Youth Revitalize Shamanism

While traditional shamanism continues to decline around the world, it is currently undergoing a revival in Mongolia. Mongolian youth are leading the revitalization effort, sometimes guided by authentic former shamans. Mongolian shamanism has the longest recorded history in the world. The word Böö "shaman" first appeared on oracle bones from the late Shang Dynasty (1600-1050 BCE). Read More

The Dances of Manchu Shamans

Many of the dances Manchu shamans perform are offerings to animal deities. The shaman first performs an invocation dance, sometimes carrying two drums (the so-called "grabbing" and "carrying" drums), and then the shaman enters a trance state, alternatively referred to as the act of "contacting the deity".  The shaman embodies the deity, behaving in a manner characteristic of the animal summoned, often emitting calls. For example, "when the ‘Spotted Leopard Fire God’ enters the shaman’s body, the shaman immediately drops to the ground and begins to walk on all fours. Sometimes he puts his hands in his lap in order to look around, and may roar loudly. The shaman’s helpers then hold up some burning coals which the shaman puts in his mouth. At this moment all the lights go off. The shaman’s cheeks are burning red and he spits sparks, some of which are over a meter long. Puffing and blowing sounds are heard emanating from the shaman."

Power Animal Drumming

© 2011 by Michael Drake

A shaman or shamaness, by definition (vide Prof. Hutton, Shamans, Hambledon & London, London 2001), is "someone who works with spirits to help others." Shamanism is the intentional effort to acquire and nurture ongoing relationships with personal helping spirits to gain wisdom, healing techniques, and other vital information that can benefit the community.

What I mean by the term spirits is all the material and immaterial forms of life energy that are all around us. We are woven together into a net of life energies that are all around us. These energies can appear to us in different forms, such as spirits of nature, animals, or ancestors. The spirit world is the web of life itself.

Whether you realize it or not, you have always had helper spirits. Helping spirits are like family and friends, and each has a unique personality. The majority of helping spirits take an animal form, most commonly a mammal or bird. Not everyone experiences helping spirits as animals. In cultures where there are no indigenous animals or even birds or insects, the messengers of spirit are experienced through representations of the elements: air, water, fire, earth, sun, moon, planets, stars, and so on.

A power animal is the archetypal spirit that represents the entire species of that animal. It is actually the spirit of one of the First People, as they are called, who at the end of mythic times turned into the animals as we know them today. Raven, for example, is embodied in each individual member of the raven species, but Raven himself still lives in mythic times. In practice this means that while many shamans may work with Raven spirits, there are not many different raven spirits that work with different shamans. Power animals are valuable allies who can help you navigate through life's challenges and transitions. Many animals will come to guide you, some briefly and others throughout your life.

In the worldview of the shaman, power animals or animal archetypes such as Eagle, Coyote, and Bear represent and protect their entire species. When you connect with a power animal, you align yourself with the collective strength and wisdom of the entire species. One of the most important gifts that animal allies offer is protection and guardianship to the shaman during arduous shamanic tasks. Without this alliance, it is widely accepted that it is impossible to become a shaman. Power animals are themselves great teachers and shamans. In many shamanic cultures, the knowledge imparted by a power animal is considered more important than the practical guidance of a master shaman.

Power animals offer humans a much needed medicine. They remind us of what is innocent and truthful. Animals subsist from the heart, with a deep instinctual knowing that is always connected to the web of life. They live from the heart and are not entrapped by their reason. Humans, on the other hand, tend to live from the head, trying to figure everything out. But the energy that comes in from the source is directed through our hearts. We come into our own power when we learn to live from the heart. The heart attunes us to the flow of a dynamic, interrelated universe, helping us feel connected rather than isolated and estranged.

There are many ways to bring power animal energy into your life. Try any of the following:

1. Hang pictures of animals around your house or work area.
2. Read books about animals.
3. Learn about their connection in the web of life.
4. Go for a walk in nature.
5. Take time every day to meditate and tune into an animal.
6. Simply call or invoke an animal. When you call upon the power of an animal, you are asking to be drawn into complete harmony with the strength of that creature’s essence.

Shapeshifting

One of the best ways to connect with power animals is through shapeshifting. Shapeshifting is more than just transforming into an animal as is often depicted in shamanic accounts and tales. It is the ability to shift your energies to adapt to the demands and changes of daily life. We all learn which activities, behaviors, and attitudes support or hinder our survival and growth. It is a natural and instinctual ability that we all share. The minimal development of this talent is the ability to mimic. We often mimic for the purpose of learning something or to blend in with our social or physical environment. It implies changing one’s pattern of appearance or behavior, rather than just using what you already have. Actors, for example, are known for their ability to take on the characteristics of another person or thing.

A shapeshifter is one who manipulates their aura or energy field to access a higher or inner power in order to grow and learn. All shapeshifting occurs on an energy level. If everything is broadcasting its own energy pattern and if you could match and rebroadcast the same pattern, then you would take on the appearance and qualities of the thing you were matching. The only constraining factor is the degree of belief, connection, and energy. Learning to shift your consciousness, to align with and adapt your energies to power animals, opens your heart and mind to the wisdom and strength of the animal world. You must empty yourself so that spirit may embody you. "Become like a hollow bone," a Lakota elder once advised me in the sweat lodge.

Power Animal Drumming

Drumming is an excellent way to induce embodiment trance states and facilitate shapeshifting. When an animal spirit is invoked, there is often an accompanying rhythm that comes through. Shamans frequently use these unique rhythms to summon their helping spirits for the work at hand. As Ted Andrews explains in his book Animal Speak, "Some are so skilled at drumming, they can duplicate the rhythms of various animals. There is snake drumming, wolf drumming, hawk drumming -- a drumming for every animal. As the rhythm is created it plays upon the metabolism of the individual causing entrainment -- the individual’s own heart and metabolic rhythm is brought into synchronization with the drum beat. This is used to facilitate a shapeshifting, an aligning with the archetypal forces represented by the animal." (Animal Speak, © 1993 by Ted Andrews, page 224)

Through drumming, it is possible to co-create a resonant field with a power animal. I recently recorded the CD, Power Animal Drumming: Calling the Spirits to help the listener connect with power animals. The spirit calling rhythms on this CD evolved over many years through me and fellow shamanic circle drummers who gained and nurtured enduring personal relationships with helping animal spirits. Each pattern creates a vibratory resonance that allows these spirit helpers to be called forth. The drumbeat is the tuner sound. Each rhythm projects onto the body a supportive resonance or sound pattern to which the body can attune. As one resonates in sync with the rhythm of an animal, energy and awareness are exchanged.

The basic steps to connect with a power animal are as follows:

1. First, select a private and quiet space. Make whatever arrangements are necessary to assure that you will not be disturbed. Dim the lights and sit comfortably in a chair or on the floor.

2. Next, close your eyes and focus on the breath as it enters the nose and fills your lungs, then gently exhale any tension you might feel. Continue this breathing exercise until you feel calm and relaxed.

3. The next step is to frame a simple and clear statement of your intentions. Whether asking for help or merely getting acquainted with an animal, one must clearly convey the purpose of invoking them.

4. After clearly stating your intent, begin listening to the track on the CD corresponding to the animal you wish to invoke, or begin drumming the animal rhythm yourself. It may take a few moments for you to fully synchronize with the drum pattern.

5. As the drumming progresses, vividly imagine with every sense the animal you are invoking. When you can visualize it fully in front of you, imagine that your body is merging with that of the animal. Allow the change to come slowly. It is not uncommon to be and see the animal simultaneously. Be open to the sensations and feelings of being that animal. Feeling is the most important sensation because you want to imagine what it feels like to be that animal. It helps to mimic the posture, movements, and sounds of the animal. Animal sounds and calls often accompany the drum on the CD as an aid in merging. The degree of merging is limited by any negative attitudes such as anger, fear, and doubt. The goal is to merge to the greatest degree possible while still retaining a bit of self-awareness.  

6. Finally, separate from the animal by imagining yourself back into your physical body. Do not rush the transformation. Imagine the animal fully and completely outside of you once more. Thank the animal for its power, presence, and assistance. Then allow its image to dissipate. 

Be flexible with the steps outlined in this exercise. Adapt and experiment with them. Moreover, your animal guide may gift you with a unique drum beat to summon its presence and power. Remember to thank power animals and seek practical ways to give something of value back to the animal world. Listen to the album on Spotify.