Support Standing Rock's Landmark Case

The Lakota People's Law Project is asking for donations to fund the upcoming legal battle to protect Standing Rock activist, Chase Iron Eyes. The necessity defense of Chase could set a precedent to protect not only land and water, but freedom of speech itself. This trial can help create a permanent legal framework to protect indigenous, environmental, and civil rights. This trial may prove to be the most important of our generation. At this crucial juncture, they ask you to give once again. They must raise $200,000 for expert witnesses, investigators, their travel, and the capacity to categorize all the evidence. As Lakota People’s Law Project Chief Counsel Daniel Sheehan discusses in a new video, the information they have already gathered from deposing law enforcement officials is very encouraging. When people go under oath, they often stop lying.

Summer Solstice Rituals in Mongolia

On the summer solstice last week, Mongolia's Shamans gathered to practice traditions and rituals that are thousands of years old. In the post-communist era shamanism is undergoing a dramatic revival in Mongolia. Harshly suppressed during Mongolia's long Soviet rule, shamanism is suddenly widely sought to fill the spiritual void of a newly democratic society. From storefronts in Ulan Bator, the nation's capital, to homes in rural Mongolia, shamanism has become a growth industry. The key to its viability seems to be the flexibility inherent in shamanism, where knowledge gained through ritual engagement with spirits in the landscape, rather than a strict cosmological doctrine, is seen as the core of shamanism. Getty images has published a photo essay of the rituals.

Ritual Drumming

Ritual is a tool used by shamanic practitioners to engage the powers of the unseen world to effect specific changes in the physical world. A shamanic ritual often begins with heating the drumhead over a fire to bring it up to the desired pitch. The sound of the drum is very important. Practitioners may strike certain parts of the drum to summon particular helping spirits. It is the subtle variations in timbre and ever-changing overtones of the drum that allow the practitioner to communicate with the spiritual realm. The practitioner uses the drum to create a bridge to the spirit world, while simultaneously opening the awareness of all the participants to that bridge. A master drummer can draw powerful rhythms from the drum that can transport others into specific dimensions of the spirit world.

All elements of drum music such as timbre, rhythm, volume and tempo play an important role in shamanic ritual. By using different parts of the drumstick to play on different parts of the drum, different timbres can be produced for transmitting different meanings. Different rhythms transmit different meanings and enable the practitioner to contact different beings in different realms of the cosmos. Volume and tempo arouse feelings in the listener and communicate symbolic meanings directly as aural sense experience.

A practitioner may have a repertory of established rhythms or improvise a new rhythm, uniquely indicated for the situation. The drumming is not restricted to a regular tempo, but may pause, speed up or slow down with irregular accents. The practitioner may stop playing altogether, or suddenly hoist the drum skyward and bang it violently, throwing the disease into the heavens; returning it to the spirit world.

Engaging the Imaginal Realm

Coast Salish Spindle Whorl

Shamanism is based on the principle that the spiritual world may be contacted through the inner senses in ecstatic trance. Basically, shamanic journeying is a way of communicating with your inner or spirit self and retrieving information. Your inner self is in constant communication with all aspects of your environment, seen and unseen. You need only journey within to find answers to your questions. You should always journey with a purpose, question, or intention. After the journey, you must then interpret the meaning of your trance experience.

Imagination is our portal to the spirit world. Internal imagery enables us to perceive and connect with the inner realms. If a shaman wants to retrieve information or a lost guardian spirit, "imagining what to look for" is the first step in achieving any result. According to C. Michael Smith, author of Jung and Shamanism in Dialogue, "The shaman's journey employs the imagination, and the use of myth as inner map gives the shaman a way of imagining non-ordinary reality, so that he or she may move about intentionally in it." By consciously interacting with the inner imagery, the shaman is able to communicate with spirit guides and power animals.

Communication in non-ordinary reality is characteristically archetypal, nonverbal and nonlinear in nature. The images we see during a shamanic journey have a universal, archetypical quality. Imagery from these experiences is a combination of our imagination and information conveyed to us by the spirits. Our imagination gives the journey a "container;" which helps us to understand the messages we receive. It provides us with a way to understand and articulate the experience for ourselves and to others.  

Coast Salish Spindle Whorls

The spindle whorl is how Coast Salish women from the Pacific Northwest Coast engaged the imaginal realm. Salish women were unrivaled in their ability to produce beautiful textiles that had social and spiritual significance. Many Salish spindle whorls have sophisticated and powerful carved designs -- human, animal and geometric. The whorl was placed on a wooden spindle to add the weight needed to maintain the spinning motion, and to prevent the wool from falling off the rod as it was being spun. As the whorl turned, the designs would blur together into a swirling kaleidoscope, entrancing the spinner. This shamanic trance state was considered vital: it gave the spinner the ability to create sacred textiles imbued with spirit power.

In the spindle whorl pictured above, the human figure’s hands converge at the center hole, where the spindle shaft would pierce the whorl. It’s at this point, say Coast Salish shamans that spirit power enters and leaves the body. The small two-dimensional image inside an oval in the man’s body may represent a spirit helper who dwells within. To learn more read The Spindle Whorl: An Activity Book.

Selecting a Shamanic Drum

One of the most useful drums for shamanic work is the frame drum. The single-headed frame drum originated in Siberia along with shamanism itself thousands of years ago. It has been associated worldwide with the practice of shamanism. The frame drum's resonance and versatility make it my drum of preference. Such drums are portable, affordable, and easy to play. They can easily be held in one hand, leaving the other hand free to stroke the drum. They are made by stretching a wet rawhide over a wooden frame, then allowing it to dry slowly. The frame or hoop is typically three inches or less in width and may vary from eight to twenty-four inches in diameter. They may be single-headed or double-headed. Like all rawhide drums, they do not have a fixed pitch. Heating and cooling the drumhead raises and lowers the tone.

Synthetic frame drums can also be used in shamanic work. Each has a unique sound, energy and spirit. Like rawhide drums, synthetic drums can be a vessel for spirit. The drum shell and polyester drumhead are composed of organic compounds that come from the living Earth. You can also infuse spirit into the drum by painting and decorating it. The Remo Company manufactures a Native American inspired "Buffalo" frame drum that comes with a rope handle, mallet, and a plain synthetic head that can be decorated. One great advantage to playing a synthetic drum is that it will hold a consistent tone, even in the pouring rain.

Though I highly recommend frame drums, any type of drum may be used in shamanic drumming. There is a myriad of styles and drum types to choose from. Congas, doumbeks, djembes, ashikos, tablas, and timbales are but a few of the drum types readily available in music stores. In selecting a suitable drum, play several and listen for the drum that calls to you. You will know it by its voice. It will strike a deep chord within you.

Drumming for Cancer Patients

Andrew Ecker, founder of "Drumming Sounds," facilitates a drum circle three times a month at Cancer Treatment Centers of America in Goodyear, Arizona. According to Ecker, up to 30 participants come together each week to create a "sacred space" filled with a sense of community and empowerment. The drum circle is a unique and powerful opportunity for patients and caregivers to share their emotions while connecting with others in a musical environment. As Ecker puts it, "It is an opportunity to connect with our spirit. The spiritual nature of our existence is very apparent when we drum with intention. It's about being present with one's own connection to their spirituality."

Since there is no technical musical knowledge or expertise required to participate, the drum circle breaks down many of the barriers that might otherwise prevent a patient or caregiver from experiencing the healing power of music. For many patients music plays an important role in spiritual and emotional healing during cancer treatment. Ecker believes that healing begins with the soothing vibration that comes from the drums. "We all experience nine months of that type of rhythm -- connecting to our mother's heartbeat," Ecker explains. "The vibration in the drums is the result of joining our heart and mind and spirit in action. When we drum we give ourselves the ability to feel beyond words. We feel connected to something bigger than ourselves, and we feel love."