What is Shamanic drumming? 

It was my hairdresser of all the people who told me about a Shamanic drumming circle class in our city of Glasgow. I was instantly enticed by the notion. It never crossed my mind when going for a cut and color at a salon that I would leave there wanting to experience Shamanism in a Scottish, industrial city, rather than in the depths of mysterious Siberia, or tantalizing Peru.

I had just talked to my hairdresser about using the moon’s phases to make wishes come true ever since reading a book called Moonology, (wondering initially if he would think me nuts for saying so). We then got on to the subjects of spirituality, astrology, and all things somewhat unusual, including the topic of Shamanism.

It had been one of those moments between two people who share a rapport when either one makes a decision in an instant to reveal something personal, or not to. When one person does, it then sets a pivotal pace for both blurting out more than the typical beauty-parlor chitchat.

“It’s the people who think Shamanism is crazy are the ones who are crazy,” my hairdresser then said casually as he colored some strands of my hair. I nodded silently without trying to move my head too much, my mouth gaping open slightly, and my eyes gazing in wonder at his focus in the mirror in front of us. It was refreshing to experience birds of a feather with an acquaintance, and a Shamanicfeather seemed all the more familiar.

Already in the past, I had read Entering the Circle: Ancient Secrets of Siberian Wisdom Discovered by a Russian Psychiatrist written by Olga Kharitidi. So I knew from this book Shamanism could come in many guises. It ultimately meant to cleanse and heal the spirit. Who was I to judge a book by its cover anyway? I was intrigued by attending a group where I could get in a trance-like state to fulfill new ways of self-expression. There was no need to travel over to the other side of the world to consume Ayahuasca to experience Shamanism.

Once I decided to venture out to this Shamanic drumming circle in the city, I was actually quite surprised by how much repartee and banter there was from the attendees. Local dialect was often spoken, and certainly no one was dressed up in an intimidating bird’s headdress or speaking a foreign language. If I were to have passed by anyone in the circle on the street, I would never have thought them to be members of a Shamanic drumming healing circle.

What is a Shamanic journey?

After some lessons in smudging (with ethically sourced sage) from the leader, along with an introduction on the history of Shamanism, the lights were dimmed for the first journey in Shamanic drumming. My mind raced with thoughts, worries, tribulations and a whirlwind of conflicting emotions as I sat on my chair. I felt butterflies in my tummy and I wondered what the heck I was doing there, and even if I was doing the meditation into the journey right. It all seemed quite bizarre.

I felt a lower vibrational pull of mom-guilt heading my way for being away from my small children for a few hours. Yet I also started to see rays of light darting around in my mind’s eye. Some were colored in an array of rainbow shades like stained glass. I kept listening to the drum, and then soon enough it stopped.

Once the lights were back on and everyone’s eyes open, I felt a little disappointed I hadn’t felt glimmers of transformational Shamanic healing, or something truly spectacular. But that was just the warm-up we were informed. Oh-righty. There was still a chance for some Shamanic metamorphosis to take place then.

For the second Shamanic journey with the drumming, my breathing was deeper and I had relaxed more both physically and mentally. I once again pulled my sweater hood up over my head and wrapped a thick blanket around my legs up to my waist. Once the beat of the drum penetrated my own eardrums I felt the intensity a lot more than the last time. I was absorbed and mesmerized by the drum’s power.

In my mind’s eye, I suddenly saw my bare feet dance on a solid wooden floor beating to the sound of the drum, with Indian anklets around my bare skin. It was like I was being transported back in time to another incarnation. The bells on the anklets shook and rattled. My feet were charged with inherent rhythm.

Like watching a movie, my mind’s eye cut to a new scene emerging. The onyx black face of the Hindu goddess Kali loomed, her tongue sticking out wildly, unapologetically; looking kooky, scary, whilst she danced, ferociously. Her arms waved about frantically, but all to the cadence of the enthralling drum beat. The scene cut back to my feet thumping ravenously on the wooden floor.

Beams of light surfaced in my vision, and through the luminosity, a different Hindu image appeared. This time it was Shiva, as Nataraja, dancing around a fire in a circle. I began to see a brightly colored blue neon light and perceived it to be my third eye. The rays of firelight from Shiva’s cosmic warmth seemed to be masking him, but though the illumination I could still see the silhouette of his four arms waving around effortlessly.

A desire to be healed filled my body as I breathed in deeply and kept my eyes closed. It was then that a new angle in my mind’s eye cropped up, this time my inner psyche’s camera zooming slowly towards a dark-like tunnel which contained a light inside.

It was inside this circle of light I saw a rabbit staring at me, its eyes big and alert in the darkness. He or she was on a sandy beach at nighttime. The rabbit seemed to want to approach me and hopped around slowly and delicately on its territory. It kept staring at me, as though waiting for something from me…

The drum captivated me more into a trance-like state. It got closer to my being. It became louder. It got stronger. Fibonacci spirals on a nighttime beach appeared.  Flashes of light showed up. I saw in my consciousness the woman who was literally sitting next to me in the drumming circle, near a cave. I saw my own self dancing wildly, my dancing bare feet from another lifetime totally primal.

What is the purpose of a Shamanic drum circle?

The drum stopped. The lights slowly reappeared. We all opened our eyes. It seemed like just five minutes had gone by, so I was utterly amazed when finding out it had actually been 20 minutes. It was incredible to hear of people’s journeying experiences afterward. Even more appealing was how the woman sitting next to me had said she had been in a cave during her meditation, which I had somehow seen in my own journey.

Despite once living and working in India for a few years, I couldn’t remember at first the name of the goddess Kali. The same woman from the cave next to me recalled it for me straight away after I described what Kali looked like.

What astounded me, even more, was what I read that night when I got home about the potential meanings of what I had seen during the Shamanic drumming circle. Not only is Kali a mother goddess, but also a killer of that which seeks to control her and is a fighter of patriarchal oppression. She is enraged at any subjugation of her being. She seeks rebirth and points to the shadow self.

The Nataraja dance by Shiva is about liberation, ecstasy, and bliss. It represents the creation, preservation, destruction, illusion, and emancipation which makes up life, and the limitless cycle of time. Shiva’s dance is to release the soul from illusion as he dances on top of the forces of ignorance.

In one story, the reason for Kali dancing on her husband Shiva was to battle against outer demons during a war. Kali got so carried away with fighting the evils of doomsday, she didn’t realize Shiva had tried to stop her wrath to preserve the world from destruction.

The rabbit as a spirit animal totem is a fertile, spontaneous, quick-witted animal who is affectionate towards those it loves. But it can also bite back aggressively when its territory is threatened. The rabbit conveys to us that we are the creators of our lives with our emotions, vibrations, and thoughts. Yet the rabbit can also feel fear so much that it projects it outward, meaning it manifests circumstances echoing this inner world of dread.

Was there significance for these visions in my life? Absolutely. And it hadn’t been the first time for Shiva to make an appearance in my life. When living in India I had dreamt of him. In the dream, I danced with him around a fire. It was awesome.

What is strange is that the very next day after the Shamanic drumming circle I saw rabbits in my neighbor’s garden. My friend’s little girls about a week later also talked to me about rabbits. More synchronicities flowed.

I felt, in particular, Kali was present within me, and taught me to speak up for myself at that point in my life but also to not take being misunderstood too personally. If Kali is a symbol of female empowerment; when Kali is a goddess who cannot be tamed, or labeled; when Kali purges poison, then I too will continue to delight in her many mysterious feminine aspects which challenge a conventional female archetype.

As after all, this was my invitation to look into my most primordial, creative self, to dive into the sacred feminine, and to heck with anything which tried to stop me.

And what better way to do so, with the cosmic blissful dancing of Shiva, and a nurturing animal totem by my side. I felt truly impressed by my first Shamanic drumming circle experience. I didn’t even have to leave the city to find it.