STERLING ETHOS and the distinctive Sterling Ethos logo are registered trademarks of Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.

Text © 2017 by Gabriel Horn

Photography © 2017 by Alexis Horn

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ISBN 978-1-4549-2754-9

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CONTENTS

PART ONE: FROM PAST TO PRESENT, THE DRUMMING

Chapter One: Spirit Drumming within the Narratives

Chapter Two: On the Back of a Turtle’s Shell

Chapter Three: In the Land of the Drum

Chapter Four: Another Way of Seeing … The Holy Land

PART TWO: BIRTH AND REBIRTH

Chapter Five: Because We Use the Drum

Chapter Six: When I First Heard the Song

PART THREE: THE ORIGIN

Chapter Seven: The Great Holy Mystery

Chapter Eight: Reconnecting Myself to the Thread

Chapter Nine: Life Experiences, the Way of the Drum

Chapter Ten: The Mystery

Chapter Eleven: Wisdom

Chapter Twelve: The Opposition

PART FOUR: EVERYTHING IS VIBRATION

Chapter Thirteen: Chanting …

Chapter Fourteen: A Chant to Lure Honor

PART FIVE: THE FIRST SOUND

Chapter Fifteen: We Do Not Hear, We Feel

Chapter Sixteen: The Sound We Need to Hear, the Sound We Need to Make

Chapter Seventeen: With the Drum We Are Invincible

PART SIX: TOBACCO

Chapter Eighteen: The Teaching of Ockabe’wis, the Messenger

PART SEVEN: THE PRACTICE OF CONSCIOUS THOUGHT

Chapter Nineteen: Sunwise

Chapter Twenty: A Naming Ceremony with the Pipe and the Drum

Chapter Twenty-One: Perceptions of Power: Male and Female Energy and the Drum

Chapter Twenty-Two: Symbolism and Its Power

PART EIGHT: DRUM TEACHINGS

Chapter Twenty-Three: First Drum Teaching: Change Language, Change Perception

Chapter Twenty-Four: Second Drum Teaching: The Revelation of the Smallest Word with the Greatest Effect

Chapter Twenty-Five: Third Drum Teaching: Your Sacred Place and Turtle Drum

Chapter Twenty-Six: The Prison, the Pipe, and the Drum

PART NINE: NOT ALWAYS SO BLACK AND WHITE

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Handling the Pipe and the Drum

PART TEN: MAKING TIME/FINDING SPACE

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Making Time …

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Finding Space/Somewhere to Drum

Chapter Thirty: A Sense of Purpose: Why Are We Here in This Circle? Why Do I Need to Drum?

Chapter Thirty-One: Midnight of the Dawn of Our Marriage: The Drum and the Love Song

Chapter Thirty-Two: A Purpose for the Drumming

Chapter Thirty-Three: The Reason for Our Gathering

Chapter Thirty-Four: Disruption of the Drumming Circle

Chapter Thirty-Five: The Runaway Drum

Chapter Thirty-Six: Space and Time

PART ELEVEN: TRANSFORMATION AND DRUMMING

Chapter Thirty-Seven: The Drum Journey into the Earth and Out to the Stars

Chapter Thirty-Eight: A Water Drum Ceremony

PART TWELVE: LOVE AND LOSS AND HEALING

Chapter Thirty-Nine: The Drum and the Songs

Chapter Forty: Healing Deer Drum

PART THIRTEEN: THANKSGIVING AND PASSING ON TRADITION

Chapter Forty-One: Thanksgiving as a History and a Culture

Chapter Forty-Two: The Warrior’s Drum Resonates on Thanksgiving

Chapter Forty-Three: A Thanksgiving Address

Chapter Forty-Four: Drum Circles

PART ONE

FROM PAST TO PRESENT, THE DRUMMING

The original attitude of the American Indian toward the Eternal, the “Great Mystery” that surrounds and embraces us, was as simple as it was exalted. To him it was the supreme conception, bringing with it the fullest measure of joy and satisfaction possible in this life.

—OHIYESA (DAKOTA) FROM THE SOUL OF THE INDIAN

Faster

And the drum sounds

As the spirits move closer …

—CHIEF DAN GEORGE (CO-SALISH) FROM MY HEART SOARS

Everything I know I learned by listening and watching. Now-a-days people learn out of books instead. Doctors study what man has learned. I pray to understand what man has forgotten.

—VERNON COOPER (LUMBEE) FROM WISDOMKEEPERS

CHAPTER ONE

SPIRIT DRUMMING WITHIN THE NARRATIVES

In a universe wide as daylight and bright as starlight, there is the potential for unlimited possibilities and unimaginable diversity. This enables us to think and perceive ourselves and the world and the universe in a much more humble and open way, for the potential within us can only be limited by the way we allow ourselves to think.

When you sit alone in your space of spirit drumming, you reconnect to that which connects you to all things. Some call it Spirit and think of the collective spirit as the Great Spirit, the sum total of all spirit. For me, it is the incomprehensible something I learned to call the Great Holy Mystery. The drum I beat upon and on which I sing my songs; the beat I make with my drumstick, and the songs themselves are all of the Mystery. Some came to me in dreams. Some I learned. Some become spontaneous. I am tapping that part of myself that is Spirit. But the spirit does not belong to me. It is not my spirit, it is the spirit of the Great Mystery that exists within me, that exists in all things, and in which all things exist.

Unimaginable. Indefinable.

Whether you choose to sit with your drum alone, or in a circle of others, imagine if each individual brings such awareness to the circle. The experience will be focused, the intent will be strong, and the potential for achieving the communication we are seeking with that deep down part of ourselves that is our own center will be pure. We are here now in this moment on our journeys, wanting to be good people in this world. Perhaps then, with drums in our hands, we can achieve what the late Oglala holy man, Black Elk, describes as the “first real peace.”

The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of human beings when they realize their relationship, their oneness, with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize that at the center of the universe dwells Wakan Tanka, and that this center is really everywhere, it is within each of us. This is the real peace; all the others are but reflections of this.

—BLACK ELK (LAKOTA)

Imagine …

If you choose to be part of this spirit drumming with me now, come with an open mind. And, please, remove your watch. You don’t want to insult the power of natural time. Yes, you can peek at your watch on the table if you need to, if you have a meeting to attend, or a job to do, or when you think someone is expecting you, say, a child to be picked up at school. For this is the time to allow the acquired teachings and narratives of Spirit Drumming to teach the things that maybe you have forgotten: the simplest of things you did as a child when you picked up a stick and beat it on the ground, or when you clapped your hands, or tapped your foot to the beat of a song, or when you once felt the conscious joy of rhythm and relationship with the Earth and the universe.

If it were me, I wouldn’t have my cell phone turned on, either. Remove the technology of distraction; maintain the philosophy of natural interaction.

In the old way, through observation, we learned a good deal about how to do things. Watching not the artificial time on the clocks on walls or strapped on our wrists, but the way the Sun travels across the Sky. The Moon as she waxes and wanes. The solstice and equinox. The birds building their nests: watching … how respectful and quiet the adults were around the drum. Watching … how children were taught to be respectful and quiet around sacred things and moments as well. Nothing else could be tolerated. Watching … a man placing pinches of tobacco on the drum head and offering gratitude. Watching … the people using the smoke of sweetgrass and sage to cleanse the drum and drumsticks and even themselves, freeing their minds of feelings and energies not healthy for a ceremony. They listened … if someone told the story of a symbol he or she chose to paint on a drum, and through listening, they learned that everything has spirit and meaning …

Over time, they listened … to the ancient stories of Trickster, or the personal experience stories of the adults and elders that showed what can happen in a ceremony, or in a sacred gathering, when the meanings and good intentions turn discordant. They learned to be patient, with others and with themselves. They learned there are no quick fixes to wisdom, or even when it comes to healing. They listened to the stories. To the narratives. They contemplated their significance, their relevance. They listened to the stories when the spirit drumming taps the Spirit of all that is and nourishes the Spirit of all who are present, and how the energy can become so strong, it can alter time and perception, and make things happen that are good.

Whether a ceremony of a hundred, or a ceremony of one, the intention of the moment reconnects us to the Spirit within us that is in all things, and to the Great Holy Mystery, and it is from that place the spirit drumming begins.

Within the stories of these journeys dwell the teachings. The lessons. The way to be and perhaps not to be … The choices we have been given. What I have learned, as little as that may be, and what the writers in Spirit Drumming have contributed from their own life journeys and the drum, we share with you—the feelings, the situations, the wisdom, and even the magic that exists within them. The rest is up to you.

And so, as it was then, may it be now …

THE DRUMMING OF THE ELDERS

MariJo Moore

The spirit of the wind shook the trees

as if wanting them to leave

and not witness what was to happen.

But the trees felt the drumming

beating deep inside their roots

and accepted the bliss of needful pain.

They heard the pounding of their brothers

making known the sadness, making known the truth

awakening the stagnant message of old.

Reminding the trees, as they had always known

before healings can occur, hurt has to be drummed out

and acknowledged and accepted.

The elders cried with worry of their grandchildren

tears falling onto the resonant skins, drumming, drumming

repeating fears that the world is changing.

But the pain carried in the drumbeats

is necessary to reach the hearts of the young

and allow them to accept the knowledge of the elders.

The world is changing but old ways can be modernized.

This is the way of growth.

Message given, message carried, message received.

The drums have done their part

the trees have witnessed and blessed the sounds

and the spirit of the wind is at rest.

—MARIJO MOORE, INDIGENOUS AUTHOR, POET, EDITOR, SEER; EDITOR OF GENOCIDE OF THE MIND AND WHEN SPIRITS VISIT.