Adam X. Hearn - Making Shamanic Drums: A shamanic guide to the creation of sacred drums from raw deer hides

Adam X. Hearn

MAKING SHAMANIC DRUMS

A guide to the creation of sacred drums from start to finish

PLEASE NOTE:

This book contains pictures of deerskins being processed which may be upsetting to sensitive readers. I have tried to convey the important points about the process whilst keeping these images to a minimum but this manual would not be complete without them. Reader discretion is advised.

Making Shamanic Dr um s

ADAM X. HEARN

Acknowledgements

With deep gratitude to Irene Zumsteg, Natascha Kenyon, Gordon Rimes and Peter Hearn as well as all those other people who have assisted me and joined me on drum birthing workshops over the years. I honour each and every one of you, and the deep connection with Spirit that you bring.

This book would not be possible without the Spirits; of the deer, of the trees, of the drums, of the Upper, the Lower, and the Middle World, of the Ancestors, of those that were, those that are and those that will be. I salute you!

Copyright Adam X. Hearn 2019, All rights reserved.

PROLOGUE

WHAT IS SHAMANISM?

WHAT IS SHAMANIC JOURNEYING? 23

*EEG RESPONSES TO SHAMANIC DRUMMING. DOES THE SUGGESTION OF TRANCE STATE MODERATE THE STRENGTH OF FREQUENCY COM- PONENTS_ MATEUSZ KONOPACKI, GUY MADISON JOURNAL OF SLEEP AND SLEEP DISORDER RESEACH VOL.1 ISSUE 2018

DIFFERENT USES OF A SHAMANIC DRUM

SOURCING DEERSKINS

VEGAN DRUMS

THE PROCESS OF PREPARING A GREEN SKIN: SCRAPING 48

TOOLS

SOAKING

STRETCHING THE DEERHIDE

THE HOOP: MAKE OR BUY A HOOP?

THE HOOP: ENGRAVING/ETCHING, ANOINTING

DYING THE HIDE

MAKING MULTIPLE DRUMS FROM ONE HIDE LOCATION 97

THE DRUM BIRTHING ITSELF

CORD- GETTING IT RIGHT LACING THE HIDE

THE FINAL BINDING, CREATING THE HANDLE

PAINTING THE DRUM

DESTROYING DRUMS

BLOOD DRUMS 145

DRUM BIRTHING AS A HEALING POWWOW DRUMS 151

THE BEATER

AFTERCARE FOR YOUR DRUM

RATTLE-MAKING WITH YOUR OFF-CUTS

BEWARE THE PLASTIC SHAMAN!

RECOMMENDED READING/ BIBLIOGRAPHY BIOGRAPHY 180

Using a single headed frame drum to beat a repeated rhythm in an attempt to connect to the spirit world is something which has been done for many hundreds if not thousands of years in many cultures all around the world. In fact, recent archaeological discoveries in Greenland identified the remains of two drums of the Saqqaq people, which date back 4500 years. These were almost identical in height, thickness and cross-section to those collected by a Danish Polar explorer by the name of Knud Rasmussen who collected drums from the Inuit in the 1920s.

Going further back in history, just outside the village of Mezhyrich in the Ukraine, a farmer dug up the remains of a mammoth skull drum, painted with patterns in red ochre, and dating back some 15000 years. Naturally this is not a frame drum, but because of the inferred shamanic connection it felt important to include this. There are also reports that I have been unable to substantiate of an even older elephant skin drum, which is believed to be 37000 years old. Either way, what we do know is that some of the earliest instruments used by humanity are identifiable as drums. There is also a known depiction of a drum painted in a shrine room in what is now modern day Turkey, which dates back to 5600 BCE. It is believed that this was a matriarchal society and that the drum was sacred to the Goddess.

However, though these may very well be the oldest physical evidence that we have of drums which were of a shamanic nature, this is far from the same as saying that frame drums are no older than this! The main reason for this is that even if drums are not easily identifiable in older rock art, this does not mean that they are not simply misidentified or overlooked, as there are often cir- cular depictions which could be interpreted as drums. In addition, drums in many shamanic cultures are perceived as embodying spirits which take on animal forms, and would hence be painted or carved in animal form.

In the past 2000 years, there is evidence that Shamanic drums have been used (and are often still in use) within indigenous com- munities globally, in Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas. Amongst the undefeated and unconquered Mapuche people of modern day Chile and Argentina, the Kultrun drum has been in use since before written records and is still very much in use today. This is a single headed drum, which is normally made from the Foy (Canelo) tree, and the skin is secured in place over a wooden bowl. Some of the main reasons that this specific wood is used are its medicinal and symbolic qualities such as its hermaphroditic flowers (mirroring the often hermaphroditic energy of Mapuche Machi healers) .