Awakening the Shamanic Drum

When you make or acquire a new drum for shamanic work, it needs to be ritually awakened so that it can be used more effectively. The ritual that I present here is a form of embodiment trance and should not be undertaken without helping spirits for protection from malevolent spirits that may cause you harm. As Mongolian shaman Sarangerel Odigon points out, "Opening yourself up in order to allow your shamanic spirits to work through you is not dangerous if you do so with the specific intention of embodying them and no other spirits besides them. Your helper spirits will bar the way to any foreign spirits that may try to enter your body."

Embodiment trance is a core shamanic practice. It is essential for the safe practice of many methods of shamanic healing. By embodying a helping spirit, the practitioner is protected from the ill effects of removing spiritual intrusions from a patient during extraction healings. Through embodiment trance, the spirits are able to make their thoughts known or empower the practitioner to do the work at hand.

To prepare for this ritual, it is useful to smudge the drum and dedicate it to your work. Create sacred space and ask each of the six powers or directions to bless your drum. Thank the animal spirit for giving its hide for your drumhead. 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. If your drum has synthetic parts, thank the organisms that provided the essence for the chemicals that the substance is made of.

Once you have invoked the spirits you normally work with, be sure to call upon the spirit of the drum and ask it to come to you and become your spirit helper. Convey your intention and willingness to allow it to enter your body and merge with your being. Visualize yourself as a clean hollow bone or tube, ready to be filled with hope, possibilities and power.

Now begin to gently play a heartbeat rhythm on your drum. Focus your attention on the sound of the drum, thereby stilling the chatter in your mind. Allow the drum to empty you. Become one with the drum. Remember that drumming opens portals to the spirit world, draws spirit in, and opens you up to receive it.

Imagine the energy of your drum's spirit entering your hollow bone and filling you with power and possibility. You may feel it, see it, sense it or simply imagine it. Allow the spirit of the drum to merge with you so that your playing comes under its control. When embodying spirits, they will essentially dictate the rhythm, tempo, volume and timbre until you reach something that is appropriate for them. Just relax, release all expectation and follow the urges the spirits give you. The amount of time spent drumming before the spirits actually enter the body varies from practitioner to practitioner and even from session to session.

Once the spirits come in, they will empower you to continue drumming, sometimes for hours. As Tuvan shaman Sailyk-ool Kanchyyp-ool describes it, "I am not myself. But, I am being maneuvered by the spirits. They tell me. 'Beat hard, beat fast, beat a long beat.' And they also tell me when to stop." While the spirits are in your body, they will protect you from any harm. Even if you do something dangerous, such as walking through fire, they will not allow any harm to come to you.

As the drum journey evolves, you will become more ecstatic and spirit will perhaps create new rhythms or inspire you to sing. You are now shifting into a higher state of consciousness and developing a new shamanic skill. At the higher levels, a healer becomes adept at detaching all sense of self, fully present in the moment, as a hollow bone or living conduit for healing energy to move through. At some point in your journey, you will sense that all of your helping spirits and power animals are traveling with you. They are at your side, helping you become a living conduit for the spirit of the drum.

When it feels appropriate, gradually slow the tempo of your drumming to a regular heartbeat rhythm to draw your consciousness back into your body. Do not rush the transformation. Visualize yourself fully grounded in your body, and then slowly open your eyes.

Merging with the spirit of your drum is an important breakthrough in becoming a shamanic practitioner. This is a truly sacred time to hold with reverence, for the spirits have brought the blessing of greater power to you for the benefit of the community. Your shamanic initiation has truly begun!

Finding True Power at Home

In this time of global crisis, one truth has become crystal clear -- coming home is powerful. This is also an essential aspect of shamanism, which provides us with effective, time-tested ways to achieve personal and collective transformation. We have reoriented our lives around our home spaces, alone and in groups. Keeping balance in close quarters takes coordinated and consistent effort. Our relationships with nature, spirit, and our inner selves dwell in this core space too. In this time of coming home, nourishing these relationships is a powerful prescription for improving our health, the health of our family and our community.

Finding our true power at home begins with the creation of effective rituals. Ritual is a universal way to address the spirit world and provide some kind of fundamental change in an individual's consciousness or in the ambience of a gathering. It may involve prayers, chanting, drumming, dancing, anointing, as well as rites of passage. Ritual is designed to engage the spirit world in helping us to do what we are unable to do for ourselves. By creating effective rituals, we can skillfully engage spirit in the processes we are involved in like healing, therapy or actualizing our goals. Potent rituals have similar foundational elements. Key elements of this foundation include:

1. Intention is the first element of an effective home ritual. You should have a clear idea of what you want to accomplish. Without a clear intention or desired outcome, the energy created in the ritual is poorly structured with little or no direction. Articulating your desired outcome is how you channel the energy of the performance toward the intended objective. One good way to think about it is by asking yourself what you want to happen as a result of the ritual. What effect do you want it to have on individuals, community and the world?

2. The creation of sacred space. Sacred space is that territory that we enter for spiritual and inner work. Regardless of your spiritual beliefs, having a special place in your home reserved for quiet introspection, reflection and spiritual connection can nourish your soul. A sacred space can be any location in your home where you can be by yourself and be fully self-expressed. Be creative with this, but find a special place for you to go at least once a day.

Consider setting up an altar that is appropriate for the purpose of your ritual. Although an altar is not essential, it provides us with a focus to pray, meditate and listen. 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 simple altar can be created with a cloth, a candle and other symbols that mean something to you. Fresh cut herbs, cedar boughs or flowers can also be placed upon the altar as offering to the spirits.

It is important to cleanse your sacred space before starting any spiritual work. Preparing a purified sacred space shifts our awareness from ordinary waking consciousness to a more centered, meditative state. Ritual preparation awakens our connection to the web of life and structures a boundary that separates the sacred from the ordinary and profane. Ritually cleanse the space by smudging, which is a method of using smoke from burning herbs to dispel negative energy. Sage, cedar and sweetgrass are traditionally used for smudging. To smudge, light the dried herbs in a fire-resistant receptacle, and then blow out the flames. Then use a feather or your hands to fan the smoke around your body and home. I recommend cracking a window or door for ventilation and for releasing unwanted energies.

3. The opening of sacred space. After preparing a purified sacred space, you may wish to ritually open the space. The opening of sacred space is essentially an invocation; calling in the spiritual energies of the seven directions: East, South, West, North, Up, Down and Within. Calling in the directions not only aligns you with their power, but is a spiritual activity in and of itself. The orientation embeds you in the living web of life, yielding greater awareness and perspective. It imparts a comprehensive recollection of the basic experience of being fully human. The ritual grounds you completely in the present moment to begin your day or to begin a specific spiritual practice.

Though there are no rules or restrictions, on most occasions a sacred circle is cast in a sun-wise direction. I would suggest you start in the East where the sun rises. If you have a rattle, shake it four times to open a portal in the East to the spirit world. Rattles are used to invoke the assistance of benevolent helping spirits. The rattle draws the spirit world and its inhabitants into the material world. Using words, chanting or song, invite the benevolent spirit powers associated with that direction to participate and assist in the ritual or ceremony. Welcome the spirits with an open heart and mind. Some people will whistle or make animal sounds to call in spirit helpers. Trust your instincts and intuition in this process.

Next, pivot around clockwise and repeat the same procedure to invoke the spirits of the South, the West and the North. After that, invoke Father Sky above and Mother Earth below. When invoking Father Sky, reach to the heavens; when invoking Mother Earth, reach down and touch the ground where you stand.

Finally, face the center of the circle and bring your hands to your heart to invite the spirit of Within. Call upon the spirit of divine unity that flows from within the center of your being where the six directions meet. Welcome the gifts of balance, oneness and connection with all things, for all things are one and all things are related.

4. The induction of altered states. Altered states of consciousness are induced through intense rhythmic stimulation such as drumming, chanting and dancing. An altered state of consciousness is any state of mind that is significantly different from normal waking consciousness. Altered states produce deeper self-awareness; allow us to connect with the power of the universe, to externalize our own knowledge and to internalize our answers.

5. The closure of sacred space. When you have finished your ritual, sacred space should be closed. Follow the same procedure as for the opening, but in reverse order. Begin by thanking the spiritual energies of Within, Mother Earth and Father Sky, and then the North, West, South and East in a counterclockwise movement. Shake your rattle to say farewell to the spirits. As you rattle, give thanks to all your relations for the needs met. The phrase "all my relations" is used at the end of a prayer in many shamanic traditions, for all living things share in the relationships of life on Earth. Express your gratitude to the helping spirits for assisting you and send them off, releasing their energies to the seven directions.

Effective home ritual makes us more fluent in the language of the inner life, which is where meaningful healing, transformation and insight arise. Being mindfully present with our thoughts, feelings and sensations is a journey into deeper self-awareness. Regardless of what you call it -- personal growth, personal development, self-actualization, or finding yourself -- this journey is you exploring and developing who you truly are.