New frame drum: The Sunshine Drum from the Journey Oracle

I  am calling this new frame drum from the Journey Oracle, the Sunshine Drum.

It is Cortes Island blacktail deer stretched on a 14" BC Spruce wood hoop. 

The 9 pointed interlacement pattern was finished last night in yet another coastal rain shower, and I did not imagine that the sun would come today to participate in the drum's birthday portrait.

Perhaps it was the 9 Muses singing in the smoke-tanned strands of hitching that wrap the star.

Perhaps it was the clear, thin hide of the young deer whose skin created this smooth drum face.

All I know is that I stepped outside with this drum and my camera and the sun appeared, bringing a warm glow to this new sunshine drum.

THE SUNSHINE DRUM

14" hoop of BC Spruce wood
Cortes Island blacktail deer hide
cedar fittings
9 point Star of the Muse interlacement handfast
wrapped in smoke-tan hitching

$300.00

shipping additional

If this is your drum contact journeyoracle@gmail.com

A drum to join Heaven and Earth

This new drum from the Journey Oracle is tied with an octagon interlacement pattern.  This is the first time I have used this eight pointed design in a journey drum, and I'm discovering that the meaning of an octagon is quite special.

The combination of the circle, representing Heaven, and the square, representing Earth, are joined together as a symbol of transition to rebirth: the regeneration of new life from old.  What a perfect symbol for  a new shamanic drum made during these last days of winter as we transition into a new spring.

The smoke-tan doe skin hitching covering the octagon seemed to glow in the still cool almost spring sunshine, and the drum felt a good fit between the cedar touching heaven, and the moss  growing over our rocky earth.  

A DRUM TO JOIN HEAVEN AND EARTH

17" BC Spruce wood frame

Cortes Island blacktail deer hide

Octagon interlacement holdfast wrapped with smoke-tan hitching

$350.00

shipping additional 

Receive the CD:

 Ride a Good Horse to the Spirit World

 containing shamanic journey drumming rhythms plus

instructions for learning to travel to the alternate realities

with my compliments when you purchase this drum.

If this is your drum contact Kristen at journeyoracle@gmail.com

How to hold a drum

How to hold a drum?  This was an important question when I first became a drum maker since I understood that the fastening at the drum back was in fact the drum maker's signature.  My inspiration was this cedar withe found in an old style lobster trap in Nova Scotia, when I was first thinking about making a drum.

The ring became my signature for many years, until I noticed that the space inside the ring is like a bead.  I learned from Martin Prechtel that a bead is really the hole and not the material surrounding it to show its shape and size.  So what to do with the hole that is a bead?

Fill it with something magical.

Every space is an Oracle of potential meaning, and its journey is never-ending.

Even the simplest thing ends up involving the Universe.

New Drums from the Dreamtime

The meaning of drums in my dreams is children.  Just like cats are the children in my house.  When I dream of children--this is about drums.  Sometimes a small child will appear in a dream and be very round like in a puffy snow suit, with arms and legs sticking out at odd angles.  This means I am dreaming of a drum.

There are two new drums in my house this week.  This 17" frame drum has that "round child" look from my decision to tie in the voice differently with 5 thongs: to anchor the five kinds of time that Martin Prechtel writes about in his eloquent book the  "Disobedience of the Daughter of the Sun."

Sometimes a child in this reality chooses a child from that dream reality.  The 14" drum I built today of Cortes Island deer hide and British Columbia Spruce wood became the dream drum of my cat Mauchica,

                                 
The first drum built is now dry enough to begin to plan how to make the hold-fast in the back that will enable the drummer to ride this good horse into the dreams of the spirit world. Perhaps this drum is the ancient heart of rhythm--it has such a long, resonant tone already--so I think I may set this heart shaped stone in the center of its cedar ring.

 Even though this drum is only a few days old--already it has an ancient face, as if it has come back from the oldest dreams, to be a child again in this world.

If this Drum at the Heart of Rhythm

or 

The Mauchica's Drum

is your drum

contact Kristen at

journeyoracle@gmail.com

Order a custom built shamanic frame drum

 Every part of a drum I make tells a story and while each part is just itself—the wood and skin that gives spirit a body and a voice—each part is also a symbol that means something more. This drum is a custom order using a hard to obtain doe skin and I discovered meaning at every stage.

The BC spruce wood hoop is laminated from 4 pieces that represent the 4 oceans, 4 rivers, 4 mountains, and 4 winds of the world—all the bones and blood and breath of this world.  And one of these pieces of hoop wood broke.  The tiny diagonal line will not be noticeable when the drum is dry, but I know that something broken in this reality will become something whole in the alternate reality and since this piece of spruce is in the “heart” of the hoop—the bones of this drum will mend a broken heart.

I am superstitious about counting the number of holes in the rim of the drum skin, especially since this number in turn controls the number of thongs that tie into place the inner ring.  Some fundamental meanings of the symbolism in a drum have to be left to the drum itself to determine.

The 4 directions and the 4 solar holidays of equinoxes and solstices appear in the lacing that ties the drum head to the hoop—and therefore ties the voice into the drum.  I sometimes tie on a drum head with 3 thongs for the three lunar seasons, and sometimes 5 for the five kinds of time.

This inner ring of this drum became tied with ten thongs which in the Tarot is the number of manifesting success through perseverance on this earthly plane. The person who commissioned this drum wanted the inner ring filled with the magic hexagram, a symbol of protection, because it offers no “gates” through which an evil spirit might enter.  .  The broken rim wood, number of thongs and pattern of lacing in the inner ring now make another layer of symbolism in the drum.  The drummer holds the sign of protection, which extends outward in rays of success, to a strong heart in the spirit world.

Some meaning of symbolism in a drum is just for me.  Many years ago I had a ring break after a drum had dried, and the special skin presented to me by a MicMac elder could not be re-soaked for repair.  Soon after this I lifted a wounded snake from the road to a warm, round rock in a mossy bank. The snake opened its mouth wide and held my gaze, and I saw the snake as if on the surface of a stone drum, wrapped around the holding ring.  Although that drum, and the snake, died—ever since I have honored their teaching by securing the cedar ring with a copper snake.

All of the symbolism in making this drum disappears beneath the rim as the drum dries.  But what appears is even more magical.  Now the never -before -seen faces and forms of creatures begin to emerge in the patterns of the drying skin, and the drum transforms into a journey oracle of the spirit world adventures which await the keeper of its voice.

ORDER A CUSTOM BUILT SHAMANIC FRAME DRUM

3 HOOP SIZES:  12" / 14" / 17"

Cortes Island Blacktail deer skin stretched on BC Spruce wood

SCROLL THROUGH THESE POSTS 

TO SEE A WIDE VARIETY OF FINISHING DETAILS

Email Kristen at journeyoracle@gmail.com

A Dreamer's Drum

 This new drum is calling out for a dreamer.  Someone who can read the shapes of messages behind the stars.  A drummer who hears the songs of the night sky.

This new drum of Cortes Island deer and BC spruce wood is fastened with a pentacle, the most widely revered of all esoteric symbols.   In ancient times the pentacle meant 'life' or 'health' and was derived from the apple core pentacle of the Earth Mother, according to The Women's Dictionary of  Symbols and Sacred Objects.

 The pentacle of this Dreamer's drum is also an interlacement pattern, which means its double layer of rawhide thongs is one continuous thread of invocation to the Sacred.  The ancients generally regarded stars as living entities: angels, legendary heroes, the souls of the unborn or the newly dead.

This drum was built during the summer season of light, but has waited until this season of  darkness to be offered.  As dreams need time to incubate in darkness before coming into their strength just before dawn, so some spiritual companions need time to mature into their purpose.

Please check the journeyoracle.com posting on YouTube in the next weeks for the voice of this drum being played with a felted drumstick.  If this is your drum unpainted, please email me at journeyoracle@gmail.com.  Otherwise I look forward to sharing with you, during the first weeks of December, the painted face of this Dreamer's drum.

THIS DRUM HAS BEEN SOLD

The Dreamer's Drum

17" Frame of Spruce

Blacktail Deer hide

Cedar fittings

Smoke tan wrapping on Star Interlacement handle

$300.00

unpainted

shipping additional

This new drum from the Journey Oracle has an eightfold interlacement pattern woven into the cedar holding ring. Such patterns have long been popular magic charms because the endless line draws the eye around the figure without a break so that the design can be used for meditation or trance. The magical properties of this design focus on the central diamond around which the apexes of four larger triangles interlock. Therefore the pattern includes not only eight points but also references the mystic threes and fours.

The eightfold interlacement pattern is related to the Buddha’s concept of the Eightfold Path consisting of: right conduct, right contemplation, right effort, right faith, right occupation, right resolve, right self-awareness and right speech. There is also a connection to the Eight Precious Things: a book, coin, mirror, pearl, Artemisia leaf, jade gong, musical lozenge and rhinoceros horn.

Eightfold Path Drum


THIS DRUM HAS  BEEN SOLD

14" frame of spruce wood

blacktail deer hide

cedar fittings

eightfold interlacement pattern in raw hide thong

$300.00 cn

shipping additional

Email Kristen at journeyoracle@gmail.com to purchase

View more drums at www.journeyoracle.com

You can listen to this drum being played with a felted beater by clicking on

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ao1epPWIL_k