A new drum for cosmic awakening

Sometimes something small turns out to be huge. This new drum was made on October 28, 2011. According to Barbara Hand Clow, this is the date of the awakening of world mind, the completion of our ascension through the 9 underworlds and 13 heavens of the Mayan calendar.

This little drum carries the numerical significance of this climb in the 13 thongs that fasten the drum skin to the cedar ring, and in the 9 cords with spiral or French hitching that suspend the little smoke-tan medicine bag in the center of the ring. In fact, the leather bag looks like a little temple; it's easy to see the ridges made by the draw string as columns of stairs leading to the temple opening at the top. So what could be important enough, considering the acceleration of time and the dramatic events happening around the globe, to be inside the bag?

A pebble.

My choosing to place an ordinary pebble inside the medicine bag--found in the bottom of our boat when leaving the dock for a day of oyster work-- is a gesture about something not at all ordinary. I have long remembered a quote from His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman: "A single pebble can change the course of a river, if you know where to place it." I believe that we are each capable of shifting the river. We are each a seed of awareness, a pebble of awakened consciousness. The right timing is now, and all it takes is a little drum to make a huge sound.

Pebble Drum

THIS DRUM HAS BEEN SOLD

12" frame of spruce wood

blacktail deer hide

cedar fittings

smoke tan deer hide hitching and medicine bag

$300.00 cn

shipping additional

You can hear this drum played with a felted drumstick by clicking on this youtube link:

Email Kristen at journeyoracle@gmail.com to purchase

View more drums at www.journeyoracle.com

New frame drum painted with spirit guide

This new shamanic drum is the first to have my new drum back fastenings: interlacement patterns that form webs of protection because of the single flowing line of the thong. This remarkable painting came as I gazed into its blacktail deer hide surface.

I received many shamanic lessons gazing into this new painted drum. I call it Estrella and understand that this is an image of a spirit guide, just like the shamanic frame drum is a guide to the alternate realities. The human and the animal share one eye: hers the left and the Other the right. This contains an important lesson for me. When I look through the eye of my spirit or 'mother' side, I see through the eye of my guide's action or 'father' side. So my intuitive non-linear vision in this reality is my active, communicating vision in the spirit realms.
The most significant feature for me of this painted drum is the woman's hand. This was the last feature of the painting to appear; before I found her gesture the drum felt potent but somehow incomplete. I notice that the woman's right hand is holding a finger to her lips in the global gesture that means, "Shhh. be quiet." This means to me to be quiet about our relationships with the Others in the spirit world. I feel it is important not to talk casually about who comes to visit us from that world, or how we are together in this world. I believe we create great consequence when we show off with words, and great alliance when we keep silence.

                                                      THIS DRUM HAS BEEN SOLD

Estrella
17" frame drum $350.00

shipping additional

If this is your drum email me at usualmagic@gmail.com
See more of my painted frame drums at www.journeyoracle.com

You can hear this drum played with a felted beater by clicking on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaGOUDy13HA

The Star Drum

This new drum has an unusual fastening in the back, and a wonderful story that spans two cultures. When I first made this frame drum with a Cortes Island deer skin stretched on a 17 " hoop of spruce wood, I called it the Star drum because I created the hand hold in the back with a Ninefold Goddess interlacement pattern. This star recalls the sacred feminine in European mythology and folklore, and because it is composed of a single unbroken line, it also represents spiritual protection.

When reading a new book about the mystical world of the Q'ero of Peru I discovered that this ancient shamanic culture believes that when a person is called to the sacred path of the Paqo, or shaman, he or she receives an Estrella, which is spanish for star. This estrella is the outward manifestation of an Apu, or spirit of a sacred mountain. The estrella commonly take the form of hummingbirds, pumas, bulls, and condors. In dreams, an estrella may appear as a glowing man or woman in white clothing.

I am now beginning to gaze into the new drum's surface to see who is coming for me to paint. If I am honored to receive an image, I will post a picture of the Estrella that comes to be the spirit of this painted drum.


                                                      THIS DRUM HAS BEEN SOLD

The Star Drum, unpainted…$300.00
painted...$400.00

shipping additional

If this is your drum—email me at journeyoracle@gmail.com

See more painted shamanic drums and felted drum beaters on www.journeyoracle.com