Your Brain on Drumming

Created by Pamela Lynn-Seraphine, MS. CCTP-II: www.21stcenturydrummer.com

Drumming is the equivalent of a full brain workout. It engages practically every area of the brain at once. The reason rhythm is such a powerful tool is that it permeates the entire brain. Vision for example is in one part of the brain, speech another, but drumming accesses the whole brain. The sound of drumming generates dynamic neuronal connections in all parts of the brain even where there is significant damage or impairment such as in Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). According to Michael Thaut, director of Colorado State University's Center for Biomedical Research in Music, "Rhythmic cues can help retrain the brain after a stroke or other neurological impairment, as with Parkinson’s patients..." The more connections that can be made within the brain, the more integrated our experiences become.
 

The above infographic was created by Pamela Lynn-Seraphine, MS. CCTP-II. She is a trauma therapist, specialized in neuropsychology, drummer, consultant and brain-based educator. Pamela's research merges the brain-mind-body relationship of neural integration with the neurobiological underpinnings of drumming to understand its dynamics and improve holistic and integrative interventions in treating trauma and stress-related issues. She has researched areas such as the neurobiology of drumming for interpersonal trauma recovery, the biology of trauma, neurobiology of empowerment, peak performance, longevity, and healthy aging. Pamela is the founder of the 21st Century Drummer Academy--an online certification training program for mental health professionals and non-licensed professionals who want to provide neurobiologically informed rhythm-based interventions to clients as part of their professional scope of practice to help individuals heal the effects of complex/interpersonal trauma and adverse life experiences.
 

Current research like Pamela's is now verifying the therapeutic effects of drumming. Recent research reviews indicate that drumming accelerates physical healing, boosts the immune system and produces feelings of well-being, a release of emotional trauma, and reintegration of self. Other studies have demonstrated the calming, focusing, and healing effects of drumming on Alzheimer's patients, autistic children, emotionally disturbed teens, recovering addicts, trauma patients, and prison and homeless populations. Study results demonstrate that drumming is a valuable treatment for stress, fatigue, anxiety, hypertension, asthma, chronic pain, arthritis, mental illness, migraines, cancer, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, stroke, paralysis, emotional disorders, and a wide range of physical disabilities. To learn more read my article on Drum Therapy.

Return of the Horse Nation

The horse originated in the Americas more than 40 million years ago. After spreading to Asia and Europe, it became extinct in its homeland. In 1493, the horse returned to the Western Hemisphere when Columbus brought a herd of 25 on his second voyage. Back in the Americas, its native land, the horse flourished.
 

For Native peoples, the first sight of a horse must have been terrifying. A Spanish soldier on horseback would appear to be a single monstrous creature. The Spanish used this terror to advance their conquest, sometimes attaching bells to their armor to add more noise and confusion. The Spanish used horses as powerful weapons of conquest and made every effort to keep them out of Native hands.
 

But gradually, Spanish horses became Indian horses, and Native people began to weave a close relationship with the Horse Nation. Strays from colonial ranches and settlements formed wild herds that Native people caught and tamed. Other horses were captured in raids and rebellions against colonial forces. As horses spread across the Americas, they transformed Native lifestyles and became an important ally in fighting the European invaders. As each tribe encountered the horse, they coined a name for it. A number of tribes used names that likened it to the dog, which was used to pull the travois when tribes traveled.
 
The Pueblo Revolt
 
In 1680, after a century of Spanish domination, the Pueblo Indians rose up against their colonial rulers in the region now known as New Mexico. Led by Popé, a Tewa religious leader, they attacked Santa Fe, killing some 400 Spaniards and forcing many more to flee. Hundreds of horses--perhaps more than 1,500--were left behind, the largest number to pass into Native hands at one time. These horses became the ancestors of many tribal herds. The Pueblo people traded horses to neighboring tribes, and the horse population expanded rapidly across North America. Spain's monopoly of horses in the Americas was over.
 
In the West, horses dispersed quickly along Native American trading routes--first from the Pueblo to the Navajo, Ute, and Apache. The Comanche on the southern Plains traded them north to their kinsmen the Shoshone. These were among the first tribes to incorporate horses into their way of life. By 1700 horses had reached tribes in the far northwest--the Bannock, Nez Perce, Cayuse, Umatilla, and others. Trading links sent them east to the River and Mountain Crow and Missouri River tribes.
 
By the late 1700s, virtually every tribe in the West was mounted. Horses strengthened Native communities and helped in the fight for Indian lands. Horses revolutionized Native life and became an integral part of tribal cultures, honored in objects, stories, songs, and ceremonies. Horses changed methods of hunting and warfare, modes of travel, lifestyles, and standards of wealth and prestige. Horses brought abundance: more food from the hunt, more leisure time. Horse ownership, or an association with horses, conferred status and respect within the community.
 
Native peoples forged spiritual relationships with the Horse Nation. Plains tribes embraced the horse as a spirit brother and a link to the supernatural realm, and incorporated the horse into ceremonies. Embodiments of beauty, courage, and healing power, images of horses on ceremonial objects represent this spiritual connection. Horse visions are still reported by traditional believers who seek knowledge and strength through fasting and vision quests. Although visions are intensely personal, some may be shared through song, performance, and art.
 
Among Native American tribes today, the horse is a symbol of freedom--and protest as a way to achieve this freedom. Horses are an integral part of life for many Indigenous people of this country, so it’s no surprise the animals play a significant role in demonstrations, from the Dakota Access Pipeline protests at Standing Rock to the annual Dakota 38 + 2 Memorial Ride that honors those Dakota warriors killed in the largest mass execution in U.S. history. The medicine power of the Sunktanka Oyate (the Horse Nation in Dakota language) has helped strengthen, heal and empower Native people and youth through these efforts.

Laguna Pueblo Author Leslie Marmon Silko

Ceremony
I will tell you something about stories,
[he said]
They aren't just for entertainment.
Don't be fooled
They are all we have, you see,
all we have to fight off illness and death.
You don't have anything
if you don't have the stories.
Their evil is mighty
but it can't stand up to our stories.
So they try to destroy the stories
let the stories be confused or forgotten
They would like that
They would be happy
Because we would be defenseless then.(1)

The above passage is from Laguna Pueblo author Leslie Marmon Silko's acclaimed 1977 novel Ceremony. The excerpt emphasizes the essential role that storytelling plays within the Pueblo culture. It also sums up the repeated attempts of colonial invaders to erase Pueblo culture by destroying its ceremonies. Despite these attempts, which began in 1540 and continued until the 1930s, the core elements of Pueblo myth and ritual have survived. However, as Silko reveals in Ceremony, the years from World War II to the present have brought new threats to the Pueblos, which, although more subtle than the early Spanish conquests, are even more insidious, and must be confronted if the Pueblo culture is to survive.

In Ceremony, Silko portrays the endangered state of the Laguna reservation following World War II. The land has been damaged by runoff from the uranium mining, and a generation of young Pueblo men has been devastated by the war. Ceremony tells the story of Tayo, a wounded returning World War II veteran of mixed Laguna-white ancestry following a short stint at a Los Angeles VA hospital. He is returning to the poverty-stricken Laguna reservation, continuing to suffer from battle fatigue, and is haunted by memories of his cousin Rocky who died in the conflict during the Bataan Death March of 1942. His initial escape from pain leads him to alcoholism, but his Old Grandma and mixed-blood Navajo medicine man Betonie help him through Native ceremonies to develop a greater understanding of the world and his place as a Laguna man.

In his search for healing, Tayo seeks a cure from Ku'oosh, the old medicine man. Ku'oosh realizes that he cannot heal Tayo because, "Some things we can't cure like we used to...not since the white people came." While the return to the old ways helps Tayo, something else is needed to complete his healing ceremony. This is where Betonie, a new kind of healer, comes in. Betonie still wears the traditional clothes of a medicine man and uses the traditional paraphernalia, such as prayer sticks, gourd rattles and sacred herbs. But Betonie also uses contemporary items as healing tools, such as coke bottles, phone books and old gas station calendars with pictures of Indians on them, all common objects on the reservation. When Tayo questions the use of such non-traditional items for his ceremonies, Betonie responds, "In the old days it was simple. A medicine person could get by without all these things. But nowadays..."

Betonie provides Tayo with the blend of tools and faith Tayo needs in order to undertake the completion of the ceremony, which can cure both himself and his people. The key to survival of Pueblo culture, as Silko demonstrates in Ceremony, may be found in allowing traditional Pueblo ceremonies to change to meet the present-day realities of reservation life. It's in this fusion of old and new that the Pueblos may find the healing they so desperately need after suffering nearly 500 years of colonialism.

Ceremony gained immediate acceptance when returning Vietnam war veterans took to the novel's theme of coping, healing and reconciliation between races and people that share the trauma of military actions. It was largely on the strength of this work that literary critic Alan R. Velie named Silko one of his Four Native American Literary Masters, along with N. Scott Momaday, Gerald Vizenor and James Welch. Her publications include Laguna Woman: Poems (1974), Ceremony (1977), Storyteller (1981), Almanac of the Dead (1991), Gardens in the Dunes (1999) and The Turquoise Ledge: A Memoir (2010).

1. Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony (Viking Press, 1977), p. 2.

The Navajo Storm Pattern Rug

An excerpt from my soon-to-be released memoir, Riding Spirit Horse: A Journey into Shamanism. 

Years ago, one of my shamanic mentors gifted me an old Navajo "storm pattern rug," recognizable by its large central rectangle connected by zigzag lightning lines to smaller rectangles in each corner, which represent the four directions, winds and sacred mountains of the Navajo. The central rectangle symbolizes the Lake of Emergence, the portal through which their ancient ancestors first emerged to enter the present world. The lightning bolts carry blessings back and forth between the mountaintops, bestowing good spirits on the weaver and her household.

Navajo rugs and blankets are textiles produced by Navajo people of the Four Corners area of the United States. Weaving plays a role in the creation myth of Navajo cosmology. According to Navajo mythology, a spirit being called Spider Woman instructed the women of the Navajo how to build the first loom from exotic materials including sky, earth, sunrays, rock crystal and sheet lightning. Then Spider Woman taught the Navajo how to weave on it. Because of this belief, traditionally there will be an intentional mistake somewhere within the pattern. It is said to prevent the weaver from becoming lost in Spider Woman's web or pattern.

My mentor suggested that I sit on the rug whenever I journey into the spirit world. I took his advice and journeyed at home while sitting on the rug. When I entered a trance, the rug became a mandala-like portal before me. I went through a doorway at the center of the undulating geometric pattern. I came out beneath a numinous web of light that surrounded the planet. The web emanated a blue glow against the black night-time sky above it. Spider Woman descended from the web on a strand of light and stood before me. She looked menacing and I feared being trapped in her web. She told me that I had nothing to fear. She conveyed that she was the weaver of the web of life. She said the Navajo rug would serve as a portal for me to journey into the spirit world.  

I thanked Spider Woman and returned through the portal to my body. When I opened my eyes, I saw a large spider on the rug beside me. I thanked the spider for being there to support my shamanic journey. It was a good omen

Singer, Songwriter Annie Humphrey

Annie Humphrey is an Ojibwe singer, songwriter and visual artist who was born and raised on the Leech Lake Reservation in Northern Minnesota. Her father was a singer and musician and her mother an artist and poet. They showed her that she carried their gifts in her hands too. She has been recording music for three decades. Humphrey's music career began out of pure necessity. With two young children to care for, she began performing at coffee houses and local events. Over the years her songwriting has focused on a specific theme with a message to "Be brave and have a good journey."
 

One of my favorite Humphrey songs is "Spirit Horses" from her first solo release, The Heron Smiled. Activist and poet John Trudell performs with Humphrey on this powerful, moving song. The Heron Smiled won her national recognition as Female Artist of the Year and Best Folk Recording at the 2000 Native American Music Awards. A true form of modern folk music, this album is simply one of the purest, honest and beautiful collections of music I have heard in many years. In 2004, her second recording, Edge of America was released. It's a little darker than her debut album but an inspiring five star release. The title track from this recording was later featured on acclaimed Native American filmmaker Chris Eyre's film Edge of America.
 

Her latest album, Eat What You Kill, was released in 2019. It features poetic lyrics that speak of accountability and gratitude. Her powerful voice pours out over her piano playing, sweeping listeners up in a whirlwind of emotions and feelings. On one of her songs Humphrey sings, "show your babies all I know, live by the stories my mother told." She uses her music and lyrics to pass down stories and a way of life. Another song, "Now She Dances," is about sexual assault. The song is also about climate change. The way women are treated, and the way the earth is treated, are the same. The last track, "Aadzookaan," speaks about the apocalyptic prophecies to the generation coming up. It says don't be fearful because these things are going to happen. The last verse of the song talks about how everything we need is on our land--the medicine, the resources, the food, everything we need. This is why we're going to be okay.
 

Today Humphrey is happily married and has four children and two grandsons. They inspire her spirit and her art. Her special interest is Turtle Heart, a group she founded that works with youth in her community to promote positive lifestyle choices. She continues to write music and perform. In a recent interview she spoke about her music career, saying, "I have more songs I will finish. I don't have a plan in the music field. I've never marketed aggressively. I just plan to keep writing and playing."

Why Do We Fear Death?

65 million people die each year in the world. That is 178,000 each day, 7425 each hour, and 120 each minute. Unfortunately, many people are so removed from death that they are unprepared for their own death and the deaths of loved ones. The stories we have been told about where we go when we die shape our reality about death. Millions of people are terrified of death because they have been told a story of hell and damnation. When a person fears retribution for misdeeds, the soul may turn away from the bright light. However, it is not the divine that judges us -- we judge ourselves and condemn ourselves to the hell of separation from the divine source.
 

The truth is that dying is part of life; it's just that simple. Death, as we understand it in scientific terminology, does not really exist. As Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, a pioneer of the hospice movement, explains in her best-selling book On Death and Dying: "Death is simply a shedding of the physical body like the butterfly shedding its cocoon. It is a transition to a higher state of consciousness where you continue to perceive, to understand, to laugh, and to be able to grow." The only thing you lose is something that you don't need anymore: your physical body. That's virtually what death is all about.
 

Death is not an end; rather it is a new beginning. When death is accepted as a natural part of our journey, an extraordinary amount of previously diverted energy can be redirected toward finding your calling, following your heart and helping others. Shamanism shows us that the end of our life is just as important as our birth at the beginning. Living in fear of death distorts our lives, robbing us of death as a great ally for how to live well. "It is not death but an unlived life that should terrify us," explains shamanic teacher and author, Christina Pratt. "When we understand how our unlived lives and unreconciled relationships bind us here at death, we understand what is needed to live well."
 

Reincarnation is a key belief within Hinduism, Buddhism and other eastern religions. All life goes through birth, growth, death and rebirth, and this is known as the cycle of samsara. Life and death are a continuous circle. Through reincarnation and maintaining an open mind, our souls can evolve and grow without limit. We are each on a long journey of the soul, however we can't move forward on this continuous path without a free and open mind. As soon as we close our minds because of religious dogma, fundamentalism or fanaticism, we stop evolving.

Shamanic Initiation Dreams

Many people in today's world are being called by Spirit to become shamans or shamanic practitioners. A yearning exists deep within many of us to reconnect to the natural world. It is a call to a life lived in balance with awareness of Nature, of Spirit and of Self. We live in a culture that has severed itself from Nature and Spirit. Humans have lost touch with the spirit world and the wisdom of inner knowing. The spirits, however, have not forgotten us. They are calling us to a path of environmental sanity, to rejoining the miraculous cycle of Nature. 

Spirit calls us to a path of shamanism in many ways. It can be as dramatic as a life threatening illness or as simple as a dream. Some people receive signs of a shamanic calling through their dreams. Future shamans may dream of spirits and ancestors or hear their voices. Others may have recurring dreams in which they meet certain animal or teacher figures that are manifestations of the very spirits who are calling them. Also, in dreams the candidate is sometimes given initiatory directives and learns which objects will be needed to perform cures. These instructions are given by the spirits and by the older master shamans and are equivalent to an initiation.

 
During a shamanic dream initiation, the candidate usually experiences suffering, death, and resurrection, including a symbolic cutting up of the body, such as dismemberment or disembowelment by ancestral or animal spirits. The candidate dies a symbolic death and is then restored and brought back to life, whole and empowered. Sometimes initiation dreams begin even in childhood. Usually, the premonitory dreams of future shamans are followed by mortal illnesses if they are not rightly respected.
 

The souls of the dead are regarded as a source of shamanic powers among some tribes like the Paviotso, the Shoshone, the Paiute, the Lillooet, and the Thompson Salish. In northern California this method of bestowing shamanic powers is widespread. The Yurok shamans dream of a dead man, usually a shaman. Among the Sinkyone the power is sometimes received in dreams in which the candidate's deceased relatives appear; the Wintu also become shamans after such dreams, especially if they dream of their own dead children. In the Shasta tribe the first indication of shamanic power follows dreams of a departed mother, father, or ancestor.

 
Among the Mohave and the Yuma of southern California, power comes from the mythical beings who transmitted it to shamans at the beginning of the world. Transmission takes place in dreams and includes an initiation scenario. In their dreams the Yuma shamans witness the beginning of the world and experience mythical times. Such dreams may include a mystical journey to the archetypal Cosmic Tree or World Tree. Among the Maricopa, initiatory dreams involve a spirit taking the future shaman's soul and leading it from mountain to mountain, each time revealing songs and cures. Ultimately, it is the spirits who choose and make the shaman.

Drum Divination

The drum can be utilized as a divination tool. The Sami peoples of northern Scandinavia and the Kola Peninsula in Russia were renowned for their drum divination skills. They used divination to determine the future, luck or misfortune, location of game, diagnosis, and remedies. The Sami practiced an indigenous form of shamanism until the religious repression of shamanic practices in the mid-seventeenth century. The runebomme, an oval frame or bowl drum, was an important trance and divination tool of the noaidi, or Sami shaman. The reindeer, which was central to Sami culture and livelihood, provided the hide for the drumhead, the sinew to lace it together, and the antler bone for the drumstick or hammer. The Sami believed that the reindeer’s antlers were conduits to the Upper World.

Sami drumheads are decorated with cosmological rune symbols and drawings of heavenly bodies, plants, animals, humans, and human habitations, sometimes divided into separate regions by horizontal or vertical lines. Sami drums are characterized by a central sun cross with arms protruding in the four cardinal directions. The cross symbolized the sun--the source of life. The terminal of the lower arm is often embellished, in many cases with a sort of (cave?) opening. This is, according to old descriptions, the starting position for the brass ring or antler piece placed on the drumskin when used for divination. The only other figures commonly found on this arm are the holy day men. These three figures (sometimes just one or two) are usually the most simplified of all human figures, frequently represented by simple crosses.

For divination, the drum is held horizontally with the drum face or table parallel to the floor. A metal ring or other kind of pointer is centered on the top of the drumhead. The drum is gently played with the drumstick so that the pointer moves across the drumhead, but does not fall to the floor. The diviner observes the movement of the pointer in relation to the symbols on the drum to interpret the answer. Detailed instructions on how to make and use divination drums can be found in Richard Webster’s book Omens, Oghams & Oracles: Divination in the Druidic Tradition.

The Rhythm Archetypes

The I Ching is an ancient Chinese book of divination, in which 64 pairs of trigrams are shown with various interpretations. Otherwise known as the Book of Changes, this archaic and enigmatic text is the culmination of Chinese thought regarding the nature of reality. The fountainhead of Taoist and Confucian thought, it is a philosophical system of primal insights into the workings and destiny of the Universe. Philosophically it describes the Tao or Universe as a single, flowing, rhythmic being, and all things in it in constant cyclical change. The eternal Tao continuously gives birth to the one universal energy, which expresses itself as two polar but co-creative aspects--yin and yang.
 

The sages of ancient China revealed the most profound secret of the Universe--that yin and yang pulsate within all things and in unison, they are the moving force of Nature and all its manifestations. All things contain varying degrees of yin and yang. The white vibration of yang is light, active, masculine, creative, expansive, and corresponds to Heaven or spirit. The black vibration of yin is dark, passive, feminine, nurturing, intuitive, and corresponds to Earth or matter. The power of yin as a calm, receptive, female energy is the key to bringing balance to the world's excessively yang state--in other words, aggressive, male, extroverted, loud, superficial, materialistic, ego-driven culture.
 

By contemplating Nature, the wise sages perceived all of the rhythms and energy patterns that arise from the interaction of yin and yang. By observing patterns of events arising in the natural world, the social world and the inner world of the psyche, they deciphered Nature's rhythmic code. They then coded these rhythmic patterns into a "book of life." The I Ching's 64 hexagrams represent a code or program of the operating principle of life itself. Each six-lined symbol is the visual representation of a rhythm archetype. The rhythm archetypes are the "sonic seeds" of all that exists.
 

The entire Universe is created through vibration and can be influenced through vibration. T'an Ch'iao, a Taoist adept of the tenth century, expressed this potential when he wrote, "When energy moves, sound is emitted; when sound comes forth, energy vibrates. When energy vibrates, influences are activated and things change. Therefore it is possible thereby to command wind and clouds, produce frost and hail, cause phoenixes to sing, get bears to dance, make friends with spiritual luminescences."
 

The Hexagram Rhythms
 

Moreover, each six-lined symbol depicts a particular drum pattern, which renders the essence of each hexagram into sound. A solid yang line _____ represents one whole beat, while a broken yin line __  __ represents two half beats or a heartbeat. For example, the rhythmic pattern of Hexagram 58, "The Joyous," resembles the opening beats of the familiar processional "The Wedding March." This simple drum pattern is depicted below. Remember, hexagrams are read from bottom to top.

             Line 6        __  __        drum—drum         in white
             Line 5        _____              drum               dressed
             Line 4        _____              drum                   all
             Line 3        __  __        drum—drum        the bride
             Line 2        _____              drum                comes
             Line 1        _____              drum                 Here

Drumming is an innovative way to engage with an I Ching reading. It is a type of focus meditation, requiring total concentration. Drum meditation is a way to access the archetypal wisdom contained in each hexagram. As a form of meditation, drumming activates perceptions that can be attained by no other means. By drumming the hexagrams, one can achieve a level of intuitive understanding beyond linguistic interpretations. Archetypal knowledge is symbolic and non-linear. It does not lend itself readily to logical or verbal expression. It is wisdom that can only be experienced intuitively. The process is an effective meditative technique for self-exploration.

Steven Halpern's "Cannabis Dreams"

Steven Halpern, the Grammy nominated founder of the sound healing movement, released a new album, Cannabis Dreams. Cannabis Dreams is the latest of Halpern's 100-plus music albums that for over 45 years have helped his listeners manage stress, reduce pain and facilitate sleep. I still enjoy listening to his 2001 CD release, Chakra Suite: Music for Meditation, Healing and Inner Peace. Cannabis Dreams is among the first to link healing music and healing cannabis, whose ancient roots trace back more than 5,000 years. The 11-track album features Halpern's signature sound, an electric piano combined with hypnotic brainwave entrainment technology. The music supports relaxation, healing, meditation and spiritual well-being.
 

The seed concept for this album was planted in 1982 when an anthropologist handed Halpern an extraordinary cannabis strain used by an indigenous Alaskan shamanic healer. "One toke, and I heard music in a very different way," says Halpern. "It inspired an improvised grand piano jam that was different from anything I had recorded previously. I wondered if certain other strains might inspire a new composition if used exclusively. The answer turned out to be Yes."
 

In 2015, Halpern was invited to be a Celebrity Brand Ambassador for a leading Cannabis dispensary. Although the collaboration was short-lived, their top shelf strain, called Mystic Haze, evoked a meditative, healing and spiritual high, and inspired the several variations of the title track on Cannabis Dreams.
 

The album was completed when Halpern read about the new spiritually-uplifting strain released by entrepreneurial musician Carlos Santana and Left Coast Ventures. "After hearing music in meditation after sampling this strain, it was obvious I needed to include a new track inspired by Mirayo by Santana," he said. "I was able to book time in a recording studio on 11/11/20, and two extraordinary compositions now complete the album."
 

The spirit of each strain speaks through the music. Deep alpha brainwave entrainment tones are subtly mixed into the music, which entrain your brain to higher coherence to further support your immune system functioning. The artist suggests that one "grabs a set of headphones for the full psycho-acoustic effect." Cannabis Dreams is Halpern's heartfelt "thank you" to the master growers who keep improving on the spiritually uplifting and creativity-enhancing strains.

The Modern Shamanic Sound of Namgar

"Nayan Navaa" is the superb new album from Namgar, a band that plays modern sounds rooted in traditional music from the Republic of Buryatia in southern Siberia. The Moscow-based band led by renowned female Buryatia vocalist Namgar Lhasaranova features Buryat, Russian, Tuvan and Norwegian musicians. Together, the band presents a unique multi-ethnic musical mix that includes shamanic vocals, throat singing, galloping rhythms, rock, jazz, and mesmerizing soundscapes.
 

The melodic music Namgar creates was passed down to Lhasaranova from her grandparents and father, who sang to her as a child. The inventive arrangements are new, but the stories told in the songs are as old as the indigenous Buryats themselves, with tales and myths of ancient Mongol fighters, champions, horses and famous battles. The lyrics are based on traditional Buryat and Mongolian songs, reflecting Buryat nomadic culture. Topics include hunter, wedding, family, and yokhor round dance songs, as well as songs about horses, ancestors and shamanic rituals.
 

The group uses various traditional instruments from Buryatia and nearby regions such as the yataga (a 13-stringed zither), the chanza (a three-stringed lute), the khomus (jaw harp) and the morin khuur (a two-stringed bowed instrument), along with modern instruments like electric bass and drums to craft its unique sound. Lhasaranova has a beautiful, impressive voice. Her power, energy and amazing vocal range go beyond words and language, taking her listener on a journey to Siberia and the world of the Buryats, people whose roots reach back to Ghengis Khan and the Mongolian Empire.

"The Shamanic Drum" eBook Sale

Mark your calendar! I am taking part in the 13th annual Smashwords July Summer/Winter Sale, taking place Thursday, July 1 through Saturday, July 31, 2021. For the entire month of July, all of my ebooks are 50% off list price: The Shamanic Drum: A Guide to Sacred Drumming, I Ching: The Tao of Drumming, Shamanic Drumming: Calling the Spirits, Shamanic Drumming Circles Guide, and The Great Shift: And How To Navigate It. Choose from multiple file formats including .epub, .mobi for Kindles, and PDF. Click on the following link to my Smashwords author page and you will receive the 50% discount automatically by adding my books to your cart: Smashwords July Summer/Winter Sale.
 

Why does Smashwords call it "Summer/Winter"? Here in the Northern hemisphere, it's mid-summer. Readers are loading their e-reading devices for summer beach reading and long-awaited vacations. South of the equator, readers are now in the middle of winter. They're ready to curl up in front of the fireplace and enjoy a great read too! Smashwords is the world's largest distributor of indie ebooks. They make it fast, free and easy for any author or publisher, anywhere in the world, to publish and distribute ebooks to the major retailers and thousands of libraries. The Smashwords Store provides an opportunity to discover new voices in all categories and genres of the written word.

Winona LaDuke: Native Environmentalism

I had the opportunity to meet Winona LaDuke and hear her speak at a conference years ago. LaDuke is a renowned Anishinaabe environmentalist, economist, writer and past two time vice-presidential candidate (with Ralph Nader), known for her work on tribal land claims and preservation, as well as women's rights. She is from the Makwa Dodaem (Bear Clan) of the White Earth Reservation in northern Minnesota. LaDuke was raised in Ashland Oregon, the daughter of Betty Bernstein and Vincent (Sun Bear) LaDuke. Her Anishinaabe father worked as an actor in Hollywood in supporting roles in Western movies before establishing himself as an author and spiritual leader in the 1980's. Her mother is an artist and writer who has gained an international reputation for her murals, paintings and sketches.

LaDuke attended Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Antioch University. She has testified at the United Nations, U.S. Congress, state hearings, and is an expert witness on economics and the environment. She advocates primarily for the protection of the environment and the rights of women. In 1985, LaDuke helped found the Indigenous Women's Network. She worked with the Native organization Women of All Red Nations to publicize American forced sterilization of Native American women. In 1989, LaDuke founded the White Earth Land Recovery Project in Minnesota with the proceeds of a human rights award from Reebok. The goal is to buy back land in the White Earth Indian Reservation that non-Natives bought and to create enterprises that provide work to Anishinaabe.

LaDuke is humorous, enlightening and above all political. She speaks with a Native voice without altering her language for non-Natives. Her words differ from establishment thinking and offer new ways of understanding the world and the solutions we need for the great issues of climate change. She conveys a beautiful and daring vision of political, spiritual and ecological transformation. LaDuke spoke at length about Native environmental issues and challenges. Despite making up a tiny fraction of the world's population, Indigenous peoples hold ancestral rights to some 65 percent of the planet. This poignant fact conveys the enormous role that Native peoples play not only as environmental stewards, but as political actors on the global stage.
 

All over the world, Native peoples are engaged in battles with hostile corporations and governments that claim the right to set aside small reserves for Native people, and then to seize the rest of their traditional territory. They are confronting the destructive practices of industry and leading the charge against climate change, while defending the rivers, forests and food systems that we all depend on. At the same time, they are blocking governments from eroding basic rights and freedoms and turning to the courts of the world to remedy over 500 years of historical wrongs. Native peoples are putting their lives on the line and fighting back for political autonomy and land rights. And all the while, they are breathing new life into the biocultural heritage that has the potential to sustain the entire human race.
 

Native Americans often articulate alternative environmental perspectives and relationships to the natural world. Indigenous mythologies and oral traditions express a non-anthropocentric environmental ethic. Indigenous groups offer ancient tried-and-tested knowledge and wisdom based on their own locally developed practices of resource use. And, as Native peoples themselves have insisted for centuries, they often understand and exhibit a holistic, interconnected and interdependent relationship to particular landscapes and to the totality of life, animate and inanimate, found there.
 

Perhaps the most important aspect of Indigenous cosmology is the conception of creation as a living process, resulting in a living universe in which a kinship exists between all things. Thus the Mother Earth is a living being, as are the Sun, Stars and the Moon. Hence the Creators are our family, our Grandparents or Parents, and all of their creations are children who are also our relations.

LaDuke captured the essence of this concept when she said: "Native American teachings describe the relations all around--animals, fish, trees, and rocks--as our brothers, sisters, uncles, and grandpas...These relations are honored in ceremony, song, story, and life that keep relations close--to buffalo, sturgeon, salmon, turtles, bears, wolves, and panthers. These are our older relatives--the ones who came before and taught us how to live."
 

The industrialized West is largely unaware of how Indigenous societies have functioned, and the strengths they possess that industrial cultures have lacked. Our notions of progress are based on the idea that high tech means better and that industrial cultures are somehow more advanced socially. The current state of our threatened environment demands that communication channels be opened for dialogue and engagement with Native environmental ethics.  
 

When describing Indigenous environmental activism, LaDuke said, "Grassroots and land-based struggles characterize most of Native environmentalism. We are nations of people with distinct land areas, and our leadership and direction emerge from the land up." Each nation and community has its own unique cultural traditions linked to the land. 

LaDuke detailed how different groups of Native people are contending with environmental issues and are seeking to address them at the local, community level. They are also forming national and international organizations that seek to help individual nations, in large part through information sharing and technical assistance. In the final analysis, however, each nation, reserve, or community has to confront its own issues and develop its own leadership. This must be stressed over and over again: each sovereign Native nation will deal with its own environmental issues in its own way. There is no single Native American government that can develop a collective Indigenous response to the crisis we all face.

LaDuke emphasized that the environmental awareness of many Native American groups translates into a high level of respect for women in their communities. A good deal of evidence has shown that when women have high status, education, and choices, they tend to greatly enrich a community and to stabilize population growth. Many traditional American societies have been able to maintain balance with their environments because of the high status of women, a long period of nursing for infants, and/or the control of reproductive decisions by women. Many of the leaders in the Native struggle today are women.

LaDuke pointed out that respect and humility form the foundation of Native lifeways, since they not only lead to minimal exploitation of other living things but also preclude the arrogance of colonial missionary activity, secular imperialism, and the oppressive patriarchy. She noted that: "In each deliberation we consider the impact on the seventh generation from now. Everything we have today we inherited, we are very, very fortunate today that our ancestors were strong people. We’re very, very fortunate that our ancestors took care of this land so well. We also know that those who are not yet here are counting on us not to mess this up…they’re counting on us to make sure that there will be water for them to drink, that there will still be fish, that the air will not be so poisoned or so hot that they cannot live."
 

Native people are not only trying to clean up uranium tailings, purify polluted water, and mount opposition to fossil fuel extraction; they are also continuing their spiritual ways of seeking to celebrate and support all life by means of ceremonies and prayers. As LaDuke told us in closing: "In our communities, Native environmentalists sing centuries-old songs to renew life, to give thanks for the strawberries, to call home fish, and to thank Mother Earth for her blessings."

The Summer Solstice: Planting Seeds of Good Cause

The 2021 summer solstice is Monday, June 21 at 03:32 UTC. In the Northern Hemisphere, the summer solstice is the first day of summer and the longest day of the year. The summer solstice is a turning point when the days start to grow shorter. This occurs June 20, 21, or 22, varying from year to year, dependent upon the elliptical path of the Earth around our sun. Technically the summer solstice marks the instant at which the Earth's axis stops tilting toward the sun and starts going back the other way. Solstice means "standing-still-sun." At summer solstice, the sun journeys farthest north 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 south.  
 

At the summer solstice, we begin a new cycle on the Medicine Wheel of Life, entering the South--the home of summer, midday, youth, joy, trust, and growth. From the South rises the vital energy of renewal, regeneration, and growth. From the South we learn to plant seeds of good cause. We learn that our thoughts and actions create our reality. Whether we realize it or not, we are creating our reality all the time. Our reality is the perfect, exact mirror of our thoughts and what we consistently focus upon. Every thought, idea, or image in the mind has form and substance. Everything that we perceive began with a thought. The structure of our universe is thought, mind and consciousness. Consciousness determines the form of our experience. Consciousness is the "theater of perceptual awareness." It is the collective consciousness of humanity that shapes our physical reality.

Creating Reality

We are creating our reality with our thoughts, beliefs, intentions, and more. When we are oblivious to the power that we all share to create our collective reality, that power slips away from us and our reality becomes a nightmare. We begin to feel like victims of a dark and chaotic creation that we are unable to influence or change. We are inundated with negative world events that create anxiety, fear and hopelessness. The only way to end this dreadful reality is to awaken to the fact that it is imaginary, and recognize our ability to imagine a better story, one that the universe will work with us to manifest.

We cannot "restore" our broken reality without "restorying" our life. It is easy to create in the world that everyone believes to be true, the collective story of humanity. It is easy to reproduce and replicate the reality of the world as we know it; in fact, it is automatic. It requires no thought or awareness. We can only change our collective story by changing the way we think--by changing our beliefs, expectations and assumptions which keep us stuck in a limited perspective of our personal and social reality. Those aspects of our experience that are most enduring are the effect of habitual expectations and beliefs, or in other words, what we focus our attention on.

It is through our attention that we influence and direct the aspects of our experience and the world around us. What we pay attention to becomes what we know as ourselves and our world, for energy flows where attention goes. As positive psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi points out in his book, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, "We create ourselves by how we invest this energy. Memories, thoughts, and feelings are all shaped by how we use it. And it is an energy under our control; hence, attention is our most important tool in the task of improving the quality of experience." What we focus our attention on is what our life becomes--the clearer the intention, the greater the impact.

Drumming at Sacred Sites

Earth, human and solar processes are interwoven through a vibrational resonant network around the planet. The lines and intersection points of this energy grid match most of the Earth’s seismic fracture zones and ocean ridges as well as worldwide atmospheric highs and lows, paths of migratory birds, gravitational anomalies, and the sites of ancient temples and megalithic structures. The early geomancers (Earth diviners) discovered that this numinous web is the planetary counterpart to the acupuncture meridian system of the human body. Humans, they realized, were created in the image of Mother Earth. The acupuncture and node points of the human body correspond to those of the Earth Mother.

At the intersection points of the planet’s energy web exist holy places, power spots, or acupuncture points. According to the Hopi, the world would fall apart without these nodes of concentrated vitality. These sacred places are like nerve centers that distribute vital energy throughout the surrounding natural systems. When a human being goes to a power place, the attention of the Earth Mother is drawn to that area and energy begins to flow to that spot because our bodies, like hers, are electromagnetic. Like acupuncture needles, humans are capable of maintaining the harmonious flow of the planetary energy meridians by making an Earth connection at power places.

Great healing can be accomplished by drumming at sacred sites. Earth and humans exist in a reciprocal, bioresonant relationship. Through the planet’s resonant web, we affect our environment; our environment, in turn, affects us. By interacting with sacred places, we are capable of generating a world of peace and harmony. Power sites are places that call out to the soul; they can have a collective calling or be unique to an individual. Seek out power places. Your power spots can be identified by your desire to go to them. Their significance to you is always revealed by your planned or accidental presence at them. And when you are there, your vibration feels higher, stronger, more joyous and free. Every square inch of the Earth Mother is sacred and a potential connecting place for someone.

Mountains, rivers, and waterfalls are powerful places to drum. Indigenous people believe that mountains are inhabited by powerful spirits that watch over the people. Each mountain has its own spirit, its own name and its own domain which they protect. Mountain spirits are called upon for assistance, blessings, and protection. Mountainous regions charge you with energy and counteract imbalances or negativity. Mountains are generally electrical (yang) and projective in nature, emanating great spiritual power. Mountains are places of spiritual renewal where Heaven and Earth meet and from which all directions emanate. They are good places to drum for planetary healing.     
 

Rivers, lakes, and ocean beaches are magnetic (yin) and receptive in nature. Being near a body of water is soothing and relaxing. Magnetic fields influence the pituitary gland, which is related to the brow chakra (chakras are vibratory energy centers located along the center of the human body), otherwise known as the third eye or mind’s eye. Bodies of water expand and clarify inner vision, sharpen telepathic abilities, and stimulate the flow of healing energies. A close proximity to water helps cleanse the body, mind and spirit. Rivers, in particular, are good places to drum, for the healing energy generated will flow downstream. Water is a profound conductor of energy.

Waterfalls are electromagnetic in nature. The water itself in magnetic. The falling water produces electrical energy. The two forces combine to form electromagnetic energy. Such energy is of a balanced, harmonic nature. Waterfalls are places of spiritual power that can truly expand our spirits. The spirits and energies of waterfalls are especially suited for balancing and recharging your personal life force. And when the sun is right, waterfalls generate misty, iridescent rainbows.

You can create a powerful vortex of energy in your own home by setting up an altar where you can pray, meditate and drum at least once a day. An altar is any structure upon which we place offerings and sacred objects that have spiritual or cosmological significance. It represents the center and axis of your sacred space. A sacred space can be any location in your home where you can be by yourself and be fully self-expressed. A simple altar can be created with a cloth, a candle and other symbols that mean something to you. Like the ancient temples, such a sanctuary space serves as a drawing point for the healing energy needed by the planet.

Martin Gray: Sacred Sites

Martin Gray is a National Geographic photographer and anthropologist specializing in the study of pilgrimage traditions and sacred sites around the world. Over the course of three decades, he studied and photographed nearly 1000 of the world’s most sacred pilgrimage places in more than 125 countries. He has presented his multi-projector slide show at museums, universities and conferences around the world. During the show, Gray presents a fascinating discussion of the mythology, archaeology and history of pilgrimage sites and an explanation of the miraculous phenomena that occur at them. Many people, after viewing this presentation, report a resonance with particular sites and a deepening of their connection to and concern for the Earth.
 
I attended his slide show presentation years ago. It can best be described as a group shamanic event. He opens the event by creating sacred space. He lights a bundle of sage, holds it against the webbing of a single-headed frame drum, and then walks the circumference of the auditorium while drumming. Once the slide show begins, each photograph is shown for precisely 15 seconds, and then an entirely different sacred site is shown. This occurs on and on in a mantric and hypnotic repetition of four pictures per minute for sixty minutes. Certain photos resonated more with me than others. Everyone I talked to after the show was very moved and empowered by the event. His slide show is a true work of shamanic art. It’s a very rare opportunity to see, to witness, to personally experience an event of monumental power.
 
Since ancient times, sacred sites have had a mysterious allure for billions of people around the world. Legends and contemporary reports tell of extraordinary experiences people have had while visiting these places. Different sacred sites have the power to heal the body, enlighten the mind and inspire the heart. A growing body of evidence indicates that there is indeed a concentration of holiness at pilgrimage places, and that this holiness, or field of energy, contributes to a wide variety of beneficial human experiences.
 
During his travels, Gray realized the sacred places were repositories of many of the world’s greatest artistic and cultural treasures. However, because they are located out-of-doors and exposed to industrial pollution, the sacred structures do not receive the protection which paintings, sculptures and other art are given in museums. Looking into this situation, Gray realized that his research and travels had a greater purpose than merely his own education or the creation of a beautiful photography book. Public attention needed to be drawn to the deteriorated condition of these extraordinary art pieces so that they might be preserved for the benefit and education of future generations.
 
To draw attention to this education and preservation work, Gray created a multi-projector slide show that conveys both the remarkable beauty and precarious situation of the sacred sites. Hundreds of full color slides capture the essence of these great pilgrimage shrines. Prior to taking each picture, Gray offered up a prayer to the spirits of the place asking them to, “fill my photographs with such feeling and power that people may one day look upon them and be magically transported to these places.” It is more than evident that those prayers were answered. Gray says, “I personally consider these photographs to be telescopes through which you may peer across time and space into enchanted domains of sublime beauty.”
 
Gray thinks that during the coming decades there will be an enormous number of people visiting sacred sites around the world. Sacred sites function for more and more people as empowerment places, as planetary acupuncture points, as destiny activation sites, and as energy transducers for spiritual illumination. Gray postulates that, in the coming years, sacred sites will become sanctuaries and empowerment zones for the awakening and evolution of ecological, social and supranational political consciousness.
 
Martin Gray’s beautiful photographs convey the essence of the world’s great pilgrimage sites and bear direct testimony to his life’s mission and to his deep connection to Spirit. He has an extensive website at SacredSites.com, which has received more than one hundred million visitors. His photographs are widely used by UNESCO and in hundreds of websites, magazines and books around the world. His books include Geography of Religion by National Geographic, and Sacred Earth by Barnes and Noble. 

Pyramid of the Magician, Uxmal, Mexico (Photograph courtesy SacredSites.com)

The Archaeoacoustics of Palenque

An excerpt from my memoir, Riding Spirit Horse: A Journey into Shamanism.

 

Like a golden, luminous jewel, Palenque perches above the lush tropical rainforest in the foothills of the Chiapas Highlands of Southern Mexico, facing the setting sun. Shrouded in morning jungle mists and echoing to a dawn chorus of howler monkeys and parrots, this archaeological site has a serene, mystical atmosphere. A tranquil stream meanders through the city center and the temple summits offer spectacular views of the ruins and surrounding jungle. Built in the eighth century, Palenque, or Nah Chan (House of the Serpent), is a Maya city of unsurpassed beauty and spiritual force. The city's ruins were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1987.

Archaeologist Francisca Zalaquett, from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, discovered that the temples and public squares in Palenque could clearly project the sounds of a human speaker and musical instruments of the time across at least a hundred meters, or about the length of a football field. The investigation identified rooms that could have been used by musicians, speakers or priests to amplify the frequency, quality and volume of sound, allowing the music or the message to travel further and reach more people. The findings strongly suggest the design and structures at Palenque involved a great deal of knowledge about acoustics and the behavior of sound.

In his book Healing Sounds, author Jonathan Goldman recounts an incredible experience he had at Palenque in 1987. He described it as one of the more dramatic episodes in his life. Late one night, a guide took Goldman and five traveling companions on a tour of Palenque. The guide said he would show them a Palenque which they would not otherwise experience and took them into one temple that had been closed to the public, leading them down a subterranean level using his flashlight. He pointed to a doorway and said to Goldman, "Make sound here." He had known about Goldman's interest in sound healing, but Goldman could not figure out why the guide wanted him to do this.

Then the guide turned out his flashlight and the group was immersed in total darkness. "Make sound," the guide urged.

"Sure," Goldman replied.

Goldman began to tone harmonics towards the area the guide had indicated before the light went out. As he did so, the room began to become illuminated, but it was not like the light from a flashlight. It was more subtle, but it was definitely lighter in the room. Goldman could see the faint outlines and figures of the people there. Everyone was aware of this and when Goldman stopped toning, the room filled with exclamations. Then the guide turned on the flashlight again and they continued their tour.

The full implications of this experience did not occur to Goldman until he returned to the United States. Somehow, he was able to use sound to create light. This was not the same phenomenon as sound turning into light, a scientific theory in which a sound wave, when speeded up, becomes light. This was different, having to do with creating light through sound, and specifically vocal harmonics or overtones.

Years later, Goldman was talking to a man who had spent years with the Lacandon Maya people of the Chiapas rainforest, who are said to be the descendants of the builders of Palenque. When Goldman told him about his experience in Palenque, he nodded his head and said: "You are very lucky to have experienced this! It is something that the Mayan shamans teach, this creation of light through harmonics. It is the higher harmonics that do this." (1)

1. Jonathan Goldman, Healing Sounds: The Power of Harmonics. (Element Books, 1992), p. 59.

Malidoma Patrice Somé: Nature, Ritual and Community

Malidoma Patrice Somé is an author, teacher and shaman from the Dagara tribe in West Africa. Somé holds three Master's degrees and two Doctorates from the Sorbonne and Brandeis University. Representing his village in Burkina Faso, West Africa, Somé has come to the West to share the ancient wisdom and practices which have supported his people for thousands of years. He travels throughout the world bringing a message of hope, healing and reconciliation through the powerful tools of ritual and community building. Versed in the languages of psychology, comparative literature, as well as ancient mythology, healing, and divination, Somé bridges paths between the ancient tribal world of the West African Dagara culture and modern Western society. Over the years, he has come to understand that, despite their differences, Indigenous and Western peoples are actually children of the same Spirit, living in the same house they call Earth. 

 

Born in a Dagara community in 1956, he was abducted from his people at the age of four by a Jesuit priest and imprisoned in a seminary built for training a new generation of black Catholic priests. In spite of his isolation from his tribe and his village, Somé stubbornly refused to forget where he had come from and who he was. Finally, some 16 years later, Somé fled the seminary and walked 125 miles through the dense jungle back to his own people, the Dagara. Once he was home, however, many there regarded him as a "white black," to be looked on with suspicion because he had been contaminated by the "sickness" of the colonial world. Somé was a man of two worlds, at home in neither.
 

His only hope of reconnection with his people was to undergo the harrowing Dagara month-long initiation in the wilderness. Elders from the village believed that Somé's ancestral spirit had withdrawn from his body and that he had already undergone a type of rite of passage into manhood in the white world. Despite this, they agreed to let him undergo a belated manhood rite with a younger group in the tribe. Having been raised outside of the culture and not speaking the language made the initiation process, believed to unite soul and body, more dangerous for him than for the youths also undergoing the rite. Somé emerged from this ancient ritual a newly integrated individual, rejoined to his ancestral past and his cultural present. Even after initiation, however, Somé remains a man of two worlds, charged by his elders to bridge his culture and the Western world.
 

I had the opportunity to take one of Somé's workshops years ago. In his workshops, Somé tells participants that the Dagara believe each person is born with a destiny, and he or she is given a name that reflects that destiny. "My name is Malidoma," he says. "It means he who makes friends with the stranger. As my name implies, I am here in the West to tell the world about my people in any way I can, and to take back to my people the knowledge I gain about this world. My elders are convinced that the West is as endangered as the Indigenous cultures it has decimated in the name of colonialism. Western civilization is suffering from a great sickness of the soul. The West's progressive turning away from functioning spiritual values; its total disregard for the environment and natural resources; the violence of inner cities with their problems of poverty, drugs and crime; spiraling unemployment and economic disarray; and growing intolerance toward people of color and the values of other cultures—all of these trends, if unchecked, will eventually bring about terrible self-destruction. In the face of all this global chaos, the only possible hope is self-transformation through ritual."
 

Somé leads workshop participants in ritual drumming and singing. He shares ways to create community as well as ritual ways that activate the healing powers of nature. He says that in Dagara society, all healing is accomplished in ritual through nature, and the participation of the village community. Nature is the landscape in which all healing takes place and it's the environment in which we renew ourselves and become whole, experiencing a sense of well-being. From an Indigenous perspective, the individual psyche can only be healed by addressing one's relationships with the visible worlds of nature and community and one's relationship with the invisible forces of the ancestors and spirit allies. That is why the art of ritual is so important, for it's in ritual that nature, community and the spirit world come together in healing.   
 

In modern times, we've lost our natural tendency to function communally by embracing such thinking as "pull one's self up by one's bootstraps" and "every man for himself." Yet only with community is a person's life purpose discovered, nurtured, and most importantly, required to sustain community. Healing through ritual nourishes our spirits and our psyches. It heals the deep wounds in us that are unseen and unspoken. Ritual offers us a deeper healing solution to complex dilemmas that plague modern life, those problems that lie beneath the surface, waiting to erupt. Somé focuses on the need for grief ritual and ways of working with emotion in Western culture. The ritual of grieving, the sacred shedding of tears to heal the wounds of human losses, is a cleansing practice that purifies the psyche. Somé likened the danger of unexpressed grief to a social time bomb.
 

Somé emphasizes that, "for the Dagara, ritual is, above all else, the yardstick by which people measure their state of connection with the hidden ancestral realm, with which the entire community is genetically bound. In a way, the Dagara think of themselves as a projection of the spirit world. The abandonment of ritual can be devastating. From the spiritual viewpoint, ritual is inevitable and necessary if one is to live. Where ritual is absent, the young ones are restless or violent, there are no real elders, and the grownups are bewildered. The future is dim."
 

Somé is optimistic when he says, "At this critical time in history, the Earth's people are awakening to a deep need for global healing. African wisdom, so long held secret, is being called on to provide tools to enable us to move into a more peaceful and empowered way of being, both within ourselves, and within our communities. The Indigenous spirit in each of us is calling for cleansing and reconciliation. The ancestors are responding."

Pipestone's Sacred Story

On Aug. 25, 1937, the U.S. established Pipestone National Monument in Southwest Minnesota. The monument covers 301 acres and includes quarry pits and the prairie landscape surrounding them. Today indigenous people from across North America come to the site to work the pipestone at 56 active pits, offering up the soft red stone so famously used for ceremonial pipes and other items. A gentle slope marks the eastern edge of a long plateau that begins in the Dakotas and runs southeast to Iowa. In Pipestone County, the slope is broken by stone outcroppings that native peoples have quarried for centuries.
 

For Native Americans, this land is sacred. For the Oceti Sakowin, the people of the Seven Council Fires, which includes Dakota and Lakota speaking tribes, it’s a place of creation. Among the Oceti Sakowin, the Yankton Sioux of South Dakota are known as the protectors of the quarry. Though pipestone exists at many locations in North America, the quarries at Pipestone National Monument became the preferred source of pipestone among tribes living on the Great Plains because of the quality of the stone.

Pipestone is a relatively soft stone that’s well-suited to hand carving. However, it’s typically found sandwiched between extremely hard layers of Sioux quartzite, and extracting the stone can be hard work. Contemporary indigenous people maintain the tradition of hand-quarrying stone using only sledgehammers, chisels, pry bars and wedges. They’re taught to use all the quarried stone, if possible, or return it to Mother Earth. Over the years, skilled artisans have created many pipe designs, including long-stemmed pipes, elbow and disk forms and a T-shaped calumet. Carvers also have made elaborate animal and human effigies.
 

Oral traditions of the Oceti Sakowin tell how pipestone was created by the red blood of the ancestors, and of how smoke carries prayers to the Great Spirit, making the pipes created from the red rock highly sacred. Pipestone pipes have been, and are still, used in ceremonies, given as gifts and traded. Native Americans store pipe bowls, stems and tobacco with other sacred objects. They also bury pipes with the dead. Sacred pipes have inspired stories that have been passed down for generations.
 

According to Lakota legend, the first pipe was brought to Earth 19 generations ago by a divine messenger known as White Buffalo Calf Woman (known in the Lakota language as Pte-san Win-yan). The pipe was given to the people who would not forget--the Oceti Sakowin, or Seven Council Fires of the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota nations. The Buffalo Calf Woman came to the tribes when there was a great famine and instructed them about living in balance with nature. She gifted the people with a sacred bundle containing the White Buffalo Calf Pipe, which still exists to this day and is kept by Chief Arvol Looking Horse of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. Other members of the tribes are also pipe carriers: stewards entrusted with the care of particular ceremonial and personal pipes.
 

White Buffalo Calf Woman taught them all the things they needed to know about making, handling and caring for the pipe, and about how to use it for praying. She explained to the people that the pipe was a symbol of everything in the world. She told them that the red stone bowl of the pipe represented the Earth Mother and the feminine aspects of the world. The buffalo calf carved in the stone represented all the four-legged animals which live upon the Mother. She told them that the wooden pipe stem represented the Sky Father, the plants and the masculine aspects of the world.
 

The Buffalo Calf Woman explained that when the stem and bowl were joined, they symbolized a union and a balance between the sacred masculine and the sacred feminine. She told them that the smoking of the pipe linked the smoker to all things in the universe. The smoke from the pipe carried the prayers of the people directly to the Creator. When the pipe was used properly, the buffalo would return and the people would be able to eat well.
 

Over a period of four days, White Buffalo Calf Woman instructed the people in the Seven Sacred Rites: the seven traditional rituals that use the sacred pipe. When the teaching of the sacred rites was complete, she told the people that she must return to the spirit world. She asked them to honor the teachings of the pipe and to keep it in a sacred manner. Before leaving, the woman told them that within her were four ages, and that she would look upon the people in each age, returning at the end of the fourth age to restore harmony and balance to a troubled world. She said she would send a sign that her return was near in the form of an unusual buffalo, which would be born white.
 

The holy woman then took leave of the people. As she walked away, she stopped and rolled over four times, changing appearance each time. The first time, she turned into a black buffalo calf; the second time into a red one; the third time into a yellow buckskin one; and finally, the fourth time she rolled over, she turned into a white buffalo calf. These four colors then became associated with the powers of the four directions for the Lakota. The holy entity then disappeared over the horizon. It is said after that day the people honored their pipe, and the buffalo were plentiful.

The Huichol Mask

An excerpt from my soon-to-be released memoir, Riding Spirit Horse: A Journey into Shamanism. Copyright © 2021 by Michael Drake.
 

I made my first pilgrimage to the Maya pyramids and ceremonial centers of Mexico in March of 1995. It was an empowering, transformational journey of self-discovery--the culmination of a lifelong dream to explore the pyramidal temples found at Chichen Itza, Uxmal, Palenque and Tulum. I spent about a week in Playa del Carmen, a coastal resort town along the Yucatan Peninsula’s Riviera Maya strip of Caribbean shoreline. The Riviera Maya is known for its palm-lined beaches and one of the largest coral reefs in the world. The beaches of Playa del Carmen are famous for their white powdery sand and crystal clear turquoise waters.
 

One afternoon, I went shopping for some gifts and souvenirs to take back home with me. While walking along Quinta Avenida (5th Avenue), a pedestrian-only walkway through downtown Playa del Carmen, I discovered a colorfully dressed street vendor selling his beadwork. He was a Huichol indigenous artist from Guadalajara. The Huichol, or peyote people, are known for their yarn paintings and papier-mache masks covered in small, brightly colored beads. Yarn paintings consist of commercial yarn pressed into boards coated with wax and resin and are derived from a ceremonial tablet called a neirika.
 

The beaded art is a relatively new innovation and is crafted using glass, plastic or metal beads pressed onto a wooden or papier-mache form covered in beeswax. Common bead art forms include masks, bowls and figurines. Like all Huichol art, the bead work depicts the prominent patterns and symbols featured in Huichol shamanic traditions. The most common motifs are related to the three most important elements in Huichol religion, the deer, corn and peyote. The first two are important as primary sources of food, and the last is valued for its psychoactive properties. Eating the peyote cactus is at the heart of the tribe's spiritual knowledge and core to their existence, connecting them to their ancestors and guardian spirits through psychedelic visions.  

Huichol masks are akin to mirrors that reflect the patterns of face paintings worn during sacred ceremonies. The Huichol people understand themselves to be mirrors of the gods. The Huichol believe that you must look past the ego reflected in a mirror in order to enter the place they call the "original times," before the present separation occurred between matter and spirit, between life and death, between the natural and the supernatural, and between the sexes. They are a culture based on being at one with the Cosmos. The very purpose of life is to reach a state of unity and continuity between man, nature, society and the supernatural.
 

The shaman-artist had some small beaded masks displayed on his table. I asked him if he had any larger masks. He pulled a bundle out from under the table and unwrapped a beautiful life-size human mask. The intricate design featured a radiant sun on the forehead, a stalk of blue corn on each side of the head, a double-headed peyote eagle on each cheek, a prayer arrow on the ridge of the nose, and a deer on the chin. I asked him how much? He said 300 pesos, or about 50 dollars. We settled on the price, but the artisan needed to finish the beadwork. He asked if I could come back later in the day. I agreed to return later that evening to buy the mask and continued shopping other vendors.
 

With great anticipation, I returned in the evening to purchase the finished mask. As I carried the mask back to my hotel, it felt warmer and warmer until it was hot in my hands. When I got back to my room, I noticed a tepo or sacred drum (which is the voice of the gods for the Huichol) in the mouth of the mask. The symbolism was a metaphor for a "talking drum," the name I chose for my entrepreneurial publishing company. This meaningful synchronicity convinced me that the mask was meant for me. I later discovered that wearing the mask during meditation induces a blissful state of unity consciousness with the deities that the mask both represents and embodies. It’s a way of communing with the essence of these deities, channeling them to deepen shamanic trance, to honor them and more. To learn more, read my blog post, The Power of Masks.